Early days with Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend

Hi. My name is Linda, aka Robert's Mom. Because I worked with Dr. Cloud and Dr. Townsend during their early days of practice as Minirth-Meier West in Southern California, Robert asked me to write a little about them, as many of you are familiar with their books.

I had been a psychiatric nursing supervisor in a small hospital in Orange County, leaving that job because I wanted to try other fields of nursing, particularly chemical dependency. About three years after I left (in 1986 as I recall), I got a phone call from the Director of Nursing, asking me if I would consider coming back. He was very excited about a new program on our psychiatric unit, spearheaded by a couple of young hotshot southern psychologists, who had brought in their "Christian Therapy Program". I was mildly interested, wondering if they were some type of voodoo faith healers, but intrigued enough to accept the position (incidentally, the money they were offering was quite a bit more than I currently earned, not the least of my incentives to do this.)

My first day back at the hospital, I met John and Henry. Both were young, charismatic, and apparently firmly believed in what they were doing and what they had to offer their patients. Henry was dark haired and good looking, with a quiet manner and southern accent that would charm honeybees away from the flowers. John had sparkling blue eyes, and was a little more intense, but also gave one the impression that he would listen to every word you said, and really care about the feelings behind the words. I liked them immediately. I also met Dr. David Stoop, another psychologist partner, and Dr. Tom Okamoto, the program's psychiatrist, who were also Christian, and dedicated to their program.

The more I worked with these people, the more I admired them, and liked them as friends, as well as co-workers. They all had a great sense of humor, and there was a lot of good-natured teasing. Not only did they know a great deal about therapy, human nature and Christianity, they also knew how to play the political game within the hospital. They were able to effect changes in policies and procedures that protected their patients, as well as their program. Some of their patients were fascinating, also. Several were dealing with ritual abuse, having been members of cults in the past, leading to PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), which was making them miserable and disrupting their lives. In particular, I remember one young woman whose parents had taken her and entered a cult when she was age thirteen. At fifteen, she became pregnant by the cult leader, and when her baby boy was born, he was offered up as a human sacrifice, and killed. How my heart cried out to that poor woman! She later left the cult, married and had other children, but could not forget the memories that haunted her. She responded well to the hospitalization, and left feeling better, able to cope and knowing that the terrible events of the past were not her fault. She would need to be in outpatient therapy for a long time, but at least she had a head start to recovery.

I got to attend John's wedding, and used to tease Henry about being afraid of the "C word" (commitment), although he dated the same lovely lady for several years. I was around when John'a first two sons were born, and also when both Henry and John wrote their first books. I remember how excited John was when he showed me the cover of Hiding From Love with the "i" in Hiding peeking out from behind the H. They were brilliant, charismatic, and dedicated to their patients, and most of all dedicated to their God. They had no difficulty being human, and showing human emotions, including shedding tears about man's inhumanity to man. I learned a lot from them, not just about psychotherapy, but about Christianity. I count myself as extremely fortunate to have been able to know them personally back then. I have not seen them since 1992 when I moved to Oregon, and I miss them.