Brief Pastoral Counseling

I once thought that I first became acquainted with Howard Stone through another of this theology books, 'How to Think Theologically', a book I have used in the theology classes I've taught at my seminary. As I began to do some advance-reading prior to taking CPE, I looked back over my shelves at home and discovered that I already was familiar with Stone, through this book, 'Brief Pastoral Counseling - Short-term Approaches and Strategies.' One of the mistakes that many ministers make is to have too confuse their roles with those of therapists, psychologists and social workers. There are many areas of overlap, and the lack of distinction between these roles and the minister's role in the minds of congregation members also holds ministers in need of being able to deal with such situations, and not simply be a referral point. But how much time can and should a minister devote to this kind of thing? The pastoral concerns of a congregation do not really permit a minister to make an unlimited, ongoing commitment to being a counselor to each individual for every circumstance, nor would such a creation of dependency on the minister be a healthy thing, for congregation or minister. One thing that Stone highlights in his introduction is that, in fact, many people coming to a minister for counseling never show up or seek an appointment past the first one, and that by and large the people want it to be brief. Stone's book sets out methods and strategies for brief pastoral counseling encounters, that, while not discounting the value of long-term therapeutic and counseling relationships, nonetheless sees significant value and benefit to be had in the brief sessions. Stone argues that brief counseling should be the minister's first choice (recognising that it need not be the only choice). However, the closed-ended nature of brief counseling strategies can help with definite goal setting so that those who cannot or will not commit to longer-term courses can work toward an attainable goal, and also recognises that there are indeed some problems that do not require the kind of depth-therapy that longer-term strategies employ. Stone employs case studies and definite strategies for problem solving. The first part looks at problem assessment, 'homework' assignments to be done between sessions, focus upon outcomes, and termination. In short-term counseling situations, each session might be treated as if it is the last one (indeed, even in longer-term counseling situations, each session might end up being the last one). Stone then looks in part two at specific types of techniques - paradoxical strategies like reframing or symptom modification, reinforcement methods both positive and negative, imagery approaches, thought-mastery processes, cognitive restructuring, and more. Stone gives specific examples of each, but also highlights the limitations and drawbacks of each. There is no one-size-fits-all cure or panacea. In the final section, Stone add