Pastoral counseling with youth

Conclusion Young people need their pastor, not only as the preacher, or as the youth group leader, or as the energetic dynamo of congregational life, but as the one to whom they can go with their personal problems. They need a representative of the adult world with whom they can share and find in such sharing an incentive for developing their own identity. The pastor is in a unique position to be such a representative since he represents also the world of the Spirit.     

Pastoral counseling with alcoholics and their families

The pastor is often in contact with the alcoholic and his or her family. Providing help to alcoholics and their families is a spiritual, humanistic, and therapeutic challenge. Recent developments have favored a family systems orientation to working with alcoholic families. This orientation acknowledges the family as contributor to maintaining alcoholic behavior and includes the family in treatment. Specific family systems concepts are discussed and how they relate to the dysfunctional unit which houses an alcoholic. Implications for pastors and specific role definitions are explored. Krebs' therapeutic model is expanded to: 1) evaluate, 2) support, 3) refer, and 4) support, as appropriate for the pastor working with alcoholics and their families.     

Pastoral counseling and the compassionate God

Taking up a suggestion of Michael Cavanagh in a recent issue of this journal, Marcel Sarot contributes to the theological task of distinguishing conceptions of God that are psychospiritually unhelpful from those that are helpful. More specifically, he argues that the conception of God as compassionate and co-suffering is psychospiritually more helpful than that of God as blissfully impassible. In the final section, he shows that there is some empirical research confirming this conclusion.     

Pastoral counseling and petitionary prayer

Petitionary prayer is a valid and often-used form of prayer among religious people. Not infrequently, pastoral counselors find themselves praying for clients. This article explores the pastoral counselor's use of petitionary prayer, experientially and theologically, and attempts to locate its meaning within the healing enterprise.     

Pastoral counseling for homosexuals

Pastoral Psychology -     

Pastoral counseling in East Asia

Pastoral Psychology -