The Nearing Death Process and Pastoral Counseling

Philosophic concepts of death are pervasive throughout all societies as shared values, differing in particulars, but similar in general. So, too, is the prospect of a death a consideration for every person, an eventual reality brought most forcefully to mind as it nears. This article explores various mindsets those who provide pastoral counseling will encounter among clients and suggest effective approaches to providing the mental and spiritual solace sought. Further, consideration is given to the psychological and spiritual mein of the pastoral counselor, and how this can affect both client and counselor.     

The book of Job as a resource for counseling

The book of Job is commonly considered an exemplary study in the dynamics of suffering and the problem of theodicy. This article considers the book of Job for its insights into the challenge of providing pastoral care to persons in spiritual pain. The dialog between Job and his friends illustrates how spiritual distress challenges the theological assumptions of both sufferer and caregiver. In an effort to maintain one's own spiritual equilibrium, and no doubt out of good faith efforts to comfort the afflicted, the pastoral caregiver may be tempted to cling to theological formulas and religious perspectives which disallow the sufferer's experience of anger and despair. The story of Job affirms the value of authenticity over piety, speaks of the transformative power of suffering, and provides the counselor/pastoral caregiver insights into the pitfalls and promise of caring for persons in spiritual pain.     

Values and the moral context of pastoral counseling

This paper reviews the ways in which psychology has influenced the pastoral counseling movement, focuses, upon how the role and function of the pastoral counselor have lost their unique identity, and offers the construct of a moral context as a means for rediscovering, identifying, reviving, and strengthening the pastoral counselor's professional and spiritual selfimage.This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Montreal, Canada, 1980. The author acknowledges, with appreciation, the contribution of Ariel Sylverin in the development of this article.     

On Being Wanted to Exist: A Spiritual Dimension in Pastoral Counseling and Psychoanalysis

Patients who feel not wanted to exist as persons in their own right require that pastoral counseling or psychoanalysis address their need to be wanted. Drawing on case material, it is argued that the pastoral counselor has a particular responsibility to address adequately patients’ need to have their existence affirmed. Connecting psychoanalytic theory and technique with spiritual exploration of the notion of creation, this paper calls attention in clinical practice to patients’ need to be wanted to exist.     

Cross-cultural pastoral counseling: Method or hermeneutic?

This article explores some of the meta-questions that emerge when talking about “cross-cultural pastoral counseling.” Is it a distinct counseling method or a practical hermeneutic that prompts the counselor to examine his or her therapeutic approach? The author argues that “cross-cultural pastoral counseling” is really a hermeneutic that challenges the pastoral counselor to an ongoing evaluation of how and to what extent his or her approach to pastoral counseling may be guided by dominant social convention versus the gospel mandate of Matthew 25: 31–46 [RSV]. The article reviews relevant literature, discusses three fundamental changes (“conversions”) that are necessary for the pastoral counselor in order to do cross-cultural pastoral counseling, and presents a case illustration involving a multi-cultural pastoral counseling intervention.     

Discrete varieties of care in the clinical pastoral tradition: continuing the dialogue

In the current cultural context, clinically trained ministers, lay and ordained, offer themselves to troubled souls through at least three distinct varieties of assistance: pastoral care, pastoral counseling, and pastoral psychotherapy. This essay delineates three accepted disciplines, emphasizing the importance of ascertaining, and perhaps re-evaluating, the particular needs and desires of persons who are in physical, mental, or spiritual distress. "Pastoral care," "pastoral counseling," and "pastoral psychotherapy" each play an important role in fulfilling the traditional mandate for "the cure of souls."     

The unconscious in pastoral psychology: a rabbinic perspective

The present essay reviews the rabbinic theology of person as it has been outlined within the corpus of talmudic and rabbinic literature. Concepts such as libido, id, and superego are located in the rabbinic notions ofyezer harah andyezer tov (evil impulse and good impulse). Sexuality, as a paradigm of the Divine-human encounter, is explored in rabbinic and kabbalistic literature, and a model of transference is analyzed. Furthermore, a comparison is examined between rabbinic exegesis and psychoanalytic interpretation. It is suggested that the pastoral counselor may develop a theologically more authentic orientation to pastoral therapy by reflecting upon its origins in rabbinic thought.     

Spiritual practices children understand: an analysis of Madeleine L’Engle’s fantasy,A Wind in the Door

The following essay is a close reading of Madeleine L’Engle’s science fantasy novel, A Wind in the Door, in which young Meg Murry travels first to outer space and then into her younger brother’s ailing cells. The novel is a fine example of high fantasy (also known as heroic fantasy) wherein a humble protagonist is called to a quest to fight a cosmic battle between good and evil. The essay analyzes specific expressions of evil in the novel: impersonality, narcissism, despair and blind empiricism. Meg’s quest demonstrates particular spiritual practices that promote spiritual maturation and the ability to overcome evil: ‘kything’, Naming, deepening and holding. L’Engle portrays these practices in a fresh way that can help both children and adults incorporate them into their day‐to‐day lives. Moreover, there are links between kything and holding and the metta and tonglen, two types of Buddhist meditation. L’Engle affirms children’s innate relational consciousness and presents spiritual practices that are relational, non‐sectarian, practical, and eminently hopeful.     

The modern mystic: a spirituality for health care workers

In this essay the author suggests that a deepening of one's spirituality may be the nurture that is required to remain fulfilled when working in the health care professions; and she illustrates this thesis by tracing a young chaplain's deepening spiritual journey in a Clinical Pastoral Education program. As the young aspiring chaplain attempts to minister to Joe, a dying farmer, he embarks on a path that leads to a religious experience. The essay concludes by listing eight criteria or guidelines that may help pastoral caregivers realize that they themselves may be nurtured by meeting the Holy in their caregiving acts.     

Chronic pain conceptualization and religious interpretation

The pastoral counselor often interviews patients suffering from chronic pain. Many of them express religious notions about their suffering. This article examines some traditional concepts of pain and types of religious interpretations, and proposes appropiate roles for the pastoral counselor.     

Counselor,Know Thyself!: In Quest of a Viable Model of the Human Condition as a Prerequisite for Professional Effectiveness

This essay represents the attempt of a counselor-educator to examine openly the philosophic-psychological premises and related value commitments which sustain his functioning, professionally and personally. These reflections in search of a viable model of modern man are based upon the conviction that unless a counselor is aware of the ideological determinants of his own behavior, he cannot attend adequately to the client's search for values and for a sense of personal identity. The presentation is not a finished treatise, but is an honest attempt at self-examination pursuant to the dilemmas which confront inquiring men in their quest to understand the human condition.     

The Tragic and Faith in Pastoral Counseling

This essay uses Edward Farley's notion of the interrelation of tragic vulnerability and creation and Niebuhr's idea of faith in offering a conceptualization of the process and goals of pastoral counseling. Openness, novelty, separation, and change, which characterize creative activity, give rise to anxiety, fear, and suffering as created entities seek to achieve their ends and needs amidst the limits of life. Faith as vital concern—defined as human and transcendent relations marked by reciprocal belief, hope, trust, and fidelity—is a response that represents participation and cooperation in creative activity with its concomitant anxiety and suffering. Pastoral counseling may be understood as an activity that facilitates a response of faith as vital concern. The process of pastoral counseling involves three essential and interrelated tasks. First, the counselor invites the person to experience present and past painful disappointments, losses, and betrayals. Second, the counselor invites the client to explore the types of trust and fidelity that are distorted and diminish his or her capacities for risking intimacy, spontaneity, and freedom. The third task is learning to recognize, contain, and work through the inevitable disappointments, broken promises, frustrations, and betrayals encountered in human relationships. Thus the work of pastoral counseling involves reciprocal experiences of belief, hope, trust, and fidelity, which provide the essential and necessary ground through which persons develop a) the capacities for and experiences of spontaneity, awe, and freedom, b) the ability to handle and work through experiences and perceptions of distrust and infidelity, and c) a sense of subjective and intersubjective identity, continuity, and cohesion.     

A Parable, A Pearl and “Popular”? How the Broadway Musical Wicked—Especially Elphaba’s Character—May Assist Adolescent Girls to Claim Their Uniqueness

In this essay I provide a brief exegesis of the parable of the ??pearl of great price?? (Matthew 13:45?C46) as an introduction to an examination of Elphaba??s character in the Broadway musical Wicked [as distinguished from her character in Gregory Maguire??s novel, Wicked (1996)] and the potential value this character has for pastoral care with adolescent girls who struggle with the need to belong as well as the need to be themselves. I argue that Wicked may be understood as a twenty-first century parable that appeals to many, adults and adolescents alike, but it is especially appealing to teenage girls because it ??taps into a certain teenage angst?? (Zinoman 2005) that relates to the quest for popularity, a first true love, and beauty makeovers. Elphaba??s seriousness has a certain kind of spiritual nature which may be related to her green skin (James 1984, p. 160) that may encourage adolescent girls to adopt their own spiritual natures and enable them to claim their own voices even as Elphaba finally ??defies gravity?? and learns to fly.     

A potential peril of pastoral care: Malpractice

The pastoral counselor may be a full-time counselor trained in pastoral care or a clergyman with a congregation, who from time to time serves his flock as a counselor, ministering to the personal needs of his congregation in a manner designated pastoral care or perhaps, more appropriately, pastoral psychotherapy. Once a therapeutic relationship is established, a congregant acquires certain rights and the clergyman, duties. If these duties are breached due to the negligence of the pastoral counselor and this causes the congregant to be damaged in any way, the pastoral counselor may be liable and may be called upon to respond in damages. The cause of action is called malpractice. This paper isolates areas of actual and potential malpractice.Barton E. Bernstein, M.L.A., J.D., is in the private practice of law with Hochberg, Bernstein & Skor, P. C., Dallas, Texas.He has offered professional workshops throughout the United States and Alaska.     

Do pastoral counselors have a duty to report clergy sexual abuse done by their clergy clients?

What does a pastoral counselor do when a clergy client reveals that he or she has been sleeping with a parishioner? Does the counselor have an ecclesiastical duty to report this offense to a church official; or does the pledge of confidentiality trump any disclosure? Some ecclesiastical bodies require their clergy to bring knowledge of these offenses to church authorities. Does this requirement apply to pastoral counselors? The authors have been confronted with these questions in their ministry of pastoral counseling and have struggled with producing a faithful, professional response. Along the way they have not received clear direction from judicatories or professional organizations. This article is the authors' attempt to answer the questions raised above as well as to challenge professional and ecclesiastical bodies to confront more forthrightly the dilemmas these situations cause for pastoral counselors who seek to protect the welfare of the Church as well as protect the pledge to maintain confidentiality.     

Reciprocal maturities: Spirit and psyche in pastoral counseling and spiritual direction

This article uses a model for integrating spiritual and psychological maturity (Conn, 1989) in theological anthropology to contend that there is a reciprocal relationship not only between spiritual and psychological maturity but also between pastoral counseling and spiritual direction. I review Christian spirituality in terms of maturity in relationship: to self, to others, and to God. Next is an examination of the prevailing attitude in pastoral counseling toward spirituality and spiritual direction. Then Conn's integration is assessed — of spirituality with psychology, of spiritual direction with pastoral counseling — as a combination of spiritual and hermeneutical perspectives on the maturing self.     

AN ISLAMIC APPRAISAL OF MINDING THE GAP

The neglect of psycho‐spiritual needs of patients as they traverse the modern healthcare system has been a featured theme in medical literature over the past decade. This literature, which often highlights in‐patient palliative care, as well as acute and critical care settings, influences practice guidelines and protocols of doctors and nurses. In this essay, I review some of the pertinent issues raised in the literature and examine the validity of placing an ethical perspective on this issue. I also compare Islamic theocentric perspectives with secular, non‐theistic perspectives on restoring psycho‐spiritual care for patients. I then develop a framework for pastoral intervention based on aspects of the Islamic tradition and elaborate this framework by addressing clinical contexts and cases. The essay is an exposition based upon a review of the modern medical literature, an analysis of some of the traditional Islamic written sources, and the observations of the investigator, a practicing physician and an American Muslim.     

Client Quest—A Key to Counseling

The expression quest is proposed to represent any unifying theme of client purposes. Counseling is then defined as an interview in which client quest is superordinate to counselor quest. It is suggested that client quests be classified by their direction. Thus, quests may be for understanding or change, and, at a higher level, for mastering self or environment. The identification, clarification, and management of client quests becomes central to effective counseling. Ideally, as an expert in human learning and development, the counselor is a hypothesis maker who works with his client to facilitate conquest. Dissonance is said to occur when the purposive balance is inappropriate to counselor or client quests. The congruent counselor reduces dissonance by discussing changes in the purposive balance openly with the client and by avoiding professional roles in which client quests are subordinated.