Building Bridges Over Troubled Waters Enhancing Pastoral Care And Guidance

Congregants seem increasingly eager and motivated to, specifically, seek out clergy and church associates for pastoral care to assist them in resolving life struggles and problems. Often, the problems and issues presented or which emerge are laden with complexities. The purpose of Building Bridges Over Troubled Waters: Enhancing Pastoral Care & Guidance is to bring to clergy and faith communities knowledge from the behavioral sciences which can enhance pastoral care skills in meeting parishioner/congregant needs in vital and sustaining ways. Those in the human social service and mental health/substance abuse professions will also benefit from the authors' insights and knowledge as it pertains to embracing spirituality and religion within the helping relationship alliance. The book consists of nineteen chapters and three major sections. The first section with five chapters, Foundations of Pastoral Care, focuses on the basic elements of how clergy can and should provide care to their parishioners. Section two, Caring for Parishioners, targets a wide range of specific needs of parishioners based upon various human conditions, problem presentations, and "trials and tribulations" and has ten chapters. The last four chapters and third section of the book is entitled: Issues for Clergy Wellness: Maintaining Bridges for Strength & Minimizing Morbidity. This portion of the book emphasizes the pressures that clergy often operate under, and how they can deal with these in order to avoid excessive stress as well as considerable loss of personal energy. As psychologists, we are very concerned with the topic of clergy well-being and believe this topic is often not confronted more openly. Book jacket.Herl, David is the author of 'Building Bridges Over Troubled Waters Enhancing Pastoral Care And Guidance', published 2004 under ISBN 9781556053672 and ISBN 1556053673.