Dr. Jay Spalding

Christian Psychologist

Welcome to my office at Henegar/CBI Counseling Center. My goal is to provide you with a warm, safe, professional environment in which you can explore and find help for personal and relational issues. I pledge myself to the care and well-being of those who come to see me. I seek to be nonjudgmental and fair, not taking sides in relational matters. I always share with my clients during the initial session that I attempt to approach life through a Christian world and life view. Most of my clients have wanted a spiritual or Christian foundation to their counseling process. I think of it as "soul care." For those who desire this I seek to help them ground their lifestyle and relational patterns on Biblical principles. For those who do not desire this, I seek to provide the same professional services without pressure to process issues directly from a religious perspective.

How to Find Me

I am affiliated with Henegar/CBI Counseling Center. Our office is located on the corner of McCallie Avenue and Orchard Knob. Enter under the blue awning in the parking lot accessed from Oak Street.

Directions

Who am I?

I was raised in Glen Ellyn Illinois. My siblings are Dirk (minister), Karen (pharmacist), and Randy (electrical engineer). I attended the University of Illinois, receiving a bachelors of science in psychology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity school receiving a Masters of Arts in Pastoral Psychology and Counseling, Georgia State University, receiving 45 quarter hours in counseling psychology, and the University of Georgia, receiving a Ph.D. in counseling psychology with a clinical psychology internship and postdoctorate.

I have lived in Chattanooga since 1986 where Susan and I have raised three children and where I’ve been privileged to practice counseling/clinical psychology from a Biblical perspective.

I have been an elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church and currently serve on the Pastoral Care Committee of the Tennessee Valley Presbytery.

I enjoy all the aspects of the practice of psychology. I especially enjoy the work that involves direct contact with people such as individual, couples, and group therapy. I also enjoy psychological testing, supervision of other therapists, and some administrative work.

Basic Philosophy

My practice of “soul care” or biblically informed psychotherapy is based on a number of assumptions. I will list a few of them for you here:

• I will make every effort to provide therapeutic help that promotes the best interests of my clients.
• What is good for the soul of mankind, spiritually is good for him/her psychologically as well.
• Psychology provides tools for helping people cope, communicate, reframe experience and perspective, set and achieve goals, be more able to use one’s volition, diminish bondage to fear, learn how to relax oneself, process life controlling dramatic events – diminishing their overwhelming nature and control, and many other things.
• Psychology as a science and a tool is used judiciously under the truths given by the Creator.
• What is true, right, and wrong is determined by the Creator, and not by popular moray or personal preference.
• Humans perceive or experience “truth”, as an approximation of the true truth, which is held in the mind and perceptions of the Creator.
• Humans function best intrapersonally and interpersonally when they intensely pursue a path that is illuminated by the Creator’s truths.
• Humans also find themselves in the best of conditions when they humbly attempt to love the Creator as well as others and themselves with the deepest aspects of their beings, their minds,their souls, and their strength.
• It is a healthy thing to make it a point to frequently seek to learn and meditate on the creators’ truths.Forgiveness is a principle brought to us by the Creator, which when applied to human relationships contributes powerfully to the healing process.
• Also, we learn from the Creator that humbly confessing one’s wrong thinking and doing to the Creator and to others leads to forgiveness , a clean conscience and soul, and improved trusting relationships with others.
• We are also told to discuss our troubles and faults with one another, to rejoice and to grieve with each other. Along with this we are to lovingly correct one another. These principles work marvelously together in the service of healing when used in small group and group therapy contexts.
• These principles and many others are brought to us from the Creator through the inspired words of the Bible.

Contact

Jay A. Spalding Ph.D.
Licensed psychologist TN and GA

Office: 423-756-2894
Fax: 423-756-2899