1. Pastoral care basics
Foundation Course

2. CREATING AN OPTIMUM ATMOSHERE
Relax !!
There’s no
“Right” or “Wrong”
We’re All Learners:
“Art of Pastoral Care”
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
CREATING AN OPTIMUM ATMOSHERE

3. Criteria for Assessing Pastoral Care
PV Response
Right
PV Response
Wrong
No Right or Wrong !!

4. Effectiveness Continuum
Less Effective
More Effective

5. Introducing Self as PV Introduction FIRST STEP
Two Fundamental Points:
Who you are.
Identify self as Pastoral Visitor
Why you’re there.
Explain the purpose of the visit.
Introduction
ESSENTIAL
FIRST STEP

6. “Spirituality and Pastoral Identity” p. 44-51
HENRI NOUWEN
CREATIVE MINISTRY

7. IDENTITY
Doing (tasks)?
Listens welling
Praying well
Being?
Our being
Our personhood
Being / doing
WHO AM I?

8. Pastoral presence
MORE THAN A CLICHÉ

9. Fr. Melloh
Notre Dame

10. “Incarnational Theology and Pastoral Care (Roman Catholicism)”
Fr. Melloh’s Essay
“Incarnational Theology and Pastoral Care (Roman Catholicism)”
“Human existence is embodied. We do not have a body, but we are a body.”
Dictionary of PC & C, p

11. “Pastoral Presence”
Three Levels of Awareness:
Self-awareness
Pointing beyond oneself
Awareness of the other
John Patton
PASTORAL CARE:
AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE

12. Pastoral / Social conversation
A CRUCIAL DISTINCTION

13. 10 Points of comparison Role Energy Attention Questions Talking
Listening Empathy Acceptance Personal History Helping

14. Pastoral History Limited to facilitating the other’s story
Sample comparison
pastoral
social
Pastoral History Limited to facilitating the other’s story
Personal History Often based on “the moment” and mutual sharing

15. Listening and empathy
UNIVERSAL HUMAN NEEDS

16. GENERATES EMPATHIC CONNECTIONS
empathic listening
GENERATES EMPATHIC CONNECTIONS

17. “…identify with and experience another person’s experience”
“Empathy”
“…identify with and experience another person’s experience”
“…by, as much as possible, suspending one’s own frame of reference …to enter the perceptual and emotional world of the other.”
Dictionary of PC & C, p354
David Massey
North Georgia
Counseling Assoc.

18. Empathy is necessary nonetheless!!
Empathy has limits
Never complete and total
Momentary, fragile and incomplete
Mystery and uniqueness to each person
Empathy is necessary nonetheless!!

19. Personal history
Even if similar personal experience, listen for the distinctive contours of their experience.

20. Sociological factors
Language – History – Culture Sensitive and knowledgeable Lack of respect compromises empathy

21. The Practice of Pastoral Care:
Carrie Doehring
The Practice of Pastoral Care:
A Postmodern Approach

22. “Intercultural Spiritual care”
“…to describe pastoral and spiritual care as a
co-creative process of intermingling stories….
the interacting multilayered stories of people
embedded in overlapping familial, communal,
and social systems.”
Doehring, The Practice of Pastoral Care, Glossary

23. Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures
Erin Meyer
THE CULTURE MAP
Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures

24. Communication styles Low-Context – Precise, clear. Ex: U.S.
High-Context – Nuanced, layered. Ex: Japan
Analyzes 27 countries
(Meyer, The Cultural Map, p. 39.)

25. Fr. Henri Nouwen

26. The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
Healing = Listening
“Providing healing
(listening) means the
creation of an empty
but friendly space
where those who suffer
call tell their story…”
p. 67
Reaching out:
The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

27. The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
“The most important
question as healers
(listeners) is not, ‘What
to say or to do?’ but
how to develop enough
inner space where the
story can be received.”
p. 68
Reaching out:
The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

28. “Empty but friendly space”
Pastoral Visitor

29. “Empty but Friendly Space”
Pastoral Visitor

30. CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION
Rev. Herbert Anderson
CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION
Professor Emeritus

31. First Movement: “Pre-understanding” Attitudes we bring which help us “toward understanding” the other
“THE EMPATHY PROCESS”
Herbert Anderson

32. Wonder - Primary Attitude
“The Empathy Process”
The First Movement – Pre-understanding (Attitudes We Bring)
(Adaptation by Theodore Smith)
Herbert Anderson, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology
Catholic Theological Union
Wonder - Primary Attitude
Rapt Attention
Amazed Admiration
Willingness to be surprised
Openness to journey
Additional Attitudes
Curiosity
Humility
Openness to Change
Hospitality

33. Attitudes we bring
WONDER Rapt attention Amazed admiration Willingness to be surprised Openness to journey into mystery

34. Curiosity Humility Openness to Change Hospitality
Additional attitudes
Curiosity Humility Openness to Change Hospitality

35. “The Empathy Process” (cont.)
Second Movement: “Listening” Entering the World of the Other
“The Empathy Process” (cont.)
Herbert Anderson

36. The Second Movement – Listening Entering the World of the Other
Herbert Anderson, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology
Catholic Theological Union
“The Empathy Process”
The Second Movement – Listening
(Combined with Henri Nouwen’s “Empty, Friendly Space”)
NARRATIVE
Pastoral Visitor
Care Receiver
Entering the World of the Other
Cleaning the Clutter
Receiving
Observing
Imaging
Suspending Judgment

37. Entering the other’s world
Cleaning the Clutter Receiving Observing Imaging Suspending Judgment

38. Empathy – two step process
The other knows they’ve been heard Their pain is in our heart Martin Buber “Empathy demands the most intensive stirring of one’s being.”

39. More Basics
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