By Catherine Sinnott

A LOT of people with alcohol and addiction problems recognize the need for God. They know they are spiritually lost and are either scared or confused.

In his specialized pastoral care for people with addictions, Brian Murphy often focuses on the addicted person’s inner image of God, in the mind and heart.

“This can be very distorted and dysfunctional, born out of spiritual abuse, traumas, etc.,” he said. The good news is that “This internal image of God can be reworked, using both spiritual direction and psychotherapy.”

Murphy is an expert at both.

Murphy has advanced degrees in a specialized form of psychology called psychotherapy, which focuses on finding and healing the deepest emotional wounds. For the last two and a half decades he has been a director of addiction rehabilitation centres in North America and Europe, so he has extensive knowledge of addictions and related issues (post-traumatic stress, grief, depression, abuse, etc).

Murphy has also been a professional spiritual adviser for decades. This began when he was a Catholic monk for 14 years, spending his days and nights in prayerful meditation of the scriptures and giving counsel to those in his care – as a prison chaplain, a rehab chaplain and a pastor to various congregations.

Murphy has now found a unique way to combine his psychological and spiritual gifts. He is co-director/founder of Innercare Services International Inc. with a retreat centre on the Sunshine Coast. Innercare offers intensive one-to-one alcohol/addiction retreats as an alternative to rehab.

Murphy has a strong background in the Catholic tradition, where he developed specific frameworks for monitoring spiritual growth.

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However, he has worked with a wide range of churches, and  in the last few decades there seems to have been a growing interest in these tools in evangelical, Lutheran, Anglican and other churches.

Murphy views success or failure in addiction counselling as a life or death issue, requiring serious prayerful reflection.  His approach to soul care can be viewed as gentle – sharing sound information to build trust, paving the way for the person to open up to God/Christ, who is then recognized as the healer.

Murphy believes that there are extremely complex issues involved in addictions.

People harm themselves with drugs and alcohol for deep and hidden reasons, and that’s what psychotherapy specializes in getting at. These core issues  usually involve a trauma of one kind or another.

Because of this, Murphy said, “Counseling simply isn’t enough. It’s the equivalent of being a general practitioner rather than a surgeon. Addiction needs open heart surgery. Something major has gone wrong, allowing people to continue to destroy themselves on a day-to-day basis. The problem lies in the deep unconscious . . .  scripture would call it the heart.”

Murphy has designed intensive retreats to access this level extremely quickly. Often, within the first few days people experience a tremendous amount of peace or freedom, which they’ve never previously known.

Murphy attributes the success of these sessions to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which he was given when he was a monk. He commented, “This has to be graced – God working through me. When I work with a client, I’m trying to get out of the way and listen to the deeper message from God – that is the key to healing.”

For more information:  innercare.org, 778.823.1164.

October 2010