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THE SAMARITAN MODEL
Clearly defining what a Samaritan Center is and how it differs from other counseling
programs is not as easy as it might seem. The main reason for this is that, while all Centers
are connected to the Samaritan network and conform to the Institute’s accreditation standards,
by intention each Center is independently incorporated and designed to meet the special needs
of its supporting congregations and community.
For this reason, patterns of organization and services differ from Center to Center. For
example, some programs emphasize long-term growth counseling, some concentrate on
preventive health care, while others do mostly short-term behaviorally focused therapy, or
specialize in education and arbitration services. The Samaritan Institute works with each
Center according to its needs to bring organizational, management, and financial information
and experience to bear in carrying out its mission.
The Samaritan Model
Having acknowledged the diversity of Samaritan Center experience, there are five core
requirements defining the Samaritan model which Centers hold in common:
1. All Centers have a theological purpose for their existence, and they build their
programs in accordance with this purpose. It is called a Samaritan ministry.
Accountability for this mission is exercised through the Center’s board of directors to
the local and extended religious community.
2. All Centers offer outpatient counseling and/or psychotherapy, educational programs,
and consultation to pastors and health professionals. Diversified programming beyond
these basics is optional and usually beneficial.
3. All Centers use a team approach that combines the special talents of therapists, clergy,
and physicians to achieve a holistic perspective in the treatment and care of clients.
4. All Centers provide services through professionally trained, licensed and/or certified
staff members. There is an exception for counselors working under supervision
towards the completion of this requirement.
5. All Centers must meet the Samaritan Institute accreditation standards to ensure
professional and organizational accountability.
What are some of the differences between Samaritan Centers and other organizations and
groups that provide counseling and psychotherapy? Only four comparisons will be made
here: with AAPC pastoral counseling centers, with secular therapy practices, with those who
label themselves as “Christian counselors,” and with faith group social services agencies.
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The Samaritan Model, page 2
Samaritan Centers and Pastoral Counseling Centers
The closest parallels to Samaritan Centers are American Association of Pastoral Counseling
accredited pastoral counseling centers (AAPC centers). The aims of AAPC centers are very
similar to Samaritan Centers, but there are often differences in structure, in adherence to
AAPC standards of training and practice, and in organizational backup.
Structurally, for example, AAPC centers mandate the employment of AAPC certified
members in positions of leadership. Samaritan Centers do not make this stipulation, although
many Samaritan staff counselors and directors have AAPC certification and some Centers are
accredited both by the Samaritan Institute and AAPC. The difference is that Samaritan
Center directors may be psychologists, social workers, or marriage and family therapists with
experience in integrating psychology and religion, rather than pastoral counselors.
While both organizations champion the integration of psychology and religion, there is some
difference in emphasis on the validity and usefulness of the term “pastoral counseling.” For
AAPC centers, pastoral counseling or pastoral psychotherapy have technical meanings
stemming from AAPC definitions and training protocols which require ordination as a
clergyperson or its equivalent. For Samaritan Centers, pastoral counseling encompasses a
broader framework of “faith-based” counseling which indicates expertise in integrating
psychology and religion but does not require ordination. The difference, in other words, is in
who does the counseling and what that counseling is called. In practice, these distinctions
may have little direct consequence.
Samaritan Centers and Secular Therapists
At one time, faith-based counseling or pastoral counseling represented a unique form of
helping which contrasted markedly with secular approaches that eschewed the overt use of
religious language and symbols. Today the picture is changing. Many secular practitioners
eagerly embrace a kind of humanist-spiritual language that seems to mirror what Samaritan
counselors represent and do. Are they really the same, and if not, what is the difference?
First, it is important to point to what Samaritan Centers and high quality secular therapists
have in common, namely adherence to professional standards, licensed/certified practice, and
up-to-date training and supervision. Samaritan Centers, like their secular counterparts, do not
cut corners on professional standards of practice.
The main difference is this: in Samaritan Center practice, the faith resources of the client are
openly acknowledged and utilized in the therapeutic enterprise within a context that is
recognizable as ministry, whereas secular therapists, even those who use religious language,
do not have a ministry context to work with. To further delineate this distinction, good
therapists of all sorts, Samaritan and secular, should and do respect and try to understand the
religious ideas and feelings of their clients, which helps to build a positive relationship in
which therapy can take place. But Samaritan practice aims at something deeper. The client’s
faith system and faith resources are addressed as part of the therapy, provided the client is
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The Samaritan Model, page 3
willing to be engaged in this manner. This is a holistic approach that views the person in
mind-body-spirit integration, not as separate psychological, physical, or religious packaging.
The religious context of the counseling has an important part to play in bringing this
integration into focus. Most Samaritan Centers have covenant exchanges with area
congregations whose ministry the Center extends in a specialized way. This communicates
clearly for those who participate in those congregations that what is being done has a ministry
dimension linked to a particular religious body.
Samaritan Centers and Christian Counseling Groups
In recent years the term “Christian counseling” has come into play. What this usually means
is the advocacy of a particular brand of Christian teaching in the counseling enterprise.
Christian counselors, in this sense, explicitly share their own faith with the client, pray with
them, and in some instances proselytize through the helping process. Christian counseling in
its best representation is similar to pastoral care, where pastors use their own and their faith
community’s resources to meet the needs of those who come to them in life crisis and
transition. This can be done in a church setting or as a separate group practice. Some
Christian counselors integrate quality secular training into their practice and are state licensed
as psychologists and social workers; others have almost no supervised training.
Samaritan Centers and Christian counselors share in common a willingness to be explicit
about the religion of their clients and to value a ministry context. Where Samaritan practice
markedly differs is in how religion is viewed and how the client’s religion is responded to in
the counseling situation. Samaritan counselors view their client’s religion as part of the
person’s whole personality. Religion is viewed as mixed and multidimensional. There are
various degrees of spirituality, of development, of formal religious affiliation, and of
education. One also needs to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy religion.
Samaritan counselors see it as their task to study the religion of their clients and to help the
client make use of the positive features of it to change and grow, in the context of appropriate
psychological and medical diagnosis and treatment. It is not their task to evangelize or to
force compliance with a preconceived set of religious ideas and practices. They would see
that as professionally unethical.
Faith Group Social Service Agencies
Catholic Social Services (CSS), Jewish Family Services (JFS), and Lutheran Social Services
(LSS) are three faith group agencies that serve their own constituencies and to some extent the
general public. They offer a broad range of social services, including adoptions, refugee
resettlement, specialized social work programs, and counseling. In many instances, these
other programs utilize more of the organization’s attention and resources than does the
counseling.
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The Samaritan Model, page 4
Samaritan Centers, by contrast, focus their work in the counseling and educational arenas,
rarely offering the kinds of social services typical of faith group agencies. Also, as the names
imply, these agencies are expressions of particular faith groups, whereas most Samaritan
Centers strive for broad-based interfaith sponsorship and support.
A majority of the clients of CSS and JFS, and to a lesser extent LSS, are from constituent
communities. This contrasts with Samaritan Centers whose clients tend to come from the
general community, although as many as 80% of them have a religious affiliation and a good
many are referrals from sponsoring congregations.
Samaritan Centers seldom hold official positions on controversial issues that may arise in
counseling, such as abortion and homosexuality, whereas Catholic Social Services, for
instance, must adhere to Roman Catholic positions on such matters. As mentioned earlier,
the aim of Samaritan practice is to help clients integrate their faith and spiritual concerns with
their counseling, a perspective that differs from most of these agencies. Lutheran Social
Services, for example, intentionally leaves clients to deal with religious and spiritual concerns
through their pastors and congregations rather than in the counseling process.
Organizational Backup
No description of the Samaritan model would be complete without reference to the role of the
Samaritan Institute in coaching and supporting Samaritan Centers. The Institute offers a full
range of organizational, management, and leadership consultation and education to its
network Centers, with accreditation standards and an accreditation process the core
ingredient. Samaritan Centers need not and do not stand alone, because they are part of a
network. They are encouraged to participate in the knowledge and experience that the
Institute has developed over the years in starting and nurturing small and large programs and
in understanding what contributes to their success.
This adds to the picture of the Samaritan model, namely that it is a partnership of Centers
whose staffs and boards promote the specialized ministry of counseling in their local
communities, and who benefit from association with others who are engaged in the same
enterprise.
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