In the decades it required to develop Compass Therapy, I kept two principles in focus:
- most people want to know how to transform personality disorders and negative behavioral patterns into health
- many people seek to integrate reason with faith, so they can actualize the divine endowment of human spirituality with psychological wholeness
Further, I sought to connect psychotherapy with Christianity, a religion that encompasses about one quarter of all human beings living today. Does this show a preset bias toward Christians? Does it mean that the principles of Compass Therapy won't work in clinical practice where faith in God plays no role?
I do acknowledge that I am a Christian, and I choose to view the world through the lens of the Bible and Christian orthodoxy.
I respectfully leave to other colleagues the integration of counseling with Buddhism, Islam, New Ageism, Hinduism, agnosticism, or scientific atheism.
Yet I've learned from years of training graduates students in counseling that Compass Therapy theory and techniques can enrich the skill-sets of therapists using psychoanalysis, transactional analysis, gestalt therapy, family systems therapy, humanistic therapy, behavior therapy, or cognitive therapy.
Beyond clinical work in counseling centers and private practice, Compass Therapy opens new horizons to pastors, pastoral counselors, chaplains, and spiritual directors, for it unites Christian personality theory with practical counseling tools for healing human brokenness, whether in individuals, families, or churches.
These psychological and spiritual horizons can help any person successfully solve the three most universal human needs: identity, intimacy, and community.
In 2008 I emailed the final draft of the new Compass Therapy book to the senior professor of theology and ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary, to see if what I had said resonated with his lifelong mastery of theology. When he responded overnight with the commendation cited below, I exploded with joy!
From that moment Dr. Ray S. Anderson become a theological mentor and dear colleague. Through innumerable phone conversations we covered vast amounts of territory: historical theology, progressive theology, evangelical theology, feminist theology, liberation theology, and post-modernism. I found Ray quick in wit, strong in humor, and vibrant in faith.
I dedicate this post to the memory of Ray Anderson.
His words encourage me even now. "Dan, you've got to bring out your unique brand of compass knowledge to pastors, to Christians, and to the world..."
And he kept providing creative ideas for doing so, right through his last months of painful fatigue from daily kidney dialysis, before he joined Jesus Christ in heaven.
Now I say this to Ray, as he stands among the cloud of witnesses who have faithfully served the Lord throughout time: "Thank you so much! I could not do this without your help."
Now I say this to Ray, as he stands among the cloud of witnesses who have faithfully served the Lord throughout time: "Thank you so much! I could not do this without your help."
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| Ray S. Anderson, Ph.D. |
Ray S. Anderson, Ph.D.
Senior Professor of Theology and Ministry
Fuller Theological Seminary, writes:
"At the core of Compass Therapy is
the divine endowment of human spirituality in each person that comes to
expression through the mental, emotional and physical spheres of the self.
Through diagrams and dialogue this book takes the reader directly into the
counseling experience where a therapeutic alliance between the therapist and
the counselee is created, releasing the innate spiritual capacity of the self
to overcome negative and counter-productive personality patterns of behavior.
"Dan Montgomery rightly views emotional and mental health as more than merely
removing pathology; rather it is the movement of the self in relation to others
where identity, intimacy and community are actualized as an achievement of the
holistic self.
"I am not aware of any
other book that succeeds as well as this one in providing both professional
therapists as well as Christian counselors with a theoretical and
practical model that combines psychology and theology in an integrated
way. It has a profound simplicity that covers a wide range of personality
disorders. Readers will say, ‘Now I see why typical patterns of dysfunctional
and disruptive behavior have a common root but also a specific cause.' Put this book on top of your reading list!"
To learn more about Compass Therapy, read:
