Hospice training, course work in Pastoral Theology at Yale Divinity School, in-service training at the New Haven Project for Battered Women; Parent Effectiveness Training; Imago Relationship Therapy as well as certification with The Grief Recovery Institute have all contributed to my understanding of what it means to be an effective counselor.
Beliefs
The discovery - and the on-going experience - of divine compassion makes it possible to practice compassion for self and others. This unconditional love is at the heart of spiritual (pastoral) counseling.
Compassion is the ability to see the totality of the person, not just the "good" isolated from the "bad" or vice versa.
In seeing the whole person, we support growth into the deeper, "hidden" self, we discover reasons that help us understand who we are and why we have certain, sometimes destructive, behaviours. Coming to understand these actions and attitudes doesn't mean we will condone negative behaviours, rather we hope to heal and transform them as we embrace forgiveness.
