Ministerial Counseling:
A Guide for Those on the Front Lines of Mental Health
Rev. Dr. Ludvig

for the Esoteric Theological Seminary

As a minister, you may now find yourself on the front line of the battle against mental illness. Recent studies have shown that almost 50% of those who have sought mental health treatment first consulted a minister.
A worship community is a social community, and there are people in society who suffer from mental illness. Hence, we cannot expect that our worship communities will be exempt from the trials that mental illness can bring.
            Therefore, every minister should be prepared for the fact that at some time in his or her career, s/he will be confronted with a mental health situation. How will you react? Are you truly prepared?
            In all honesty, one cannot be prepared with one, or even 10 courses in mental health. Essentially, several years of graduate study and direct training under a supervisor are required to become truly effective at providing counseling and/or psychotherapy.
            Consequently, this course will not seek to prepare you for the work of a counselor or psychotherapist. Instead, it will assist you in becoming more informed as one who will be able to know when to make an appropriate referral.
            This is not to say that ministers do not, or should not counsel. The practice of spiritual guidance pre-dates psychology by thousands of years, and we cannot forget that the very roots of the psychotherapeutic traditions are to be found in the workings of the shamanic healers of old.
            This means that a minister can and should be encouraged to provide guidance services, but that s/he should also seek competence in the area in which s/he hopes to practice, and even more importantly, that s/he knows when a situation is beyond his or her area of competency.
            First and foremost, the minister should maintain that any situation in which homicidal or suicidal ideation is present requires an intervention on the level of crisis intervention and hospitalization. To attempt to manage this situation alone could lead to disaster.
            Additionally, any case that involves a diagnosable psychopathology should be referred to another professional who specializes in this kind of work. Once again, to attempt to manage this kind of a situation as a minister could become highly problematic.
            Therefore, it may be prudent at this point to elucidate some kind of “rule of thumb” to assist ministers in knowing when to refer. For this purpose, I offer the following question that every minister should ask him or herself when considering the possibility of working with a case:
“If the situation is one that makes me feel uncomfortable, and in my heart and mind I feel that I cannot offer the BEST care in this instance, and I further understand that I am not licensed or certified to approach said situation, I am obligated to refer.”
            If this approach is adhered to, there should rarely be a problem, and the minister can feel more secure in knowing that no legal or ethical breeches will occur. This means that the minister will then be able to focus upon those situations in which his or her expertise is most appropriate.
            And what might be these situations? Well, the minister is a wonderful choice for situations that involve moral, ethical and/or spiritual conflict. Ministers can also be very helpful in assisting with relationship issues. Additionally, ministers are often the best choice for providing life coaching and spiritual direction services.

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Please Copy & Paste the Following Questions into an email, insert your answers and send to the Seminary with the following subject line: Min Counseling Ethics from ____________ (your name)

1. When is it not okay for a minister to try to counsel someone?

2. Should a minister ever try to do mental health counseling, psychotherapy and such?

3. Ministers are often called Pastoral Counselors because they counsel their "flock". In what areas of counseling do ministers shine?

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