Pastoral Counseling and the Changing Times

Abstract

Recalls that although long-term psychotherapy was the underpinning of pastoral counseling in its early days of development and remains so for many practitioners today, recent outcome studies demonstrate that brief counseling is what in fact counselees prefer and is as effective as long-term therapy. It is what congregational pastors traditionally practiced for generations. Suggests that pastoral caregivers practice short-term counseling, arguing that the dissonance that occurs when one believes in the superiority of long-term counseling but nevertheless engages in primarily short-term counseling disrupts therapeutic ends. Proposes that brief pastoral counseling needs to be the model of choice for contemporary pastoral counselors, not only for practical reasons but for moral reasons as well.