What is Pastoral Counseling?

I get this question just about every time I tell someone what my degree is.  I may also get questions like, "Are you a pastor?"  "Do you only counsel pastors?"  and one of my all time favorites "Is that something with sheep?"

The last questions brings The Good Shepherd to mind

The answer to all of the above is, No.  Although there are many religious leaders who are realizing they are ill equipped to aide their faithful in regards to mental health and have been returning to school for extra training, one does not need to be a pastor, priest, rabbi etc. to be a Pastoral Counselor.

I first discovered this field of Pastoral Counseling as a senior in college.  I had majored in Psychology and minored in Theology and was in the process of looking for a graduate program.  I knew I would need to stay in Maryland to save some money and live at home so I narrowed my search for a clinical psychology program.  One of the programs I looked at was through Loyola University.  As I was looking over their website at the different programs they had, I noticed one called "Pastoral Counseling."  I had never heard of this before and had some of the same thoughts as most people, "Huh, I wonder if this is just for religious leaders."  Nevertheless, I sent a request for more information. When I received the information packet, I knew God had placed this program directly in my path.

In a nutshell I describe Pastoral Counseling as a combination of Psychology and Theology.  The program acknowledged and firmly believes that a person cannot heal and be healthy without healing mind, body, and spirit.  So often secular psychology and counselor programs deny the spiritual aspect.  In fact, I can remember hearing that to be a Psychologist I would need to put my spiritual beliefs to the side.  Well, to me, that was like asking me to take out my heart and put it on a self while sitting with a client...clearly not possible.  It just made perfect sense to me that if I felt like I couldn't separate my beliefs from myself, why would I assume that my clients would want to do that?

One of my favorite discussions we had in grad school was whether or not we felt we were "called" to this program/profession.  I immediately answered yes, as did  the majority of my classmates.  Like I said before, I really felt like God had placed this program directly in my path, a perfect combination of what I studied in undergrad.

The American Association of Pastoral Counselors states that 96% of of the population says they believe in God and 79% of Americans feel like faith/beliefs can help with healing (http://www.aapc.org/about-us/pastoral-counseling-today.aspx).  Oh heck yes!  For my Catholic friends, who among us has not left Eucharistic adoration feeling refreshed, revived, dare I say, healed?

In my program we acknowledged that in the counseling room, there is the client, the counselor, and God.  The counselor is merely an instrument for God's healing.  There have been times in a session where I have said something without really thinking about it, and it was just what the client needed to hear.  That wasn't me folks, that was the Holy Spirit.

Bottom line, I loved my program and what I do.  This leads to a whole other issue of actually having a counseling position in a religiously affiliated place.  Which, at the moment, I do not.  But I was unemployed for months after Chris and I were married and for the sake of our family I took the very first job I could get!

Now, I am praying for discernment as to where God is calling me.  To stay where I am?  Look for something with a Catholic school and/or church? (That would be my dream in all honesty)  Maybe a Christian Counseling center?  I don't know. But any prayers you could offer up for me would be incredibly appreciated!

Here are a couple links if you feel like you would like to learn more:
http://www.aapc.org/   <--- if you would like to find a Pastoral Counselor they have a link where you can do so, also just contains more in-depth information

http://www.loyola.edu/academic/pastoralcounseling.aspx  <--- My program.  Life changing.  Incredible.  Amazing education/clinical training.  Seriously, can't speak highly enough of it.