Short-Term Spiritual Guidance (Creative Pastoral Care and Counseling)

Short-term Spiritual Guidance, by Duane R. Bidwell, is Quite Excellent. In part it addresses going deeper, and delves into contemplative prayer "guidance." Importantly, the book discusses and shows clearly (with several examples also) that some (probably most) spiritual guidance sessions do not need to go on and on and on. It is mission critical to share and teach even long-time ministers, counselors, spiritual-coaches that most encounters are, and only need to be, short-term--meet just a few times, or maybe just once.In very easy to read writing, Bidwell shows the importance of short term spiritual guidance, and to take care not to make persons dependent on you. Usually, just serving briefly as a mirror or sounding-board and such is sufficient... If someone is psychologically `dependent' and such, they might need to be referred to a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, or psychotherapist if the sessions seem to need to go on and on month after month... It does not make sense--and it can cause positive harm and cripple persons' thinking, heart, mind, and soul, regardless of how they and/or the spiritual "sounding board" perceive it. (There are unique times and circumstances that may require such ongoing continuous meetings; however, they would likely be the exception.)This wonderful little book is also a reminder of some basics in counseling and spiritual guidance that new spiritual-counselors definitely need and that long-time ministers/counselors, etc. often need to be reminded about. I think of the book as "condensed gold." It is well worth having on your shelf and re-reviewing now and then over the years to help re-ground you as a "spiritual mirror." It is one of the core central books that are quite important and helpful to those who are called to be servants of Mankind...

Duane Bidwell has done an excellent job in identifying the realistic albeit challenging notion that spiritual care giving is necessarily short-term in duration. As a result, he identifies a clearly short term model, namely, solution focused brief therapy (SFBT), and adopts it for this type of pastoral care. The result is a richly thought out corrective to SFBT especially through insights from Philippians 2 or what is known as the Christ hymn. Bidwell develops the idea of respect as a central domain for integrating SFBT and pastoral guidance. Second, he provides excellent examples of pastoral work that provide the reader with concrete application of the model. He also provides an outline for the processes involved in this model. I highly recommend this work.

This is not intended for secular therapists, although the "science" is reputable.Many pertinent examples, clear open-ended questions and reflection starters.You do not have to have a Master's of Divinitydegree to benefit from this writing (althoughsuch background is a plus).

I purchased this book for a class on the Spirituality of Counseling in conjunction with work towards an MDiv Degree. It is an excellent resource for anyone interested in either short-term spiritual counseling, meaning folks who seek to discern God's presence at key points in their lives, or integration of spirtituality into discussion of normal life challenges. A great resource for clergy, laity, or anyone interested in this area or work.

This book is a great discussion piece for my Clinical Pastoral Education classes. Good ideas, clear writing style--all around useful tool for spiritual care giving of any type.

The authors succeeds in showing creative ways to introduce concepts, techniques and interventions from brief therapy into pastoral care without giving up or neglecting theological perspectives.

Creative and profound application of spirit. Well worth read.