Daily Dose of Wisdom: Why Dr. Greg Gifford Says Therapy Isn’t the First Stop

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When therapy becomes the first place people go for ultimate answers, big questions follow. Today, we're discussing Brandon McGuire's conversation with Dr. Greg E. Gifford, author of Lies My Therapist Told Me.
His central concern, that the mind has been medicalized.

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Right, and Gifford makes an important distinction here. He says, the mind is not the organ of your brain. It is the immaterial seat of your intellectual faculties.
His concern is that many diagnoses are made through symptoms alone, without scans or lab work. People can be labeled in under 17 minutes, and then told there's no way out from under that label.

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That's striking. And he points to something troubling about the system itself. As he puts it, we have never had this many therapists or psychiatrists, yet the problem is increasing.
What does that suggest to you?

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For Gifford, it suggests the field may be treating effects while missing the root. He argues Christians should ask whether a problem is biochemical, spiritual, relational, or a mix of all three, rather than assuming every struggle is medical.

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That brings us to the scripture piece. Gifford points to Romans 12,2, where believers are called to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
He emphasizes that the mind is not the same thing as the brain, and that Christians shouldn't import an unbiblical worldview simply because it sounds scientific.

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Exactly. If there's no clear physiological issue, he says the problem may be an immaterial issue of the inner person. The discussion then moves to anxiety, lust, and sin.
What's his take on anxiety specifically?

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Gifford says not every anxious feeling is itself sinful since some sensations are physical, but biblical anxiety is an over-concern that keeps a person from trusting God. He says the peace of God is a result of putting off anxiety and trusting him.
The same framework applies to temptation. Some thoughts may arise involuntarily, but what a person does with them matters deeply.

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Building on that point, he also warns that secular therapy can quietly reshape a person's moral vocabulary. Ideas about boundaries, affirmation, and self-protection can eclipse forgiveness, humility, and repentance.
At one point, he says that if a Christian relies only on secular counseling, you are basically going to an unbelieving pastor.

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Strong words. The concern isn't that every therapist is malicious, but that the worldview beneath the method may be wrong.
So what's Gifford's positive alternative?

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Biblical counseling.

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He describes it as a framework that doesn't hate medicine, but views the person through scripture first.

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The church should be a place of confession, burden-bearing, and real shepherding, because the gospel addresses both the sinner and the sinned against.

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By the end, Gifford frames Christianity as the deepest answer to suffering, evil, and change.
The gospel doesn't merely manage symptoms, it renews people from the inside out. And in his words, Christ is always better, and his word is always better.