Pastoral Counseling is a confidential relationship between a trained professional and a person who desires to see some changes in their life. Sessions are normally held weekly for 50 minutes and may be short term or long term - a few weeks, a few months, a year or more. Pastoral Counseling is based on Cognitive Restructuring (learning to walk in the Spirit and not the flesh).

Counseling is not so much a matter of getting advice as it is:

• learning to listen to oneself

• becoming detached enough to see a new perspective

• learning new communication skills

• sitting with old hurts (rather than brushing them away and finding they erupt in other ways)

• looking at family-of-origin patterns that may no longer serve you

• letting go

• people in debt and do not know what to do

• accepting limitations and weaknesses

• recognizing and acting on strengths

• risking new ways of being with oneself and others

These are just some of the things that clients have said were helpful to them in therapy.

The Pastoral Counseling process recognizes that each of us is "made in the image and likeness of God," growing towards wholeness. It is about looking to God, as He is the solution, understanding that usually we have problems in life because of the results of a condition of our heart or spirit. It is learning who we are in Christ, our purpose or calling, and how to get on track in His perfect will.

When a person shares that which is most real, most true, even when it is full of brokeness, s/he is close to God. It is Truth that sets one free for healing. Pastoral Counseling believes Christ's words in the Gospels:

People who recognize any of these conditions: