Like other modes of therapy and counseling, Pastor Counseling programs are clinical practices that along with conventional methods, incorporate spirituality, faith and theology into the process. This besides helping pastors cope with everyday stress and underlying anxieties, assists in reorienting one's mind towards faith and the teachings of the Church. The focus is on equipping pastors with efficient tools to navigate through crisis situations and attain enough strength to preach and motivate others to embrace the path of spirituality and Faith.
Methods include prayer, scripture study and participation in congregation communities along with psychotherapy. This ensures transcendence, transformation and helps in building greater connections with God and other fellow humans.
History of Pastoral Counseling
Religious assistance has been a popular method in helping people to cope with mental health issues as the belief in an eternal power helps people to surrender to Fate and alleviates the levels of anxiety in one's daily life. However, certain issues do merit and ask for professional help through clinical psychology and this has been a welcome move that lead to the origins of Pastoral counseling programs. Reverent Anton Boisen, one of the founders of the Pastoral Education Movement, laid the foundations of a novel program wherein theology students were made to connect with patients in hospitals suffering from psychological concerns. This happened during early 1900s and was followed by the formation of the 'American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry', now famously known as the 'Blanton-Peale Institute'. These clinical- pastoral programs led to a significant development of pastoral counseling programs that have evolved greatly with time and have now become a part of pastoral training.
People who can choose to opt for pastoral counseling services might include the following groups:
- People with a desire to approach their mental health issues with a perspective based on their Faith.
- Those who do not feel comfortable with formal clinical settings.
- Someone going through end-of-life issues.
- Those who have certain concerns and issues that remain invalidated with secular counselors.
- People with negative experiences with secular mental health psychology professionals.
- Anyone wishing to explore the option of dealing with psychological issues through the theological methodology.
Benefits of Pastoral Counseling
Like any other mode of therapy, Pastoral counseling provides general therapy treatment, which can help in dealing with stress, anxiety and other underlying issues that disrupt our daily routines. As it’s a professional graduate course, hence the counselors are experts in dealing with patients suffering from psychological issues.
Pastoral counseling can help by supporting those dealing with issues regarding family, relationship, premarital, etc. The following are the specific benefits of Pastoral counseling programs.
- Assists in Spiritual assessment
- Helps deal with Grief and loss
- Resolves Issues related to chronic/terminal illness.
- Navigate through Conflicts related to spiritual beliefs
- Treats Mental health issues linked to religious beliefs/ doctrine
- Cures crisis related to Faith.
- Helps reintegration community life post- institutionalization and incarceration.
- Adjusting to mental health support when exhausted with the system.
What role do these programs play in today's world to reorient our lives to our calling?
In our world of growing global issues, especially since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2019, there is an urgent need for widespread programs and alternatives for people to cope with the mental health issues and deep-rooted anxieties that hampers their daily lives. With the increased time people are forced to spend indoors and hardly any options available for a healthy release of negative emotions, a pessimistic mindset can develop and harm a person's sense of self in the long-term. In order to prevent this, it is mandatory to look for and avail pastor counseling options around us as these programs help us refocus on our inner faith and reorient ourselves to focus on the positive and spiritual journey of life.