Psychotherapy and counseling in professions other than the ministry

Conclusion My own chief impression and conclusion about this conference could not be better stated than has been done already by Lawrence K. Frank, Co-Chairman of the conference and member of our Editorial Advisory Board. He wrote:... the conference that was held is significant of a pervasive, may I say almost revolutionary, change in the climate of opinion. This change is characterized by a new awareness, a new set of assumptions, a new set of expectations, a particularly different way of thinking about ourselves ... Individuals suffering from early stunting and distortion can be helped to grow and mature, their strengths and potentialities can be evoked by various processes so that they can develop more nearly in terms of their capabilities.It is significant that every profession represented in these pages has declared itself a social agent, feeling itself to be a responsible agent dedicated ... to making operational our cherished beliefs in the worth of individual personality. Each group is working in its own way to recognize and conserve the human dignity of man, woman, and child.... each group here has acknowledged that no single profession is competent to undertake this difficult task of psychotherapy and counseling without further training and clinical experience that goes beyond the M. D., Ph.D., D.D., or whatever the degrees or titles may be ... No one person, merely because he has professional training and a degree, can claim that he is competent to undertake this difficult process.We may be approaching the time ... when we may see more agreement on scientific concepts, so that we can have an orchestration of professional skills and knowledge. I like the term orchestration because it gets away from ancillary and other terms of subordination and superordination. In an orchestra we recognize the unique place, function, and range of every instrument, but we realize that the instruments have to be played with coordination if they are going to be really productive of any theme played in unison.We may indeed hope that Lawrence Frank is right. And that we of the clergy may make a continuing contribution to such an end.