Title: 'Why Have Pastoral Counseling?'

 

Title: 'PASTORAL COUNSELING'/Mx - Visual Prayer Art from Collection by Rev.Bola

Jeremiah 3:15

¹⁵ “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

*PASTOR - (Definition)

noun
1. A Christian minister or priest having Spiritual charge over a congregation, fellowship, ministry, or other group.
2. A lay person having spiritual charge over a person or group.
3. A shepherd.
Similar meanings of *Pastor*

rector, vicar, shepherd,  dean, canon,  abbot, prior, abbé; chaplain; minister, priest, reverend, father, parson, divine, ecclesiastic, churchman, clergyman, cleric, prebendary, capitular;

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*Counsel*  - definition:

1. The act of exchanging opinions and ideas; consultation.
2. Advice or guidance, especially as solicited from a knowledgeable person.
3. A plan of action.
4. Private, guarded thoughts or opinions: for example - keeping one's own counsel.

 Noun  
1.   advice, instruction, guidance, direction, teaching; opinion, suggestion, recommendation; warning, admonition.

2.   consultation, deliberation, dialogue, discussion, consideration, conference; examination, study, analysis, advisement.

3.   plan, design, deliberate purpose.

verb
 a) To give or take advice. b) To give counsel to. 
 c) To recommend.

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*SPIRITUAL COUNSELING*

Q1. What is Spiritual Counseling?

Definition of: *Spiritual*

adjective

1. Of, pertaining to, or consisting of spirit; incorporeal.

2. Of, or pertaining to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature: a spiritual approach to life.

3. Characterized by or suggesting predominance of the spirit; ethereal or delicately refined.

4. Of or pertaining to the spirit as the seat of the moral or religious nature.

5. Of or pertaining to sacred things or matters; religious; devotional; sacred.

6. Of or belonging to the church; ecclesiastical:  the sphere of religious, spiritual, or ecclesiastical matters, or such matters in themselves. 

 

Similar meanings of *Spiritual*

 devotional, discarnate, disembodied, divine, ethereal, holy, immaterial, sacred, pure, incorporeal, nonphysical, ghostly, angelic, non-tangible, supernatural, eternal, hallowed, sublime, unearthly, heavenly, rapturous, supreme, causal, exalted, glorious, immaculate, eternal, consecrated.

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*Counseling* - definition
1. advice,  instruction, guidance, direction, teaching; opinion, suggestion, recommendation; warning, admonition.

2. consultation, deliberation, dialogue, discussion, consideration, conference; examination, study, analysis, advisement.

3. plan, design, deliberate purpose.

4. advise, guidance, instruction, direction; suggestion, recommendation, offering an opinion.

Tell what to do; urging, exhorting, persuading, encouraging; warning, cautioning, admonishing.

noun
1. The act of exchanging opinions and ideas; consultation.
2. Advice or guidance, especially as solicited from a knowledgeable person. 

verb   
  guide, instruct, direct; suggest, recommend, offer an opinion, tell  what to do; urge, exhort, persuade, encourage; warn, caution, admonish.
1. To give counseling
2. To recommend.
3. To give or take advice.
  
Similar meanings

consult, brief, coach, clue in, confer, direct, discuss, edify, educate, elucidate, encourage, encouragement, enlighten, enlightening, give (one's) opinion, give (one) pointers, guidance, guide, help to understand, impart (one's) wisdom, instruct, instruction, lecture, mentor, mentoring, offer recommendations, offer suggestions, oversee, piece of advice, point out, prepare, put (one's) two cents worth in, recommend, recommendation, show (one) the ropes, show (one) the way, share ones thoughts, shepherd, share (one's) insight, share (one's) experience, steer, suggest, speak to bring to (one's) senses, briefing, caution, mentoring, preparing, suggestion, enlightening, training, tutoring.

Spiritual + Counseling = Enlightened guidance, wise instruction, supernatural direction, divine solutions.


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Q2. Why is {Spiritual/Pastoral} Counseling useful, or even necessary?

Acts 1:8 
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Pastoral counseling is a branch of counseling in which trained and gifted ministers, priests, spiritual mentors, guides and other persons provide therapeutic, healing or recovery services.

Pastoral counselors can often integrate traditional Spiritual training with modern psychological thoughts and methods, in an effort to address mental and spiritual issues, in addition to the traditional spectrum of counseling services. Pastoral Counseling acknowledges that the Divine Spirit can and does work through the Spiritual (Soul), Mental (Mind), Emotional (Feelings) and Material (Physical Body) aspects of the individual to provide healing and recovery.
 
Pastoral Counseling recognizes that a human-being is a complex entity of soul, mind, emotions and physical body, each one inter-linked with the other, each part affecting the other.

Q3.What are the benefits of {Spiritual/Pastoral} Counseling?

Ephesians 4:11a 

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 

A) What distinguishes pastoral counseling from other forms of counseling and psychotherapy, is the role and accountability of the counselor and his or her understanding and expression of the pastoral relationship.

B) Pastoral counselors are representatives of:
 the Spiritual dimension of life and its meaning, affirmed by the word of God, and exercised through His Spiritual communities. 

c) Christian Pastoral counselors base their work on the Holy Bible, honoring Christian principles, by the power and anointing of The Holy Spirit, based on the atonement for sin that was Christ's sacrifice at the Cross of Calvary. The Bible states in:-

John 14:26

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Thus pastoral counseling acknowledges the Holy Spirit as the chief counselor, thereby offering a relationship to the understanding of life, through faith in the Creator of life, God, and in Jesus Christ His son.

Q4. Who benefits from {Spiritual/Pastoral} Counseling?

C) Pastoral counseling uses both theological and psychological resources to deepen its understanding of the pastoral relationship.

D) Membership in several organizations that combine theology and mental health have grown in recent years.

E) Some pastoral counselors have developed special training programs to encourage cooperation between religious professionals and medical professionals on treatment of issues like addiction, since spirituality is an important and essential part of recovery for most people.


F) Thus any seeker of truth, with a willingness to grow,  improve in, or  better understand any area of their life may benefit. This includes the full range of life issues from the apparently mundane questions, to the deeply serious challenges of every day living.

Pastoral counseling - Today

1. It had its beginnings as a separate discipline in North America in the first half of the twentieth century.

2. Various psychiatry, psychology and social work organizations began to incorporate the insights and training of theology and spiritual discipline and application into the training oftheir professionals

3. In time training programs for counseling professionals began to include Seminary training and other clerical and pastoral education as part of their collective training.

4. Also in the 1930s, the minister Norman Vincent Peale and the psychiatrist, Dr. Smiley Blanton, collaborated to form the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry, now known as the Blanton-Peale Institute.

5. Today, hundreds of mental health centers with links to specific spiritual traditions may be found across North America.

6. In 1963, the American Association of Pastoral Counselors was founded to provide professional certification for pastoral counselors and pastoral counseling centers.


Q5. When is {Spiritual/Pastoral} Counseling required?

Pastoral Counseling is indeed an honorable, and valuable vocation.

For instance, when we have legal disputes or problems, we would seek professional assistance from a lawyer or solicitor.
When we have physical health problems we seek our doctor or GP.
When we have dental problems, we seek out a dentist.
In the same manner, when we have emotional, or Spiritual problems, we a seek out a private Counselor or Church minister.
There are some issues that can only be fully resolved at the Spiritual level, such as addiction or demonic oppression.

Pastoral Counseling acknowledges this fact, and as mentioned earlier does recognize the complex nature of the human-being as having a soul, a mind, emotions and physical body. Thereby requiring a unified and wholistic approach to health and recovery, that must validate and acknowledge these different dimensions of the person.

Q6. How is {Spiritual/Pastoral} Counseling practiced?
 
It has been acknowledged that nearly all maladies have their roots at the Spiritual level.
 
Pastoral Counseling addresses primarily the Spiritual needs of a client, and from that spiritual level, healing begins to affect the mental, emotional and physical bodies also.

For instance it is well documented that habitual stress, can lead to
physical illness. So in addressing the root cause of the stress by pastoral counseling, one also can receive the benefit of physical health.

Pastoral Counseling is complimentary, to the other forms of treatment that the client may be undergoing, and seeks to magnify them, not undermine them. 
Experienced pastoral counselors are able to understand and work in tandem with mental health and physical health practitioners that are caring for the individual.

Conclusion

  An attempt has been made in this post, to give you a clear description, and understanding, of the purpose and need for Spiritual/Pastoral Counseling, and why it is necessary.

It is essential to realise, that no one needs to continue in suffering, when there are tools and resources available to deliver them from such. 

God loves each and every human-being, and through Jesus Christ, and what was achieved by His death at the Cross of Calvary, and then His subsequent resurrection, He has provided us with all the appropriate spiritual recovery program we need to live victoriously, both now and in the afterlife.

We at The *Christians Victorious Fellowship*, have a mandate to provide a Scripture based Christian program of resources and tools that actually work. 

If you would like further information on how to avail yourself of these resources, or to join our growing fellowship, we would love to hear from you. 
*Membership is currently free of charge, though that may change in the near future, so don't delay.

 Just email your questions and inquiries to Rev.Bola: 
bolaamail-church@yahoo.co.uk.

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Peace and Love
Rev. Bola
(Director - Christians Victorious Fellowship - Int)