Psych. 2. 4. & 2-1. 1 & 2. Jesus: At the beginning of the relationship between ’therapist’ and ‘patient,’ it is inevitable that patients and therapists alike will have unrealistic goals, not completely free of magical, worldly overtones.
As they join in purpose, however, these worldly goals are finally given up in the minds of both, ultimately in favor of the Holy Spirit’s goal. Yet this ideal outcome is rarely achieved in the initial stages.
Therapy begins with the honest recognition that real healing is of the mind, and in psychotherapy those who have come together already believe this. It may be they will not get much further than this, for no one learns beyond his own readiness. Yet levels of readiness do change, usually moving ahead. And when therapist or patient has reached the next level, there will be a relationship held out to them that meets the changing need. Perhaps the same two will come together again and advance in the context of the same relationship, actually making it holier. Or perhaps each of them will enter into another commitment with someone else.
Be assured of this; each one will progress. Retrogression, if it should occur, is only temporary. The overall direction is one of progress toward the truth.
Psychotherapy, given that ’therapy’ itself is intended to be reparative, cannot be considered truly creative. This is one of the errors which the ego would foster; that it, the ego, is somehow capable of ‘true change,’ and therefore of true creativity. When we speak of ‘the saving illusion’ of forgiveness or ‘the final dream,’ we do not mean that this is anything like creation. But this is where the ego’s last defense against the truth likely to be raised. Resistance is characteristic of the ego’s way of looking at things; offering its own interpretations of ‘progress and growth.’
These interpretations will be wrong of necessity, because they are, once again, only seeking to protect the ego’s delusional thought system. Therefore the changes that the ego seeks through psychotherapy are not really changes at all! They are but deeper shadows, or perhaps thought of as merely ‘different cloud patterns.’
For what is still made of nothingness cannot honestly be called new or different. Illusions are illusions; truth is truth!”
>>> Elsewhere in Psych. PPP it is said that everyone is a “therapist;” everyone a “patient.” The online source used here for Psychotherapy PPP is http://acim-search.miraclevision.com/std-second-edition-and-supps/v5-pppp-0-0-ef.html