I want to thank my dear friend, Christian sister, and fellow Parkinson's patient Julie Nichols, for the exchange of ideas which led to this post.
I have the benefit of one of the best seminary educations a pastor could have. I began my studies at the Earlham School of Religion, a Quaker seminary. Then I transferred and finished my MA degree at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. (This was back in the days when Southern Seminary was a real seminary and not the fundamentalist indoctrination mill it is now.) I did my Doctor of Ministry in Theological Reflection at Bethel Theological Seminary in St. Paul, MN. I am old, all of that happened in the 20th century. I tell people I grew up Baptist, went to Quaker seminary, transferred to a Baptist seminary and became a Quaker pastor! (And now I am Roman Catholic!)
While at Southern Seminary I majored in Adult Religious Education, but realizing I would probably have to work as a generalist instead of a specialist, in addition to about 12 hours of educational psychology I took 9 hours of the psychology of religion and pastoral care. My two professors for those classes, were considered, nationally, to be at the apex of that field, Wayne E. Oates and Andrew D. Lester. Dr. Oates is considered by many to be the father of the field of the psychology of religion.
The Struggle to be Free is his memoir. But in his class we read another of his classic books, The Christian Pastor.
Wayne taught us that the role of a pastor in counseling is difficult to navigate. He also wrote the book on Pastoral Counseling. He taught us that pastors can give useful counsel on things like Christian discipleship but to stay away from mental health counseling. He said that at best, the pastor's role in mental health is what he called "the ministry of referral." Even most seminary-trained pastors, those with outstanding educational backgrounds (like myself) are simply not equipped to do mental health counseling. Most pastors are not capable of doing that work, and even if they are, they should NOT even attempt to do that work with their own congregants, for reasons I will cite below. It is as irresponsible for a pastor to provide mental health counseling as it would be for a pastor to perform your appendectomy. It is an abuse of the pastoral role.
It is pastoral malpractice to do therapy on one of your congregants for the following reasons.
Most pastors are not equipped to do professional counseling.
I mentioned that I took educational psychology as well as the psychology of religion. When I began teaching at a community college two decades ago, I taught Introduction to Psychology and Lifespan Development. My background served me well to teach these lower-level courses, but eventually the philosophy department grew to the point where I only taught philosophy. But one semester I was asked to teach Abnormal Psychology and I adamantly refused, because I knew I would be in over my head and it would do the students a great disservice. And I think if I was not in a position to deal with issues of psychological maladaptation, neither were my pastoral colleagues in a denomination where seminary was not even a requirement to be a pastor.
Knowledge of the Bible does not help one counsel.
The Bible is wonderful. Nobody on earth loves the Bible more than me. I have been studying the Bible for 49 years. I have read scripture daily for almost 18,000 consecutive days. But the Bible is not inerrant, and does not address modern-day issues of mental health. While there are valuable Biblical principles, knowing the Bible does not prepare one to do therapy any more than it prepares one to do surgery.
I cannot overemphasize this point because I have seen first hand the harm done by pastors who are not sufficiently trained, but because they have "Rev." in front of their name, people think they are able to help in situations where, honestly, they are not. In fact, they are more likely to do harm than help. I know of one situation where a pastor is facing possible criminal charges because he presented himself as having expertise he did not have, and a congregant who followed his counsel was done great harm. I believe it is morally and professionally irresponsible for a seminary graduate to presume to treat mental health issues, let alone someone who just opens a Bible and starts preaching. (I will admit some bias here, I have always RESENTED people who presume to be preaching with no formal theological training. It took me 15 years to earn two seminary degrees, because of some breaks I took along the way. When I was "recorded" (Quaker lingo for ordination) even though I did not have my master's yet, I had spent more time in a seminary classroom than anyone on my committee!
It is simply inappropriate, professionally, for pastors to do mental health work with a congregant.
I mentioned above the situation where a pastor misrepresented himself. But even if he had the credentials he said he had, in no way should he ever have been counseling a congregant.
I have a friend who I have known for 35 years who is a Quaker minister and a retired family and marriage therapist. But when she was a part-time pastor, she did not perform counseling services for congregants. I know one of his congregants thought this was not good, thinking she should offer her services to congregants for free. This is a bad idea for at least two reasons:
1. It takes advantage of her training. You would not expect a lawyer or a physician to do pro bono work just because they go to your church. It is not fair, if the pastor happens to be a trained therapist, to ask them to do that.
2. It creates a huge problem known as dual relationships. Dual relationships are a disaster. My son is a successful physician, and a regional medical director over several clinics. But when we ask him medical questions, he keeps the information on a basic level, making sure we remember he is our son, not our doctor. He is 100% correct to do that.
Dual relationships are situations where two parties are related in ways in which a problem in one of the relationships will create problems in the other. I always worked hard to avoid dual relationships. I had a congregant get angry with me one time because when I purchased a new clothes dryer I did it from another store instead of his. But my thinking was, and I have seen this play out, if there is some dispute about the purchase it could adversely affect my pastoral relationship with this person. More than once I have disappointed people by making these choices, but I still think I did the right thing. In fact, I encouraged my congregations NOT to do business with one another because it can become ingrown instead of bringing your witness into contact with other people. Most people did not see why I did this, but to me it was ethically required of me.
Even if a pastor is a certified therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist, I would encourage them to negotiate with their faith community that those services not be included in the pastoral services they provide. I would encourage pastors to decline to get involved beyond making a referral because of the particular dangers and pitfalls which can harm the pastoral ministry.
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