Profile: Dr. Harry Morgan

Dr. Harry Morgan believes that, “no one is better equipped to provide us an insight into the soul than the Christian.” An alumnus of both Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary, Dr. Morgan has also earned degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Argosy University and Bethany Theological Seminary – but his time in university settings only fuels his effectiveness in the field. With a doctoral dissertation on“Biblical Perspectives of Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse,”Dr. Morgan has worked as a pastor, a U.S. Army Reserves chaplain responsible for all chaplains west of the Mississippi River, a professor, and a counselor. Now, Dr. Morgan serves as the executive director of the Biblical Counseling Center in Bradenton, Florida and is the Director of Counseling Services with IMI/SOS International.

Influenced strongly by Jay E. Adams, Morgan says he discovered that, “the Bible is never to be apologized for – that we Christians do have solutions. Sigmund Freud at the end of his life lamented that psychoanalysis never resulted in psychotherapy. No one was ever healed by peeling away the layers of the onion. It was only in the resolution in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.”

Recently named in the Cambridge“Who’s Who” for excellence in counseling, Harry Morgan declares that his passion and motivation emerge frompast pain: “pain in my family, pain in my personal life. The word passion itself has an idea of fire.” His website describes how Dr. Morgan was “born again in 1970 during the Asbury Revival in Wilmore,” and that although “he grew up in the church” and “even stayed in a monastery for two months and served in church leadership since the age of 14,” he was not a Christian “until the age of 22 through his studies in the book of Romans” – the same book that, through Luther’s famous Preface, “strangely warmed” Wesley’s heart.

While Dr. Morgan exemplifies rigorous academic pursuit successfully blended with a robust practice of clinical counseling, he views his practice as a way of fostering discipleship, asserting that, “counseling is simply discipleship that’s problem-based.” He credits Asbury Seminary for his appreciation of practical theology, where he learned from scholars like Dr. Don Joy and Dr. Dennis Kinlaw to translate excellence in scholarship into practical terms.

 Continuing his well-developed integration of theology and psychology, Dr. Morgan explains, “there are people who will see a church leader, who have some mental disorder or personality disorder or life crisis issue. They may be going through a divorce or may be bipolar or schizophrenic or have a drug addiction. It would take a lot of time for the pastor to address that problem. The pastor is the shepherd. The counselor is a sheepdog. As a church leader, it’s impossible for the pastor to go after everybody that’s got a problem. The Christian counselor can address those problems and like a good sheepdog bring those sheep back.”

So how are Christians uniquelyequipped to provide insight into the soul? “The psychological provides us an understanding or evaluation of man’s soul. The word psyche actually is the word soul. It’s the Christian that gives us that ability through the word of God, and it’s the insights that God gives that give understanding of what the soul is about. It was Socrates who said that the cure of the part should never be made without the resolution of the whole. It’s impossible to really address the soul of man without the Holy Spirit’s intervention into our wholeness.”

Dr. Morgan practices this reliance on the Holy Spirit’s intervention in his daily counseling sessions. “I pray for every session that I have – whether I’ve met with those folks in advance or not. Oftentimes I pray during the session, to really acknowledge that God is the one providing healing. I am not the healer. God is. He who began a good work – He will complete it.”

The Biblical Counseling Center is a Christian ministry that provides professional mental health counseling and offers a variety of comprehensive services to the Tampa Bay Area and beyond. Working with clients of all ages, experienced therapists and psychologists help guide both individuals and families to relational wholeness.Visit www.truthtransforms.comto sign up for a regular email newsletter or to purchase a counselor’s start-up kit of legal forms, schemas and evaluation tools.