Campus Ministry is primarily directed to the integral growth of students, faculty, non-teaching personnel, administrators, and others. It aims to promote theological and biblical study and reflection for the formation of Christian values.
Campus Ministry is one of the important ways by which the Church exercises her mission in the field of education. It is concerned in the formation of true and mature Christians who constitute Basic Christian communities. The ministry aims to do this by way of teaching, preaching, witnessing the Word of God, partaking of the sacraments, celebrating and proclaiming the liturgy, along with caring through proper pastoral counseling. But in our contemporary context the ministry in the campuses has no clear awareness on the matter of pastoral counseling. There is no comprehensive program that promotes this aspect.
Taking into consideration the situation in the campus that the main concern is really for education there is only a minimal attention (if none) given to pastoral counseling. So, by the time being the Campus Ministry can offer short term pastoral counseling.
Short term pastoral counseling or the Time Limited Counseling is a non-professional tool that is used to assist people who are attempting to identify and resolve some specific issue. The counselor in this setting is not a therapist and the counseling is not clinical counseling. The counselor is a minister who serves as a guide in helping the persons to develop skills they already possess and to be a sounding board on the way to resolving the defined issue. Some of the issues could be relational such as conflict with parents, teachers, fellow students, friends, and romantic interests. Oftentimes the counselees’ basic need is for someone to listen and to help them put their issues into context. Others may just need an advocate.
In Time Limited Counseling the process involves two primary techniques: identification and emphasis of a focal relational issue (FRP) and the development of a strategy for resolution of the FRP within a pre-determined set of meetings. This may be done through the following procedure:
1) On first contact, the minister spends time simply listening and then gives some feedback to make sure the issue is correctly in focus.
2) Critical information is taken and assessed in order to ascertain and sharpen the presented problem.
3) The issue is then evaluated. Consultation and referrals are made if necessary.
4) Finally, a determination is made as to the number of sessions that will be required, usually between three and six. Expectations are clearly stated at every stage.
5) The focal relational problem (FRP) is then restated and clarified, focusing attention on remedy and progress. The minister keeps attention on the FRP throughout.
The goal of this type of pastoral counseling is to enable the counselees to help themselves. At the end of the process, the counselee is usually ready either to face the issue himself/herself or to move on to a more formal counseling process when referral is made.
Source: Catholic Campus Ministry at Clarion University of Pennsylvania (http://www.ccmcup.com/services/pastoralcounseling.html)
REFLECTION
It is very encouraging to see campus ministry making itself present in the different schools even in non-sectarian and government educational institutions. In the Diocese where I belong, the campus ministry program is attached to the Diocesan Youth Ministy. Our campus ministers are usually the students and some few are young faculty members. The campus ministry is present (although not widespread) in both private and public high schools and colleges. The restraint which I observe is that the activities are only limited to recollections, youth encounters, and liturgical functions in the school. Thus our campus ministry works effectively only within the categories of organizational and educational leaving behind the attention on pastoral, prophetic and counseling levels.
This apparent inattention, I presume, is due to lack of information on the function of Campus ministry as a whole which includes pastoral counseling. In my case, it was only when I take the subject on pastoral counseling that I learn the connection of campus ministry and pastoral counseling. Previously, I suppose the campus ministry program of our diocese is doing fine, but now I notice that there is still a wider opportunity for improvement.
I am convinced that campus ministry is one of the important ways by which the Church exercises her mission in the field of education. Campus ministers can be considered as agents of evangelization. And the Church today stresses integral evangelization which is concerned of “the renewal of society in all its strata through the interplay of Gospel truths and man’s concrete total life (PCP II, 166).” Thus, in the campus the ministers can help in the growth of students and workforce by means of pastoral counseling that utilizes religious sources and psychological understanding.
Now, I hope it would be my commitment to share my learning on pastoral counseling with the faithful active in campus ministry in our local church. I hope also that a continual interest on this subject matter will develop in me to contribute to the growth of campus ministry and to impart to others a renewed appreciation on pastoral counseling.
No comments:
Post a Comment