Strategic Pastoral Counseling : A Short-Term Structured Model

The average pastor spends six to eight hours each week counseling parishioners. Unfortunately, because of inadequate training and time pressures, many pastors find counseling to be a frustrating and unfulfilling facet of their call to provide spiritual direction and guidance. David Benner here provides clergy and church-based counselors with a counseling model that is both distinctively pastoral and psychologically informed. Benner's approach advocates maintaining narrowly focused objectives in a time-limited setting. Since its original publication, Strategic Pastoral Counseling has been a standard for pastoral counseling classes and a practical resource for clergy. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and includes two new chapters, helpful case studies, and a new appendix on contemporary ethical issues. It will continue to serve as a practical resource for pastoral care and as a standard text in counseling classes. Book jacket.

David G. Benner (Ph.D., York University) is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Spirituality at the Psychological Studies Institute (Atlanta) and a practicing clinical psychologist. The author or editor of over twenty books, he is the founding director of the Institute for Psychospiritual Health.