Pastoral counseling: principles and practice

Pastoral Counseling

A career as a pastoral counselor is fraught with several challenges but they are all offset by the many rewards. The primary challenge will be combining Christian ethics with modern psychology and therapy. I would like to specialize in pastoral counseling which focuses on youth who are wards of the state and have grown up in either foster homes or other group homes. Working with young people from troubled backgrounds in an age where the significance of religion is decreasing will be difficult. However, I believe that these adolescents are among the most vulnerable members of our society. I believe that faith which we are usually taught by our parents is likely to be absent from their lives. As a pastoral youth counselor I will be able to provide assistance to these youth both spiritual and practical in nature. I see a large portion of my work occurring in conjunction with community centers and the youth who use them.

Working with youth poses special ethical considerations. At the same time that religious and legal confidentiality and privacy principles apply to counseling sessions, other obligations sometimes take precedence. For instance, sometimes a Pastor who is counseling a child who may have been abused, is experiencing abuse, or is hurting others, incurs legal and moral obligations to notify authorities. Or at times remove children from unsafe homes or share their concerns about their patients' violent behavior or thoughts. Pastoral counseling sits at the cross roads of social work, psychologists, and spiritual ministers. Additionally, Pastors must assure communities that recent publicized abuse committed by religious officials are not the norm, and that Pastoral counseling is both safe and effective for young troubled adults.

Pastor as counselors often have a degree of trust with victims of domestic violence which places them in the first line of defense against domestic violence, which is often among the most underreported of crimes in the United States of America. Scholars, Moon and Shim survey Pastors and find that though Pastors counsel and can identify victims of domestic violence in their churches their responses were limited by lack of training (Moon & Shim, 2010, p. 124-126). Their findings are troubling because the individuals most in a position to help only had part of the training and the resources necessary to alleviate the abuse. This study demonstrates the importance of a type of Pastoral counseling which is holistic in nature. On the other hand, Pastors should not be perceived to serve in a law enforcement capacity because this may decrease the levels of trust and belief clients and patients bring to Pastors. This study is relevant for Pastors working with youth, because levels of abuse for youth in group homes and foster care are greater and more difficult to detect.