ORTHODOX PSYCHOTHERAPY: THE TRUE HEALING OF THE HUMAN PERSON
When: Thursday evenings from 6:00 PM to 7:15 PM (Mountain Standard Time) beginning June 5th and ending on July 31st (excluding July
3rd).
The term ‘Orthodox Psychotherapy’ does not refer to specific cases of people suffering from psychological problems or neurosis. Instead, it refers to all people. According to Orthodox Tradition, after Adam’s fall, man became ill; his “nous” was darkened and lost communion with God. Death entered into the person’s being and caused many anthropological, social, and even ecological problems. In the tragedy of his fall man maintained the image of God within him but lost completely the likeness of Him, since his communion with God was disrupted. However, the Incarnation of Christ and the work of the Church aim at enabling the person to attain the likeness of God, that is, to reestablish communion with God. This passage from a fallen state to divinization is called the healing of the human person, because it is connected with his return from a state of being contrary to nature, to that of a state according to nature and above nature.. By adhering to Orthodox therapeutic treatment conceived by the Holy Fathers, man can cope successfully with his thoughts (logismoi) and thus solve his problems completely and comprehensively.
While no books or texts are needed for our seminar, I will use the works of Metropolitan of Nafparktos Herotheos: Orthodox Psychotherapy, Jean-Claude Larchet: Therapy of Spiritual Illness: An Introduction to the Ascetic Tradition of the Orthodox Church, Fr. Hierotheos: The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition, the Church Fathers, and writings from the Philokalia.
We will also explore the significance of Saint Gregory Palamas and the importance of Hesychasm related to Orthodox therapeutic treatment. Our main goal is not to gain theological “knowledge” but to experientially grow in our own healing and spiritual progress. These books are the maps, not the territory itself. The true territory is our own soul, where within the Orthodox Church we are provided with medicine and
therapeutic practices that restores us to sanity and health. Jesus Himself tells us “that the
Kingdom of God is within” – that is the human soul.
Seminar Donation and Registration: $35 There is a donation button on the home page.
