The
Institute for the Support of Pastoral
Ministries - Pastoral Care and Counseling
Offering
religious leaders in both parish and specialized ministries an opportunity
to support and enhance their ministries.
Pastoral
Care and Counseling Consultation Groups
The
Pastoral Care and Counseling Consultation Groups are filled for 2011-2012. If
you are interested in being placed on a waiting list, please contact
Christie Cozad Neuger.
Pastoral Care and Counseling Groups are offered for pastors who seek
to improve their knowledge and skill in pastoral care and counseling.
This year we will offer two kinds of pastoral care consultation
groups: one for religious leaders working primarily in congregations
and one for religious leaders working primarily in specialized pastoral
care settings (e.g. chaplains).
The Pastoral Care and Counseling
Groups are facilitated by Christie
Cozad Neuger, director of the Institute for the Support of Pastoral
Ministries. This is a Certificate program and is eligible for
CEU credits.
Cost for this 10-month consultation group: $500 per person*
*Clergy in the United Church of Christ and the
United Methodist Church may be able to obtain scholarship funds
from their conference setting or annual conference. This may also
apply to ministers in other denominations.
During
the year, special topics
courses will be offered as additional curricular support
to the consultation group.
Registration
form for Pastoral Care and Counseling group (downloadable form)
For more information please contact Christie Neuger,
651.255.6150.
Special
Topics Courses
Supporting Pastoral Care and Counseling Consultation Groups
During
the year, periodic half- to one-day courses on special topics will
be offered. The courses, when taken together with participation
in a consultation group, will enable participants who complete a
total of 50 contact hours (30 in case consultation and 20 in the
short courses) to apply for membership in the American
Association of Pastoral Counselors as “Pastoral Care Specialists.”
Courses are priced individually at typical Continuing Education
rates. Courses are open to any religious
leaders and are not limited to persons enrolled in the Institute.
Christie
Neuger will lead the following one-day Special Topics Course:
Assessing
and Dealing with Issues of Suicide
Monday, May
14
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
A University of Michigan study finds that approximately 40% of
people, when experiencing significant trouble in their lives, seek
help from clergy. Among people who attend religious services, the
number is over 50%. Pastors are often the first people to notice
that a crisis is brewing for a person or family as subtle signs
begin to emerge. In this course we will explore the crisis of suicide,
one of the areas in which clergy seem to experience the most difficulty
when providing pastoral care and counseling. We will look at factors
that seem to be related to increased suicidal threat, how to assess
for that threat, and how to provide crisis care and referral for
people at immediate risk. We will also look at how to work with
people who are at risk but not in immediate crisis. And, we will
work together on pastoral care strategies with people who have experienced
the death of a loved one through suicide.
Fee: $65.00
Students: $35.00 (for students in a degree program at
United)
Download
registration form.
Pastoral
Care and Counseling Special Topics Courses Offered in the Past
(all courses led by Christie Neuger, unless otherwise noted)
ISSUES IN
END-OF-LIFE CARE
March 27, 2012
Caring for people at the end of life and helping
congregants prepare for end-of-life concerns are key elements of
pastoral ministry. In this course we will look at how to help people
in the congregation have appropriate conversations about end-of-life
issues. We will explore the role of advance directives, ethical
wills, and intergenerational conversations about end-of-life preferences
and preparation. We will also look at theological and spiritual
issues associated with end-of-life meaning-making. Finally, we will
discuss grief dynamics and grief care.
REFRESHER IN PASTORAL
CARE FOR CLERGY & LAY CAREGIVERS
December 5, 2011
Pastoral care is a foundational ministry of the Church.
Congregants count on care and support from their pastors and church
community when they experience struggles in their lives. We, as
religious leaders, don’t have a choice about whether we provide
pastoral care – only whether we do it well or not. In this
course we will explore the basics of good pastoral care in the variety
of situations in which it occurs. Key elements will include: general
pastoral visitation, maintaining boundaries and balance, strategies
for assessing pastoral needs, working with grief dynamics, making
good referrals, and organizing as a congregation to provide mutual
care.
REFRESHER
IN PASTORAL CARE AND COUNSELING WITH COUPLES
April 11, 2011
In this course we will explore
various aspects of the theory and practice of pastoral counseling
with couples over typical family life cycles. We will look at the
kinds of needs that couples are likely to have including: preparation
for marriage, adjustments to parenting, addressing couple conflict,
communication challenges, making decisions about separation and
divorce, and seeking couple enrichment.
NEW
DIRECTIONS IN GRIEF CARE
February 15, 2011
One of the most enduring roles
of religious leaders is that of accompanying individuals, families,
and communities through bereavement and grief. In the past 10 years
new grief theory has emerged that has significant implications for
this kind of pastoral care. In this course we will look at some
of these new ideas as they provide resources for how we might best
care for grieving people through the funeral and beyond.
ADVANCED
NARRATIVE RESOURCES FOR PASTORAL COUNSELING
November 29, 2010
In this course we will move from the key assumptions and principles
of Narrative practice addressed in the October workshop to the three
basic types of narrative conversations. The counseling purpose of
narrative conversation is to help people construct a preferred reality
through the stories they tell. These stories help a care seeker
retrieve and make meaningful, experiences in their life that have
not been fully available to them but in which reside the resources
and identity they need for addressing their current difficulties.
Course prerequisite: either the October workshop or previous exposure
to Narrative theory ideas.
NARRATIVE
RESOURCES FOR PASTORAL COUNSELING
October
19, 2010
In this course we will focus on Narrative
Counseling theory and the resources it offers to pastoral caregivers.
This Narrative counseling approach, highly influenced by various
liberation theories, reflects an attentiveness to both culture and
person. It is deeply respectful, relies on a consultative rather
than an expert model, and is elegant in both its simplicity and
thoroughness. Narrative theory’s efficient and effective qualities
as well as the de-centering of the counselor in the counseling process
make this approach particularly well-suited to both parish pastors
and to pastoral care specialists.
CRISIS
CARE: PART II
May 18, 2010
This course picks up where Crisis Care: Part I left off
(although attendance at the earlier class is not a prerequisite).
In this event we will review crisis care and referral principles
and then focus on two particular pastoral care crises: alcohol addiction
and mental illness among people to whom we minister.
BOUNDARIES,
BALANCE, AND SELF-CARE
April 22, 2010
In this course we will explore together how to maintain
the kind of life-giving practices and balanced life-style that can
best sustain an effective and long-lived ministry. We will investigate
how things like our models of ministry, our theological commitments,
and our self-understandings work together to impact our personal
and professional well-being over time.
CRISIS CARE, ASSESSMENT,
AND REFERRAL
December 7, 2009
According to a Gallup poll, clergy are among the most trusted
professionals in society. A University of Michigan study found that
approximately, 40% of people, when experiencing significant trouble
in their lives seek help from clergy. Among people who attend
religious services, the number is over 50%. Pastors are often the
first people to notice that a crisis is brewing for a person or
family as subtle signs begin to emerge. In this course we will explore
three different kinds of crises - mental illness, addiction, and
domestic abuse - and the potential role of the pastor in assessment,
crisis intervention, referral, and ongoing supportive care. The
course is designed with parish pastors particularly in mind but
is also appropriate for chaplains and specialist pastoral counselors.
NARRATIVE THEORY RESOURCES FOR PASTORAL
CARE AND COUNSELING
October 13, 2009
This course focuses on Narrative Counseling theory and
the effective and empowering resources it offers to pastoral caregivers.
The Narrative Counseling approach, highly influenced by various
liberation theories, reflects an attentiveness to both culture and
person. It is deeply respectful, relies on a consultative rather
than expert model, and is elegant in both its simplicity and thoroughness.
It is a theory based on hope and on the foundational reality that
human beings are meaning-making at their deepest core and that reality
is constructed as we make meaning out of our experience. Narrative
theory's efficient and effective qualities, as well as the de-centering
of the counselor in the counseling process, make this approach particularly
well suited both to parish pastors and to specialist pastoral counselors
and chaplains. |
