BP6 (Introduction 6 of 6)
Welcome to the sixth and final introductory post for the Designer Therapy for Life blog!
I’m so glad you joined me here for today’s post as I summarize the key ingredients of DTFL, driving one more piling deep into the bedrock of the blog foundation. Next time, I’ll build the first story of the skyscraper of the heart on top of these six foundational posts.
As you read on the website, the name of this blog, DTFL, incorporates three key ingredients.
First, it assumes the truth that a personal, intelligent Designer created you as opposed to the presupposition that you’re a random animal who exists by blind chance in a godless universe—a zombie with no soul and no purpose.
I don’t know about you, but to me the existence of a Designer who can be known personally makes life immediately meaningful. The presence of a personal God means that we’re more than simply dust in the wind–a random collocation of atoms that walks around upright for eight decades and then finds its final resting place in a boneyard. The End.
The fact that we’re created by a personal God also means that life is most importantly about relationships and emotional intimacy, not about power and materialism. To deeply love and know others and God is the reason you’re here—and DTFL exists to discover the psychological, spiritual and relational factors that interfere with that purpose or undermine it entirely.
Secondly, in addition to considering the Designer behind the universe, DTFL uses as its tool psycho-spiritual-relational therapy (PSRT).
As a clinical psychologist, I’ve had lots of practice with the psychological component of PSRT. While I do believe in the value of cognitive therapy, I don’t focus solely on how people think about the world and the misbeliefs they embrace. I think it’s imperative to go beyond the conscious mind to the soul.
I enjoy psychodynamic therapy, a modality that’s not limited to snorkeling on the surface of the water but relies on S.C.U.B.A. diving and deep underwater submarines to explore the darkest trenches of the human soul.
Some may find this type of therapy murky, subjective, and non-mathematical. For that very reason, I enjoy it. For me, it’s based on Jesus’ command in scripture to clean the inside of the cup as well as the encouragement from the Bible to examine yourself as we saw in blog post 4.
The deep recesses of the soul house deeper secrets than what is readily accessible in conscious awareness.
Designer Therapy by its very definition believes that humans are built according to the specification of a divine architect and His blueprint. Accordingly, men and women possess the potential for great depth because they are made in the image of a fathomless God.
Because there is a Designer and humans are created according to preplanned specs, when they begin to malfunction physically, psychologically, spiritually or relationally, there’s always a reason. For example, if you’re depressed, there’s usually a cause beyond mere neurotransmitter levels that needs to be understood.
How critical it is, then, to listen to what the symptoms are speaking before the pain is peremptorily removed and its voice silenced.
Just as science exists because there is an order in the universe as witnessed by the existence of the laws of nature, so therapy exists because the human heart, mind and soul were designed to function according to human PSR laws. It would be a fool’s errand to attempt therapy if there did not exist some type of universal normal we were designed for and meant to attain.
So, despite the fact that human nature was corrupted at the time of the Fall, our initial orderly design means that psychological symptoms are signposts pointing to the fact that something is not functioning according to plan on the inside and that we can be repaired by the divine Designer.
The third and final ingredient in DTFL is that it exists for life. Since you’re designed, you’re not here on this planet to drift aimlessly through the universe like an asteroid in space with nothing to give an iota of lasting meaning to that little dash on your headstone between your birth date and death date.
The truth is, you’re here on purpose for a purpose. You’re like an archer aiming at a target; a traveler in the desert seeking the oasis. You’re hard-wired to thirst for a meaningful life like a marathon runner thirsts for water at the 25th mile of the race.
You thirst for a meaningful life beyond what you can see and touch with your physical senses.
Jesus expressed it well when He said in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Clearly, then, the Designer created us for life.
But why is PSR therapy needed in this world if Jesus came for life? Why are physicians needed? Dentists? Even . . . morticians.
Because we are broken people–and we die.
Physically.
Relationally.
Spiritually.
Emotionally.
In fact, some of us have never really been alive. We’ve never advanced beyond a type of zombie existence. The walking dead.
There’s another part to John 10:10 besides the great news of abundant life. Earlier in verse 10, Jesus tells us that one of the reasons He came to us is that there is a thief whose goal is to “steal, kill and destroy.”
From this passage, we learn that there is a dark personality (the prince of darkness) in the universe who opposes God and humans. Yes, Satan. He opposes life. He is anti-life. His aim is to steal your joy, kill your hope and destroy your intimacy. He hungers to separate you from God, others, and even your own heart so that, ultimately, you will find it tedious to go on living.
In fact, death will become more appealing to you than life.
God has given us PSRT as a type of soul x-ray device because of the thief and because of the deep fractures in our hearts. Infused with God’s truth and love for us, Designer therapy for Life is a tool to examine the self and understand how your own heart colludes to separate you from your Creator in ways you might be totally unaware of.
In the beginning, before the Great Rebellion and the Terrible Fall, physicians and therapists and morticians were not needed. Post Eden, they are all necessary—two for life and one for death.
In summary, DT exists to bring the divine Designer and His word and truth into the healing of the human heart. God knows best how you should function since He is your architect.
Leaving God out of therapy is like leaving mathematics out of engineering or water out of oceanography. Jesus told us that He came for life to oppose our opposer who exists to destroy every relationship we have whether with God, spouse, son, daughter, parent, friends or even our own self.
DT is all about life. It’s based on universal truth. It’s designed to work. It’s utilitarian.
It’s not about shoulds, but about deep truths that will give you the healthiest human experience for which you were meticulously created. So you can live your best life in this world and in the next.
At this point, hopefully you have some idea about the foundational truths of Designer Therapy for Life. Now we can begin to wield psycho-spiritual-relational therapy as an instrument of healing for our minds, souls and relationships. We can discover how this therapy functions as a lighthouse that warns us of the jagged rocks of personal destruction and guides us into the safe anchorage of love and joy.
Now the journey begins. Join me next time to begin spelunking in the cave system of the human psyche. We will be exploring wells and volcanoes. For life. For love. For-ever.
As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart ~ Proverbs 27:19