Chris Steed
Finding the Valuable Person proposes a new form of therapy. The big theme is that experiences of being devalued when we are not seen or heard, diminished or suffer indignities evoke responses that show up in distress clients bring. These reactions show a prime human need for our personhood to be valuable and validated that generates soul-hungers (for connection, desire, significance, and hope) that are largely unconscious. It is a fundamental drive that can be explored with clients in the way we are relational, embodied makers of meaning and respond to agency and dignity. This constitutes four domains of the REMA approach to therapy developed in this book. Every counseling approach has its presuppositions: most describe the human person as an individual entity, separated from social context. REMA pays attention to both. REMA is theologically attuned but also incorporates realities such as gender and race that have reshaped society profoundly. For the alignment of biblical faith and counseling psychology, it is profoundly important to be attuned in both directions. REMA is not only an innovative theoretical approach, it is a working model, currently offered in a community setting but of wider application. Anyone can use it!
