Pastoral counseling in the church?

Abstract

Should a pastoral counselor operate within the context of the church, drawing on the religious resources of the community as part of his special equipment for helping people? Fifteen years ago this question would not have been asked, or at least not in these terms. Even now the answer may seem self-evident, but it is not. One of the factors that contribute to its being asked now is the accelerated training of clergymen in the psychological disciplines. The growing popularity of training in pastoral care and counseling has led to the establishment of training opportunities in a variety of institutions including seminaries, hospitals, churches, and social agencies. The theoretical orientation of the teachers in this area has been as diverse as the setting for training. Consequently there has been confusion, lack of clarity, and contra diction not only in the thinking about what pastoral counseling is, but also about who does it, where it is done, and how a person is trained for it. In the early stages of the pastoral counseling movement, such variety was stimulating and resulted in creative thinking about and innovation in training in pastoral psychology. With the organization of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, the growing popu larity of clinical pastoral training as a part of the seminary curriculum, and the increasing number of "pastoral counseling clinics," there is an urgent need for clearer definition of the terms "pastoral care" and "pastoral counseling." Such definitions are the problem to which this article is directed.