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Stacey L. Lacik

~ Common Sense Christian Counsel

Stacey L. Lacik

Tag Archives: Counseling and Psychotherapy

Buying Grace

31 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by Stacey in The Journey

≈ 2 Comments

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Counseling, Counseling and Psychotherapy, False Memory Syndrome, Grace, Grief, Pastoral counseling, Paul Simpson, Reality, Recovered Memories, Syracuse New York, Therapy, Truth

On March 28, 1997, someone in Syracuse, N.Y. went into a Media Play store in Shoppingtown Mall and bought a book.  I know, because a few weeks ago, I went into a thrift store in North Syracuse and picked it up for a dollar.  It is in like-new condition, and inside the front cover is a light blue post-it note filled with hand-written notes and page numbers. Whoever bought it had also left the receipt in it.  I have been trying to picture who this person could be, and what compelled them to buy it in the first place, and then get rid of it?  Client or clinician?  Someone I’ve sat next to in church, or worked with?

The book is Understanding the False Memory Crisis and How It Could Affect You, by Dr. Paul Simpson.  To someone who has lost a large piece of my life to False Memory Syndrome, this book was a God-send. Unless you’ve been through it, it’s impossible to describe, much less explain, leaving virtually no one to talk to who can understand or help.  In fact, until I bought the book, I had felt completely alone with all of this.  I have no idea how many other people in Syracuse have been through anything similar, or who have had a problem after going to counseling, either to the church or to a professional in the community.

What I like about the book is that Dr. Simpson writes with both humility and grace, towards both counselor and client.  He also used to be one of those who not only helped people recover from ‘memories’ that they had ‘repressed’ but trained others how to do it, too. Until, like I did, he noticed things just didn’t seem right, and the stories weren’t lining up with reality.  This is the beginning of the way out.

And, as he states in the book, once he realized that he was unintentionally contributing to the problem, he called his former clients and invited them to come back at no expense to them in order to unravel and clear up the mess, and help them heal.  This, to me, is the epitome of professionalism.  It takes a great deal of humility to do this, not to mention compassion.  It takes grace.

It’s a very well written book, and I’m grateful to have found it.  I truly believe God led me to it, as part of my own healing, which has been a slow and solitary journey, due to the fact that we seem to have quite a few counselors in Onondaga county who still practice some type of ‘recovered memory’ therapy.  Most people don’t know what I’m talking about, and can’t help.  Some of our local Christian therapists and counselors still believe in repressed memories, dissociative disorders, and/or Satanic Ritual Abuse. Quite a few of the churches and para-church ministries in the area practice ‘deliverance’ counseling, or Theophostics, and some still use books and practices found in Neil T. Anderson’s The Bondage Breaker.

I don’t believe anyone intentionally caused harm, including my pastoral counselor.  All she did – unintentionally, and sincerely (I believe) – was to build on a foundation that had already been laid.  My own confusion and exhaustion at the time didn’t help.

So, we’ll see where it leads.  All I know is that on a recent snowy day in Syracuse, I walked into a store and bought grace.

Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers:  the snare is broken, and we are escaped.  Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  ~ Psalm 124:7-8

Hope Deferred

07 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by Stacey in The Journey

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bible, Counseling and Psychotherapy, depression, God, Grief, Hope, Life, Mental health, Prayer, Soul Healing, Tree

Still life with Bible, by Vincent Van Gogh

Still life with Bible, by Vincent Van Gogh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Haven’t written lately;  life has not been cooperating with all of my good intentions.  And my heart just isn’t in it anymore.

I have given up on the whole mental health/counseling thing.  It just does not work.  Not the way I believe that it should.  Over the years I have been through countless sessions, in and out of church, survived two exorcisms (don’t ask) and,  most recently, a psychologist insisted that I work my way through the alphabet during a panic attack.  Except that I don’t have panic attacks;  have never had one in my entire life, and therefore don’t feel an urgent need to treat them.  At least, not my own.  But, the session was ending, and she had boxes to check, and I know that ‘give client homework’ is one of them, so I politely said okay.  The next time I have a panic attack in Wegman’s, I’ll stand in the middle of the aisle saying “A, apple.  B, ball…”  And she was happy with that.

We won’t be going there again.

I got in the car thinking This is why people drink.  This, the way I feel right now.  This ‘nobody is hearing me’ feeling.  It is the most horrible painful, twisting feeling, in the very innermost parts of your being.  Like having your insides pulled up and out through your heart.  Depression doesn’t begin to describe it.

What I am is sad.  And tired.  I’m grieving, not panicking.  And I’m tired of talking to strangers, and doctors, and counselors, trying to explain things they don’t understand, about a situation they can’t fix, and didn’t have anything to do with in the first place. All I get from the church is silence, and all I get from the world is “it sounds like you should maybe just not go to church anymore”.  Neither one is right.

Good counseling takes time.  I don’t believe in ‘short-term therapy’ for long-term problems.  Not for real growth, healing, and a changed life.  It’s a combination of discipleship, mentoring, teaching, and sometimes parenting.  We are hurt in the context of relationship, and so are healed in relationship.

Nor do I believe in changing therapists, or constantly starting over, or trying different ones like so many different pairs of shoes.  I don’t bounce from person to person in my personal life, and don’t care to in my counseling.  Many, many clients have told me the same thing.  They establish a relationship, begin to build trust, open up, (or wake up) and suddenly the rug gets pulled out from under them, whether because of insurance, or mandated treatment, or the high turn-over rate in agencies.  It makes it impossible to learn how to trust anybody, or get any sense of stability and safety.

There is no box for ‘client gives up’ so they get checked off as non-compliant.

I think life was easier when all I had was God, my Bible and my kitchen table.  So I will go back to waiting.  And praying.  Waiting for God to move in my life, for healing to come, and things to be resolved, and the whole mess to be untangled.  To be able finally, once and forever, to put the whole thing behind me and not carry it around anymore.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”    Proverbs 13:12

"The art of writing is the art of discovering what you truly believe." -Gustave Flaubert

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