In 2012, Steve Austin, then a pastor, nearly died by suicide. He wondered: if church folks had talked about mental health, suicide prevention, abuse, and other hard issues, would that have changed his story? Hiding in the Pews challenges and equips leaders to transform their communities into places where suffering people can find a sense of ......
Empowering Individuals and Families Affected by Mental Illness
Dutiful Love explores the distinctive relationship between self-sacrificial love and caregiving when that duty to care extends over a lifetime due to social limitations on those with severe mental illness. The author draws upon her experiences as the sibling of someone with mental illness. Includes discussion questions for individuals and groups.
A timely resource treating addiction holistically as both a spiritual and a pathological condition Substance addictions present a unique set of challenges for pastoral care. In this book Sonia Waters weaves together personal stories, research, and theological reflection to offer helpful tools for ministers, counselors, chaplains, and anyone else ......
What are the roles, functions, and identities of pastoral counsellors today? What paradigms shape their understandings of the needs of others? How can pastoral counsellors serve the needs of diverse individuals in both religious and secular environments? This foundational text reflects the continued and unfolding work of pastoral counselling in ......
Using narrative therapy as a caregiving approach can help individuals uncover multilayered narratives that are far more complex and liberating. Drawing on both theological approaches and real life experiences, the author creates a contextual pastoral theology that helps caregivers find the power of God in people's stories.
Narratives of Hope in the Face of Death and Trauma
What are the major ways in which hope manifests itself in our time? And how should we understand these different ways of looking traumatic events in the eye? For answers to these questions and others, the author introduces readers to five expressions of hope through detailed and poignant case studies.
Inspired by the work of Ann Belford Ulanov, this introductory text in pastoral care explores the depth dimensions of pastoral ministry with an eye toward teaching practitioners to value and embody this life-giving wisdom. It captures many of the multiple strands of pastoral work and weaves them together into an integral whole.
Crisis Counseling unites the historic skills of pastoral care and counseling with current methods of crisis intervention from the fields of psychology and psychotherapy. Like the original edition, the present book is written for ministers - both clergy and lay - who are called upon to care for those in crisis.
This book represents a significant departure from most contemporary writing about spiritual direction. While most writers focus on long-term relationships of guidance, specifically envisioning long listening sessions, Bidwell changes focus. Spiritual direction, he insists, typically requires intervention in a specific crisis or situation or ......
