LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Pastoral Counseling and Mental Health
A Paper Submitted to
the Faculty of the School of Divinity
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (Ed. D) Department of Christian Leadership and
Church Ministries
By
Mary Gracias
Lynchburg, Virginia
10/2022
Pastoral Counseling and Mental Health
In itself psycho-analysis is neither religious nor non-religious, but an impartial tool which
both priest and layman can use in the service of the sufferer. I am very much struck by the fact
that it never occurred to me how extraordinarily helpful the psychoanalytic method might be in
pastoral work.( Sigmund Freud and Osker Pfister, Psychoanalysis and Faith, trans. Eric
Mosbacher ;New York: Basic Books, 1963), p. 17.)
-- Sigmund Freud
The most significant direct contribution of clergymen to mental health is their counseling
and shepherding of troubled persons.( Action for Mental Health, p. 134.) In his report on the
activities of the churches in the mental health field, Richard- V. McCann declares: "The minister
as counselor is perhaps the one role in which the relations between religion and mental health
are most sharply illuminated," (The Churches and Mental Health, p. 46.)
No one really knows how much time the typical clergyman spends in counseling. The
ministers in McCann's study averaged only 2.2 hours per week in formal counseling
relationships. In contrast, a survey of the activities of thirty-four clergymen in suburban
Pittsburgh showed that they spend thirty percent of their time in counseling at least thirteen
hours each week.( J. W. Eaton, et al., "Pastoral Counseling in a Metropolitan Suburb," Journal of
Pastoral Care (Summer, 1963), pp. 93ff.) In any case, the total investment of pastoral energies
in counseling is impressive. If the 246,600 clergymen serving churches in this country average
only 2.2 hours per week, a remarkable total of over half a million (542,520) hours of pastoral
counseling occurs weekly. The fact that these hours are frequently spent with persons whose
mental health is in jeopardy gives counseling a qualitative significance for mental health which
far outweighs the quantitative investment of pastoral time.
Troubled people are more apt to seek help from a clergyman than from a member of any
other professional group. This puts the minister in a strategic and demanding position. An oft-
quoted study of a cross-section of the American adult population revealed that one out of every
seven Americans has sought professional help with a personal problem. Of these, forty-two
percent went to clergymen, twenty-nine percent went to family doctors, eighteen percent to
psychiatrists and psychologists, and ten percent to a special agency or clinic.( Americans View
Their Mental Health, p. 307). Ministers are on the front lines in the efforts to help the burdened
and the troubled.
In most small communities the only professional people available for counseling are
ministers, physicians, and lawyers. Although the minister's counseling training may be less than
adequate, he ordinarily has considerably more such training than persons in law and medicine.
In the study just cited, sixty-five percent of those who had consulted clergymen reported being
"helped" or "helped a lot"; another thirteen percent indicated that they were helped to a lesser
degree.(Ibid., p. 319) Clergymen led the helping professions in the proportion of counselees
who expressed satisfaction with the results of counseling. In spite of the limited training in
counseling of many ministers, the majority apparently function with impressive effectiveness.
As more and more clergymen receive clinical and academic training in counseling, the quality of
ministerial work with the heavy-laden will continue to rise. The mental health potentialities
which can be realized by increasing the availability of skilled pastoral counseling are immense!
In addition to formal counseling, the general work of pastoral care involves rich
opportunities for informal counseling. Pastoral care is the multifaceted ministry of caring for
the spiritual welfare and growth of persons of all ages. This function is invaluable as a
sustaining, nurturing influence in the lives of millions of people. The minister's caring
symbolizes the caring of the religious community and of God and is expressed in many ways --
for example, a friendly word as people leave the worship service, a congratulatory note when a
member is honored by his company, a visit to welcome a new family to the community, and the
vital pastoral ministries in the pivot points and crises of life -- marriage, birth, death,
confirmation, sickness, accidents, and so forth. For countless persons, this supportive ministry is
indispensable to the maintenance of robust mental health. Over the years many times as many
people are helped through a minister's general pastoring as are helped through formal
counseling.
