A Critical Appraisal of Pastoral Counseling
BERNARD L. PACELLA M.D.1
1 Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.
The techniques used by pastoral counselors bear a similarity to those used by the psychiatrist. But if the pastoral counselor undertakes an interpretive or analytic type of therapy, he steps out of his role as pastor in relation to the patient. The author hopes that pastoral counseling will remain more religion-oriented than psychologically oriented, but he also hopes that all clergymen will be offered courses in the seminary aimed at giving them adequate orientation in the fields of mental development and mental health.
