Podcast Episode 33: Inner Healing
Introduction:
Thanks for clicking on Conversations with Crosswinds Counseling. I’m Curtis Smith and I invite you to subscribe to our podcast and to like and share it as well. I hope you enjoy today’s episode.
Podcast #33:
Curtis: Hi, everyone, and welcome to Conversations with Crosswinds Counseling. I’m your host Curtis Smith. For this podcast, we are joined by one of the wonderful counselors here at Crosswinds, Susanne Foster. Susanne, thank you for being on the podcast. Let’s talk about something that I feel like we hear a lot. Inner healing. It’s one of these phrases that I think is, as mental health becomes more prevalent in our society, that we hear said a lot but I’m not sure everyone understands exactly what it is. When you use inner healing, when you strive for it, when you talk about it, what does that mean to you?
Susanne: So inner healing, I mean you it can be done without the Holy Spirit, it’s – basically, we have the CBT triangle, and we have our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Right. Our thoughts make us feel the way we’re doing and then we behave. We do things that cause us to even feel worse, and then it’s kind of like – can be this like cycle of, ‘Oh, I think I’m horrible.’ Then you get to depression, or feeling really anxious about life. And so, then you recognize like, what’s the behavior? And then for inner healing, with someone who’s a believer, they have the Holy Spirit within them. You can actually ask the Holy Spirit, ‘what thought is leading me to behave this way?’ And the Holy Spirit will reveal like either past trauma, or things that in your past that maybe had led you to believe that lie, and you’ve kind of just believe that your whole life. And the whole goal is so that you can get rid of the wrong thoughts and be replaced with like a new renewing thought and are able to change the way you are behaving.
Curtis Smith: Yeah, at Crosswinds Counseling, we bring faith into therapy when it’s welcomed.
Susanne: Yeah.
Curtis: We don’t force it on anyone. So, if someone is not a Christian, doesn’t share the exact faith beliefs of Crosswinds Counseling – still welcome to get great counseling here. Counseling that is productive and just tremendous, but I want to ask you about this moment where the Holy Spirit does reveal that for someone. I can’t imagine watching that happen. So, when you’re counseling someone, and you’re sitting there and you’re saying, ‘Here’s something, let the Holy Spirit reveal it.’ When you see that happen in them, that’s got to be incredibly powerful. Well, how does that play out?
Susanne: So, I mean I’ve done it some with clients. I mostly just send them the prayer that, like I would do on my own. My goal is to teach them to hear the Holy Spirit in their own lives, because in the Bible, Jesus says, ‘my sheep will know my voice,’ and so it’s kind of like one of those things – well a lot of people don’t think they hear the voice of God, but they’ve never asked questions. They’ve never tried to draw closer to God so that He can draw near to them. So that’s my goal – is like sending it home with them so they have that interaction on their own, and then we talk about it. I do it sometimes in session. I had one client where I recognized he had made a vow as a child. So we have like different generational sins, vows, word curses, that were spoken over – there’s a bunch of different things that could cause, you know like I said, this separation from living the whole – like wholeness and healing with God, but his vow was, ‘I never want to be poor,’ like his parents, and I recognize[d] that. I’m like you made a vow and he even said, ‘I made a vow,’ but I’m like okay, but he’s living his life based on that. He wants – you know, working a lot so he can make money and even when his wife was not really wanting the big house, not really wanting that lifestyle. So, he asked – I sent him with a prayer, I actually haven’t met with him again to see how it went but one of the questions he asked the Lord, because he was recognizing that he was judgmental of others – either judging himself better or worse, and kind of just like constantly comparing himself. They call that the inferiority complex with Adler, but he asked the Lord. I told him to ask, ‘Who Jesus, who do you want to be for me when I’m, you know, interacting with others?,’ and he changed the question which was fine. He said, ‘Who do you want me to be when I’m interacting with others,’ and he heard the Lord say, ‘open,’ and he recognized that he has been so closed off to people, and just I mean, it all kind of works together. And how just that, so asking the Lord, ‘well, what should I be thinking instead of you know the thought process that leads me to the you know maladaptive behaviors that I’m doing.’
Curtis: Yeah, it’s such an interesting thought to me. You know this guy basically made a vow to not be poor, and on the surface, you would say well, there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s going to work hard. He wants to earn money. He wants to provide for his family. So, sometimes like when I think of inner healing, I think of overcoming a trauma, or some real big problem, where sometimes, it may be a little more nuanced. And it’s this vow against poverty, which on the surface you could say, ‘Oh, well that’s a good thing,’ but it still requires some healing.
Susanne: Right. You would think that vows are okay, but like for instance, my dad when he was little, he vowed, ‘No one’s ever going to control me.’ So, you see how that can play into relationships as an adult. Like, ‘I’m not going to let you control me,’ and like my parents fought a lot when I was growing up. So that causes trauma for me, and issues in my life you know. So, like for me one small example of where the Holy Spirit spoke to me was, I recognized that the CBT triangle, because I was – the book that I follow is called Journey into Wholeness. It’s basically this woman, she’s from Fort Wayne. She wrote about inner healing. It’s called Soul Care and she does all of these different things, like prayers for breaking word curses, and you know renouncing you know generational sins, and unforgiveness is a big one, but the one for me was I was recognizing that sometimes I have a tendency to overeat, I’m trying to be healthy, and I want to be healthy, and I want to have self-control, you know that’s the Holy Spirit gives us that, but I kind of was just like, ‘what’s that thought that leads me to just overeat,’ and I heard the Holy Spirit, I felt like the Holy Spirit said, ‘there’s not going to be enough,’ and it reminded me of when I was a kid. I have nine siblings, and my sister told me a story. She’s my older sister. She said, ‘My mom would make a bunch of food, and you would always come late, and everything would be gone.’ So, it was just kind of like this belief that there’s not going to be enough. So, you have a right to eat – because, but it was like so unconscious, you know, almost like I didn’t even know that was why. So going through the prayer, asking for forgiveness, and um forgiving myself for believing the lie, and then asking the Holy Spirit, ‘Well, how should I think differently,’ and I heard, ‘I am healthy and strong. Don’t ruin it.’ Or, ‘You are healthy and strong. Don’t ruin it.’
Curtis: Yeah.
Susanne: And that was like powerful too because in Christ I am healthy and strong. My spirit is alive and free, and always worshiping. Always joyful, but it’s the lies from the enemy, or our past, or things that kind of can bog us down and make our bodies and our minds not line up with our spirit.
Curtis: As I’ve pointed out many times, I am not a therapist, but it seems to me that inner healing is a necessary first step before you can be in healthy relationships, and have healthy interactions with others.
Susanne: Yeah. Sometimes.
Curtis: Is that true? Is it a critical first step to kind of get good with yourself and with God before you’re able to then navigate relationships and the rest of the world well?
Susanne: I think it definitely helps. I think you can have good relationships with people without going through all of the stuff you know.
Curtis: Do you see people do that? Who, aren’t truly healthy on the inside, aren’t okay with themselves, but they can be okay with others?
Susann: Probably. That’s probably why they have all the problems.
Curtis: That seems challenging. Right. I don’t know, but again, I’m no therapist.
Susanne: But, and I think that’s the thing like the Holy Spirit will reveal things, and kind of like that’s why you go to Him and ask him these questions because He can help you with the replacement thought. Right.
Curtis: Yeah.
Susanne: The thing that’s going to help you change that behavior, and so like since then, it’s I haven’t. You know what I mean, it’s kind of like I know who I am in Christ, and I haven’t struggled with it. I’m not, it’s only been a few days, but you know what I mean it’s like –
Curtis: Yeah.
Susanne: I believe that I’m healthy and strong, and my body’s going to line up to that if that makes sense.
Curtis: Well, if you would like to know more about inner healing, or all kinds of counseling, we’ve got Susanne Foster, and we have many great therapists here at Crosswinds Counseling who can help you navigate whatever journey you’re on. Wherever you are in your journey.
Susanne: Right.
Curtis: Now crosswindscounseling.org is the website to go to. Thank you for joining us on this issue of Conversations with Crosswinds Counseling, and Susanne thanks for being here today. We’ll see you next time.
Outro:
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