If someone is unwilling to receive the word of God, I have nothing to say to them. I go to the word and address its principles. Other people can say what they want but I am convinced by Scripture that it is sufficient to equip us for every good work and so that is what I use. If someone will not receive it, then I am offering false hope by giving them something else, I am furthering their spiritual alienation by presenting an inadequate and temporary solution to a real problem.
Maybe at sometime in the past I would have agreed with you. But then I lived through the exact opposite.
I didn't want to tell my story, because it's very personal and fairly recent. I am not posting it to "win the debate", because in my mind there is no debate - I have lived what most people only deal with hypothetically, I have experienced what others debate about only in theory. I don't really care what those who oppose psychology think about it, or if you think I should have handled it differently. But hopefully it will help someone who **needs** to see a Christian psychologist, so here it is:
Several years ago I went through a severe clinical depression that lasted almost 2 years. I had a successful job, a great group of friends and family. There was no tragedy, no problems, no reason to be depressed - yet down I went. At first it was fairly mild, but grew worse and worse. My family made me to go the doctor (a medical doctor, who was fortunately a Christian), and I was soon diagnosed with clinical depression, later confirmed by formal psychologists and a psychiatrist.
I had people tell me I had sin that was not dealt with. I had people tell me to pray and read the Bible more. I had a good friend tell me God was actually punishing me for supporting "modern versions" (our friendship has never fully recovered). I had people tell me all sorts of well-meaning but actually harmful (in my condition) information. I eventually shut right down. For by that time, my thinking was affected to such a point that any advice, *even simple encouragement* or a prayer or even a hug or a smile, had only one effect: it reinforced the idea that I was unworthy, a failure. Someone giving me a smile made my brain tell me that I was pitiful, and in need of a smile. Reading the Bible only reminded me that my spiritual condition was going down the tubes. When someone tried to get me to apply a "Biblical principle", I could only see the negative that needed to be fixed and not the positive that could result from the fix. I became passive suicidal, and then eventually even to the point where *I didn't even care* about whether it would end or not. Choosing between suicide or staying alive became as unimportant and trival as deciding whether to have ham or turkey on a sandwich. I was beyond depressed, I was entirely numb. So I didn't even choose, I just existed, sinking further and further into my own private oblivion. *Everything* fed the vicious circle - sure Biblical principles would help, but in my altered thinking, I could only see bad in anything good. I could not accept or apply them, for in my state they only made things worse. My prayers bounced off the ceiling, and deeper into my black hole I went. I withdrew from everyone and everything. I was sleeping 20 hours a day, and when I would wake up I would feel more depressed that I was sleeping so much, but I would feel more depressed just being awake. I am amazed my wife stuck with me, and at times I didn't even care whether she did or not. There were many days where if I woke up to discover she had left me, I would have simply had a glass of water and gone back to bed. But for months she faithfully woke me up at certain intervals to force me to take my meds or to get me dressed for a psycological session. At those times, I only went because everything was so unimportant, that nothing mattered more than anything else. Going to session was no more nor less appealing than sleeping, eating, reading the Bible, living or dying.
30 years ago, they called it a "nervous breakdown", and treatment was minimal and the suicide rate was high. 100 years ago, I probably would have spent the rest of my life in an asylum. 500 years ago, they would have drilled holes in my skull to let the demons out. But with today's understanding of such conditions, a few months of good psychologial counselling and Prozac then Serzone helped break the cycle. Once the vicious circle was broken, once my thinking began to change back to normal, I could then begin to positively respond to "Biblical principles".
Even now that I am fully recovered (I haven't had any counselling or medication for a couple years now), I still have to be quite careful. Through past psychological sessions, I can now recognize when my mood begins to slip, I can now recognize when my thinking wants to negatively process something. And thus I can deal with it before it becomes a problem. Even many statements made on this thread cause in me an initial reaction where I want to think "yeah, you're right and I have done a bad thing in letting psychology and drugs help me instead of just trusting the Lord" and "oh look, I am such a failure than even when I recovered I failed because I did it the wrong way". Well sorry, but I have to shut those thoughts down right away before they get a foothold. Psychology, administered to me in the past by my Christian physician, helps me with this.
To this day, I don't really understand what initially caused my depression. But I **know** what got me out of it, and helps me guard against it happening again.
The issue is that "chemical imbalances" are diagnosed by verbal responses, not be chemical tests. And that is the problem. If the chemical imbalance is tested and verifed, then let's treat it that way.
The problem is that in cases like mine, even though medical science now knows clinical depression is often due to chemical imbalances, it is *impossible* to test and verify on a case-by-case basis. It is only diagnosed by verbal responses, and the verbal responses tell the physician whether a chemical imbalance is *likely* or not. If it is, they try to treat it as such, and if the person improves, that's only a good thing. 30 years ago, depression like this was never thought to be a chemical imbalance, a physical thing. But today we know it is, and can treat it as such. I firmly believe that other things, such as panic disorders, various manias and phobias, OCD, ADD, etc, etc, etc, will be proved in the near future to be physical, chemical or gene-related disorders, requiring appropriate treatment, combined with psychological therapy. Just because *today* they aren't 100% sure doesn't mean in 5 years they won't have proof, just as 30 years ago they weren't sure about what is now called clinical depression. If drugs help, even with just the symptoms and not the underlying problem, I say go for it. Because sometimes you can't even get to the underlying problem without stripping away some of the symptoms in the first place.
One last thought on "Biblical principles": there is one Biblical principle that is almost entirely avoided. Laying on of hands for immediate healing. Not once did any pastor or elder come to see me, let alone try to heal me. Why? Not that I would have even answered the door, but no one never even tried. The most anyone ever did, as I see you doing, is talk about talking to the person and convincing them to do this or that. Well, talking to them and trying to convince them of something is technically a form of psychology - you are trying to get them to change their thinking, and thus their actions. In scripture, often Christ and the apostles wouldn't try to convince anyone of something, they would just lay hands on them and *bam* heal them. And not just "spiritual" problems like demon posession, unconfessed sin, etc, but *physical* problems as well! The spiritual and physical parts of us are closely connected and can affect one another. Blind men (physical problems) had their sight restored. When Peter cut off the soldier's ear, Christ didn't send him to the hospital. Why do we even have hospitals (for physical or psychological problems) at all if "Biblical principles" are all that's needed? Just lay hands on them and heal them!
If anyone wants to send me a private message, please feel free.