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 World Jewish Digest reports on pastoral care and counseling at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling
When Debbie Schechter, a former attorney who lives in Chevy Chase, Md., met a pastoral counselor for the first time in 1992, she was feeling especially vulnerable: her 5 1/2-year-old son, Jonathan, had just died of brain cancer. "A pastoral counselor from the hospice counseled my husband and me, and it was very valuable," she said. Through it, "a whole new realm opened up." That new realm turned into a new career track. Schechter, who is Jewish, decided to give up her 25-year law career and pursue social work so that she could counsel others on bereavement issues. But as her social work training progressed, she was disappointed that "there was no way to talk about religion or spirituality" in her social work program. In search of an avenue that would bring together those issues with professional training, she left social work and enrolled in the pastoral counseling program at Loyola College in Maryland, where she has completed one year of a three-year master's degree. She is considering eventually working at a hospice or in private practice. Schechter may be part of a trend pointing to pastoral counseling as an increasingly appealing option for committed Jews seeking a field that provides professional advice and support grounded in religious tradition. Until fairly recently, pastoral counseling has not been an option for most Jews because "the Jewish community accepted a medical model" based on psychotherapeutic treatments of emotional disorders, according to David Olin, rabbi of Congregation Beth Or in Deerfield, Ill., and a certified pastoral counselor. But that is changing. "As Jews become more focused on spirituality, they may be seeking out [pastoral counseling] more and more. I see a growing openness to being both religious and spiritual," Olin said. "Jewish pastoral counseling is in its infancy," concurred Betsy Stone, adjunct instructor of pastoral care and counseling at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling in New York City. "But it's growing [in popularity] for the same reason that spiritual direction is growing. In human history, religion waxes and wanes in importance. We're at a time in this country where religion is very important." Evolution of a Field Pastoral counseling is distinct from pastoral care-a field in which military and hospital chaplains and other trained clergy provide emotional support and guidance to individuals in need. In pastoral counseling, counselors integrate a faith-based worldview with formal training and certification in the behavioral sciences. A certified pastoral counselor will typically have an M.A. or Ph.D. in one of the counseling fields, as well as thorough training in a particular religious tradition. Many pastoral counselors are also ordained clergy-ministers, priests and, increasingly, rabbis. Pastoral counseling has its roots in Christian tradition. But although the term "pastoral" has more affinity in the Christian community, "the utilization of religious and faith values in counseling cuts across a breadth of faith traditions," according to Douglas Ronsheim, the executive director of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC). "What is a constant in this is the process of the integration, as appropriate, of significant values, though the content of the values will differ." Kristin J. Leslie, assistant professor of pastoral care and counseling at Yale Divinity School, believes that pastoral counseling among all religious denominations is on the rise because "faith is part of the public vernacular now," noting that "we see people in public office naming faith as central to who they are and what they do." She believes that pastoral counseling has grown more appealing as the definition of a religious person has broadened. "People are willing to go outside of a religious institution but still feel spiritual," she said. "People can call themselves spiritual but not religious." Pastoral counseling's surging popularity is reflected in numbers as well as anecdotes. A 1992 Gallup survey found significant preferences from respondents about seeking help from professional therapists who integrate spirituality with treatment. Following up on those findings, the AAPC commissioned a study in 2000 that found that a large majority (83 percent) of Americans link spiritual faith, religious values and mental health, and 75 percent of respondents would prefer to seek assistance from a mental health professional who recognizes and can integrate spiritual values into the course of treatment. Pastoral counseling does have a specifically Jewish component. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) offers a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling degree to help rabbis become certified pastoral counselors. According to HUC-JIR, it is also the first rabbinical program to require students, as a prerequisite for ordination, to complete a variety of supervised clinical experiences, including a year of congregational work as well as pastoral counseling internships, and acquire an academic grounding in psychodynamics. "Most Jews assume that a rabbi is a competent counselor," said Rabbi Nancy Wiener, clinical director of the Blaustein Center. "We assume that our spiritual leaders are able to listen and advise, respect confidentiality and boundaries, and are aware of their own limitations. We also assume that clergy are able to refer congregants appropriately to mental health professionals when necessary ... Through the Blaustein Center, HUC-JIR students have greater opportunity to develop their identity as rabbis-gaining insights into the expectations, demands, limitations and power that come with the title and role." HUC-JIR's Blaustein Center was founded "because we felt it was important to create a Jewish idiom for discussing issues of pastoral counseling," Wiener said. "The field was originally developed by Protestants, and most of the literature in the field is written from a Christian perspective ... We were interested in creating courses that could fuse the study of psychology, counseling techniques and Jewish texts while providing students with opportunities to work as rabbis in the field, receiving supervision for the counseling in which they were engaged." The Blaustein Center helps underwrite curriculum design, faculty, supervisors and student stipends for counseling placements and administrative costs of the programs. Other graduate schools in Jewish studies also have affiliations with programs to allow their students to take courses that will train them to be certified pastoral counselors with a focus on Jewish pastoral counseling. For example, Baltimore Hebrew University's partnership with Loyola University in Maryland, located in Columbia, Md., provides individuals pursuing various Jewish academic tracks with the ability to study pastoral counseling in a nationally renowned program. The dual approach is necessary because there can be specifically "Jewish" ways of relating to Jewish clients in a pastoral care relationship, according to Olin, the pastoral counselor and congregational rabbi based in Deerfield. For example, the idea of teshuva, or return, can be a powerful method for a pastoral counselor to connect to a Jewish client, he said. Olin, who holds a D.Min. in pastoral psychology and a Ph.D. in counseling in addition to rabbinic ordination, also focuses on the twin concepts of tikkun olam, repair of the world, and tikkun atzmi, self-repair, to help his clients understand how pastoral counseling can be a spiritual process. "Tikkun atzmi is about transformation," he said. "Pastoral counseling helps a person get a healthier view of their relationship to God." Olin also looks to passages in the Bible and Jewish literature to help clients find their way. "There are times you need models," he said, pointing to the story of Joseph forgiving his brothers after they sold him into slavery. A History of Seeking The field of Jewish pastoral counseling is fairly new. But Jews have had a serious, long-term interest in the mental health professions. "Jews are overrepresented as providers of therapy," Stone said. In fact, even before the AAPC shepherded the field of pastoral counseling into the spotlight, Jewish clergy undertook formal training in the psychological disciplines in order to combine the strengths of the pulpit and the therapeutic couch. Abraham Twerski, a rabbi, psychiatrist and internationally recognized authority in the chemical dependency field, was among the first to do this. Twerksi led a synagogue congregation until 1959, when he graduated from medical school and completed a residency in psychiatry. He is the founder and medical director emeritus of Gateway Rehabilitation Center, a not-for-profit drug and alcohol treatment system in western Pennsylvania, cited nationally as one of the 12 best drug and alcohol treatment centers by Forbes magazine. Twerski researches the area of Jews and addiction, and his work exemplifies the ways that a Jewish counselor trained in both religion and behavioral science can bring insight to a relationship with a Jewish client that a non-Jewish counselor might not have. Here he writes of his specialty, chemical addiction: "Some people mistakenly believe that programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous have a Christian orientation and are 'off limits' to Jews. But anyone familiar with AA, NA, PA knows that this is simply not true. The Twelve Steps of the 'anonymous' fellowships are very compatible with Judaism, and those Jews familiar with the concepts of musar (Jewish ethics) will recognize the similarities." He goes on to compare each step of Alcoholics Anonymous with a Jewish source. For example, AA steps 1 and 2 claim, "We recognized that we were powerless over alcohol and that only a power greater than ourselves can return our sanity. We choose to call that higher power God as we understand him." Twerski compares this to the Talmud: "Man's yetzer (impulse, temptation) gains upon him every day, and if it were not that God helps him resist the temptation, man would be powerless" (Sukkah, 52a). The Oldest Profession Pastoral counseling is distinct from mainstream psychotherapy because psychologists and psychiatrists are not trained to deal specifically with issues of spirituality and religion. "In pastoral counseling, there is an underlying assumption that God is invited into the room," said Stone. "It's an assumption you don't get in [mainstream] therapy." In addition, said Leslie, the Yale Divinity School professor, there is a widespread perception that mainstream psychologists and psychiatrists are hostile to religion, an attitude held by the (Jewish) father of psychotherapy, Sigmund Freud. Freud famously described religion as an "obsessional neurosis," writing papers with titles such as Obsessive Acts and Religious Practices and Future of an Illusion. But past views have given way to more progressive thinking. The president of the American Psychological Association (APA) and dean of the Simmons College School of Health Studies in Boston, Gerald Koocher, who describes himself as a secular Jew, believes that there is room in the field for pastoral counselors. "There definitely is a role in society for people of faith to deliver counseling services," he said. Though the APA has no official policy on pastoral counseling, Koocher said that he would "never trivialize or deny the importance of spirituality" as part of mental health treatment. "You have to ask what is the nature of the services being provided. If it's a crisis of religious faith, a traumatic social event or a marriage crisis, a member of the clergy with counseling skills and training may be a wonderful service provider. In some cases, a person of faith may be more effective" than a mainstream psychologist, he said. For many, credibility does come down to a question of credentials. Pastoral counselors accredited by the AAPC, which is considered the gold standard membership organization in that field, are credentialed as licensed counselors by the state, and also have religious training and an active affiliation with a religious community. Pastoral counseling itself is not licensable as a discipline in most states, so a counselor typically becomes licensed in marriage and family therapy, or a closely affiliated discipline, and receives specialized training in pastoral counseling. Jewish pastoral counselors are not necessarily ordained clergy, but they are expected to be active and involved with their community. The Role of Religion Although, as Stone said, there is an assumption that "God is invited into the room" during Jewish pastoral counseling sessions, she and other pastoral counselors emphasize that pastoral counseling is not necessarily religiously based and does not have to be linked to a religious struggle. The topics covered in pastoral counseling "don't have to do with God," she said, noting that a pastoral counselor's role is simply to be open, comfortable with and prepared to explore religious issues in depth if the client initiates that conversation. Some pastoral counselors say that they do not talk about religion at all with certain clients. "The pastoral counselor may never use 'God language,'" said Leslie. "We start with the [client] and take our lead from them to look at how [religious] traditions can help the person thrive. We don't look at religion in a proscriptive way." Other pastoral counselors believe that a client who seeks out a therapist with a religious background may be speaking through their actions, if not through their words. For Jack Frank, a retired rabbi who led Kehillat Jacob Beth Samuel in Peterson Park, Ill., for 31 years-during which time he maintained a small private practice in psychotherapy-this issue came up frequently. "I always ask myself, 'Why does someone who wants to see a therapist come to a rabbi?'" he said. "If they ask for a rabbi, they're looking for something from that rabbi. They're trying to explore something. I follow that and help them explore ... I help them uncover what they haven't considered." Others may have a clear sense of the support they need, but no avenue-yet- for the way to meet that need. The AAPC's Ronsheim recalls a call he received a year ago from a community counseling center in Monsey, N.Y., a predominantly Orthodox community. The problems "being presented to local rabbis by congregants related a myriad of family issues," Ronsheim said. "The issue was where to go for assistance. [There was a] definite need for increasing the capacity of rabbis to respond." This community center inquired about developing a pastoral counseling training program specifically for local Orthodox rabbis to better equip them to handle the depth and breadth of inquiries outside the realm of Jewish tradition that came their way. Even Jews who are deeply enmeshed in learning and tradition can benefit from outside therapy, if it is made relevant for them, according to Olin. "There is a central archetype in every tradition relevant to healing and growth, and the Exodus is the central archetype in Jewish life," he said. He points to the ways in which tikkun atzmi, or self-repair, can be liberating and ties this to the Exodus: "Freeing oneself is at the core of human development." Alison Buckholtz is a freelance writer living in Washington D.C. Founded in 1875, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion is the nation’s oldest institution of higher Jewish education and the academic, spiritual, and professional leadership development center of Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR educates men and women for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, educators, and nonprofit management professionals, and offers graduate programs to scholars and clergy of all faiths. With centers of learning in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York, HUC-JIR’s scholarly resources comprise the renowned Klau Library, The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, research institutes and centers, and academic publications. In partnership with the Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, HUC-JIR sustains the Reform Movement’s congregations and professional and lay leaders. HUC-JIR’s campuses invite the community to cultural and educational programs illuminating Jewish history, identity, art, and archaeology, and fostering interfaith and multiethnic understanding. |
