The death crisis and pastoral counseling

Death is an event that presents a crisis to the family system. Conceptualizing death as a stressor event and recognizing the variety of coping resources present in and available to bereaved families and individuals, along with the meaning attached to death, can help interventionists to perceive stategies for providing assistance in time of grief. Pastoral counselors are often needed to interpret death from a faith perspective, yet they may need to interpret the family's reaction to the death crisis in order to facilitate their readjustment. Analysis of the death event using Reuben Hill's crisis equation provides a workable conceptual framework.     

Ego psychology and pastoral counseling

Conclusion Implicit in this entire consideration is the recognition that pastoral counselors need a differential methodology, and that the major divisions of such an approach are insight and supportive counseling. Skill in both insight and supportive counseling will markedly enhance the pastor's ability to be a therapeutic agent in the lives of those who seek his help.     

Spiritual direction and pastoral counseling

The thesis is that spiritual direction is a form of pastoral counseling-indeed, the core from which all other forms of pastoral counseling radiate, since all pastoral counseling aims ultimately to help others to ground their lives in God. The major elements of spiritual direction are described in an attempt to justify the thesis.Dr. Barry is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Weston School of Theology and a staff member of the Center for Religious Development, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.     

Covenant making and pastoral counseling

The biblical concept of convenant refers to realities that place God beyond the gods of the philosophers. It also suggests the kinds of relationships the people of God should seek to establish with others. Helping establish such relationships constitutes one important goal of pastoral counseling, incorporating and transcending the more usual counseling goals. The biblical concept of convenant making also integrates counseling with larger pastoral and theological concerns.Richard C. Erickson, an ordained Presbyterian minister, is staff psychologist on the inpatient unit at Portland VA Medical Center and an associate professor of Medical Psychology at the Oregon Health Sciences University. His address is: Portland VA Medical Center (116 B), 3710 SW U.S. Veterans Hospital Road, Portland OR 97201.     

The religious and moral foundations of pastoral counseling

This paper explores the significant issues related to the articulation of distinctions between pastoral counseling and the secular psychotherapies. The argument is made that pastoral counseling can be distinguished from the secular psychotherapies because the former is grounded in the moral vision of the religious traditions as well as the growing body of clinical knowledge the secular psychotherapies have made available to the culture. A dialectical model of moral inquiry is then presented as the most adequate for the pastoral counseling enterprise to carry out its inescapable moral task.He is a Candidate-in-Training at the C.G. Jung Institute in New York City.     

The perception of God in pastoral counseling

Many people who go to pastoral counselors for help have a perception of God that is psychospiritually unhelpful, if not damaging. Four examples of unhelpful God-perceptions are discussed: God is vengeful; God is needy; God is our caretaker; and God is our tutor. Pastoral examples of the negative consequences of each of these God-perceptions is given. The article ends with a section which describes the pastoral implications of unhelpful God-perceptions.