Pastoral counseling

Pastoral counseling is a branch of counseling in which psychologically trained ministers, rabbis, priests, imams, and other persons provide therapy services. Pastoral counselors often integrate modern psychological thought and method with traditional religious training in an effort to address psychospiritual issues in addition to the traditional spectrum of counseling services.[1]

Distinctiveness

"What distinguishes pastoral counseling from other forms of counseling and psychotherapy is the role and accountability of the counselor and his or her understanding and expression of the pastoral relationship. Pastoral counselors are representatives of the central images of life and its meaning affirmed by their religious communities. Thus pastoral counseling offers a relationship to that understanding of life and faith. Pastoral counseling uses both psychological and theological resources to deepen its understanding of the pastoral relationship."[2][3] Membership in several organizations that combine theology and mental health has grown in recent years.[4][5] Some pastoral counselors have developed special training programs to encourage cooperation between religious professionals and medical professionals on treatment of issues like addiction, since spirituality is an important part of recovery for many people.[6]

History

Pastoral counseling had its beginnings a separate discipline in North America in the first half of the twentieth century, as various religious organizations began to incorporate the insights and training of psychiatry, psychology and social work into the training of clergy. In 1925, Dr. Richard Cabot, a physician and adjunct at Harvard Divinity School, published an article in the Survey Graphic suggesting that every candidate for the ministry receive clinical training for pastoral work similar to the clinical training offered to medical students.[7] In the 1930s, the Rev. Anton Boisen began a program of placing theological students in supervised contact with mental patients. In time, many seminaries and other training programs for religious professionals began to include clinical pastoral education as part of clerical training. Also in the 1930s, the minister Norman Vincent Peale and the psychiatrist, Dr. Smiley Blanton, collaborated to form the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry, now known as the Blanton-Peale Institute. Today, hundreds of mental health centers with links to specific religious traditions may be found across North America. In 1963, the American Association of Pastoral Counselors was founded to provide professional certification for pastoral counselors and pastoral counseling centers.[8][9]

See also

References
  1. Benner, David G. (2003). Strategic Pastoral Counseling: A Short-Term Structured Model. Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic. pp. 13–14. ISBN 978-0801026317. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  2. Hunter, R.J. (2005). "Pastoral Counseling". Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling. Nashville: Abingdon Press. ISBN 0-687-10761-X.
  3. David G. Benner, Strategic Pastoral Counseling: A Short-Term Structured Model (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003.) ISBN 0801026318.
  4. Paul, Pamela (May 2005). "With God as My Shrink". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
  5. Buice, Allison (June 27, 1987). "Pastoral Counselors Increasing in Numbers". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Spartanburg , SC. p. B3. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  6. Abbott, Stephanie; Ronsheim, Douglas; Xander, Donna (June 2005). "Counselors and Clergy: Partners in Healing". Counselor: The Magazine for Addiction Professionals. 6 (3): 32–37. ISSN 1047-7314. Archived from the original on 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
  7. Stokes, Rodney (1974). "Survey Graphic". reprinted online at the Canadian Association for Pastoral Education and Practice website Archived 2011-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
  8. American Association of Pastoral Counselors/History
  9. Augsburger, David W. (1989). "Pastoral Counseling". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 2010-09-15.

Further reading
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