More About Me: My Story

Why do I care so much? I am passionate about the integration of psychology and Christianity because of my background and seeing how it's so important.

My parents immigrated from Ukraine as religious refugees during a time of religious persecution in the Soviet Union. My life's calling, and the reason why I decided to go to graduate school for psychology, was to integrate these two fields.

I saw a treatment gap where in the Slavic Christian community people would not receive evidence-based treatment due to various barriers or distrust of secular psychology. For good reason, too. Research shows that psychology as a field is one of the least religious groups, and is less religious than the general population that they treat. Historically, religion has been pathologized in the field of psychology in order to establish the credibility of psychology as a science. At the same time, people in my community wanted to completely rely on Scripture as a source of healing, and relying on anything but that may have felt like they weren't relying on God. Additionally, how some psychological interventions are packaged lead to further distrust due to an insensitivity to the Christian cultural nuances. (For example, I come from a background where mindfulness and meditation are viewed as having demonic roots, yet this is a frequently used term and interwoven throughout most treatments). So, for these individuals, to seek treatment would have meant not bringing up religion, or risking feeling like they were doing something dangerous. However, how can someone put aside their Christian identity in therapy when it's so core to who they are? It's the lens through which they view the world, live, breathe, and operate.

However, I thought, "If research shows us the most effective methods to prevent a suicide, then surely psychology can't be all bad." (Why throw the baby out with the bath water?)

I believe in both general and special revelation. General revelation means how God reveals Himself indirectly and implicitly through the world - nature, love, relationships, beauty, math/science, the building of a bridge, etc. Anything good or that which reflects His image or character is God revealing Himself indirectly through those means, without explicitly speaking of Himself. General revelation is available to all humans (Christian or not), and this includes psychological treatments and the study of human behavior. On the other hand, special revelation is God revealing Himself directly through the Bible. It directly speaks to salvation and is explicit talk about God. Integrated treatment that includes explicit talk about God or religious matters is under special revelation.

That note aside, I went to graduate school in clinical psychology, and I felt like I had to either hide or defend this pursuit for integration. This is even though the American Psychological Association's (APA's) ethical code requirement for multicultural competence included religion/spirituality as an invisible form of diversity. I felt like the only one pioneering this mission for integration.

I later learned that there was a whole army behind me! Several other clinicians had already begun the work, and I had a few graduate school mentors who helped along the way. (They also challenged me immensely and it was a huge time of growth).

Thankfully, the field of psychology is better about this now, though still catching up and learning. It's still a relatively young endeavor, and research is only now underway to develop competency guidelines and training on how to address religion/spirituality in treatment as a field standard.

So, working with anxiety/depression and Christian topics is my sweet spot.