10 - Pastoral Care and Counseling

Summary

OVERVIEW. This chapter focuses on the the unique contribution of pastoral care and counseling to processes of healing. The dimension of healing is connected to existential realities that reflect real-life issues. The emphasis is on the healing of life in order to connect to African spiritualities and its interconnectedness to spiritual forces believed to determine the destiny of everyday life. A systems approach, taking into consideration processes of interculturalization, appears best suited to African settings.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of the chapter, the reader should be able to:

• Explain the unique contribution of pastoral care and counseling to processes of healing within a holistic approach to pastoral therapy.

• Describe the interplay between culture and the spiritual realm of life.

• Propose a pastoral assessment/diagnosis in terms of life issues that are a threat to spiritual health.

• Outline the basic features of African spiritualities.

• Relate basic counseling skills to the demands coming from African spiritualities on counseling procedures.

• Critique different anthropological models from a pastoral anthropological perspective.

INTRODUCTION

Any theory of counseling people in Africa, even a definition of care and counseling, should deal with an African world view, philosophy, and spirituality. The concept “Africa” is complex and does not denote a homogeneous group (Long, 2000). Rather, Africa is a philosophical concept, describing the complexity and diversity of different cultural, local, and contextual settings as related to a state of being and mind. Africa is also a “spiritual category.”