Counselling Skills for Church and Faith Community Workers

This book provides an integrative model of counselling skills that can be used in the pastoral context found in church or faith communities, but may also be of value in many other contexts which recognize the spiritual dimension of people's lives. This creative model draws insights from psychodynamic, person-centred and narrative approaches to counselling.
. Part One focuses on the key tasks, skills and relational qualities that combine to make a good pastoral carer or counsellor.
. Part Two covers three key areas of specific concern in church and faith community contexts: conflicts with beliefs and values; conflicts of power and sexuality; and conflicts with guilt, shame and forgiveness.
The pastoral carer who reads this book will be better equipped to continue the vital role which they play in the life of church or faith communities.

Alistair Ross is Lecturer in Counselling at Birmingham University and a BACP accredited counsellor. He is also a pastoral tutor and research fellow at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Training, Birmingham. Alistair is founding partner of the Institute of Pastoral Counselling, Nottingham. He is a Baptist minister, and for sixteen years was a minister in three churches. He has a research degree in Clinical Theology and was Director of the Bridge Pastoral Foundation (formerly the clinical Theology Association). He is currently researching the nature of pastoral supervision.