Search results ({{ res.total }}):
The 'Nachas Ruach' Treatment Model
Excerpts from "Nachas Ruach: Torah-Based Psychotherapy and Tools for Growth and Healing"
Preface:
A Way Out of Addiction for Orthodox Jews?
From Internet addiction to marital and family problems, from "teens at risk" to the psychological challenges facing those who are frum from birth and baalei teshuvah, today's changing world can be a confusing one. The religious Jewish community is also not immune to many sensitive contemporary issues, which can no longer be ignored. Yet sadly, some people who need psychological advice refrain from seeking it, believing that contemporary psychology and psychiatry are antagonistic to Yiddishkeit.
This important work by well-known therapist Dr. Naftali Fish offers a solid conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between Torah and psychology - including the Twelve Step program - showing clearly where they are compatible and where they are not. Dr. Fish is uniquely qualified to bridge this gap, as an Orthodox Jew grounded in Torah Judaism and the wisdom of our sages, and as a licensed clinical psychologist living in Jerusalem, with over twenty-five years' experience working with a variety of clinical issues, including the treatment of addictions and healing the inner wounded child. Here he presents the Nachas Ruach Treatment Model (NRTM), an innovative, effective approach that integrates Torah values and spirituality within the context of professional psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, as illustrated by intriguing case studies.
This book is a must-read for all professionals in the field of mental health, as well as for rabbis, educators, students studying psychology, and educated lay readers. Blending theory and practice, this book also provides practical tools and exercises for personal growth that anyone can gain from in their daily lives.
Preface:
A Way Out of Addiction for Orthodox Jews?
From Internet addiction to marital and family problems, from "teens at risk" to the psychological challenges facing those who are frum from birth and baalei teshuvah, today's changing world can be a confusing one. The religious Jewish community is also not immune to many sensitive contemporary issues, which can no longer be ignored. Yet sadly, some people who need psychological advice refrain from seeking it, believing that contemporary psychology and psychiatry are antagonistic to Yiddishkeit.
This important work by well-known therapist Dr. Naftali Fish offers a solid conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between Torah and psychology - including the Twelve Step program - showing clearly where they are compatible and where they are not. Dr. Fish is uniquely qualified to bridge this gap, as an Orthodox Jew grounded in Torah Judaism and the wisdom of our sages, and as a licensed clinical psychologist living in Jerusalem, with over twenty-five years' experience working with a variety of clinical issues, including the treatment of addictions and healing the inner wounded child. Here he presents the Nachas Ruach Treatment Model (NRTM), an innovative, effective approach that integrates Torah values and spirituality within the context of professional psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, as illustrated by intriguing case studies.
This book is a must-read for all professionals in the field of mental health, as well as for rabbis, educators, students studying psychology, and educated lay readers. Blending theory and practice, this book also provides practical tools and exercises for personal growth that anyone can gain from in their daily lives.
Concept 6: Part 2/3
6. Do not return to Egypt... - Deuteronomy 17:16
One of the common reasons that addicts relapse after being clean for a significant period of time is that they go back into denial, or begin remembering again positive aspects of "being active." The Torah also describes the Jewish people as having distorted or "selective memory," which means remembering only the positive but not the negative aspects of what was clearly an aversive experience. Thus, as we see in Exodus 16:3 regarding their experience of being slaves in Egypt, Am Yisrael cried out: "If only we had died by the Hand of Hashem in the land of Egypt, as we sat by the pot of meat, when we ate bread to satiety, for You have taken us out of this wilderness to kill this entire congregation by famine."
After leaving Egypt, the Jews were in the desert for forty years before entering the promised land. Being in the desert subsequently becomes a powerful metaphor to describe the ambivalence and fears of many addicts after beginning recovery and "leaving Egypt." While in the desert, they are often in conflict between "going back to Egypt" - relapse - or going forward toward full recovery to "the promised land": "Isn't this the statement that we made to you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us be and we will serve Egypt, for it is better that we should serve Egypt than we should die in the wilderness" (Exodus 14:12).
One of the difficulties of being in the desert or the wilderness is that it requires a person to be in a situation of uncertainty or ambiguity, and there is a natural tendency for people to "drift back" to a known situation, even if this is a "negative place," rather than stay in a new or unknown situation.[1] One practical implication of this understanding is that addicts and people in general need to develop real and relevant personal positive goals to give them the motivation and strength to avoid slipping back to Egypt.
The Twelve Step approach emphasizes that even someone clean for ten years must remind himself every day that he still is an addict in recovery and must continue living according to the principles of the program. This aspect of the program goes against the natural tendency and need for people who feel that they have been able to solve problems to forget about them. This might be true in many situations, but when an addict does this, experience shows that he is already beginning to move closer to a relapse. The Torah also stresses that the remembrance of leaving Egypt on an ongoing basis (zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim) and views it as a fundamental concept that is the foundation of faith and trust in God. For example, the Chazal incorporated the third paragraph of Shema prayer that is recited twice a day, in order that we should fulfill the commandment to recall the exodus from Egypt daily. In addition, the tefillin that a Jew wears every morning contain verses associated with leaving Egypt. Also, beyond mentioning yetzias Mitzrayim on a daily basis, the three major festivals - Pesach, Shavuos, and Sukkos - are all related to different aspects of leaving Egypt. On Shabbos, the remembrance of leaving Egypt is incorporated into the evening Kiddush.
In addition to the above, there is a custom to recite six verses that need to be remembered on a daily basis after the morning prayer has been concluded. The first of these six verses is: למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך, "So that you will remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt all the days of your life" (Deuteronomy 16:3).
[1] A. Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (D. Van Nostrand Company,1968), p. 46.