The coming of Colonization and Christianity to Africa and other indigenous cross-cultural contexts was a "mixed bag" of pros and cons. The impact of the advent of the two has had a lasting effect being felt even today. It created issues of bi-culturalism and bi-religiousness in personal and religious identities that counselors and the church need to address when working with people from these contexts. There is the existence of deep cultural trauma (including psychological and spiritual scars) needing healing for those living in most of these post-colonial contexts. The Western counseling approaches and Christian rituals need contextualization. A counselor or pastoral caregiver with an integrative consciousness is required to address the psychological and religious identity conflicts existing in African and other indigenous cross-cultural contexts.

For twenty years, clinical pastoral educators, congregational caregivers, chaplains, pastoral psychotherapists, and pastoral theologians have turned to Pamela Cooper-White's Shared Wisdom to ground their teaching, training, and understandings of countertransference and how the use of the caregiver's self, in turn, impacts the relational dynamic between caregivers and care seekers. Now, Cooper-White updates her groundbreaking book to present new insights on how understanding one's own emotional reactions remains a core competency for ministry. With precision and depth, Cooper-White continues to innovate the theory and practice of spiritual care, counseling, and spiritual psychotherapy. This revised and expanded 20th anniversary edition explores current research on countertransference and intersubjectivity; mutual influence and unconscious relationships; and intercultural and interreligious dynamics in caring relationships. Cooper-White examines how the relational paradigm for pastoral assessment and theological reflection that she pioneered now has important implications for evolving types of care relationships. As she does so, she addresses emerging topics such as postcolonial theory, spiritual and religious fluidity, and gender diversity. CPE supervisors, pastoral care and counseling educators and practitioners, pastoral theology scholars, and psychotherapists looking for an in-depth understanding of relationality and intersubjectivity will find the 20th anniversary edition of Shared Wisdoma must-have resource to build and expand upon a core competency.

This text captures the profound unacknowledged crisis that is unique to children of first-generation immigrants, by virtue of their being caught in a world of their parents’ culture of origin and their social experience in the United States. The book makes the case for three levels of adolescent crisis unique to this population, namely, the general developmental crisis experienced by all adolescents as articulated by developmental theories; the cultural identity crises experienced by ethnic minority persons as they encounter the layered racialization of American history; and, finally, the unique crisis that arises from conflicting cultural values and morals when first-generation immigrant parents, wanting to preserve native values, clash with their children, who seek belonging in the Western context in which they currently reside. The book traces the psychological, emotional, and social roots of the crisis. The authors, representing immigrants from different continents, portray the unique, ethnic minority challenges they encounter in coming to the US, exemplifying further the tri-level crisis. Finally, the book offers ways that parents can be proactive in helping their children navigate the potential tri-level crisis through ITAV (It Takes a Village) camps and family palavers.

Pastoral counselling has had a significant role in the development of the wider British counselling movement over the past thirty years. Yet this role has often gone unacknowledged, and little has been written about the implications of its distinctive identity within counselling. Clinical Counselling in Pastoral Settings fills this gap by offering an exploration of clinical issues that are distinctive to the work of pastoral counsellors in a way that is made clearly relevant to practice, whilst exploring wider issues. Contents include: * Pastoral counselling in multi-cultural settings * Pastoral counselling and the therapeutic frame * Transference within the pastoral counselling relationship * Integrated theology and psychology in pastoral counselling * The promise and difficulties of pastoral counselling

This volume advances a uniquely Afro-centric, sociocultural understanding of health maintenance and risk reduction in African cultural heritage populations. It unites a diverse group of leading African and Africanist scholars in an exploration of common cultural values in African heritage communities and their practical applications in contemporary counseling. The chapters highlight the prominent health issues faced in Africanist settings today and use real-world experiences to illustrate core lessons for effective community action. The approach spans complex cultural milieus, from diversity counseling to conflict resolution. Each chapter includes field-based experiential tasks, discussion boxes, research boxes and case studies, which serve as valuable resources in both coursework and casework. Counseling People of African Ancestry is an essential primer for community health workers, counselors and educators seeking a better understanding of African cultural heritage settings to promote community health, well-being and development.

An expert in the field of pastoral care, John Patton demonstrates that pastoral care is a ministry of the church. He focuses on the community of faith as an authorizer and source of care and upon the relationship between the pastor and a caring community. Patton identifies and compares three paradigms of pastoral care: the classical, the clinical pastoral, and the communal contextual. This third paradigm emphasizes the caring community and the various contexts for care rather than focusing on pastoral care as the work of the ordained pastor.

Everyone who has “eyes to see” acknowledges the growing importance of the African church to the future of global Christianity. But what does it mean for the church to take root in Africa? How should the message of the gospel and the practice of Christianity be contextualized for Africa? African Contextual Realities addresses many of the questions surrounding contextualization from a practical point of view and is the fruit of the 6th Annual Conference of the Africa Society of Evangelical Theology held in Nairobi in 2016. The book explores such questions as: • In what ways should the mission of God be universally recognizable in every cultural context? • In our efforts to contextualize, how do we avoid compromising the very gospel we are to proclaim? • How can the African church wean itself away from dependency on the Western church? • How does Christianity speak into some of the cultural and social issues arising out of contemporary African settings – issues like widow cleansing, Christian-Muslim relations, and peace-building? All those who are interested to learn more about the contextualization of African Christianity will find this volume to be an important resource.

Pastoral theologians from Congo, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe address, in this book, the issues of leadership, Ubuntu (community), gender-based violence, political violence, healing, and deliverance faced by pastors and ministers in African contexts today. Drawing on biblical, theological, social scientific, and cultural contextual perspectives, these African Christians offer much needed insights to assist in the care and counseling of persons towards healing, health, and well-being.

How do some communities around the world that suffer outrageous violence and trauma manage, with few outside resources, not only to survive, but to thrive? September 11, the devastation of hurricane Katrina, school shootings, and other events of community violence and trauma have taught us, as a nation and a church, about the fundamental importance of building a caring community that fosters resilience and hope. Building the Resilient Community takes a refreshing turn of perspective by giving priority not only to the formally educated voices of the West but to those among the most marginalized and invisible in the world: refugees. Based on ethnographic research in Kakuma Refugee Camp and remote villages of southern Sudan, Holton presents a communal case study of a group of devoutly Christian refugees known as the Lost Boys of Sudan and asks the question, Might they have something to teach us about being a resilient community? As Holton investigates their deeply embedded cultural and religious beliefs that nurture a profound sense of responsibility toward others, we find a communal relationship that reflects a unique sense of care and obligation. This deep frame for communal care breaks through as the root of a remarkable faith narrative that serves to help mitigate symptoms of trauma and to undergird resilience, and may do the same for us.

Meet me at the Palaver shows the damaging impact of colonial Christianity on indigenous African communities. The book opens with stories of destructive change brought to indigenous contexts, where in the culture, values, religion, and humanity of African peoples were often marginalized. Mucherera argues for a holistic narrative pastoral counseling approach to assess and service the three basic areas of human needs in indigenous African communities: body, mind, and spirit. The book presents a hopeful strategy of recovering stories, cultural traditions, and values that have been subjugated in the past as effective means for dealing with contemporary life in indigenous contexts such as Zimbabwe.