Continuum of Pastoral Care Benner 2003 Christian Friendship

Continuum of Pastoral Care (Benner, 2003) Christian Friendship n Pastoral Ministry: All of the duties comprising pastoral work n Pastoral Care: All of the care offered by a Christian community n Spiritual Direction n Pastoral Counseling n Key Questions: n What level of care is needed? n Do I need to be the one to provide care? n

Continuum of Pastoral Care n Spiritual Direction: “…a prayer process in which a person seeking help in cultivating a deeper personal relationship with God meets with another for prayer and conversation that is focused on increasing awareness of God in the midst of life experiences and facilitating surrender to God’s will…” p. 22

Continuum of Pastoral Care n Pastoral Counseling: “…involves the establishment of a time-limited relationship that is structured to provide comfort for troubled persons by enhancing their awareness of God’s grace and faithful presence and thereby increase their ability to live their lives more fully in light of these realizations. ” p. 40

Assessment in Pastoral Counseling n Key Question: What is needed? n Pastoral Counseling Dimensions (Benner, 2003) n Healing: wholeness n Sustaining: perseverance in chronic suffering n Reconciling: mending broken relationships n Guiding: wise choices and spiritual maturity

Assessment in Pastoral Counseling n Diagnosis: Four Helpful Questions (Miller & Jackson) n What is troubling this person/family? n n n Affect: Clients’ subjective experiences of emotion and mood Behavior: What is the person doing? Cognition: What does the person perceive, believe, and think? Interaction of Affect, Behavior, and Cognition Relational conflicts

Assessment in Pastoral Counseling n What is causing the problem? n Primary Causes: necessary or sufficient to cause the problem n Predisposing Causes: factors that render a person more vulnerable n Precipitating Causes: factors that immediately precede onset n Perpetuating Causes: factors that cause problem to continue

Assessment in Pastoral Counseling n What is missing? n n Work: what a person does, how they contribute to the world Relationships: connectedness and intimacy Solitude: sense of meaning, identity, and existential integrity What is needed? n n n Change Choice Confusion Reduction

Assessment in Pastoral Counseling n Maloney’s Dimensions of Pastoral Diagnosis: Functional Theology Awareness of God n Acceptance of God’s Grace n Repentance and Responsibility n Response to God’s leadership n Involvement in the Church n Experience of Fellowship n Ethics n Openness in Faith n

Assessment in Pastoral Counseling n Benner n Listen for the spiritual in the psychological n Listen for the psychological in the spiritual n Doehring n Embedded vs. Deliberative Theology n Unconscious Theology? n God Image: A collection of our projections