The REMA Model

 

 
The REMA counselling model was conceived and developed at London School of Theology during the summer of 2013 by the Theology and Counselling team at the School.  

At that time the team was Steve Motyer, Kirsty Annable, Irene Davies, Janet Penny, Lyn Powell & Andre Radmall. This was triggered in response to the need for a fully spiritual and bespoke framework for the T&C new degree to be launched in September 2014.

A counselling model is an over-arching theory including ideas:

(1) about the world and its nature
(2) about human beings – both about how they ‘tick’ and about how things can go wrong – and
(3) about how counselling can work as part of the process of recovery.

All these ideas need to fit with each other coherently in order to form a ‘model’. Obviously, for us at LST, ideas about God, creation, sin, redemption, the Holy Spirit and eschatology are vital as part of our model. Bringing together the specific and diverse gifts of the team both in the therapeutic and the theological worlds, and founded on our deep personal faith, we collaborated to birth the REMA model. It was the culmination of many years' frustration of working with models, parts of models and therapeutic tools that did not quite do what we considered was needed to provide a fully integrated, inclusive and comprehensive approach to counselling from a spiritual and Christian perspective for the range of people, cultures and issues that we and our students face. So this is our baby, and like any baby is as yet underdeveloped but full of potential, hope, joy and messy nappies.

The philosophical underpinnings:
For the technically-minded, our model rests within a theology and world-view framed by a Critical Realistic approach to epistemology. This means that, on the solid basis of the Scriptures, we affirm that truth is grasped through a dialogue between text, traditions of human thought and interpretation, and reason informed by experience. In reading the Scriptures and discovering their meaning for us today, we are all shaped not just by the Scriptures themselves (in some bald, direct way), but by our instincts based on personal background and experience, by our culture and education, and by the traditions of the churches we belong to and serve – all of which shape the 'mind' that we bring to our 'faithful listening' to Scripture. All of this means that our embodied experience as human beings – often illuminated for us by therapeutic ways of reading and seeing human life – plays a part in the reading and interpretation of the Scriptures for today.

So it's not surprising that incarnation is a key theological theme for us! God has blessed our embodiment with his own presence within it. This staggering fact at the heart of the Gospel means that our whole embodied experience, shaped as it is by culture and creativity as well as by suffering and weakness, matters and has value before God. That's how it mattered for him! He specialises in disordered body and dis-ability, so that ultimately he may lead us perfection in Christ.

Providence is also a vital theological theme underlying the model. What exactly is God doing in his world? And how should we discern his presence in it? In what ways is he hands-on in his world, bringing it towards the realisation of his 'plan for the fulness of time' in Christ (Eph 1:10)? A biblical view of providence (much debated at the present time, we know) gives all people-helping services – including counselling – a solid biblical rationale, as we reach for hope, and grapple with mystery, before God.

And so eschatology is also a key theme, because of the tension between the 'already' and the 'not yet' that frames our whole existence. Our commitment to critical realism means that we are willing to be hospitable to difference and open to finding God in unexpected places, en route to the glory that is yet to be!

And of course there is much more. Over the coming months and years we'll be exploring the dimensions and implications of the REMA model on this blog! REMA is one of the Greek words for 'word', used in the New Testament for instance in Romans 10:8, where Paul writes about "the word of faith which we preach". The title of the model thus symbolises its roots in Scripture and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The anthropological stance:
Human beings have four fundamental needs, according to the REMA model (using its letters as an acronym). At the same time, these four needs form vital focuses of the counselling process. We all have fundamental needs for —

RELATIONSHIP. This is basic to the whole model. We believe that it is fundamental to who we are as human beings, that – created by a relational, Trinitarian God – we relate and look for relationship within ourselves, with the divine, humanity and the created world. So our relationships are outward as well as inwards. Because we are physically located in time and space, we are impacted by the effect of relationships and our environment, feeling the impact in our developing sense of self. The healthy human being is well-connected! The language of Self and the Self-psychologies, neurobiology, attachment theory and developmental psychology fit well with this relational anthropology.

EMBODIED SPIRITUALITY. The close connection between 'body' and 'spirit' is written deep in biblical anthropology, but has often been downplayed or ignored in a Christian culture deeply influenced by Greek dualism. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, not our minds or our hearts (1 Cor 6:19). What might it mean for us, really to take seriously God's embodiment of us in Christ? (See 1 Cor 6:15!) This connects with our sexuality – spirituality and sexuality together are at the very core of our being and affect us within our fleshly bodies at a very deep level. The different kinds of body-based psychotherapy have much to offer here, as we work at this teasing combination of body and spirit which God has made us.

MEANING. The search for Meaning is a vital human need! And this is not just an intellectual matter – it's about how we give purpose to our lives, how we feel that we matter, whether in relationship with others, or through achievements, or both ... often, the terrible thing in depression is the loss of hope that we can be significant as we want. Scripturally, of course, meaning is something that God gives us in Christ (Phil 1:21: "To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain!"), but it's also implicit in the creation mandate to "be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it." Meaning is about how we explain the purpose of our lives, even in the face of ultimate death and mystery: so it's often about how we tell our stories, and how we relate our little bit of the story to the bigger 'metanarratives' of family, culture, group and church. They give us our sense of place. Existential approaches to therapy have much to offer here. Usually it's in relationship that we are given a story that satisfies!

AGENCY: God has made us 'agentic' beings, summoned to act in the world in obedience to him – and ultimately he calls us to account for our lives. The Bible gives us enormous responsibility, to shape our lives according to his will – but at the same time teaches us that we cannot 'work' our way into God's favour. He calls us first into relationship with himself, by faith, and then launches us into obedient action. Thus he gives us back our agency, that capacity and need of human beings to feel in charge of themselves, and to act to have impact  and to make a difference in the world. Sometimes agency and relationship can be in tension with each other – we sacrifice our agency in order to stay in relationship with someone, and vice versa. We need both! The rediscovery of agency may well be closely bound to a rediscovery of meaning for our lives.

There is much to be unpacked here! As this blog develops, you'll find pages devoted to different aspects of the REMA model and its application in counselling.