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Christian Counseling Connection
13
CLINICAL PRACTICE
Therapeutic Love: The Impact on the Lives of Therapist and Client
from the Society for Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCH NOTES
Scott O. Hickman, Psy.D.
V
ery little has been written about how therapeutic love impacts both
counselor and client. Love speaks to the incarnational role of the Christian
psychologist and his or her representation of Christ in the helping process
(Hoffman, 2011). In McWilliams’ (2004) discussion of analytic love, she
says, almost as an aside, “… being a therapist offers us the opportunity to experi-
ence ourselves
as loving
, a state of mind that is inherently rewarding and good for the
self-esteem… the loving attitude inherent in conducting therapy also assuages guilt
by symbolically making reparation to early love objects whom we unconsciously
believe we have damaged” (p. 159).
Freud advocated for neutrality, feeling nothing toward the client, including
liking or loving the patient. Shaw (2003) writes these attitudes of “suspicions against
tenderness in our work have gone beyond their proper safeguarding function and
have led instead to the inhibition of the growth and development of our thinking
about analytic love” (p. 253). Even when therapists acknowledge the presence of
“loving feelings,” they are often quickly repudiated as something that should be dis-
owned (Leffert, 2013).
“And this is my prayer :
that your love may
abound more and more
in knowledge and depth
of insight….”
— Philippians 1:9, NIV