Development Needs of the Pastoral Counselor

The purpose of this paper is to examine the human development needs of the pastoral counselor. Specifically, the paper will explore studies related to what the pastoral counselor needs to know and to have experienced in order to provide true therapeutic service?

Human Development Needs Of The Pastoral Counselor

Pastoral counseling, as with any form of counseling, requires therapeutic knowledge and skills. However, the question can be asked as to what is the importance of the human development experiences of the counselor himself? It needs to be noted here that human development experiences (how the counselor faces and deals with his own problems, crises, and difficulties in life) are considered very important for the secular counselor because these help the counselor to build the kind of character that is needed for effective therapy.

As Peterson and Nisenholz (1987) have put it, the professional (secular) counselor is expected to have a series of life experiences which have been used by him to become more self-actualized where self-actualized is defined as a person with fourteen specific personal characteristics. These characteristics are: effective and efficient perceptions of reality; acceptance of others, self, and nature; spontaneity; problem-centered rather than egocentric; autonomous rather than culture or environment dependent; deep sense of appreciation for others; able to experience mystic or tr

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accredited by the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) and the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). The data of this study were obtained by a Likert type survey questionnaire mailed to all AAPC and CACREP accredited counselor training program chairpersons during March and April 1986. The results were based on a return rate of 19 (76%) of the 25 AAPC and 24 (80%) of the 30 CACREP programs surveyed. A conservative level of p (LESSTHEQ) .01 was chosen to determine if significant differences between programs exist. The results revealed that AAPC accredited programs emphasized the psychoanalytic counseling orientation more than CACREP programs (p (LESSTHEQ) .001). Programs accredited by CACREP emphasized the use of videotape and direct observation more than AAPC programs (p (LESSTHEQ) .01). Also, it was found that there was a much higher percentage of counseling students in personal therapy as clients in AAPC programs than in CACREP programs (p (LESSTHEQ) .001). AAPC counseling students also received more encouragement by faculty to be in personal therapy as clients than do CACREP students (p (LESSTHEQ) .01). With respect to counselor education cour
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Approximate Word count = 6053
Approximate Pages = 24 (250 words per page)