I'm not a counselor, but I play one in the church
Mike Bickle's sister dodges the rule of law, by a smidge. Maybe.
Until this past week, Tracey Bickle, sister of Mike, publicly offered paid counseling services, which she denoted, were sessions in which “prayer may also be used.” While she may be depending on a legal loophole in Missouri state law to allow this, many who say they have fallen prey to her tactics insist she has caused more damage than healing.
Sunday morning, 14 January, at Forerunner Church might well have been entitled Faux-runner Pas, if many former IHOP-ers had a voice in headlining. The week prior had seen developments of the ugly sort (as each week has seemed to do), and Sunday morning greeted them with none other than Mike Bickle’s sister, Tracey, who is described with a number of monikers by IHOPKC’s church, her X page, and her suddenly-missing web page (though I managed to obtain screenshots, of course). Let’s take a look at the most vocal female Bickle.
The descriptions of Tracey Bickle go so far as to imply, though not outright claim, she is an experienced professional counselor. By stopping slightly short of this, and using a ministerial covering, the famous—infamous to many—Bickle’s sister has seemingly skirted the law, while charging for her services, even leaving some in the professional counseling community aghast at her gall.
While Ms. Bickle may or may not make claims that would get her indicted for practicing therapy without a license—not that I have the right to make that call, though some think that it would behoove the state of Missouri to look a bit deeper into her promotion of practice—she certainly has worked hard to make a career of charging people for her services without any document of a degree or certification that would be recognized by a professional group (and I am not only referring to secular groups, lest I be stoned by the “The Holy Spirit is the only Teacher I Need” crowd.)
It’s most likely that Bickle gets to practice this pseudo-counseling via these Missouri protections for “duly-ordained clergy.”
Missouri Revised Statutes Title XXII. Occupations and Professions § 337.505. License required--exempted professions and occupations
(6) Duly ordained ministers or clergy or religious workers while functioning in their ministerial capacity
(18) Any person performing counseling, as defined in sections 337.500 to 337.540, without receiving compensation, monetary or otherwise, and so long as they do not use the title of “professional counselor”;
And she makes no secret of this:
Counselor Bickle, at Your Service?
Bickle may believe her decades of experience, both experiencing trauma and working with others who experience it, crown her a “trauma and addiction specialist,” but at least one local counselor vehemently disagrees.
In writing this, I sifted through many complaints and comments, and I reached out to a licensed Missouri counselor. Because of the person’s history at IHOPKC and with Tracey herself, I independently verified her identity with someone, then I spoke with her directly, and also verified her practice and subsequently verified the license under which this counselor works. She holds a master’s degree in mental health from a solid regionally-accredited Midwestern university, and currently practices as a Missouri Licensed Professional Counselor. When I reached out to ask for verification of her licensing, she quickly and eagerly provided this. Becoming a licensed professional counselor is a long journey that takes years of education and commitment, and then many hours of working under another licensed counselor. In Missouri, you can search the state database here; as with most of what I publish, these are public records. I take this time to explain this and explain the credentials of the counselor with whom I had contact because it matters. Education matters. Training matters. Professionalism matters. Here’s why:
This is what a former IHOP-er, now MA, PLPC said about working with Tracey Bickle:
"Tracey Bickle preys on innocent people who are hurting. She is spiritually and emotionally abusive and she is manipulative. She leaves people with an insurmountable amount of psychological damage. This undereducated woman has little to no understanding of trauma and how to work with traumatized individuals. Tracey’s mindset that I could simply pray away my complex PTSD was so damaging. I believe in the power of prayer but I also believe that support from a licensed counselor should be a part of that. Tracey often contradicted herself and was manipulative. She guilted me into doing odd jobs around her house as a form of payment for her for ‘counseling’ services. Her version of ‘counseling’ me took years of therapy to recover from. The more stories I hear about the damage the Bickle family has caused, the more sadness I feel for the larger body of Christ.”
This professional counselor is not alone, though. You see, Tracey has a platform for relational ministry, and some of the things she says from that platform sound good for a moment, but they pierce others.
Soon after Bickle’s Sunday service, reaction was swift and negative from outside IHOPKC’s inner circle:
Tracey’s web page, while still up, promotes her as a dynamic powerhouse:
The irony of displaying the #MeToo Movement on her page was a too much for too many, who have seen more #IHOPKCtoo and #Churchtoo posts than they ever dreamed lately.
What was that message about anyway?
Ms. Bickle’s message Sunday was half-Typical Tracey, but also a jumble of odd comments too (emphasis added here, with approximate YouTube timestamps):
“Did you give yourself permission to work out your sadness, to work out your pain to talk to a counselor, to get on meds to help regulate your depression, your anxiety. Or did you just shove it down and keep moving?” -24 mins. (IHOP is known for sending people to Tracey for “counseling.” And medication instead of prayer is not commonly endorsed this way.)
She mentioned the role of the amygdala (the part of our limbic system in our brain that is known for being teeny but regulates our “fight vs. flight” reactions. She said amygdala at least four times, but didn’t elaborate on the limbic system or how our brain functions are regulated in general by it, and how it connects with the hippocampus (memory and learning area) and the prefrontal cortex in general. (For example, an abuse survivor seeing her abuser, or a person who is a reminder of her abuser, might trigger the amygdala that she is not in a safe place or space, prompting a panic attack, a desire to escape and run, a frozen fear, or other reactions people around her might not comprehend; the reactions can often be extreme. The amygdala is connected to PTSD, to attachment disorders, among many other things. This post is not intended as a lesson on something I long-ago nicknamed as a girl named Amy G. Dala, so I could remember how to spell amygdala; however, neither was Bickle’s extended definition on the it Sunday, but she did pronounce it decently well.)
Continuing her Psych 101 review, she launched into the old “Neuroscience now shows us” routine. That’s the one where all the pastors tell congregants that the researchers who study the brain have figured out that things like being positive and grateful make us better people. Ms. Bickle stumbled through this:
“Neuroscience in the last decade, maybe decade-and-a-half, but really the last decade, has caught up. Because of technology, they can study the brain in ways they never could before, and in their ability to study the brain, then they study the reactions of that brain and that person, and here's what they've learned: Neuroscience these are studies proven by ungodly people--I mean, some of them may be godly; my point wasn't that they're not Christians. My point is the system, right?, really the system and systems aren't godly or ungodly. People are….” -40 mins.
First, who is “they” that people always offer this big unknown authority to when discussing researchers? Why is there not a particular peer-reviewed study cited? Who is “they”?
Now, on any ordinary day in any ordinary church, people would get it. It wasn’t intended to be a faith put-down. It was a general comment that a community that is not faith-based discovered something a faith-based group knows. But this is not ordinary, and Bickle knows every word she says gets analyzed by people like me who read the transcripts of YouTube while we follow along and listen. So she stumbles and apologizes.
It happens with gender roles, too, when she talks about how she sometimes wants to “just do this let the big boys figure it out… [and no sooner do those words come out of her mouth than she realizes her stumble and barely takes a breath when she says] “I don't mean men versus women, we have plenty of women in the midst of helping this… I have to actually let those in charge work it out.” 29 mins.
But when you work that hard to self-censor, it never works perfectly, and by 41 minutes in, we hear:
“If you choose to be thankful you're happier at work, which means you produce better at work, whether you work in a church or work out of a church, whether you work at home (that's real work right, girls?)…”
Oopsie! Nothing wrong with being in support of women’s hard work at home, but it was funny in that moment to see what slipped out. I’m guessing some males who work at home would agree that’s the real work too, Tracey. The thing is, so would she, I suspect.
I am almost sympathetic toward Tracey’s obvious nerves now. Except I can’t be.
The trail she left behind
Soon after that Sunday sermon, though IHOPKC devotees were shining like the sun on a winter afternoon, the glowering scowls of the rest of the observers who listened to Tracey wax non-poetically about trudging through discouragement must have caught her reflection. The very next day, her professional looking website suddenly “expired.”
Between Google Cache and the Internet Archive, nothing is ever gone, though:
The trail of tears
Tracey is infamous for wanting everyone—or so it seemed—to deal with their “Mother Wound” or “Father Wound.” One mother, however, says she and her family still have a “Tracey Wound.” I spoke with a former IHOPKC mom who had students in The Daniel Academy (TDA). A current parent tells me that while TDA was founded by IHOP-ers, it is not officially connected. Whether it was or was not when the mom in this story had children there is not relevant directly, but what is relevant is that the school at that time sent the family to Tracey Bickle. The mom says they wanted to have Tracey help “pray the gay away.”
Regardless of where any reader of this post stands on issues of sexuality and Christianity, I imagine that every reader would be concerned by this comment shared by the student’s mother, and learning how a fellow child of God was treated. Please note that I personally know this family and I have talked with the mother. I have, as with the licensed counselor above, received this information directly, not via hearsay.
From the student’s mother:
“[Tracey] insisted that my home was full of demonic powers because of the music we listened to and that they would not hesitate to call children and family services to have my children taken away if they felt they were in an unsafe environment. I asked what kind of professional credentials she had to counsel anyone through anything. She said she didn't need any credentials because she had been appointed and anointed to do this work by God. If anything or anyone felt evil to me, it was her, and that was it for me. I was DONE. That was the night we packed up and moved to [home state] in order to protect our family.”
The mom added that when TDA called her in the office to discuss this with her, she was not exactly calm about it. I don’t know that I can fathom any mom who would be. As a school—or church—with a statement of faith, certainly they would have had a right to dismiss anyone who would not agree with it; however, dismissing a person vs. declaring a home as demonically occupied and saying a child is unsafe at a level in which to report a home to the state is something beyond the reach of the church. For context here, I was aware of the child’s home life personally at that time, and I can attest that the child and the child’s sibling were completely safe, loved, and cared for at all times in the family home.
The mom tells me she let out a few choice words in the office that day and added, “I'm sure they were happy to see me go.”
But college costs a lot, and I went to the school of the Holy Spirit!
You know what? Great! Because yeah, college costs a lot. I don’t know what Tracey Bickle would say, and I don’t know why she doesn’t have a college degree in the field. I don’t think she is lacking intelligence; she’s a smart woman. And the Bible does say 1 John 2:27 (NASB):
“As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”
That said, the Holy Spirit teaches us how to live, how to understand the Bible, to discern the things of the Spirit, right and wrong. The Holy Spirit does not grant us a college degree, a teaching license—heck!—the Holy Spirit doesn’t even ordain ministers. That’s why the Bible also contains verses on such topics as obeying the laws of the land. The only exceptions provided by the Bible are when those laws contradict the laws of God.
Again, while Tracey is a public figure, and while most people with a degree will tell you freely they have one, I cannot purport to know everything about her. But her own professional LinkedIn page only glows on her experience section, but seems to eschew any education, as well.
Essentially, every public representation of this public figure who leads “recovery and restoration” ministries, who counsels, pastors, teaches, and has had the lead of ministries that do these things, including IHOPKC’s “Living Waters” group—which likely needs a post of its own—claims no formal education in any of these fields.
Listen up, friends. Many things that people do in life do not require a formal education. I, Dr. Dénouement, have a (very) formal education, and I worked as a tenure-track, then tenured professor for little over $2K a month take-home pay for years. I say this to tell you that I don’t equate college degrees and financial success, or brains, really. Those of us with PhDs are the first to tell you we are smart in one thing: the area in which we earned our PhD. This is not a snob post. Please get that straight. This is an accountability and responsibility post.
In finishing up this first post in a series about this topic, I spoke with a friend who is pursuing a counseling degree. She is not yet a graduate of a counseling program, but I knew she enrolled in a certificate program, as well, as a separate process, so I asked her about it. My friend, a single mom and busy full-time student and professional, enrolled in a program to gain an initial certificate with the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching.
This certificate is intense, 6-8 months simply for the initial certification. It’s led by significant structure, legal and ethical standards, and organizational guidelines; the consequences for not adhering to those is having one’s affiliation with the organization removed. This is similar to any professional organization.
My friend quickly pointed out that, for example, that one vital rule for trauma coaches is that even when they achieve initial certification, they can only refer to themselves as “coaches,” not “counselors” or “therapists.” They cannot bill for any services without that initial registration, and billing at all must be done under the correct guidelines. The entire process with the IAOTRC for my friend, if she decides to do the advanced program, would be about three years. This would be completely separate from the college degree in the related field she will also earn. She noted that many in her initial program were already professionals in some way, such as psychologists, somatic specialists, inner healing specialists, but others are like her, working to get an initial certification to add to a later degree. The organization provides an explanation of the important distinction between therapy and coaching.
There are multiple levels of certification, and the organization seems to have added a new track called the Certified Trauma Specialist Program. The IAOTRC says:
These courses are specifically designed to provide students who don’t wish to offer healing interventions, but who instead wish to incorporate a knowledge of trauma into their existing profession – teachers and other school staff members, clergy people and church staff, non-profit agency staff, those who work in medical and dental offices…the list is limitless.
To imagine that a specialized organization is offering a level of education just for understanding, not addressing even how to help be a healer, is a sobering reality of the damage that can happen at the hands of inexperienced people dealing with complex trauma—something that happens every day.
I cannot begin to elaborate here on the number of times I have been told that a series of scripted prayers were all I needed, or that “Jesus will take that all away if you just ask Him.” While that latter statement has a genuine element of truth in it, the oversimplification drove me away from Jesus, not toward Him. Worst of all of them is the utter idiocy of “Jesus is all you need, so we’ll just pray and then you can go serve the community.” A friend of mine years ago in CA used to say “if Jesus is all we need why don’t we just get saved and then struck dead right there at the altar?”
God made our brains. When I went to graduate school to earn my PhD in the area of psychology that focuses on how our brains acquire and process information, it was because of spiritual abuse that had all-but-destroyed me to a shell of who I was. When I left to go, a Christian pastor told me, “Those humanists will be nice to your face and when you turn around they will stab you in the back.” The truth is, when it came to issues like the ones here, the opposite was true. But the way trauma is handled in the church has been tragic as it is.
Just today, IHOPKC’s Head Whippersnapper, Eric Volz posted in part of a tweet:
His use of “trauma-informed” in quotation marks served as a qualification of the compound term. I commented on it. Interestingly, by the time IHOPKC put out its fancy blue report, the quotation marks were gone:
The IAOTRC certification above is one of multiple avenues which exist for those who have not been able to earn college degrees, but want to offer legitimate support for those in some level of crisis or need. The fact is, unless someone is actually a trained professional, the person should not be attempting to treat something such as serious as complex PTSD or debilitating addictions. Typical ministerial lay counseling is generally for spiritual issues, grief, and more short-term “in-house” biblically-based and appropriate issues. While this dances on a fine line, to dance over that line can mean dancing off a dangerous cliff into the far reaches. Intentional or not, it may be hard for some to recover.
For some needs, though, certifications, biblical counseling trainings, legitimate coaching (not just “hey, I will be a Life Coach” today!) and other programs exist, which effectively equip a person to offer some service with a level of accountability.
Instead, people who have been at IHOPKC report that in spite of Tracey Bickle’s comment this past Sunday to “find a counselor; we have a plethora of them; we continue to put out new ones who have no opinion,” -28 mins. (emphasis added), the perception at least is that she, herself, serves as supervisor. Bickle did not explain what she meant by “we continue to put out new ones who have no opinion,” seeing that most posts by IHOP-ers supporting her sermon, and the ministry, appear almost wonderstruck with the way accused sex and spiritual abusers are handling the situation. The idea that IHOPKC could be “putting out new [anyone] with no opinion” is nothing short of incomprehensible.
Sources who have worked with IHOPKC, and more specifically with the banner of ministries where Tracey supervises, confirm that regardless of who is on staff, licensed or not, regardless or whose name may appear, at the end of the story, Tracey signs off—or signs you out.
Bickle is not singly responsible for this, of course. The structure of an organization that is inwardly focused and disallows outside professionals with varying viewpoints is far more the cause of the issues that allow this toxicity.
Left IHOP in 2015, am now a licensed therapist who specializes in working with people who've left high-control groups. I was a friend of Tracey's and was on the Living Waters team for a couple of years. The stories I could tell about the things she's said, the harm she's caused, and the ways she justifies it...
Watching her sermon was the epitome of "unsurprising and still shocking," especially in the context of what I know now about trauma, manipulation, abuse in the guise of spiritual/biblical mandates. It's all setup to deflect blame from the system (and/or the particular person who causes harm) onto the person who's been hurt. Everything she does is from that framework.
I just read Tracey's bio and I'm a bit surprised to be honest. Andy Comiskey was the head of the pastoral care department from 2003-2005. I was director of pastoral care from 2005-2010. Her bio lists her as head of that department from 2000 to present.