During the Holiday season spiritual counselors are in high demand
This time of year spiritual counselors are constantly called upon to lift the spirits of the lonely and disenfranchised. So many people suffer from Holiday depression. Become a counselor and reach out. A Ph.D. in Spiritual Counseling, Spiritual Healing or Pastoral Counseling may be your calling. With a doctorate degree from the Seminary you can start bettering lives by offering online, in person or telephone counseling services.
Is Spiritual Counseling your Calling?
Each degree from us comes with free clergy ordination. You become a spiritual counselor with Dr. in front of your name and also receive the minister, rabbi, pastor, reverend, etc. title of your choice. The ordination gives you client-clergy privilege and the ability to legally accept tax-free donations for your services. The doctorate degree gives you the credentials you need to lend reassurance to those who come to you for counseling, wisdom and spiritual guidance, life coaching, spiritual healing, etc.
Become part of our global Clergy Network
Once you become ordained you are part of our network and can join our member’s only forums. Here is a tidbit we posted the other day for our clergy members: Oprah’s website has a video of spiritual teachers and clergy giving their opinion of the most comforting 3-word phrases you can say. Some examples are “Treat yourself gently,” and “I hear ya.”
One of the clergy they interviewed says three words are not enough, five is better: “You don’t have to pretend”. These are good little tips for the ordained clergy to keep in mind during the holiday season when ironically we are called upon more than ever for spiritual and pastoral counseling.
DEGREE INFORMATION
For information on getting your Ph.D. in Metaphysics, Ph.D. in Spiritual Counseling, Pastoral Counseling, Spiritual Healing, or other customized Ph.D. title go here.
For more information on a Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Theology or Doctor of Ministry degree click here.
The clergy confidentiality protection is very reassuring to those you counsel
Ordained Clergy give spiritual counseling with full confidentiality protection
A minister we ordained this week (2016) just wrote in:
“Thank you for the update on my ordination papers. I can tell you I am very relieved now that my [spiritual counseling] work will go ahead without questioning [by authorities]. Just today someone wanted to know what it was I offer. As soon as I told them I was ordained and anything we speak about is completely confidential, you could see an ease come over them.”
Clergy have been spiritual advisers for not just centuries, but millennia (!). There is a reason human beings keep coming to ordained clergy for guidance. Peace of mind and assurance of confidentiality are basic human rights, sadly not available in so many countries, where religion is used as a weapon, not a protection.
Ordination as a Minister
Ordination as a minister, Rabbi, pastor (or other clergy) provides total confidentiality when offering spiritual counseling, spiritual advising or spiritual healing. It gives peace of mind and assurance to those you help.
Get ordained and join the alternative clergy movement to serve your community
One of our recently ordained ministers also needed a religious PhD degree via distance learning with credit for his life work, and he needed it for a specific spiritual niche in which he works. We do allow PhD candidates to “design” their degree title to match what they are doing in the field of spirituality. Sometimes it is very interesting the religious degrees they need, such as PhD in Vedic Studies, or Jewish Theology, or the unique degree diploma we conferred this week — PhD in Celtic & Anglo-Saxon Religious Studies.
Traditional PhD in Religious Studies or Religion
Many people just need the traditional PhD in Religious Studies or PhD in Religion, while some are doing spiritual or pastoral counseling and need a counseling degree.
PhD in Pastoral Counseling is similar to PhD in Spiritual Counseling
Many ordained clergy are doing a lot of spiritual and religious counseling, traditionally called “Pastoral Counseling”. So the seminary often gets requests for a PhD in Pastoral Counseling in some countries called the DPC or Doctor of Pastoral Counseling. We also get requests for its more modern version, the PhD in Spiritual Counseling and sometimes a PhD in Christian Counseling. All of these seminary doctorate degrees entitle the recipient to be called a doctor and put Dr. in front of their name, just as the D.Div (Doctor of Divinity) and Th.D. (Doctor of Theology) allow.
Become a Rev. Dr.
And since we always ordain our degree graduates (unless they are already ordained as a minister, rabbi, or other clergy) the religious doctorate degree graduate may also be called a Rev. Dr., such as Rev. Dr. Jean Goddard. Read all about that in our Seminary Doctorate Degree center.
One of our ordained ministers, a Licensed Interfaith Minister and Pastoral Counselor, posted to our alumni forum about pastoral counseling in his state. Because the government does not control a minister, rabbi, priest, etc., clergy are exempt from the licensing requirement. They are offering religious / spiritual counseling, usually called in legal circles “pastoral counseling”, and not mental health counseling. No license other than legal ordination of course, is required for a clergy-person to be able to give spiritual / religious guidance.
Our alumnus asked:
“Legal Question: Georgia does not license pastoral counselors. But I’m wondering what the legal parameters of pastoral counseling entails and if my minister’s license allows me to provide this service.
I’m also wondering if anyone has sought pastoral counseling / psychotherapy licensure through the Pastoral Medical Association.”
A faculty member (who knows the Law) responded:
You may want to review the licensing exemptions in GA Code 43-10A-7 and contact the appropriate state agencies for any needed clarification, especially as to (11). As usual, this is not legal advice, seek counsel in your state, etc….
a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, a person who is not licensed under this chapter shall not practice professional counseling, social work, or marriage and family therapy, nor advertise the performance of such practice, nor use the title “professional counselor,” “associate professional counselor,” “social worker,” “marriage and family therapist,” or “associate marriage and family therapist,” nor use any words, letters, titles, or figures indicating or implying that the person is a professional counselor, associate professional counselor, social worker, marriage and family therapist, or associate marriage and family therapist or is licensed under this chapter.
(b) The prohibition of subsection (a) of this Code section shall not apply to the following persons:
(9) Active members of the clergy but only when the practice of their specialty is in the course of their service as clergy;
(10) Members of religious ministries responsible to their established ecclesiastical authority who possess a master’s degree or its equivalent in theological studies;
(11) Persons engaged in the practice of a specialty in accordance with Biblical doctrine in public or nonprofit agencies or entities or in private practice;
We help you become an ordained minister, so that you can found your own Church or ministry, start a Spiritual Healing Counseling Center, Incorporate as a church and become tax-exempt, thus being able to accept donations for your spiritual services.
For two decades now the Seminary has helped clergy get ordained and start their own churches and spiritual counseling / healing practices. Online here since 1999 we help you with all the paperwork to become ordained legally in three easy steps. You can then start the spiritual teaching and counseling, accept donations, and do the clergy work you have always felt called to do.
When ordained by us you become a wedding officiant at the same time, and can perform a wedding or weddings. You will have the legal ability to officiate marriages in all 50 states.
Some of our graduates have set up their own online and telephone spiritual counseling service (for example on Keen dot com) to compliment their live in-person house church, wedding chapel or ministry. A few have established spiritual healing centers where people come for all manner of spiritual services.
There is a great need in our uncertain times for alternative clergy, spiritual practitioners, ministers, rabbis, and anyone who can provide the public with the spiritual services mainstream churches, temples and synagogues deny them because they are not a member.
The Seminary also offers religious doctorate degrees such as the PhD in Religion, Metaphysics, the Doctor of Divinity, and Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) to those who want to enhance their minister credentials with a degree and the status of spiritual doctor. Free ordination with every degree if you are already not an ordained minister or other clergy.
For years now the seminary has offered religious PhD degrees in Metaphysics, Religion, Religious Studies, Ministry, Pastoral Counseling, Spiritual Counseling, etc. Degree candidates can customize their PhD according to the work they are doing in the field of spirituality. Some are working in a spiritual healing center, or maintaining a spiritual counseling practice as a part of their ministry. (All of our PhD’s and Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Theology graduates must become ordained as clergy by us — which is free with their degree — if they are not already ordained elsewhere).
PhD with a Concentration
Not only can you choose your PhD discipline and thus your PhD title, you can also add a concentration on your degree diploma. For example, last month we conferred a PhD in Metaphysics with a Concentration in Holistic Counseling. Another concentration was PhD in Pastoral Counseling with a concentration in Ministry. There are all manner of ways to describe what you do. You must of course write your thesis / dissertation on that topic, but if it’s the area you are focusing your current spiritual work, writing the thesis about it will go easy.
Ordained clergy should deliver comfort and solace when loved ones die
Inspiring online resources for ordained ministers and all clergy to use when counseling people who have lost loved ones
If you have been asked to perform a funeral, or give a eulogy, or just be there to comfort the family of the departed one, these resources will not only inspire and uplift you, but give you ideas and words to say to bring solace to the grieving. This is what “ministering” is all about, this is one of the most difficult jobs for ordained clergy.
WHEN LOVED ONES & FRIENDS PASS FROM THIS WORLD TO THE NEXT
Resources recommended by David Sunfellow
Watch all the videos recommended in this post on NHNE Pulse:
Many people suffer terribly when a family member or dear friend passes from this world to the next. If you are looking for something to ease your pain and/or lift the pain of another, here are a few helpful resources to explore and possibly share…
Nurse Shares 30 Years Of Spiritual Experiences With Death & Dying
Surviving Death, A Short Documentary About Near-Death Experience
Near-Death Experience Documentary – Commonalities Of The Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTuMYaEB35U
ADDITIONAL NDE VIDEOS
Hundreds of near-death experience videos, most of them first-person accounts, can be found here:
Raymond Moody, author of the multimillion copy best-seller, Life After Life, reveals new results from his lifelong investigation of what happens when we die. Raymond Moody revolutionized the way we think about death with his first book, Life After Life, which was stories of people who died and then returned to life. Going through a tunnel, encountering an angelic being or having an out-of-body experience are hallmarks of what Moody termed a ‘near death experience.’ Since the publication of his multimillion copy best-seller, hundreds of thousands of people have contacted Moody to share their own experiences. The startling pattern that Moody discovered is that at the time of death, loved ones also have inexplicable experiences. Glimpses of Eternity is the first book to talk about the phenomenon of ‘shared death experiences.’ Readers will discover deathbed moments when entire families see the light or the room changes shape. Others tell of seeing a film like review of a loved one’s life and learning things that they could never have known otherwise. The stories are at once a comfort and a mystery, giving us a new understanding of the journey that we will take at the end of our lives.
…
HELLO FROM HEAVEN: A NEW FIELD OF RESEARCH-AFTER-DEATH COMMUNICATION CONFIRMS THAT LIFE AND LOVE ARE ETERNAL
By Bill Guggenheim, Judy Guggenheim
Book Description:
“After-death communications,” or “ADCs, ” occur when someone is contacted spontaneously and directly by a deceased family member or friend, without the help of any medium. The authors’ research shows that these spiritual experiences offer hope, love, and comfort for thousands of people. Included are more than 350 first-hand accounts of those whose lives have been changed and even protected by messages or signs from the deceased.
…
TRANSITIONS: A NURSE’S EDUCATION ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH
By Becki Hawkins
Book Description:
Transitions: A Nurse’s Education about Life and Death is a collection of stories from Becki Hawkins’s patients over the past thirty years of her career. She started off as a nurse’s aide, became a registered nurse, and began her career in oncology. A couple of years later she also started seeing hospice patients. She also did outpatient oncology nursing, home health/hospice, became a hospice chaplain, and later a hospice volunteer. She now sees patients on a volunteer basis. She began writing a feature column, “Beyond Statistics,” for a local newspaper when her husband told her one evening after her shift at work, “Please don’t tell me about it. Write it down.” The first article was published in 1986. These stories are the patients’ stories and their education to Becki as she visited them about the transitions we make in life and in death. Some of them involve patients in the nursing home, others in the hospital or an outpatient setting, and many others in the patients’ homes. Some of the patients were strangers, some were friends, some acquaintances, and some were family. You will find humor, heartbreak, wisdom, and frequent spiritual allusions in Transitions. The author reminds us that life is brief and fragile, and laced with story after story of how each of us is “learning” in this place that one patient named “Earth School.”
For more information about Becki Hawkins and her book, go here:
http://ladyhawkpublishing.com/
…
Wisdom of Near Death Experiences: How Understanding NDEs Can Help Us Live More Fully
By Penny Sartori
Book Description:
This book considers a wide range of experiences of dying patients that Dr. Sartori has encountered during her nursing career. It focuses on the near-death experiences (NDEs) of patients Dr. Sartori has nursed as well as the hundreds of cases of people who have contacted her over the years. Many people take NDEs at surface value and are mis-informed about the full extent of this highly complex phenomenon. This book examines all aspects of the NDE and Dr. Sartori emphasizes that by pathologising the NDE we are missing out on very important insights which can empower us to live fulfilled and meaningful lives. The results of her hospital research and that of others could not find a physiological or psychological explanation for these experiences and they can no longer be ignored or explained away. The crucial point of this book is that NDEs undoubtedly occur and have very real, often dramatic, life changing after effects. Further to that, the wisdom gained during the NDE can be life enhancing and have hugely positive effects on those who don’t have a NDE – all we have to do is take notice and hear what these people have to say. A greater understanding of NDEs can not only enhance the way in which we care for dying patients but also revolutionize our current world view. This book encourages readers to take notice of and incorporate the wisdom and powerful message of NDEs into their own lives.
For more information about Dr. Penny Sartori, her book, and the wide-spread interest her book has generated, go here: