OHRIT 1

Running head: THE OLD HEART INTERVENTION REPLACEMENT THERAPY

The Old Heart Replacement Intervention Therapy

The New Heart

Delores Lakes

#221967

Liberty University

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Abstract

This document will explicitly explore the Reality therapy techniques and incorporate it into a new therapeutic technique called The Old Heart Replacement Intervention Therapy (OHRIT) to life’s issues. The goal of this document is to introduce the foundation of The Old Heart Replacement Intervention Therapy. TheOHRIT requires an individual to replace their old heat (mind) with a new mindset. One of the major emphases of the treatment plan is cognitive intervention and problem solving to get his life back on track. The focus of this document is to explain the purpose and intent of OHRIT, which is a combination of changing irrational perspective and soul care.

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Table of contents

Introduction

PART I: The Old Heart Replacement Therapy

1. We Need a New Heart2. Condition of the Old Heat3. The Mind

PART II: New Heart

4. Steps for Change5. Revisit6. Change is challenging7. A Healthy Sense of Self

PART III: Counselors Responsibility8. Nouethic Touch9. Reality Therapeutic Relationship10. How to Keep the New Heart11. Conclusion

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The Old Heart Replacement Intervention Therapy

The Old Heart Replacement Intervention Therapy (OHRIT)

is a psychotherapy that focuses on life’s experiences and issues.

Delores Lakes (1969) is recognized as the creator of this

therapeutic technique founded in the 21st Century. Lakes (1969)

was brought up in a warm loving environment, however throughout

her life she encountered many trials, tribulations, crisis and

insurmountable amount of opposition that reshaped her mentality,

transformed her life, and enlightened her spiritually. Lakes

(1969) views life’s trials and tribulations from a Christian’s

perspective, and this is where she gathers her beliefs concerning

the OHRIT which involves issues of life. This therapeutic

foundation is rooted in the Word of God according to Psalm

107:20, “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them

from their destruction.” The Word of God has power to change the

client’s heart and mind in order to bring them closer to the

Lord. It is essential that clients change and be transformed

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instead of being reformed temporarly. Romans 12:2a, “And be not

conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing

of your mind.” This Scripture requires that the client first

commit to God, change their lifestyle, behavior, customs that are

usually selfish and often corrupt (Ortberg, 2002). Apostle Paul

understood that our corrupt nature needed more than just a change

in behavior and customs; it also needs to be transformed. The

latter portion of this verse states that our minds must “be

transformed by the renewing of our mind.” It is possible to avoid

most worldly customs and still be proud, covetous, selfish,

stubborn, and arrogant. Only when the Holy Spirit renews,

reeducates, and redirects our minds than our minds are truly

transformed. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 4:23, to keep thy

heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

One of Lakes objectives is for patients to overcome symptoms that

hinder them from exploring life freely and receiving the blessing

of God. People have unresolved issues from life crisis that have

caused them to be wounded, bruised, unsatisfied, bound and there

is no sense of fulfillment in life. Lakes (1969) believe that

life crisis affects an individual’s mentality, which causes them

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to live in bondage. The heart is essential to living both

naturally and spiritually in this world.

We Need a New Heart

Nobody views the heart merely as a blood pumping station,

anymore. We know that the heart is an emotional organ and has a

relationship with the emotional brain (Berger, 2005). The heart

is an organ of intelligence that works in unison with the brain.

When people choose to ignore their heart’s direction, the brain

assumes control. The brain takes over and starts to operate from

a linear to a logical perspective, which in return it is always

ready to defend its own interests (Hart, 1999). The brain is

territorial; nothing foreign (helpful) can enter without a fight.

The brain is always active, even while a person is sleeping. The

brain attempts to pass information to the heart, but the heart

does not accept it especially when a person is trying to change

for the better. The Old Heart Replacement Intervention Therapy

is essential in order for people to be transformed, have a

renewed mind and a new heart. People lives are full of hurts,

wounds, bruises, and unresolved tragedies caused by other hurting

people and just life in general. Life’s crisis has the tendency

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to impact people at different levels. For instance, two men were

fired from their job. One of the individual viewed it as an

opportunity to pursue another career option. The other gentleman

wanted revenge on the company and stressed about how he was going

to take care of his family. The unexpected in all of our lives

has the ability make the sanest person stumble when they are

impacted by a crisis. It just depends on what an individual

perceive as a crisis and their problem solving skills.

The heart has a special place in our collective psyche as

well. The heart is synonymous with love (Smalley, 1987). It has

many other associations, too. Here are just a few examples:

If you have a heart be merciful. Change of a person’s heart,

changes their mind. To know something by heart it is memorized.

A broken heart is wounded and loses love. Heartfelt is deeply

felt. To have our heart in the right place is a new heart and it

signifies our nature as

kind. To have a heart cry is a grieved heart. A heavy heart is a

sad heart. There is no other bodily organ that elicits these

types of feelings and responses (Alderman, 1997).

Condition of the Old Heart

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Every living human being will either be hurt or they have

been hurt during the course of their life. By “hurt” I mean

actions, words, tragedies, divorce, death, and attitudes that are

intentional or unintentional, visible or invisible, hands-on or

hands-off, other-perpetrated or self-inflicted, and barely

survivable to hardly noticeable (Wilson, 2001). When a person is

hurt it is difficult for that him or her to think clearly, to

acknowledge the positive, or simply want to live another day.

When a person encounters a crisis more than likely they are not

prepared to handle the situation rationally or productively

(Mabray, Bell, & Bray, 2009). Too often, the situation is

suppressed or ignored. Most of these wounds are from the people

we love, trust or unforeseen crises that land at one our

doorsteps (p. 10). When these wounds are left unattended they

only scab up and are forgotten about until something triggers

them again. People hold grudges vowing never to forgive and they

remain bitter, wounded, and unforgiveness flows in and from their

heart (Harburg, Kaciroti, & Gleiberman, 2008). Our hurts must be

deal with not ignored.

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What condition is the old heart in? It is simply a “poor,

little, confused, messed up heart” (McMinn, 1996). We can begin

to understand the condition of our old heart by taking a closer

look at Jeremiah 17:9-10.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is

exceedingly perverse and corrupt and

Severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive,

understand, be acquainted with his own

heart and mind]? I, the Lord, search the heart; I test the

mind, even to every man according to

his ways. According to the fruit of his doings.

The Old Heart Replacement Intervention Therapy requires for

people to be honest with themselves, and to acknowledge that

their old heart is not right with God, self, and others. We have

to face our issues as real problems and own up to them (Cloud &

Townsend, 1999). When a person does not acknowledge the pain they

feel from being hurt the following happens: 1. Resentment, 2.

Lack of communication, 3. Feel alienated, 4. Get Defensive, 5.

Revenge and 6. The problem is never solved (pp. 178-181). The

problem is this, people stayed wounded in their hearts for a

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prolonged length of time and for unnecessary reasons. Jesus is

willing to make a trade with our old heart perspective for a new

heart just by asking Him.

Jesus has instructed us in Matthew 11:28-29 to “Come to Me,

all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and

lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” A person

may be carrying burdens of sin, life’s tragedies, excessive

demands, oppression and persecution, or weariness. Jesus frees

people from all burdens. The rest that Jesus promises is love,

healing, and peace with God. A relationship with God changes

meaningless, hurt, wearisome toil into spiritual productivity and

renewing of the heart.

The Mind

It is a person’s old mind or ways of thinking that causes them

to be stagnated in life. The mind must be transformed in order

for it to be renewed and to function productively. If a person

wants to know what they are full of, and what their heart if full

of, then they must listen to their conversation. When a person

operates from an old heart the words from his or her mouth are a

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representation of what is in their heart. Proverb 18:21 declare

that death and life are n the power of the tongue. For instance,

there is a relative of mine who encountered an unfortunate

tragedy fifteen years ago, and it seems as if the incident just

happens today. He is in a paralyzed state mentally, which has

caused him to be bitter, bound, and absolutely nothing satisfies

him (Anderson, 2000). When words of encouragement are spoken to

him they are rejected with negative comments and gestures. He

cannot see that his future is brighter than his past. No matter

how often he is encouraged his brain constantly reminds him of

the pain and lost from the tragedy. It is hard for his old heart

to override the pain from his past. OHRIT is designed to change a

person’s old heart thinking process, by replacing it with a new

optimistic heart. This therapy technique believes that change has

to take place in the mind, which is the seat of the heart into

order to gain a new perspective about life and the issues

experienced. A person has to changes his or her thoughts,

feelings, behavior, and actions. Kanel (2007) drew the conclusion

that a crisis is based upon a person’s perception, the abrupt or

unexpected dimension of the event, and the person’s inability to

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resolve the problem. Another reason an individual’s view crisis

in a differently fashion is due to the temporary state of mind

which is accompanied by confusion and disorganization at the time

of the event. This theory has the power to change a person’s old

nature back to the nature that God intended from the foundation

of the earth.

In Dr. Wilson’s (2001) view, hope and healing as the two

therapeutic doses needed when hurt people hurt others because

they have been hurt. Wilson acknowledges that majority of life’s

scars come from other hurting people, however, there is a healing

prescription for our souls, which is only found in Jesus Christ

the all-sufficient healer (p. 220). No matter how devastating the

wounded or scar maybe from being hurt, Dr. Wilson advices us to

review, revisit, and start making consistent life changing

patterns (p. 87).

Steps for Change

The first step in receiving a new heart is

acknowledging that our old heart is not pumping properly because

it is clogged, broke down and need repairing. Heart disease is

the number one killer among Americans in 2006 (DHHS, 2006). Heart

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disease itself is caused by the accumulation of athermanous

plaques within the walls of the arteries that supply the

myocardium. This means our eating habits are unhealthy which

causes our arteries from pumping blood properly to our hearts.

Unfortunately, heart disease cause sudden death and many people

die before every receiving treatment. When our lives are filled

with the works of the flesh according to Galatains 5:19-21, it is

evident that our hearts are full of evil desires. These desires

inlcude obvious sins such as sexual immorality and sorcery. They

also include less obvious sins such as hartred, selfish,

ambiiton, envy, bitterness, strife, malice which equate to hurts

and wounds intentional and unintetional.

Revisit

Dr. Wilson (2001) instructed the wounded to review where the

pain originated. Wilson focused on getting to the root of the

problem in order to stop the vicious cycle. Hurt has no

limitation whether it stems from a parent, friend, significant

other, co-worker, uncle molester, rejection, or church folks

being hurt can cause a lifetime of pain if left unattended. We

often think people our love ones are just being mean, when in

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reality they are hurt, so they attack others verbally,

emotionally, or physically. The negative tension that hurt people

have going on in the inside must be dealt with properly. Hurting

people have been using remedies to sooth their problems, only for

the problem to resurface its ugly head. Wilson, stated that, “A

long time ago we had a scary and painful problem; we chose the

best solution we could at the time but it isn’t working any more

and our solution have become our problems (p. 86).” Wilson puts

emphasis that a change is needed.

Change is challenging

Many people look upon change and frown because it challenges

them to do something new in order to get something they never

had. People are accustomed to running around grumbling and

complaining about their situation instead of being responsible.

It is time to find a new way of dealing with the same old

problems (Adams, 1986). If change does not take place than the

old heart problems will continue to affect our lives. If we want

change in our lives we must first clear out the old victimize

mentality of deception, cultivate a new ground with honesty, and

sow seeds of truth. That’s right our lives need to be cultivated

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with new ways of thinking and handling the situation. The main

components to cognitive therapy are education, identification of

negative automatic thoughts and challenging dysfunctional

schemata, which is compatible to my faith. Cognitive Behavior

Therapy (CBT) is also intertwined into the OHRIT. CBT correlates

with the steps the Lord require in order for His children to be

healed. An individual is responsible for working out his own soul

and salvation through understanding the commandments of the Lord.

In biblical terminology CBT would described as transformation (.

Transformation does not take place in the heart only, but in the

mind and soul of man.

Choosing a new direction, new way of thinking, making new

choices, new practices contribute to one’s journey for change.

Wilson’s Theory of Change is best put in the form of an equation,

New Choices + Consistent Practice = Change (p. 87). Paul said we

must put away childish ways in 1 Corinthians 13:11 in order to

mature. Change occurs by accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts,

minds renewed; forgive our debtor, changed actions, and old

relationships restored if possible. In Wilson’s view, change can

only occur when hurt people realize that they cannot change the

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person who hurt them, but they do have the power to change

themselves.

There is a price for change. Change produces more pain

since many of us fear the light of truth that reveals them. Jesus

tells us, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make

you free (John 8:32).” The Healer of our souls has a set of rules

that we must follow in order to receive our healing. The first

rule requires us not to live our lives in concert with the person

who inflicted the pain. Secondly, we must seek and walk in truth

even though it may seem weird at first. We must call the hurt or

pain by the correct name this is the beginning of change. We must

stop playing the blaming game it robs us of our responsibility

and becomes a stumbling block in our lives. Change does not

happen over night, so we must remember through the tears and

painful memories, it takes time. Dr. Wilson said, “Change is a

terror and it is scary”(p. 101). Hurt is rooted deeper than our

childhood experiences; sin is the deadly poison to why hurt

people hurt people. Change can only occur with All-Sufficient

Healer, not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit, says the

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Lord (Zechariah 4:6). The heart must be new and converted before

a person can have a changed of mind and a new perspective.

The New Heart

The new converted heart desires to walk in the way of God,

which means that it declares war on the old mind. The new

information that the brain receives tells us that we can change

our heart and change our life if we change our mind. The mind

does not change; it fights to keep things the way it has always

been. We have to confront our distorted views with a gentle

spirit of empathy and compassion while encouraging spiritual

growth. Confronting an individual’s distorted view allows the

client to confess their feelings, frustrations, and hurts and

recognize that they need help. Confession is the nature of

counseling, and it produces freedom for the client. It draws the

client out of darkness and sheds light on their situation. When

sin is addressed, confronted and confessed properly it humbles,

gives hope to the client, not despair and shame. In return it

produces psychological growth and spiritual renewal for the

client. The mind needs to be retrained with the understanding

that it is built into the new heart, which is the heart of God.

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Secondly, the mind must be retrained through the Word of God.

Then our emotions and rational memory banks will be refilled with

godly information from the Bible.

The new heart and the renewed mind connect they are a

powerful combination. When the mind identifies with the heart it

causes the body to receive the blessings of God. Healing and

peace are only moments away when our minds are renewed. Apostle

Paul describes this existence and instructs us to seek the mind

of Christ continually. Philippians 2:5-7, “Let this mind be in

you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of

God, did no consider it robbery to be equal with God.” Jesus was

humble, willing to give up his rights in order to obey God and

serve people. Like Christ, we should have a servant’s attitude,

serving out of love for God and for others, not out of fear or

guilt. The new heart allows us to choose what state (wounded or

healed) we want to be in. At this point the client understands

that God is concerned with their physical, mental and spiritual

well being. This begins to build a healthy sense of ourselves.

A Healthy Sense of Self

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A healthy sense of self relies on us doing an assessment of

our lives holistically, which include our spiritual and

psychological state. An accurate “healthy sense of self” allow us

to recognize our responsibility to God, others, and ourselves.

One of the steps to necessary for a healthy sense of self is

first to clear out the weeds of deception, loosen the soil with

honesty, and sow seeds of truth. The individual life must be

cultivated with new ways of thinking and handling the situation

(Chase, 2007). CBT and my Christian faith therapeutically

concerned with changing the faulty thinking pattern in order for

the individual to live positive and productive life (Eng &

Heimberg, 2006).

The next step to a “healthy sense of self” is recognizing

that we cannot live apart from the Lord. II Corinthians 3:5 it

states, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any

thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God. Thirdly,

being aware of our strengths, weakness, brokenness, voids,

fantasies, idolatries dreams, relationships and aspirations

contributes to our self-awareness, which guides us to a healthy

lifestyle (Brunk, 2005). Merely recognizing our inadequacies and

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need for help is good, but we must do something about our

condition in order for it to be considered healthy. King David

examined himself, acknowledged his transgression, and repented

before the Lord. In order for us to develop a “healthy sense of

self” we must continue in the things of God, forgive, move

forward at all cost, and enjoy life. McMinn (1996) says: “to be

healthy, we need to move beyond a preoccupation with self” (p.

46). Oddly enough our culture has put such a premium on “self”

that self-centered thinking has become pervasive.

More importantly we need to find answers, by looking at

ourselves and seeing if we are who God wants us to be. OHRIT

believes the more accurately we understand ourselves, the more

freedom we have in regards to our emotional and spiritual health.

Lakes (1969) believes an accurate understanding of self comes

from an understanding who we are in Christ. "Before I formed you

in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I

appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5, NIV).

God has known us from the beginning, and has set a plan for us.

His work and design for us is as much a part of who we are as our

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histories, genetics, pains, joys, and desires. Pursuing the

Lord’s will for our lives keeps our mind and heart focus on Him.

OHRIT Intergrates Cognitive Behavior Therapy

The OHRIT integrate the Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) of Aaron

Beck (1985) and Albert Ellis (1961). Cognitive Behavioral

Therapy is basically intended as a synergy of the cognitive and

behavioral perspectives in psychotherapy and normally includes

the modification of cognitions, beliefs and assumptions, which is

to be followed by the behavior change or alteration in emotion

expression (Corey, 2005, p.297). In fact, this modality is an

umbrella terms gathering various sub-modalities, but its general

concept is the interdependence between thoughts, emotions and

overall social and psychological functioning, which implies the

negative impact of certain beliefs on the performance in the

specific context (career, education, interpersonal relationships

and so forth) (Corey, 2005, p. 301). Due to the fact that the

given modality needs a specific algorithm reflecting the

relationship between human mental events and the subsequent

behaviors, it includes Albert Ellis’s ABC Technique of Irrational

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Beliefs (Kendall, Suveg, & Kingery, 2005), which requires that

the counselor analyze the three aspects of the disturbing belief

in a three-column table. The first column contains an activating

event or “the objective situation, that is, even an event that

ultimately leads to some type of high emotional response or

negative dysfunctional thinking” (Borkovec, Newman, & Castonguay,

2004). The second column contains the precise belief that derives

from the objective situation as well as the parallel negative

thoughts (Goldfried & Davison, 2003). The third column includes

the consequences of thinking in the specific direction, including

negative emotions, dysfunctions and decrease in human

productivity (Smith, 2005). Furthermore, the Cognitive Behavioral

Counseling necessarily involves self-observation and self-

reflection, i.e. writing diaries of emotions, counting the

intensity of obsessive thoughts, evaluating behaviors or feelings

during the periods of abstinence, which are carefully discussed

with the counselor and gradually transmitted into the real-life

matrix, i.e. turned into helpful styles of self-perception,

skills and more neutral emotions (Reynolds, 1999; Jacobson et al,

2003; Smith, 1985). As one can understand, the Cognitive

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Behavioral Therapy is a collaborative effort, involving the

participation of both patient and counselor; the ideal counseling

should include minimal pressure (e.g. advice) from the latter’s

side, as the growth of awareness, realization and understanding

are the major prerequisites for its success (Reynolds, 1999, p.

166; Young et al, 2003, p. 118).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is also greatly based upon

Aaron Beck’s model of Cognitive therapy (Beck & Emery, 1985).

This approach is aimed at helping the client manage with

difficulties by identifying and altering dysfunctional patterns

of reasoning, beliefs, stereotypes and emotional responses.

According to Jacobson and colleagues, “This involves helping

clients develop skills for modifying beliefs, identifying

distorted thinking, relating to others in different ways, and

changing behaviors” (Young, Klosko, & Weishaar, 2003). The

therapy itself consists of step-to-step assumption testing, i.e.

each important statement the patient makes is discussed in terms

of its plausibility and realism. In certain cases, it is quite

difficult to change beliefs, due to the fact that they are

“protected” by a number of cognitive justifications, which

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developed in the course of patient’s adaptation to the social

environment. Therefore, the process of removing destructive

cognitive patterns involves a number of techniques including

positive self-talk, Socratic questioning, self-evaluation and

comparison of external situations and the patient’s responses.

Another influential framework to be taken in consideration

in the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is attribution theory,

designed specifically to conceptualize the development of mood

problems: “First advanced by Lyn Abramson and her colleagues in

1978, this approach argues that depressives have a typical

attributional style – they tend to attribute negative events in

their lives to stable and global characteristics of themselves”

(Hoyer, Beesdo, Gloster, Hofler, & Becker, 2009). Therefore, the

Cognitive Behavioral modality necessarily focuses on attribution

as a key of breaking the problem circle and constructing less

biased causal relationships between external and internal events.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, however, involves a broader

range of techniques, which focus on changing both beliefs and

habits. For instance, cognitive rehearsal involves recollecting a

situation from the client’s life and discussing the specific

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behaviors, which allow managing this situation. When the patient

faces a similar situation again, they are likely to be better

prepared and use those patterns, which were created during the

session (Clarke et al, 1999; Jacobson et al, 1996). The technique

of journal writing allows the patient to document all feelings,

sensations and thoughts they had in different life situations –

from daily routines to the episodes of being confronted by major

stressors. The therapist and service user review the records

together in order to detect maladaptive thoughts and how these

thought influence behavior. Psychotherapy specialists may also

give their client home assignments: “These may include note-

taking during the session, journaling, review of an audiotape of

the patient session, or reading books or articles appropriate to

the therapy. They may also be behaviorally focused, applying a

newly learned strategy or coping mechanism to a situation and

then recording the result for the next therapy session”

(Arredondo, 1996, p.48). Role-playing exercises are helpful in

training appropriate responses to different stressors or

situations; however, it needs to be noted that this technique

requires creating conditions which are close to those which

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characterize the situation, so the therapist should be able to

play different roles.

Reinforcement, a purely behaviorist concept and set of

practices, is also widely used in CBT. Human behavior is actually

motivated by positive reinforcement and reduced by the negative

or absence of reinforcement at all. In order to create a clear

system of reinforcement, it is highly important to establish

rules and a reward system. It needs to be noted that this

technique is most workable with children, who receive certain

reinforcing tokens, whereas adult patients might need much more

elaborated rules (Clarke et al, 1999).

OHRIT Therapeutic Relationship

It is imperative that a patient client relationship develop

early in counseling.

The therapist is open and honest with the client, sends clear

and explicit messages to the client, and gives honest feedback by

working with schemas to which the primary goal of cognitive-

behavioral treatment is the change/reorganization of the old

schemas and creating new ones. Since change is such a frightening

thing to the patients, cognitive-behavioral therapist effects

OHRIT 27

change primarily through therapeutic techniques, such as guided

discovery of schema beliefs, relaxation training, and graded

anxiety hierarchies.

Another key concept of OHRIT therapy is that patient’s must

be willing to be transparent with the therapist and likewise with

the therapist. The client must be willing to explore the cause of

the heartache and work toward healing with the therapist (Brunk,

2005). The therapist is open and honest with the client, sends

clear and explicit messages to the client, and gives honest

feedback by working with schemas to which the primary goal of

cognitive-behavioral treatment is the change/reorganization of

the old schemas and creating new ones (Jacobson, Martell, &

Dimidjian, 2003). The OHRIT calls the old issues the client is

dealing with an inside-out problem. It is the outside

experiences and issues that cause the inside to be affected. The

new heart is empowered to conquer life’s issues and problems

(Berger, 2005). The new heart realizes that the issues of life

are may be unfortunate, but the new heart finds a way to cope and

deal with what life throws at them. OHRIT explains life as a

deck of playing cards; a player is dealt a hand and has no

OHRIT 28

foreknowledge or control of what is dealt. The power that the

player has lies in his or her plan of action. The player has to

play the hand dealt to him or her. Life deals us various hands,

some favorable while others are not as favorable, however, a

player is expected to play regardless of the opposition. This

method requires for the patient to push pass what he or she is

feeling and conquer what the mind is experiencing in reality.

OHRIT creates freedom and inner exploration of the client’s world

in order to allow change and growth to take place.

Another area of great importance for the OHRIT counselor is

ethics. Ethics are recognized as rules, regulations and laws that

govern therapist in their profession (Clinton & Ohlschlager,

2002). By using Scriptures as the premise for therapy the

counselor could encounter some ethical concerns. The client has a

right to choose and OHRIT Counselor should not impose his or her

beliefs on the client. The clients’ well being for the OHRIT

counselor is the first priority.

Confidentiality is another area that must be taken seriously

(Corey, 2005). Confidentiality in the OHRIT counselor’s is his or

her character, lifestyle, and integrity as a counselor

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(Entwistle, 2004). Confidentiality is embedded in the Christians

counselor’s relationship with his or her client and is Christ

centered.

How to Keep the New Heart

The only way to keep the new heart is through meditating

on the Word day and night (Psalms 1:2). Counselees must digest

the Word over and over again until it gets through their cerebral

cortex where they think, strategize, plan, reflect, and become

inspired as God takes their destructive past and uses it for His

glory. At this stage their imagination takes over, and they start

seeing their selves healed, prosperous, delivered and as an

overcomer. As they become more aware they will declare the works

of the Lord. King David knew the power of meditating on God’s

Word. He said, Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not

sin against You (Psalm 119:11). In Romans 12:2, Apostle Paul

added, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by

the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good

and acceptable and perfect will of God.” When the counselee’s

mind is transformed he or she will have the same desire as David,

which was to live in accordance to God’s Word and standards.

OHRIT 30

Another key concept of OHRIT is prayer. Counselee must

understand God wants to heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14). In

order to keep the new heart with all diligence, the counselee

must seek God while he may be found. Prayer is praise and

petition to the Lord. The counselee will enter God’s presence

through their praise, but thanksgiving proves the clients faith

in the Lord that he will perform His Word. The counselee must go

to God in faith whatsoever you ask when you pray believe and it

shall be yours. The intensified prayer of consecration is where

the counselees can press into God seeking answers or to do His

will (Matthew 26:39). Then there is intercession is where the

counselee prayer for someone else (Isaiah 59:16). The clients’

heart is restored over and over again when he or she is

persistent in prayer; simply because they are obey their new

heart.

Prayer is vital to the client’s heart and well being it is

the connection to God. The client must practice prayer until it

becomes permanent and heartfelt. Here are a few steps for

incorporating prayer daily: 1. Start and end the day with

prayer, 2. Read the Word of God, 3. Surrender your will for the

OHRIT 31

help of the Holy Spirit, 3. Obey, 4. Take authority, 5. Avoid

Egypt, 6. Ask God to create a clean heart in you, and 7. Repeat

the steps as much as possible. It is time for the counselee to

return to the Creator, because nothing is more important than the

transforming our hearts to God’s desires.

Conclusion

What is the purpose of The Old Heart Replacement

Intervention Therapy? As an OHRIT Christian counselor, we

recognize the fallen nature of man as inevitable and therefore

healing is needed (Gladding, 2004). An OHRIT Counselor a

multitasked professional who are concerned with the following

three areas: Psychology, Theology, and Christianity (Entwistle,

2004). Multitasking requires an OHRIT counselor to balance these

three areas. They do not solely rely on their professional

techniques and theories but their personal lives are just as

important. Ideally an OHRIT Christian counselor is a healing

Agent for Christ whose spiritual life spills over through

interactions into their client’s life. There are a number of

OHRIT 32

other contributing non-specific factors, which are: 1. Counseling

relationship (invest energy and emotion), 2. Christian character

outside the office (prayer, studying, fasting, Scripture,

worship, and so on), and 3. Christian counselor’s spiritual well

being (McMinn, 1996). Spirituality comes from within and it

manifests a caring heart, worthiness, empathy, wisdom, and

insight (p. 15). These three disciplines provide a clearer

picture of what our clients need: 1. Psychological provides the

right treatment plan, 2. Theological provides the basic working

knowledge of the Bible, and 3. Spiritual allow us to understand

God’s grace and our own fallenness (p. 270).

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