Images That Heal
Howard Clinebell, professor of psychology at the School of Theology at Claremont in California, says that most people with religious backgrounds store away powerful images that can have a healing influence on a person's inner life.
Thus, in his counseling sessions Clinebell will sometimes ask, "Now, in your own words, why don't you tell me your favorite Bible story." This brings out of the person "living images" that obviously have some importance attached to them—otherwise they would have been forgotten.
If Clinebell hears the counselee reveal an image that might be therapeutic to whatever ailment he or she is experiencing, he may ask the person to meditate on that image, first in the counseling session and then later at home.
"If, for instance, I am counseling someone who feels bound emotionally, and the person vividly recalls the Old Testament story of the Jews' exodus from Egypt, I will suggest the person play the story through his mind, put himself into the action, and finally relate it to his own experience." Clinebell has seen more than one person helped to release from various sources of captivity by meditating on this image of deliverance.
The counselor remembers another time when, by recalling details of the story about the Prodigal Son, a person received healing strength for a problem that was a direct result of unresolved adolescent rebellion. The New Testament parables, the Cross, the Resurrection—each have provided healing images and symbols in Clinebell's counseling sessions.
"Of course, it's not the images that do the healing," Clinebell says, "but the images help people open up to the Holy Spirit."
Clinebell never prescribes a story, image, or symbol from his own experience, because "each image has to come out ...
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