More and more people are suffering with emotional health problems such as stress, anxiety, depression and so are seeking help through all sorts of things. Some common techniques to help with these conditions include CBT or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Hypnosis, Self Hypnosis and meditation. I have experienced all these things personally and so felt a call to write about it!
CBT is basically becoming aware of your thoughts and changing them. For example every time you start thinking of chocolate, become aware of it and then manually choose to think of something else.. Chips!!
This definitely has its merits and its limits. In the Bible we are asked to put on the mind of Christ and take our thoughts captive. However we are also asked to seek forgiveness from God and reconciliation with neighbour.
So if the God dimension was added into the CBT techniques then it could be very powerful.
Funnily the Church has already thought of this. The spiritual exercises of St Ignatious and his methods for discerning thoughts and spirits are worth Gold!
Hypnosis and self Hypnosis are also very common. But beware, in my life I went to 2 hypnotherapists. The first nearly killed me by putting me in a transe and through guided visualisation introducing me to a spirit guide without ever even telling me!! There are enormous dangers with these types of therapies and playing with the subconscious. Many hypnotherapists are also trained mediums and use spirits to help them in their work. What they may not know is that it’s demons that they are collaborating with.
Self Hypnosis may sound safer, after all you are in charge. So I thought I until I tried it and overnight I became an accidental medium and began seeing angels and demons and experiencing all sorts of unspeakable paranormal activity. My therapist told me that I should protect myself with crystals and that it was ‘great’. Needless to say she never mentioned to me the risk of this happening when I came to her for help with anxiety. No extra charge!!
To be avoided!!
Meditations! Many involve relaxing your body, closing your eyes, visualing a light or a heat and allowing it to calm you. Again what they don’t tell you is that they are harnessing your natural ability to visualise and connect with the spiritual to psychically connect you with ‘healing energy’ of the universe or alternatively know as Satan in disguise. There are Christian meditations that use the same techniques and call on Jesus and these can be excellent.
In summary there are many techniques out there in the name of healing but unfortunately most of the practitioners are not Christian. If you need help and you take your faith seriously then seek out reliable Christians who are skilled in both matters of the spirit and the mind!