Atlas›Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines›Guide 228
Guide XIII-228

Healing of memories (Sanford)

Agnes Sanford1947
A 34 · L 41 · M 2516 interventions in the Trinity explorer3 described for recognition only
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the healing-of-memories prayer practice taught by Agnes Sanford (Episcopalian lay teacher; The Healing Light, 1947; The Healing Gifts of the Spirit, 1966; School of Pastoral Care, co-founded 1958), as later named "inner healing" by Francis MacNutt (Christian Healing Ministries) and extended by Leanne Payne (Pastoral Care Ministries). The step-level description below follows how secondary pastoral and clinical sources summarise these teachers; Sanford's, MacNutt's and Payne's own chapter-level instructions are marked [uncertain: not verified]. Later derivatives (Theophostic Prayer Ministry, the Immanuel Approach, contemplative inner healing prayer in therapy) are named where they change the method. [source: American Anglican Council history; Pneuma Review; Wikipedia [uncertain: secondary, unverified]; Rhodes University thesis abstract]

What it is. Healing of memories is a Christian, mainly Protestant charismatic and Anglican, form of prayer ministry in which a person recalls a painful memory together with a prayer minister and Jesus is invited into that memory, so that the person can receive comfort, a "healing word", and the capacity to forgive. Sanford reportedly called the faculty used "our sanctified imagination". It is a lay-oriented ministry practice of churches and conferences, not a psychotherapy; it grew up as a practical, church-based ministry with, in one academic reviewer's description, inconsistent and simplistic theoretical explanations. [source: American Anglican Council; Rhodes University thesis abstract]

Core idea of change, as the tradition states it. Practitioners hold that past wounds continue to shape present emotions and behaviour, that the risen Christ is present to every moment of a person's life including the past, and that when the person meets Christ in a remembered hurt, the emotional charge, the false beliefs attached to it and the barrier to forgiveness are healed by grace. These are religious claims of the tradition, reported here as the tradition holds them, neither affirmed nor dismissed. [source: American Anglican Council; Christianity Today on Payne: healing "the emotional scars and disorders" from one's past]

Who teaches it. Sanford taught it at the School of Pastoral Care, at Camps Farthest Out and in churches; MacNutt, a former Dominican priest mentored by Sanford from 1967, taught it through Healing (1974) and Christian Healing Ministries (CHM), founded with his wife Judith MacNutt, which today offers intake-based prayer appointments, training and events; Payne taught it through Pastoral Care Ministries conferences from the early 1980s and books including The Broken Image (1981) and Restoring the Christian Soul through Healing Prayer. [source: Pneuma Review; Rhodes University thesis abstract; Christianity Today; Beliefnet]

Important limits for the therapist reader.

  • One strand of this tradition, notably Payne's The Broken Image, presented healing prayer as a way to "reorient" gay and lesbian people to heterosexuality. That use is a sexual orientation change effort. The American Psychological Association (2021) opposes sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, states there is "no evidence of sexual orientation change", and reports that people who went through such efforts describe them as harmful, with higher reported suicide attempts among young people exposed to them. It is not a treatment and is not described as one in this guide. [source: Baker Publishing Group; APA 2021 press release]
  • Because the method works by recalling and imagining scenes from the past in a spiritually charged setting, it carries the risks of suggestion and of creating false memories that professional bodies warn about (see section 3 and section 5). Guide 229 (inner-healing prayer models: Sozo and Theophostic) gives a harm account for these later derivatives. [source: BJP 1998 correspondence on Royal College of Psychiatrists guidance; Garzon 2004]
  • No healing-prayer practice is presented here as treating physical disease. Healing ministries claim physical as well as inner healing; evidence status: not established by controlled research. [source: Beliefnet; Garzon 2004 on research needed]

2. Framework

Healing of memories is not a manualised therapy and has no fixed number of sessions. Two settings need to be kept apart.

A. The ministry as churches publish it [source: American Anglican Council; Beliefnet on CHM; Christianity Today on Payne]

  • Setting. Individual prayer appointments with one or two trained prayer ministers (CHM), conference or small-group settings with laying on of hands (Payne's conferences, which trained church leaders to use the methods locally), or a pastor or lay team in a congregation.
  • Intake. CHM asks people to complete intake forms about their life and background, then to meet prayer ministers, tell their story and pray together. Prayer ministers are described as "trained in listening".
  • Core sequence (common to the Sanford lineage). (1) opening prayer; (2) the person brings to mind a painful memory and lets themselves feel its emotion with the minister present; (3) Jesus is invited into the memory; (4) the person receives a healing word, image or sense of presence; (5) forgiveness of those who caused the hurt and, where relevant, confession; (6) closing prayer and blessing. Whether Sanford herself walked people back through each period of life in sequence is [uncertain: not verified].
  • Four kinds of healing at CHM. Physical, inner (emotions and memories), spiritual (forgiveness) and deliverance (freedom from evil spirits, in CHM's terms). Inner healing may therefore sit alongside deliverance prayer in the same ministry.
  • Number of sessions. No source gives a session count; it is not stated here.

B. The psychotherapist's work alongside it [synthesis, drawing on Garzon 2004 and the domain's spiritually integrated practice frame]

  • Phase 1: Assessment and consent. Goal: understand what the practice means to the client, whether they are receiving it elsewhere, what memories are involved, risk (dissociation, suggestibility, psychosis, suicidality), and whether any part of it is aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity. Move on only when informed consent covers the specific use (or non-use) of prayer and imagery in therapy.
  • Phase 2: Stabilisation and safety. Goal: grounding, emotion regulation and a safe place or resource (for religious clients this may be a remembered sense of God's nearness). Move on only when the client can leave and return to distressing material without being overwhelmed.
  • Phase 3: Client-led integration (optional). Goal: if the client asks for it and the therapist is competent, use the client's own prayer resources within evidence-informed trauma or cognitive work, non-directively. Otherwise collaborate with the client's church or refer.
  • Phase 4: Consolidation. Goal: link changes in meaning and emotion to present life; review forgiveness without pressure; plan ongoing spiritual support through the client's own community.

3. Guiding principles

Tradition principles [source: American Anglican Council; Garzon 2004 on Theophostic; Beliefnet on CHM]:

  • Christ is present in all time. Practical meaning: the minister invites rather than manufactures Jesus' presence in the memory.
  • The recipient hears from God directly. Practical meaning: in the later forms especially, the minister does not supply the image, words or message; the recipient reports what comes.
  • Feel the pain in the presence of love. Practical meaning: the memory is recalled with its emotion, not merely talked about.
  • Forgiveness is part of healing. Practical meaning: forgiving offenders, and accepting forgiveness, are usually invited near the end of a prayer time.
  • Test what comes. Practical meaning: the Theophostic form checks whether what is received fits Scripture and the character of Jesus, and whether it leaves peace, compassion and lasting change.
  • Start from safety (Immanuel Approach). Practical meaning: begin with a pain-free memory of appreciation in which Jesus felt near, as a "safety net" before turning to pain.

Clinical principles for the psychotherapist [synthesis unless tagged]:

  • Client-led, in the client's own tradition. Practical meaning: use prayer only when the client asks, in their words and denomination's idiom; never introduce it to a non-religious or differently religious client.
  • No suggestion of content. Practical meaning: never propose that abuse happened, never supply images, never ask leading questions about what Jesus is "showing"; Garzon warns that suggestion can contribute to false memories, especially in suggestible clients. [source: Garzon 2004]
  • Treat emerging "memories" with extreme caution. Practical meaning: do not press for memories, do not treat newly surfaced material as fact, and do not act on it (confrontations, accusations) without care; Royal College of Psychiatrists authors advised that "extreme caution must be observed" when new memories emerge. [source: BJP 1998 correspondence]
  • No memory-recovery techniques. Practical meaning: no hypnosis, age regression or "womb" regression; even Theophostic guidance tells practitioners not to use guided imagery directed by the practitioner or hypnosis. [source: Garzon 2004; BJP 1998 correspondence; DeWaay 2006]
  • No change efforts. Practical meaning: never use prayer, memory work or imagery to try to change sexual orientation or gender identity; APA opposes these efforts as harmful. [source: APA 2021]
  • Role clarity. Practical meaning: the therapist is not the client's prayer minister, confessor or spiritual director; ministry is done by the church, and the therapist collaborates if the client wishes. The APA Ethics Code duties on competence, multiple relationships and informed consent apply [synthesis].
  • Competence. Practical meaning: spiritual and religious competencies as set out by Vieten et al. 2013 [uncertain: not verified]; seek training and supervision before integrating prayer.
  • Forgiveness is never required. Practical meaning: a client's anger at an abuser is not a block to be prayed away; forgiveness, if chosen, is not reconciliation or excusing harm [synthesis].
  • Safeguarding first. Practical meaning: disclosures of current abuse or risk to children are handled by standard safeguarding procedures, not by prayer [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

Part A describes the practice as the healing-prayer ministries teach it, so the therapist knows what a client has received or is asking about. These are church ministry practices, not techniques for the therapist to run. Part B is the psychotherapist's own work.

A1. Healing-of-memories prayer (Sanford lineage)

  • Purpose and when used (as the tradition states it): to heal emotional wounds held in memory by inviting Jesus into a remembered painful event; offered by prayer ministers in churches, conferences and healing ministries. [source: American Anglican Council; Rhodes University thesis abstract]
  • Steps (public outline, own words): the minister opens in prayer; the person brings a painful memory to mind and lets themselves feel the emotion with the minister present; Jesus is invited into the scene; the person, using what Sanford reportedly called "our sanctified imagination", becomes aware of Jesus present and of a healing word from him; the minister prays for the healing of the hurt and, usually, for forgiveness; the prayer time closes with thanksgiving and blessing. Some critics report that Sanford-influenced practice could include picturing Jesus comforting the person's "inner child" [source: DeWaay 2006, citing Gumprecht 1997; uncertain: not verified]. Sanford's own detailed instructions are [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative), therapist asking about it: "You mentioned you went for healing-of-memories prayer at church. What happened during it, and what has it been like for you since?"
  • Watch for: whether the minister suggested what happened or what Jesus said (risk of suggestion); new "memories" of abuse surfacing after ministry; distress left open at the end of a session; whether the prayer was linked to deliverance or to changing sexual orientation; and, equally, genuine comfort and meaning the client values.

A2. Forgiveness in healing prayer

  • Purpose (tradition): forgiveness of those who caused the hurt, and receiving God's forgiveness, are treated as part of healing; CHM groups forgiveness under "spiritual healing". [source: Beliefnet on CHM; Garzon 2004 on Theophostic "litmus tests": anger turning to compassion and forgiveness]
  • Steps (public outline): after the memory has been prayed through, the person is invited to forgive the offender before God and may confess their own wrongdoing; the minister prays a blessing.
  • Example language (illustrative): "In that prayer, did forgiving feel like something you chose, or something you felt you had to do?"
  • Watch for: premature or pressured forgiveness, especially by abuse survivors; forgiveness confused with reconciliation or with staying in an unsafe relationship; scrupulous guilt about "not having forgiven enough" (see B10).

A3. Lie-focused variant: Theophostic Prayer Ministry (Ed Smith, 1990s)

  • Purpose (as its author describes it): to find a lie-based belief rooted in an earlier memory and receive truth from God in place of it; its distinctive rule is that the minister suggests no content. [source: American Anglican Council; Garzon 2004]
  • Steps (public outline, own words, after Garzon's summary): the minister listens for emotional cue words and asks God to help the person drift to an earlier memory; the key belief in the memory is identified and its believability rated; the minister asks Jesus to reveal truth in whatever way he chooses, waits and checks in, and tests what comes against Scripture; obstacles (in Smith's terms, "guardian lies", anger or unconfessed sin) are explored; the session closes when peace is reported.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you did this kind of prayer, how did the minister handle it if nothing came?"
  • Watch for: Garzon notes this is not sufficient training to use the method, that suggestion can contribute to false memories in suggestible clients, and that dissociation needs separate expertise; he recommends licensed clinicians supervise lay ministers. [source: Garzon 2004] See guide 229 for Theophostic Prayer Ministry and Bethel Sozo in detail, with a harm account.

A4. Safety-first variant: the Immanuel Approach (Karl Lehman, with Jim Wilder)

  • Purpose (as described): to start from an experience of Jesus' presence before any painful memory. [source: American Anglican Council]
  • Steps (public outline): the person settles the body, prays for the Holy Spirit to lead, and recalls a "pain-free appreciation memory" in which Jesus felt near; only from that connection, used as a "safety net", is a painful memory approached. Proponents say the encounter with Jesus is valued in itself.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before we go anywhere difficult, is there a memory where you felt grateful, or felt God was near, that you would like to start from?"
  • Watch for: this ordering is the closest ministry analogue to stabilisation; the therapist can use the client's appreciation memory as a grounding resource without doing ministry.

A5. Payne's healing-prayer conferences (Pastoral Care Ministries)

  • Purpose (as reported): healing of "the emotional scars and disorders" from one's past through recalling painful memories, prayer, laying on of hands and small-group discussion at conferences that trained church leaders. [source: Christianity Today 2015]
  • Steps: Payne's specific practices in her own books (for example "listening prayer" and practising God's presence) are [uncertain: not verified].
  • Sexual orientation and gender identity: her publisher describes The Broken Image as presenting case studies of gay and lesbian people "reoriented to heterosexuality through applied healing prayer". This is a sexual orientation change effort. The APA (2021) opposes sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, finds no evidence that orientation changes, and reports harm including emotional distress, loss of relationships, low self-worth and increased suicide attempts among young people exposed to them. It is never a treatment, and a therapist must not offer, refer to or endorse it. [source: Baker Publishing Group; APA 2021]
  • Example language (illustrative), for a client who went through it: "You said you went to healing prayer to try to stop being gay. What was that like, and how has it affected you since?"
  • Watch for: shame, depression, suicidality, religious trauma and loss of faith community in clients who went through these efforts (see B9).

A6. Healing-ministry prayer appointment (Christian Healing Ministries model)

  • Purpose (as published): CHM offers prayer for physical, inner, spiritual and deliverance healing. [source: Beliefnet]
  • Steps (public outline): intake forms about life and background; meeting with prayer ministers "trained in listening"; telling one's story; prayer. Deliverance and renunciation prayers may be part of the same ministry.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if, with your permission, I understood how the prayer ministry team works, so we are not pulling in different directions?"
  • Watch for: deliverance framing of symptoms that need assessment (psychosis, dissociation, OCD); health claims; whether medical or psychiatric care is being discouraged. Health claims are attributed to the ministry; evidence status: not established.

B1. Spiritual and cultural assessment

  • Purpose and when to use: at intake, or whenever a client mentions healing prayer, inner healing or deliverance. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) ask what tradition and church the client belongs to and what healing prayer means in it; (2) ask what ministry they have received, from whom, how often and with what effects; (3) use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, including its spirituality, religion and moral traditions supplementary module [uncertain: not verified]; (4) ask specifically whether any ministry aimed to change sexual orientation or gender identity; (5) note any memories that first surfaced during prayer.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Faith seems important to you. Can you tell me how your church understands healing, and what part prayer has played in what you've been through?"
  • Watch for: the client checking whether you will judge their faith; ministry used in place of urgent care; signs of coercive pressure from a group (see section 5).

B2. Informed consent for any use of prayer in therapy

  • Purpose: to make the role and the risks explicit before integrating prayer or religious imagery. [synthesis; professional ethics-code consent duties apply]
  • Steps: (1) explain that you are a therapist, not a prayer minister; (2) say what you would and would not do (no suggesting images, no regression, no hypnosis, no attempts to change orientation or identity); (3) explain the false-memory risk in plain words; (4) offer alternatives (secular trauma therapy, referral to the church's own ministry); (5) record consent and review it.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you'd like, prayer can be part of how you bring your faith into our work. I won't suggest what you should see or remember, and anything that comes up we'll hold lightly rather than treat as fact. Does that sound right?"
  • Watch for: consent given to please the therapist; clients who feel they must pray in session.

B3. Non-suggestive handling of memory

  • Purpose: to protect against false memories, as professional bodies warn. [source: BJP 1998 correspondence on Royal College of Psychiatrists guidance; Garzon 2004; APA 1995 Q&A on memories of childhood abuse [uncertain: not verified]]
  • Steps: (1) never propose that abuse happened or ask leading questions; (2) do not press for memories or use regression, hypnosis or therapist-directed guided imagery; (3) if a new memory emerges, reflect its emotional meaning without confirming or disconfirming it as history; (4) discourage acting on it (confrontation, accusation, family cut-off) without time and careful thought; (5) document what the client said in their words.
  • Example language (illustrative): "That image came with a lot of feeling. We don't need to decide right now what it means or whether it happened exactly that way. Let's stay with what you're feeling."
  • Watch for: rapid accumulation of new abuse memories after ministry; memories from infancy or before birth (critics report "womb" regression in some inner-healing settings) [source: DeWaay 2006]; a minister or group endorsing memories as revealed truth.

B4. Stabilisation using the client's own resources

  • Purpose: to build safety before any trauma processing. [synthesis; ordering parallels the Immanuel Approach, A4]
  • Steps: (1) teach grounding through the senses and the present room; (2) if the client wishes, invite them to recall, in their own words, a time they felt at peace or close to God; (3) let them choose a short phrase of Scripture or prayer from their own tradition as an anchor; (4) practise moving between this anchor and mild stress.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When things feel too much, is there a prayer or a verse you already lean on? We could use that as a place to come back to."
  • Watch for: the anchor turning into avoidance or a compulsion; religious images that frighten rather than comfort (for example a punitive image of God).

B5. Client-led contemplative inner healing prayer within cognitive work

  • Purpose: for a Christian client who requests it, to draw on their own prayer resources in restructuring painful beliefs. Garzon (2004) presents a clinical demonstration of contemplative inner healing prayer used for cognitive restructuring; its steps are [uncertain: not verified]. [source: Garzon 2004 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) agree the target belief and memory using ordinary cognitive assessment; (2) client opens with their own prayer, aloud or silently; (3) client brings the memory to mind at a tolerable intensity; (4) the therapist asks only open questions ("What do you notice?"), never suggesting what God or Jesus says; (5) client notes any shift in the belief; (6) therapist links any new perspective to evidence and present life; (7) close with grounding.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You asked to pray about this. Go ahead in your own way, and just tell me whatever you notice. There's no right answer."
  • Watch for: distress rising rather than settling; a harsh or condemning "message" (treat as a belief to explore, and consider scrupulosity or depression); the client attributing authority to the therapist's words. Cross-refer Domain VII (spiritually integrated psychotherapy).

B6. Forgiveness work

  • Purpose: where the client chooses to work on forgiveness. Garzon names Enright's and Worthington's forgiveness protocols as established secular forms [source: Garzon 2004 abstract]; their content is not set out here.
  • Steps [synthesis]: separate forgiveness from reconciliation, excusing and forgetting; allow anger first; let the client set the pace; include safety planning where the offender is still present.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Forgiving, if you ever choose it, doesn't mean what happened was all right or that you have to let them back in."
  • Watch for: forgiveness urged by church, family or minister; self-blame for "failing" to forgive.

B7. Trauma-sensitive adaptation and adverse-effect monitoring

  • Purpose: prayer that involves recalling painful memories and absorbed imagery can bring challenging experiences. Published research on meditation and contemplative adverse effects (Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE; Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica; Britton's Cheetah House resources) and trauma-sensitive mindfulness (Treleaven) are relevant cross-references [uncertain: not verified; not specific to healing prayer].
  • Steps [synthesis]: screen for PTSD, dissociation, psychosis and mania before any imagery work; keep eyes-open options; shorten or stop when arousal climbs; ground before ending; ask about after-effects at the next session.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Since last week's session, have you had any memories, images or feelings that surprised or unsettled you?"
  • Watch for: flashbacks, depersonalisation, intrusive images, sleep disturbance, voices or visions experienced as external; distinguish spiritual experience from psychosis, mania, depression or dissociation without pathologising faith. DSM-5-TR lists a religious or spiritual problem as a focus of clinical attention, code Z65.8.

B8. Referral and collaboration with clergy or prayer ministers

  • Purpose: to keep ministry with the church and therapy with the therapist. [synthesis; Garzon 2004 on clinician supervision of lay ministers and referral of complex cases]
  • Steps: with written consent, contact the client's pastor or ministry team; agree what each does; share only what the client permits; ask the team to avoid suggesting memories and to pause deep memory prayer while trauma work is active if that is clinically indicated.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would you like me to speak with your pastor so that what happens in prayer and what happens here support each other?"
  • Watch for: pressure to stop medication or therapy; deliverance offered for symptoms needing assessment; safeguarding issues.

B9. Working with clients harmed by change efforts or coercive ministry

  • Purpose: to support clients who went through prayer or memory work aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity. [source: APA 2021; remaining steps synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) assess suicide risk using current standards; (2) affirm that the APA finds no evidence such change occurs and regards these efforts as harmful; (3) explore shame, religious trauma and losses; (4) support the client's own integration of faith, sexuality and gender, which may include affirming faith communities; (5) follow the APA guidelines for practice with sexual minority persons (2021).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Many people who went through this were told that if they prayed hard enough they would change. It wasn't your failure that it didn't work."
  • Watch for: suicidality, internalised stigma, loss of community, and requests to try change again (decline, explain why, explore the distress behind it).

B10. Scrupulosity screen around confession and forgiveness

  • Purpose: confession and forgiveness can feed religious OCD. [synthesis; IOCDF guidance [uncertain: not verified]]
  • Steps: ask about repeated confession, reassurance-seeking from ministers, fear of unforgiven sin; if present, offer ERP adapted with the client's religious authority's consultation.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Do you find yourself going back again and again to ask for prayer about the same thing, and the relief doesn't last?"
  • Watch for: repeated ministry requests used as reassurance; guilt over imagined sins.

5. Handling problems

The ministry sources say little about problems in a psychotherapy setting; except where tagged, the responses below are [synthesis].

  • Client asks the therapist to "do healing of memories" with them. Explain your role and what you can offer (B2, B5); offer collaboration with their church's ministry (B8). Do not take on the role of prayer minister.
    • Illustrative: "I can help you bring your faith into how we work on this, but the prayer ministry itself belongs with your church. Shall we think about how the two could fit together?"
  • New memories of abuse emerge during or after ministry. Slow down; do not confirm or dismiss; avoid further memory-focused prayer for now; focus on current functioning and safety; advise against confrontation or legal action until the client has had time and support. Royal College of Psychiatrists authors advised "extreme caution" with newly emerging memories and warned of "illusory memories" from some practices. [source: BJP 1998 correspondence]
  • The minister or group treats images as revealed fact. Explore with the client how their tradition tests such experiences (the Theophostic form, for instance, tests against Scripture and Jesus' character [source: Garzon 2004]); support the client's own judgement without attacking their faith.
  • Overwhelm or dissociation in prayer. Stop imagery, open eyes, ground in the room, return to the stabilisation anchor (B4); refer for trauma-focused treatment if needed. Garzon flags dissociation as needing advanced expertise. [source: Garzon 2004]
  • Nothing comes in prayer; client feels abandoned by God or "blocked". Normalise; do not suggest hidden sin or demonic causes; explore the meaning of silence in their tradition; consider depression or a "dark night" experience, distinguishing it from illness without pathologising it.
  • Pressure to forgive. Separate forgiveness from reconciliation and safety; let the client set pace (B6).
  • Ministry framed as deliverance. Assess for psychosis, dissociative disorder, OCD and trauma; collaborate with the ministry only with consent; escalate if a client is being pressured to stop medical care. Safeguard any child involved in deliverance or exorcism according to local child-protection procedures.
  • Client was, or is, in prayer aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity. Do not take part; state the APA position that such efforts are opposed as harmful and that there is "no evidence of sexual orientation change"; assess suicide risk; support integration and safer community (B9). [source: APA 2021]
  • Rupture over faith. If the client feels the therapist is sceptical of healing prayer, acknowledge it, check your own reactions in supervision, and clarify that the focus is on safety of memory, not on the truth of their beliefs. Reflect on your own religious commitments and limit self-disclosure to what helps the client.
  • Non-adherence to agreed limits (for example, continuing intensive memory-focused ministry during trauma treatment). Explore what the ministry gives the client; negotiate pacing; involve the ministry team with consent.
  • Coercive group dynamics. Signs include isolation from family or outside help, discouraging therapy or medicine, secrecy, and controlling access to leaders. Support the client's autonomy, and support leaving if they choose, with attention to religious trauma. See also the harm account in guide 229.
  • Therapist uncertainty about the method's evidence. Garzon and Burkett (2002) reviewed healing-of-memories models (Seamands, Tan, Payne, Smith) and found few empirical studies, calling for research [source: Garzon & Burkett 2002 abstract]; Garzon (2004) likewise says controlled studies are needed. Treat it as a religious practice, not an evidence-based therapy.

Sources

Web sources:

Books and papers cited (details as given by the sources above):

  • Sanford, A. (1947). The Healing Light.
  • Sanford, A. (1966). The Healing Gifts of the Spirit.
  • MacNutt, F. (1974). Healing.
  • Payne, L. (1981). The Broken Image.
  • Gumprecht, J. (1997). Abusing Memory: The Healing Theology of Agnes Sanford. Canon Press (as cited by DeWaay 2006).
  • Brandon, S., Boakes, J., Glaser, D., et al. (1998). Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: implications for clinical practice. British Journal of Psychiatry 172:296–307 (as cited in the 1998 correspondence).
  • Royal College of Psychiatrists' Working Group (1997). Good-practice guidelines. Psychiatric Bulletin 21:663–665 (as cited in the 1998 correspondence).
  • Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE; Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica; Treleaven, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness; Vieten et al. (2013); DSM-5-TR (religious or spiritual problem, Z65.8); IOCDF scrupulosity resources: [uncertain: not verified].
  • ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances
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