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How Christian is Christian Counseling?: The Dangerous Secular Influences That Keep Us from Caring for Souls

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It's official; Gary Almy has been sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually abusing boys. Almy was a leading proponent of rigid "bible-only" counseling (no integration of social sciences)and was a board member of the International Association of Biblical Counselors (IABC).

Chicago Tribune
Psychiatrist gets 7 years for sexually abusing boys
Published June 8, 2005

LAKE COUNTY -- A Long Grove psychiatrist was sentenced Tuesday to 7 years in prison for sexually molesting three boys at a school he operated in his home.

Gary Almy, 61, of the 3100 block of Old McHenry Road pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse on Tuesday as part of a plea bargain before Lake County Circuit Judge Victoria Rossetti.

Almy admitted molesting a boy, 14, from Indiana in 2003. The boy attended Almy's Truth in Action Academy.

He also admitted fondling a 14-year-old boy in the summer of 2003 and a 10-year-old boy in 2000, both at his house.

Almy was a staff psychiatrist at LYDIA Home Association, a faith-based child-welfare agency in Chicago, but resigned in February. He also is a former chief of staff at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Chicago.

I have been waiting for a Christian book like this all my Christian counseling life. I respect and admire the courage of Dr. Almay to speak his spirit and write such a thoughful, insightful book. As a Christian counselor with a Ph.d working in the field of Christian counseling. I always wondered how christian counselors could cross and blurr the line of psychological and biblical counseling. If you want to where the line is and how not to cross it, I recommend to you this book. I will not only recommend it to all Christian counselors, I will recommed it to all Christians. Job well done Dr. Almay and God bless you.

I teach Biblical Counseling at a Seminary in California. After reading this text, I have made it my lead textbook. As Christians we have the Great Counselor to help us. If there is no repentance there will be no change. Dr. Almy helps to show this and the book is a must read for all who are going into Biblical-Christain Counseling.

When I was 12 years old, Dr Gary Almy admitted me to a residential psychiatric hospital in Des Plaines, IL which no longer exists, pumped me with antipsychotic drugs, and did pretty much nothing to help me. At the time, my problems were related to peer pressure and not wanting to attend school. Neither of which called for the 'treatment' I received from him. He was also providing both my mother and aunt with the same antipsychotic meds he prescribed for me without conducting therapy sessions with either of them as far as I can recall. I know my mother never went to therapy, just got him to write the scripts...

I knew nothing of his Christian beliefs until now and frankly, don't care what his religious leanings are - all I can say is based on my own experience, which is that at least at one time Almy was definitely the traditional secular psychiatrist. I am fortunate that I am female otherwise I probably would have fared much worse under Almy's "care" given the recent revelations of his admitted sexual impropriety.

Here are some additional charges brought against Dr. Gary Almy (See Chicago Tribune 5 March 2005). Hardly the work of a Christian Counselor, maybe he should add an additional chapter to his book.

Psychiatrist facing 3rd sex abuse charge


Tribune staff reporter
Published March 5, 2005
A psychiatrist accused of molesting two boys who attended a school run out of his Long Grove home was charged Friday with molesting a third student.

Gary Almy, 61, of the 3100 block of Old McHenry Road was charged with a third count of aggravated sexual abuse, said Lake County Assistant State's Atty. Matt Chancey.

Almy is being held in the Lake County Jail on $600,000 bail.

Authorities learned about a possible third victim from a statement Almy made to police, Chancey said. The abuse allegedly occurred between October 2003 and April 2004 when the boy from Indiana, then 14, attended Almy's Truth in Action Academy.

Almy, who calls himself a Christian counselor, was a staff psychiatrist at Lydia Home Association, a faith-based child-welfare agency in Chicago. He resigned when charged last month with fondling a 14-year-old in the summer of 2003 and a 10-year-old in October 2000.

Other allegations of abuse date to at least the 1980s, but those won't result in additional charges because the statute of limitations has expired, Chancey said.

One of those accusers filed a civil suit Thursday against Almy in Lake County Circuit Court, seeking more than $50,000. The 36-year-old Libertyville man repressed the memories of his sexual abuse until two years ago while undergoing treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, said his attorney, Robert Baizer of Highland Park.

The man grew up near the Almy home, Baizer said. While visiting the home and on a trip to Iowa, Almy fondled the boy, then in his preteens, about 20 times over a two-year period, the attorney said.

Baizer attributes his client's lifelong addiction to drugs and alcohol to the sexual abuse.

"[Almy] did destroy this kid's life. There's no question," Baizer said.

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

I found this book to be an excellent resource for Bible believing counselors who are called on to care for the souls of their clients. This book contrasts Freudian psychology with the tenets of Scripture and finds them diametrically opposed. Scholarly work; see also Our Sufficiency in Christ by Dr. John A. MacArthur.

For those of you who are considering buying this book, I would just like to caution you to take what Dr. Gary Almy has to say with a grain of salt. He was recently arrested and has confessed to sexually molesting two teenage boys that he had contact with in the Chicago, IL area.

The following was taken from the February 17, 2005 edition of the Daily Herald (a local Chicago, IL newspaper):

"Gary L. Almy, 61, faces aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges for attacks at his home-based Truth in Action Academy on Old McHenry Road in Long Grove, authorities said. Lake County prosecutors and sheriff's police said the unlicensed Truth in Action provided residential treatment and education to teenagers from across the country. Assistant State's Attorney Matthew Chancey said Almy admitted fondling the boys in separate incidents since 2000. As part of the three-month probe, investigators interviewed a teenage victim attacked in the summer of 2003, Chancey said. Another teen molested in the fall of 2000 also was interviewed, leading to the charges against Almy, he said. Almy couldn't be charged in two other abuse allegations because the statute of limitations expired, Chancey said."

Unfortunately, whatever good he had sought to do in the realm of helping others is now forever tainted by his wrongful acts in taking advantage of children in need of emotional and spiritual healing. Those two children and who knows how many others have been abused and violated instead of helped by a person who was supposed to show Christ's love to them through Christian counseling!!!

Dr. Gary Almy is not only a Christian, but he has been in the psychiatry profession for many years. This is why this book is so valuable -- he's someone who has seen psychiatry from the inside. Because Psychiatry didn't have the answer for him and his wife (their story is given in another book of theirs, "Addicted to Recovery" which I also highly recommend), in despair they both sought answers outside of Psychiatry, in the form of Christianity. Once they had become Christians, they soon saw how Psychiatry and Christianity are NOT compatible.

This book is a serious read, geared for the intellectual who needs reasons why they shouldn't trust Psychiatry. Almy shows specifically, point by point, how this humanistic teaching doesn't match up to Biblical Christianity.

Invaluable information! If you are going to do real BIBLICAL counseling, this is a MUST READ.
*****
While I am deeply saddened by the recent events, I hope people can make a distinction between one man and the entire biblical counseling movement. The message he has in this book is still solid, even though the messenger is flawed. Please do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. This book is still a very valuable read.

I have not read the book.

I am writing to say that Gary Almy was my psychiatrist at the U.S. Naval hospital in Oakland, CA, in 1972. I found Dr. Almy to be thoughtful, concerned, knowledgable in his field, and very helpful. I was 22 at the time, and he was a fresh-faced and bright-eyed Navy officer and physician with lots of heart and enthusiasm. I did not see or experience any deviant or suggestive behavior and I did very well under his care.

Dr. Almy confessed to the charges against him and is doing his time. As for the rest of you: John 8:7.

Dr. Gary Almy charged with child molestation. I personally worked with this man. I saw his questionable actions with boys in his care, and unethical admistering of drugs. Hopefully through proper counsling and support, more boys will have the strength to come forward in the future against Dr. Almy. He deserves more than 7yrs, because the boys he molested with have to live with it the rest of their lives.