“I am convinced that we must start training Christian counselors to work as ‘missionaries’ of post-traumatic consolation and care, able to deliver the comfort of Christ himself to a very needy world.” This is how Dr. Diane Langberg opens her website. Based on some of backstory that follows, we can see why.
“My career as a Christian psychologist began 45 years ago. That’s when I started working with the Christian community. That’s also when I first heard someone say, ‘My father did weird things to me.’ I had no idea what that meant. I had finished my master’s degree and had started a Ph.D. program in Psychology. I was also the only female in the class. Nothing in my personal life or training had prepared me for such a statement. So I did what all good students do when they hit a wall – I consulted a supervisor. He explained that women sometimes tell these hysterical stories. My job was to not be taken in and that I should not believe them. ‘Such women are looking for attention,’ he explained. ‘If you give it to them you’ll only contribute to their pathology.’ As time passed, I began to hear other women tell stories of sexual abuse. I made a decision. I would listen to these women, rather than my supervisor. That was 1972.”
If you’d like to know more, click on the banner below to go to her home page.
If you’d like to know more about who publishes the articles, videos, and other materials on tools4trenches, you can click on the picture of me and my wife.