The Inner Healing Movement refers to a grassroots lay counseling movement among Christians of various denominations.

History

Agnes Sanford (1897–1982) is considered to be the mother of the inner healing movement. Along with her husband, she founded The Agnes Sanford School of Pastoral Care in 1958. The inner healing movement is also often compared and associated with Inner Healing and Healing of Memories. Other people who feature prominently in its history are Ruth Carter Stapleton, Leanne Payne, Francis MacNutt and Charles Fillmore. A number of organizations are currently active, including Elijah House, Ministries of Pastoral Care, and Sozo Ministries.

Concerns about memory work

Theophostic Prayer Ministry (TPM) techniques and other inner healing models that incorporate memory work have become popular. However, some have concerns about these approaches with some of their underlying principles being compared with those of recovered-memory therapy (RMT). In the Journal of Psychology and Theology, Spring 2004, Christian psychologist David Entwistle summarized some concerns associated with Theophostic methods: 'TPM follows in the lineage of "healing of memory" techniques, though it departs from that lineage in a number of important respects. Numerous concerns exist surrounding insufficient attempts to ground TPM in biblical concepts; inadequate and often flawed explanations of basic psychological processes; dubious claims about the prevalence of [ dissociative identity disorder, Satanic ritual abuse], and demonic activity; estimates of traumatic abuse that exceed empirical findings; and the failure to sufficiently appreciate the possibility of iatrogenic memory contamination.' TPM and others, such as De Silva and Liebscher of Sozo ministry, denounce the use of memory recovery as described in the above concerns.

Books