Are you a pastor or other church leader who would like to counsel but are afraid you can't do it? This book is for you! It will help you get over the fear of counseling and help you to counsel most people with most of their problems. It will also help you to know when to refer them to someone more qualified. Learn about grief, suicide, abuse, communication, forgiveness, and more.

This all-in-one guide is designed to better equip clergy and the church leaders to meet their congregations' needs in a spiritually grounded and scientifically sound manner. Succinct, easy-to-read chapters summarize all a pastor needs to know about a given problem area, including its signs or symptoms, questions to ask, effective helping skills, and, most importantly, when to refer to a mental health professional. Synthesizing what research says about treatment approaches for mental health issues, this user-friendly reference is filled with guidelines, case scenarios, key points to remember, resources for further help, advice on integrating scripture and theology with the best available research, and tips on partnering with others to provide the best possible care for each church member. Each chapter is designed for quick lookup by problem area, empowering church leaders to understand and help meet the challenges facing the children, adults, families, and communities that they serve.

In Theological Context for Pastoral Caregiving, Howard W. Stone helps his fellow pastors and worship leaders provide effective and faithful pastoral care and counseling through the study of the correlation between pastoral care and theology. You will learn that in order for pastoral care to be effective it must have a theological base to shape the caregiving experience. At the same time, theology must be informed by the needs and experiences of the people being served and by the ministry of pastoral care. By relating these two issues, you gain a unique viewpoint not offered by books with simply a psychological focus.The author draws from his day-to-day clinical practice of pastoral care and counseling to show how pastoral care and theology can be brought together. Through Howard Stone’s work, the reader learns of: an overview of pastoral care and counseling today how to provide a pastoral assessment of the persons served the author’s theological understanding of the ministry of pastoral care and counseling methods for correlating theology and pastoral care how spiritual direction as a discipline can help pastoral care and counseling ministry regain a solid theological base theological themes that might be more explicitly and intentionally related to pastoral careTheological Context for Pastoral Caregiving provides useful information for parish pastors, people in training to be parish pastors, and specialists in the field of pastoral care counseling. As one of the easiest-to-read books on this subject, it can also be used as a text for graduate-level classes in courses such as Theology and Pastoral Care, Pastoral Theology, and Practical Theology. With this book, seminary students will finally be able to relate the practical things learned in pastoral counseling classes with what is learned in theology classes.

This comprehensive textbook on pastoral ministry for pastors, church leaders, and students articulates a biblical model for shepherding God's people. Written by a leading psychologist and seminary professor who has served as a pastor for more than two decades, the book covers twelve major areas of pastoral ministry, highlights the essential work of the Holy Spirit, and focuses on the personal and family life of the pastor. It includes cross-cultural perspectives of special interest in our diverse world and a foreword by John Ortberg.

As people face addictions, deal with loss and grief, and seek help in restoring broken relationships, where can they turn for counsel and assistance? The local church has been uniquely blessed with the gift of the gospel and is able to offer hope and counsel that no other institution on earth can. In Biblical Counseling and the Church, Bob Kellemen and Kevin Carson have assembled over twenty respected ministry leaders who examine the relationship between counseling and the church. This comprehensive resource, part of the Biblical Counseling Coalition series, helps leaders and counselors develop a vision that goes beyond being a church with a biblical counseling ministry to becoming a church of biblical counseling—a church culture that is saturated by “one-another” ministry. Divided into five parts, Biblical Counseling and the Church will help church leaders: Unite the pulpit ministry of preaching the Word with the personal ministry of the Word in counseling Offer practical and theological training to equip counselors Launch and lead a counseling ministry, regardless of the size of your church Bring together the relational focus of small group ministry with the ministry of care and counseling Better understand the relationship between biblical counseling, church discipline, and conflict resolution Learn how to use counseling in outreach through “missional” biblical counseling—moving biblical counseling beyond the doors of the church and into the world

Helps counselors-in-training develop their sense of identity as advocates and seekers of social justice Distinguished by a potent social justice and multicultural perspective, this comprehensive introductory text for counselors-in-training delivers foundational concepts through the lens of advocacy and intersectionality. This book emphasizes exploration of the individual and collective effect of local, national, and global social issues on clients and their communities, and imparts real world experiences from authors and clinical experts who provide personal accounts of challenges and successes in their practices. The text examines key evidence-based counseling theories with an in-depth focus on trauma-informed counseling and prompts reflection and dialogue about critical issues in counselor development. It introduces specific counseling micro-skills, techniques, and modalities and describes the varied settings in which counselors can practice. Engaging activities that foster self-analysis and self-actualization illuminate the path to becoming a professional counselor. Chapters encompass several features that promote high-level thinking and reinforce understanding of content. These include reflection exercises that relate chapter content to individual counselor identity, learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter, Voices from the Field to bring counseling to life, Call to Action features to help students put learning into action, case studies, Group Process activities, and additional resources. Abundant instructor activities include Instructor’s Manual, Test Bank, PowerPoints, and recorded video podcasts. Key Features: Addresses the foundations of counseling through the perspective of multiculturalism, advocacy, social justice, and intersectionality Emphasizes understanding of the individual and collective effect of social issues on clients and their communities Includes recorded interviews with clinical experts and Voices from the Field Weaves the concept of trauma-informed counseling throughout Covers such trending topics as telemental health, the influence of climate change, psychedelic assisted therapies, and the effect of social media on counseling, and neuroscience Offers engaging self-actualization and reflection activities to enhance counselor training Each chapter includes learning objectives, Call to Action features, Think About This reflection exercises, Group Process activities, case studies, and more Offers an abundant ancillaries package including Instructor’s Manual, Test Bank, chapter PowerPoints, and video podcasts

Pastoral care and its theology get a gentle boost from some of the best in the business of caring for the soul. When a person hurts, they often look to God. Several pathfinders give new light from their specialties, each one speaking powerfully, uniquely, and artfully from decades of experience. Dr. Amos Yong’s article on disability forwards the amazingly helpful term, “temporarily able-bodied.” Greek Orthodox Dr. Vasileios Thermos and Roman Catholic Dr. Robert Fastiggi enlighten next to the powerful testaments of Professor Godfrey Harold on South Africa and Dr. Samuel Yonas Deressa on Ethiopia. Each weathered author contributes universal insights into the grace of our great God and challenges pastors throughout the Christian world to kindly consider the heart of the afflicted. These finely hewn stones can be used by anyone in the ministry to sharpen their serve. Mattis and Maness offer this third collection from Testamentum Imperium with a prayer that these will open new avenues of sensitivity to the hearts and souls of those in travail and aid those who are called by God to serve those in pain.

The Peer Power Program is a peer training program designed for middle, high school, and higher education students, focusing on 8 core skills: Attending, Empathizing, Summarizing, Questioning, Genuineness, Assertiveness, Confrontation, and Problem Solving. Through a series of exercises, games, and self-awareness techniques, youth and adults involved in the program can gain the basic communication and mediation skills necessary to effectively help their peers. An overview of peer helping, Peer Programs explains the value of and techniques for helping non-professionals learn to help others one-on-one, in small groups and in groups of classroom size. Intended to be of use to those responsible for planning, implementing and/or administering peer programs, this text should also convince those who are not directly involved that peer helping is a worthwhile undertaking – reducing drug and alcohol abuse, dropouts, violence and conflict, HIV and AIDS, pregnancy, stress and negative peer pressure. New features of this edition include: updated rationale for peer programs updated highlights from current evaluation added professionalism- CPPE. Certified Program, Programmatic Standards, Rubric and others downloadable resources of forms to customize for all phases of the Peer Program step-by-step guide of new and current programs This book is an indispensable guide for learning important aspects of training peer helpers and as a resource book for a wide range of professional peer helpers, such as: administrators; managers; teachers; counselors; ministers; religious educators; social workers; psychologists; human resource personnel and others in the helping professions.

In the fifteen chapters that comprise this comprehensive look at the Black family today, each of the contributors deals with an aspect of family life that pertains especially to the Black community. The topics include the extended family, single female parenting, teenagers, male-female relationships, the role of the church, pastoral counseling, marital counseling, sexuality, money management, sexual abuse, drug abuse, and evangelizing the Black male.