What is Pastoral Counseling?
Pastoral counseling is a unique form of counseling/psychotherapy which uses spiritual resources as well as psychological understanding for healing and growth. In other words, it provides for psychologically sound therapy that weaves in the religious and spiritual dimensions. Pastoral counselors are not only trained mental health professionals but also have had in-depth theological training. As a result, they are in an especially advantageous position to integrate the psychological and theological disciplines. A client in such therapy can count on their spiritual values and beliefs being respected.
Pastoral psychotherapists believe in the integration of God in the healing process. They believe that God is present in the process of accompanying another person who is trying to heal and become self-aware. Accordingly, they are prepared to help a person make use of his or her spiritual resources in the service of healing.
The “pastoral” piece includes respecting the God-given free will with which every person is created. Pastoral counselors respect the pace at which people need to go through the healing process, even respecting the possibility that a person may choose not to heal. The “pastoral” piece also involves offering respect and empathy to a client in his or her suffering and in the individual’s efforts to be open to healing. The “pastoral” shows up in the compassion that a pastoral counselor offers to the client, sometimes by speaking the truth in love. It often means naming the strengths in a client’s life – naming where the client has started from and where he or she is going. It involves claiming God’s presence in all of what is happening for clients in the therapeutic process and in their lives.
The pastoral psychotherapists of Pastoral Counseling & Care Ministries strive to bring the insights of spiritual traditions and those from the behavioral and social sciences to facilitate the growth, wellness and recovery of individuals, couples, families and systems.