Foundations of counseling (for non-therapists)
July 16, 23, 30, and August 6th??
Cherry Hill Seminary, Summer 2009
Instructor: Tracy Wharton
Contact info: (205) 409-4424; trcharisse@gmail.com; Skype: Trcharisse
This course will be entirely reading, assignment and forum based. While I am
available by appointment for live discussion, the class will be done in an
asynchronous format, with no live component. The format of the class depends on
the participation of everyone in roughly the same time frame, so please contact me
immediately to let me know if you will be late completing readings/assignments so
that I can be sure to make appropriate arrangments for your participation.
Some of the issues that we will discuss are going to touch on controversial or
“politically correct” topics, and may raise feelings that we are not proud of or were
not aware of, either in ourselves or in our classmates (or your teacher!). I would like
to remind students that we are a college with a wide range of opinions, experiences,
and points-of-view, and all views are welcome and encouraged for free expression
in this class. There will be disagreement, and we will likely feel the desire to judge or
respond sharply to each other, and I want to encourage people to write responses
out first before posting, and remind everyone that respect and inclusiveness are
paramount, and sometimes our words can be difficult to interpret in static text on a
screen. Inappropriate comments to other students will not be tolerated and will be
reported to the supervisory staff of the seminary. That said, I hope that you will
approach these readings, assignments and discussions honestly, and respond to
each other in an honest and supportive manner. We have much to learn about
ourselves and about each other, and I hope that this short course will provide an
opportunity to do just that. If you ever feel that the questions are too personal, and
you would like to respond to an assignment directly by email, you are free to do
that, and I will post a note on the forum that I received your assignment. Please
remember that becoming a pastoral counselor is a journey of self-discovery, and I
hope that it is one that you will find fulfilling, and that you will face the challenges
and occasional discomfort head-on.
If you need assistance related to a disability, it is your responsibility to contact the
Cherry Hill offices and make appropriate arrangements for accomodation.
Objectives:
 Students will be able to identify several areas where boundaries are difficult
to maintain in a counseling relationship.
 Students will understand the dynamic of creating, living and terminating
relationships in a counseling setting.
 Students will undertand how ethical issues can be unclear and how multiple
relationships can be particularly challenging for pagan clergy.
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Students will be able to identify some aspects of the lens through which they
see and interpret the world.
Students will understand the concepts of beneficence, non-malfeasance,
paternalism, self-determination, social justice, & respect in counseling
settings.
Students will have a basic understanding of some common mental health
issues, and what is involved in making the decision to refer.
Textbooks:
I tried to choose books that were relatively inexpensive, and contained excellent
material that would be useful to you beyond this course. I hope that you will read
the parts that we skip in this class, and find them as helpful as I did.
Sanders, P. (2002). First steps in counselling: A students’ companion for basic
introductory courses (3rd ed). Ross-on-wye: PCCSBooks. ISBN: 978-1-898-059516
Golightley, M. (2008). Social work and mental health (3rd ed). Exeter: Learning
Matters press. ISBN: 978-1-84445-154-8
Articles will be provided for you.
I
Counselor, pastor, elder, teacher, group member? Boundaries and roles
Each of these roles in our lives has different and distinct boundaries. For clergy,
these can easily become blurred, especially when counseling becomes part of the
mix. Setting and maintaining boundaries is critically important for the protection of
both the provider and the person being helped. Learning to do this, and
understanding what drives us to provide help is a challenging part of becoming a
counselor.
Reading assignment: (hint: write your reactions to the articles in the margins for
referral later)
 Sanders book, ch 1: What is Counseling? P.1-12
 Corey, Corey & Callanan: Issues and Ethics (valuesEthics.doc)
 Skovholt & Ronnestad: Struggles of the Novice Counselor and Therapist
(Novice.counselor.pdf)
 Haug: Boundaries and the use and misuse of power and authority: Ethical
complexities for clergy psychotherapists (boundaries_ethics.pdf)
 Webb: Training for maintaining appropriate boundaries in counselling (you can
skip the section on training content if you wish) (782793312.pdf)
Questions for discussion: Post a brief response to each of the questions below in the
forum for the week; you may do this all in one post, or as several separate ones.
It might be helpful to do them over the course of a week.
You may wish to write out your answers before posting them and cut-and-paste to the
forum, to avoid losing your work in the online forum halfway through a great
response. Answers do not have to be long or fancy, but should be honest and answer
the question, however long that takes.
Once you have posted your responses, please respond to at least one other post from a
classmate; doesn’t have to be long or complex.
 What are your thoughts on what pastoral counseling is and is not? Why do you
want to do it? (the bullet points on p. 2 & 3 of the Sanders book might help you
think about this)
 How do you think the issues discussed in these papers apply to clergy, and what
reactions did you have to the assertions that were made?
 How do you decide if it’s appropriate to counsel a member of your coven on a
sensitive topic? How do you handle confidentiality?
 How do you set boundaries between your role as priest/ess, your role as
pastoral counselor, your role as friend or coven/grove mate, and your personal
life? How do you clarify when it’s ok for someone to call you with a problem and
how you are expected to respond (is 3am ok?)?
 What do you think of the issue of power in the therapeutic relationship with a
member of clergy? What are some ways that you will be in a position of power as
a pastoral counselor? How do you distinguish between this and other roles that
you have with others, for yourself? For them?
 How do you get clarification on what is and is not your role? How do you know
when you have reached the boundaries of that role?
II
Creating relationship and Termination
Counseling of any sort involves the continual proces of creating relationships, living
with them, and ending them. This requires careful attention, a special skill set to do
it carefully and appropriately, and the strength of spirit to be able to endure this
constant cycle.
a. Building rapport
b. Terminating relationships appropriately and honoring the separation
Readings:
 Sanders, Ch. 5: Counselling and helping attitudes and skills (p.63-82)
 Sanders, Ch 14: Endings (p. 143-144).
Questions for discussion:
Post a brief response to each of the questions below in the forum for the week; you may
do this all in one post, or as several separate ones.
It might be helpful to do them over the course of a week.
You may wish to write out your answers before posting them and cut-and-paste to the
forum, to avoid losing your work in the online forum halfway through a great
response. Answers do not have to be long or fancy, but should be honest and answer
the question, however long that takes.
Once you have posted your responses, please respond to at least one other post from a
classmate; doesn’t have to be long or complex.
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What do you think is the hardest thing about building a relationship?
What are some ways that you might use ritual to mark the creation of special
place or relationship for pastoral counseling?
What are some things you might say to someone as you plan to terminate a
counseling relationship? How would you deal with your feelings about it? Can
you think of a simple ritual that you might use with someone to mark/symbolize
the ending of that relationship (especially is you are still going to see the person
in other roles)?
How do you currently handle endings in your life? Are there areas that you think
might be a good place to focus for improvement and increased comfort for you?
III
Ethics, values, and multiple role dilemmas
Returning to the issue of boundaries, we need to examine the ethics that guide us
and help us to govern our choices and behavior. Although the big issues are usually
easy to negotiate, there are many areas that are not quite so clear. Knowing what
our own values are and how we engage with issues of social justice, selfdetermination, respect and beneficence allows us to negotiate the grey areas more
comfortably and be confident that we are always acting in a responsible, ethical
manner in working to protect ourselves and our clients’ best interests.
a. Conflict of interest and referrals
b. Beneficence, non-malfeasance, and paternalism; self-determination,
social justice, & respect;
c. Defining your values and lens (personal, familial, cultural and societal)
d. Dual (or more) relationships and small community issues
Reading assignment:
Martsolf: Codependency, boundaries, and professional nurse caring
(codependency….pdf) *pay particular attention to the sections on setting boundaries
Sanders, Ch 4: Prejudice, oppression and counseling, p.55-62
Golightly, pages 8 (values in action)- 18 (thru Promoting your own mental health).
(something about terms above)
(something about dual relationships and small community issues)
Questions for discussion: Post a brief response to each of the questions below in the
forum for the week; you may do this all in one post, or as several separate ones.
It might be helpful to do them over the course of a week.
You may wish to write out your answers before posting them and cut-and-paste to the
forum, to avoid losing your work in the online forum halfway through a great
response. Answers do not have to be long or fancy, but should be honest and answer
the question, however long that takes.
Once you have posted your responses, please respond to at least one other post from a
classmate; doesn’t have to be long or complex.
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How do you think the discussion of boundaries in the Martsolf article applies to
pagan clergy? Are there situations where boundary violations could easily slip
by or where it might be difficult to set boundaries (you may want to think back
to week 1 discussion question)? How do boundary violations infringe on the
freedom of clients?
What are: Beneficence, non-malfeasance, paternalism, self-determination, social
justice, & respect, in the context of counseling?
Define yourself. Write out all of the “isms” that describe who you are, including
your heritage, where you live, nationality, your language, age, sex, expression of
identify, lifestyle, religion, profession, and anything else you can think of. How
many of these things describe the entirety of who you are, and how many of
them do you need to put together for someone to get an idea of who you are?
How many of these types of things do you usually know about people that you
work with in a professional setting? How important do you think it is to
understand the “lens” that someone else sees the world with, if you are going to
undertake a counseling relationship with them?
IV
Practicing in your scope (or: Visions or Hallucinations?)
a. a primer on mental health disorders and the DSM IV
b. knowing how to help, when to refer and how to follow up
c. diversity and cultural respect
Readings:
Sanders, Ch 6: What to do when you reach your limits? P. 83-90
(a database of evidence to look at for familiarity? Something that talks about the
DSM-IV?)
Golightly, Ch 2 (mental health)
Golightly, Ch 4 (children and adolescents)
Golightly, Ch 5 (adults in short term need)
Optional reading: ch 6 (adults in long-term need) and 7 (working across
professional boundaries); the paragraph on Evidence-based Practice and references
on pages 152-3 are also very helpful.
Questions for discussion: Post a brief response to each of the questions below in the
forum for the week; you may do this all in one post, or as several separate ones.
It might be helpful to do them over the course of a week.
You may wish to write out your answers before posting them and cut-and-paste to the
forum, to avoid losing your work in the online forum halfway through a great
response. Answers do not have to be long or fancy, but should be honest and answer
the question, however long that takes.
Once you have posted your responses, please respond to at least one other post from a
classmate; doesn’t have to be long or complex.
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How can you tell the difference between a religious experience and a mental
health problem? When and how do you decide to intervene? What if a dying
person, for example, told you that she saw angels, but you saw and felt
nothing? Describe an example from your life, a book, or history, and discuss
this point. You might consider, for example, St Teresa of Avila, the children
who have seen Mary appear, Joan of Arc, or King George (the mad).
What could you do to find out more about mental health issues, like ADHD,
depression or Alzheimer’s disease? Is there someone that you know who can
help you identify sources of or provide you with additional information?
Final paper: Go to page 105 of the Sanders book, and answer the questions in the
box (your political and spiritual beliefs and your helping approach). How have the
topics and discussions that we have engaged with in this class interacted with these
beliefs, and has there been any change to your thoughts on becoming a pastoral
counselor? This doesn’t have to be long, but it does have to answer all questions (so
I expect to see at least 6 paragraphs here- one for each question).