Integrative Trans-Theoretical Approach
Overcoming the mind-brain-spirit split
Hippocrates (460-375 BC), the father of medicine and man before his time, actively questioned the superstitious beliefs of his time and believed that deviant behaviour and emotional disturbances were caused by brain pathology. Unfortunately during the Middle Ages (400-1500 AC) the medical expertise and wisdom of antiquity was lost and people reverted back to believing in evil and diabolical witchcraft. Illnesses were believed to be the result of supernatural forces or God’s wrath. The mentally ill were locked away in monasteries, and ‘treatment’ could be drastic and painful - prayers, holy water, floggings, starving, immersion in hot water, branding with hot irons, etc. During the 14th and 15th century more than a 100,000 people (mostly women) were burned at the stake as witches. It’s shocking to think that the last witch-trial was held in Salem (USA) in 1692.
During the rise of humanism and the renaissance (15th—17th century) there was a resurgence of rational and scientific enquiry. The reform movement (18th & 19th century) gave rise to the moral treatment centers as the mentally ill were brought out of the monasteries and treated with some dignity. The phenomenal scientific advantages of modernity lead to a split between science (medicine) and the spirituality (religion). In 1856 Dorothea Trudel, praying for the sick, was charged with ‘practicing the healing art of medicine without a license’.
In spite of the medical advances (Aspirin, Penicillin, Insulin, Cortisone, etc.), modernity had not yet found any effective treatment for mental illnesses. In the 1800’s psychiatry was steeped in the medical model of the time, and the neuroanatomy labs of the time failed to produce effective results. Dissolutioned and disappointed in the medical model, neurologists like Sigmund Freud (a neurologist) turned away from the medical model and developed the psychological model. By 1920 psychological rather than medical models dominated -leading to the mind/brain dichotomy. The biogenetic medical model and the psychoanalytical models remained antagonistic and openly opposed each other—the mind/brain/spirit split became solidified.
The medical breakthrough only came in 1951 with the discovery of Chlorpromazine (Thorazine), the first effective drug for mental illness. One would think that the extraordinary advances in psychopharmacology and neurobiology would have automatically overcome the mind/brain split, but it did not. In some religious circles there was an acceptance of science and medication, but in others there was a strong rejection. Some people found the taking of medicine for ‘normal’ illnesses (infections etc.) acceptable, but opposed the use of psychotropic medications for mental illnesses. This stigmatisation of mental illness is still prevalent today.
Paraklesis Counselling rejects the notion that there has to be a choice between a psychological, medical, and spiritual approach and believes that a trans-theoretical integrative approach should be followed.
There is no adherence to any one singular psychological model— the therapeutic model best suited for the client is chosen, and an integrative psychotherapeutic and biomedical approach is used.
Although appreciative of the new emphasis on spirituality in post-modernity, Paraklesis Counselling warns against an over spiritualising and blanket rejection of the medical model in favour of only alternative approaches. A more balanced approach is used and therapy is done from a faith based integrative approach, recognising the importance of biological (medical), psychological (emotions, cognition and behaviour), social (family and community), and spiritual (faith and religion) factors.
