Exploring God Workshop

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Exploring God Workshop

• Changing How You Experience God Through
  Understanding, Practical Exercises, and Prayer
• Glendon L. Moriarty, Psy.D.

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Thank you and Introduction

• Thank you to the Hope Church leaders Ms.
  Charmaine Chee Hsieh Mei for this opportunity.
• A little bit about me and the Regent team

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2 Parts

• Part I Defining Discovering Your God Image
• Part II Changing Your God Image
• Presentation Style - Emphasis on the Head and the
  Heart

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Opening Exercise (15-20 Minutes)

• Draw a picture of You and God
• Draw a picture of how you FEEL you and God look
  after you have done something wrong.

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Ask yourself these questions about your second
picture

• How is God feeling?
• How are you feeling?
• How close to, or distant from, God do you feel?
• Distant 1 2 3 4 5 Close
• If you feel distant, what do you usually do to
  feel close again?

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Definitions

• God Concept the intellectual idea of God. It
  is shaped by Sunday School, catechism, Bible
  study, and sermons. It exists more as an abstract
  concept than an immediate emotional reality
  (Rizzuto, 1979, Lawrence, 1997).
• God Image the personal, emotional, experience
  of God. It is shaped by our experience of our
  parents and enables us to continue earlier
  learned relational patterns (Rizzuto, 1979,
  Lawrence, 1997). If people had loving parents,
  then they will have a loving God image. On the
  other hand, if people have rejecting parents,
  then they will have a rejecting God image.
• God Image is a type of transitional object
  (Winnicott, 1971). Beans is a good example of a
  Transitional Object.

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Development of the God Image

• Rizzutos Background
• Before birth parental expectations naming of
  the child dedication of the child to God
• Trust vs. Mistrust - basic needs (e.g., clothing,
  eating, sleeping etc.) are met in a loving
  manner, then child concludes the world, others
  and God are safe. If basic needs are not met,
  then child concludes the world, others and God
  are not safe.

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Development Continued

• Separation-Individuation - If parent is secure,
  then the child will be able to become truly
  independent. The child will separate, begin to
  discover his/her personality and engage in
  creative activities. God will later be
  experienced by this person as strong and secure.
  If the parent is insecure and unstable, then the
  child will not be able to become independent. The
  child will respond to explicit and implicit
  demands of the caregiver and sacrifice
  psychological growth. This results in a God
  image that is insecure, needy and minimizing of
  creativity and spontaneity.

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Development Continued

• At age 3, children become curious about God and
  learn that God is different from other beings
  that cannot be seen (i.e., Santa, elves, tooth
  fairy). Parents take God seriously, visit Gods
  house, and meet with Gods representatives.

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Development Continued

• From behavior of adults and environmental cues,
  children learn that God is all powerful.
  Children idealize parents, so they naturally form
  their God image in the likeness of their parents.
• God Image continues to develop and change through
  late childhood, puberty (onset of formal
  thought), early adulthood and preparation for
  death.
• The God image continues to evolve and change as
  the self evolves and changes.

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Current Perspectives and Empirical Research

• Parent influence
• Self-esteem
• Attachment
• Object Relations
• Depression

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Is the God image more like the mother, father,
both or self-esteem?

• Initial studies focused on determining which
  parent (i.e., mother, father or both as a
  composite unity) was most like the God image.
  Mixed results, but most support for God image as
  an amalgamation of both parents (Vergote et al.
  (1969) Beit-Hallahami and Argyle (1975) Birky
  and Ball (1988) Dickie et al. (1997).
• Other studies focused on the relationship between
  self-esteem and the God image - this relationship
  is stronger than relationship between God image
  and parents (Benson and Spilka (1973) Buri and
  Meueller (1993).

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How is the God image related to level of
psychological development?

• Brokaw and Edwards (1994) found that individuals
  with more mature relationships experience God as
  benevolent and loving, whereas those with
  immature relationships experience God as
  wrathful, punitive and arbitrary.

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How is the God image related to attachment?

• Brief Overview of Attachment Theory
• Kirkpatrick and Shaver (1990) - Compensatory
  theory - when persons experience marked deficits
  in early relationships and attempt, in adulthood,
  to compensate for these needs through a highly
  personal and emotional relationship with God.
• People with avoidant attachment style (vs.
  anxious/ambivalent or secure) scored
  significantly higher on belief in a loving God,
  intrinsic religiosity, being born-again, belief
  in a personal God and highly emotional conversion
  experiences.
• Correspondence Theory (Hall, 2004) secure
  relationship with parents, then secure
  relationship with God insecure relationship with
  parents, then insecure relationship with God.
  People with a compensatory relationship look as
  if they have an intimate relationship, but
  affectively they do not.

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The Self and God Image

• Tisdale, Key, Edwards, Brokwaw, Kemperman, Cloud,
  Townsend and Okamoto (1997) studied the
  effectiveness of an inpatient object relations
  based program on self-esteem, level of object
  relations development and God image. The
  patients numbered 99 and all but 4 were diagnosed
  with major depression. The results clearly
  support the link between the variables. They
  found that treatment significantly improved the
  clients view of themselves as well as changed
  their view of God to one that is more close and
  loving.
• Cheston, Piedmont, Eanes Lavin (2003) measured
  impact of outpatient therapy on God image and
  found that treatment resulted in a more
  compassionate God image.

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Practical Understanding Main Ideas

• Consciousness, Preconscious, Unconscious
  Iceberg metaphor
• Attachment/bonding is one of our main needs.
• Problems are learned in the past and repeated in
  the present.
• We need a corrective emotional experience to
  change cognitive understanding and emotional
  experience.

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Development of Negative Problems

• Abuse, Neglect, Rejection, or Emotional Distance
  in Childhood
• Anger at Parents Turned Toward Self
• Unconscious Switch Need to change self to win
  love from parents (McWilliams, 1994)
• Replaying of interpersonal patterns with others
  and God (Jones, 1991)

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The Coloring of Christianity Common Themes of
Harmful God Images

• Head Knowledge not Heart Knowledge
• Sense of Worthlessness - do not feel fearfully
  and wonderfully made (Psalm 139) or like God is
  deeply in love them. Instead, feel like an
  accident or mistake.
• Guilt - healthy guilt vs. unhealthy guilt often
  extends past I have done something wrong to I am
  wrong God image focuses on the misdeeds and
  negatives emphasizes the fall rather than
  redemption

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Common Themes continued

• Fear of Rejection - great relational radar smile
  and volunteer for church duties, even when
  exhausted God image is like a needy parent who
  only wants to hear about positives and grows cold
  when the person expresses sadness, pain or
  frustration
• Perfectionism - grace is a different language
  that is difficult to understand, have to earn
  Gods love and acceptance the same God of the
  Pharisees

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Perfection Sin Cycle

• 1. Sin
• 2. Feel Intense Pain of Rejection
• 3. Work way back into Gods approval
• 4. Experience Acceptance.
• 5. Attempt to maintain Gods acceptance through
  efforts at perfection
• Sin and the cycle starts again

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Perfection Sin Cycle
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Life Example Robert Ong

• 37 y/o clergy person
• Multiple depressive and people pleasing symptoms
• Feels like he cannot win Gods approval and
  senses that God often rejects him
• Father abused alcohol and was rejecting
• Wife is very domineering and rejecting
• Works too many hours and tries desperately to
  please church members, but often feels rejected
  by them

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Robert continued

• Triangle of Persons (Menninger, 1958)
• Square of Persons (Strength, 1998)

Past
Present
Therapist
Present
Past
Therapist
God Image
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Robert continued

• Triangle of Persons
• Past Rejecting Father Present Rejecting
  Wife Therapist Expects me to Reject Him
• Square of Persons
• Past Rejecting Father Present Rejecting
  Wife Therapist Expects me to Reject Him God
  Image Rejecting God

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What are your interpersonal patterns?

• Can you see any similarities between how you
• Experienced your parents or caregivers
• Experience your spouse, partner, or friend
• Experience God
• What are they? Take 15 minutes to think about it.

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Part II Changing Your God Image

• God Image Assessment
• Big Theological Picture
• Thoughts and Feelings
• Automatic Thoughts
• Thinking Errors
• Prayer

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God Image Assessment

• God Image Sentence Blank (see handout)
• Take 15 minutes to take
• God Image Questionnaire (see handout)
• Take 15 minutes to take

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Scoring Your Results

• God Image Sentence Blank what are the main
  themes that you found on this instrument?
• What type of God image do you most closely
  identify with? What is your second type?
• Partner up and discuss what you learned with a
  friend (10 minutes)

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Big Theological Picture

• We all have imperfect parents
• This causes us to feel incomplete and unfulfilled
• Which, in turn, causes us to look for Someone who
  is perfect (cf. St. Augustine) to fill our God
  shaped hole or existential vacuum.

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Thoughts and Feelings

• Brief Exercise - Recall something that you regret
  doing - something that was moderately emotionally
  painful. Shut your eyes and imagine the event for
  approximately 10 seconds. How do you feel?
• Now, recall a positive memory that made you feel
  wonderful. Again, shut your eyes and fully go
  there. How do you feel?
• Partner up to Discuss what you Learned (5
  minutes)

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Thoughts and Feelings

• Thoughts--Feelings--Behaviors
• Apostle Paul - Meditate on true and lovely things
  (Phil. 48) Renewing of the mind (Romans 122).
• St. Ignatious St. Theresa
• Aaron Beck - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

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Automatic Thoughts

• Self-talk that we are not aware of frequency is
  on a different channel and the volume is turned
  down too low
• Learning to drive a standard Rain Metaphor
• Sense of consistency if you think negatively
  about yourself, then you will probably imagine
  that God thinks negatively about you as well.
• Need to re-wire our thoughts so that they are
  more God-based
• Boss Example

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God Image Automatic Thought Record (GIATR)

• -Blank GIATR
• -Roberts Example (Review for 5-10 minutes)
• --Once automatic thoughts are recorded, you can
  look for common ways of distorting the truth.
  What follows are some of the primary ways that
  people distort their understanding of themselves,
  others, and God.

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GIATR Exercise

• Take the blank GIATR and fill it out.
• Do your best and raise your hand for help.
• Only do one row.
• Take 20 minutes to do this.

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Cognitive Errors (McKay, Davis, Fanning, 1997)

• Filtering - occurs when a person filters out the
  positive and looks only at the negative happens
  when a persons God image focuses on their
  weaknesses and mistakes rather than their
  strengths and victories.
• Solution - Shift the focus. Example - Roberts
  God image was emphasizing what Robert thought was
  a poor sermon. Robert switched the focus to the
  other things that went well and prayed about
  those events.

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Overgeneralization

• Roberts God Image told him he was a complete
  mess for having a lustful thought and that he
  would never make progress in that area.
• Solution - Quantify. Robert realized he had
  unhealthy sexual thoughts about 20 of the time
  and healthy sexual thoughts 80 of the time. He
  also realized that he was more able to challenge
  and change his unhealthy sexual thoughts. Robert
  was making progress and was not a complete mess
  in this area.

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Catastrophizing

• This occurs when your thoughts snowball (e.g., I
  got a C, Im going to fail out of the program.)
  After Robert argued with his wife, his God image
  told him, You are a failure as a husband and you
  are going to get divorced. If you cannot manage
  your family, how can you expect to guide your
  congregation?
• Solution - ask, What are the odds? Robert and
  his wife had overcome many difficulties and there
  was little chance that they would get divorced.
  An outside observer would not bet against them.

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Prayer

• Spiritual Formation History St. Teresa, John of
  the Cross, St. Ignatious Application of the
  Senses
• Meditating on scripture lost sheep, prodigal
  son (Luke 15), psalm 23 etc.
• Again, just as we may have learned negative ways
  of experiencing God, we can learn positive ways
  of experiencing God.

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Discernment

• How do you tell know if you are hearing from God
  or your God image?
• God will line up with scripture
• God will leave you feeling loved and accepted
  you may feel guilty about doing something wrong,
  but you are not going to feel rejected in your
  person.
• Healthy vs. unhealthy relationships.

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Resources

• Hope Church Counseling Service
• Add Phone Number, Web Address etc.

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Resources...

• You can find my book at http//www.haworthpress.c
  om/store/product.asp?sid714LJ4KPRFD38HHXKJVUK9G7X
  G2679H3sku5138AuthType4

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Questions?
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References

• References
• Brokaw, B.F. Edwards, K. J. (1994). The
  relationship of God to level of object relations
  development. Journal of Psychology and Theology,
  22, 352-371.
• Dickie, J. R., Eshleman, A. K., Merasco, D. M.,
  Shepherd, A., Vander Wilt, M., Johnson, M.
  (1997). Parent-child relationships and childrens
  images of God. Journal for the Scientific Study
  of Religion, 36, 25-43.
• Freud, S. (1961). The future of an illusion (J.
  Strachey, trans.). New York Norton Company.
  (Original work published 1927)
• Grandquist, P. (1998). Religiousness and
  perceived childhood attachment On the question
  of compensation or correspondence. Journal for
  the Scientific Study of Religion, 37, 350-367.
• Grandqvist, P. Hagekull, B. (2000).
  Religiosity, adult attachment, and why singles
  are more religions. The International Journal for
  the Psychology of Religion, 10, 111-123.
• Halcrow, S., Hall, T. W., Hill, P. C., Delaney,
  H. (2004, July) A multidimensional approach to
  the correspondent and compensatory attachment to
  God. Paper presented at the annual convention of
  the American Psychological Association, Honolulu,
  HI. Hall, T. W. Brokaw, B. F. (1995). The
  relationship of spiritual maturity to level of
  object relations development and God image.
  Pastoral Psychology, 43, 373-391.

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References continued

• Hall, T. W., Brokaw, B. F., Edwards, K. J.
  Pike, P. L. (1998). An empirical exploration of
  psychoanalysis and religion Spiritual maturity
  and object relations development and God image.
  Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37,
  302-313.
• Hall, T. W. Porter, S. L. (2004). Referential
  Integration An emotional informaiton processing
  perspective on the Process of Integration.
  Journal of Psychology and Theology, 32, 167-180.
• Hill, P.C. Hall. T. W. (2002). Relational
  schemas in processing ones image of God and
  self. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 21,
  365-373.
• Hoffman, L. (2004, October). Cultural
  constructions of the God image and God concept
  Implications for culture, psychology, and
  religion. Paper presented at the joint meeting of
  the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
  and Religious Research Association, Kansas City,
  MO.
• Hoffman, L., Hoffman, J. L., Dillard, K., Clark,
  J., Acoba, R., Williams, F., Jones, T. T.
  (2005, April). Cultural diversity and the God
  image Examining cultural differences in the
  experience of God. Paper presented at the
  Christian Association for Psychological Studies
  International Conferences, Dallas, TX.
• Kirkpatrick, L. A. (1997). A longitudinal study
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  function of individual differences in adult
  attachment style. Journal for the Scientific
  Study of Religion, 36, 207-217.
• Kirkpatrick, L. A. (1998). God as a substitute
  attachment figure A longitudinal study of adult
  attachment style and religious change in college
  students. Personality and Social Psychology
  Bulletin, 24, 961-973.
• Kirkpatrick, L. A. Shaver, P. R. (1990).
  Attachment theory and religion Childhood
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  Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 29,
  315-334.

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References continued

• Levenson, H. (2001). Time-limited dynamic
  psychotherapy A guide to clinical practice. New
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• Malan, D.M. (1979). Individual psychotherapy and
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• McDonald, A., Beck, R., Allison, S., Norworthy,
  L., (2004, March). Attachment to God and parents
  Evidence for correspondence or compensation? Paer
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• McCullough - Vaillant, L.M. (1997). Changing
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• Menninger, K. (1958). Theory of psychoanalytic
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• Rizzuto, A. M. (1979). The birth of the living
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  University of Chicago Press.
• Strength, J.M. (1998) Expanding Davanloos
  interpretive triangles to explicate the clients
  introjected image of God. Journal of Psychology
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• Tisdale, T. C., Key, T. L., Edwards, K. J.,
  Brokaw, B. F., Kemperman, S. R., Cloud, H.,
  Townsend, J., Okamoto, T. (1997). Impact of
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• Winnicott, D.W. (1971). Playing and reality. New
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