A lifetime of great relationships

The Old "Expert" Paradigm on the left


The tag line for our ministry, Sweeten Life Systems, is "A lifetime of great relationships". Thirty three years ago I wrote a doctoral dissertation on training Christian Counselors. I was blessed by the fact that Carl Rogers and Robert Carkhuff were busily researching the topic of "What works in counseling". Before this psychologists and psychiatrists rarely asked "What works" but simply told everyone what they thought "should" work.



I know, it is hard to believe that highly educated people would actually spend their lives studying and laboring with hurting people and rarely if ever ask if what they were doing actually helped them get better. But it was true when I was in graduate school and it is also true today for may of the most respected professionals in the field.



Instead of asking the clients/patients what was most helpful, we were taught to argue about which theory we liked best. Conversations went something like this:



Malachi: I am a Behaviorist. I love to watch the rats run through the mazes. And, it tells me exactly what to do to make people change.



Mohamed: Biology is best. I do not understand English but I can give pills.



Molly: Well, I am a Freudian because I do love all of his interesting theories about sex, dreams and so forth.



Mike: I like the humanistic model because all I need to do is listen and cry with my clients and tell them to do what feels best to them.



Mobely: I am a recovering alcoholic so I am convinced that the Johnson Model is best. It helped me and I know it will help others.



Graduate school in counseling is like being in seminary and having to choose which theologian we liked best. And, like seminary students, we had no idea which was correct. In our immaturity we were forced to choose something so we did and then acted like we knew what we were doing. Unfortunately, this is still the case today in many situations.



My research back then showed conclusively that the Bible correctly promotes the most important important way to build people up. It is through building great relationships as a Counselor. However, that is not all. The most important thing is teaching the client how to build great relationships with family, friends and colleagues. (The greatest is love, says I Corinthians 13)



Thus, since 1975 I have taught thousands of people how to develop and Lifetime of great relationships(TM)



We teach families how to develop great relationships
We teach ministers how to develop great relationships
We teach parents, managers, presidents, Peer Counselors, accountants, small groups leaders and everyone who wants to be a healthy person.



When you see Sweeten Life Systems, remember, it means A lifetime of great relationships with God, self and others.





My current series focuses on developing a great relationship to myself by defeating depression and punishing Pessimism. If I can't be nice to me I can't live a healthy life with God or others.