How do we find counsellors for those whom we serve especially when people are looking for specific therapeutic approaches/awareness and faith or cultural backgrounds?

This was actually a question to Ministry Forum recently. The following is a round up of resources and posts to help guide you.

Have one to add? Let us know in the comments ⬇️

Psychology Today

We highly recommend Psychology Today’s site for finding a therapist. You can filter using many different variables. It is where most therapists advertise. On a personal note, this site was how I found my newest therapist when I was looking for someone who used a somatic approach.

Visit the Site Here

Presbyterian Church In Canada

If you are someone who works for The Presbyterian Church in Canada, just a reminder that professional church workers and ministers are eligible to participate in the PCC’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP). It offers free short-term counselling for employees and their household family members.

Here’s the brief on it from the PCC.

Suicide Crisis Helpline Dial 9-8-8

Sometimes, things can become overwhelming. We can find ourselves thinking or experiencing suicidal thoughts and feelings. If you find yourself in this space, please reach out and talk to someone. In Canada, a newly launched Suicide Crisis Helpline is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. They offer a safe space to talk. Call or text 9-8-8.

If your safety is at risk, call 9-1-1 right away.

To learn more about suicide prevention, or to get help if you are worried about someone else, visit online

Burn Out

Finally, conversations around workplace ‘burnout’ are rampant today. Like others in the helping professions, ministry leaders are susceptible to the same risks related to burnout. There are various factors that contribute to burnout not the least of which is whether one’s workload is sustainable. Interestingly, when one listens to various podcasts on burnout in ministry leaders (you’ll note I’m not recommending any in particular) the ‘solutions’ offered relate to bettering the individual - improve your time management, plan more effectively, introduce more spiritual practices into your routine, have stronger boundaries, etc. While all of these suggestions are helpful in their own way, what fascinates me is how they put more responsibility on the one suffering from the effects of burnout. In my reading and experience, there is more going on than just an individual’s struggle and much more can be achieved to mitigate its effects through enhanced social supports and systemic organizational (read: church) changes.

If you’d like to learn more, I’d encourage you to read these two books in sequence:

Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter’s The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships with Their Jobs, 2022 and then Matt Bloom’s Flourishing in Ministry: How to Cultivate Clergy Wellbeing, 2019. 

P.s. I subscribe to the work of Spiritual First Aid and the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College in the United States, they produce a variety of resources/e-books/courses from a Biblically, Evidence, Trauma - Informed lens. I found their e-book, Pastor Burnout and Mental Health, a good take on the issues that clergy face and some wholistic suggestions on how to address it as individuals and within ministry contexts. 

If you’d like to talk more about these topics, please reach out. It is an area of passion for me and the work I’m doing at Knox College’s Centre for Lifelong Learning

Cheers,

John

Let us know in the comments if you have a resource that should be on this list