Inner Counselor
What is the Inner Counselor ™ Process?*
THE APPROACH: Our personalities are formed by choices we make toward the fulfillment of basic needs. Fear, anger, grief, and sadness act as a protective shield for the personality when basic needs are unfulfilled and options are limited. Angry or fearful thoughts and responses set in place to protect the child often continue to control the thoughts and responses of the adult. These old patterns are obstacles on our path towards physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. As such, they impair health, curtail creativity, and adversely affect our relationships.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: The Program is based on the Integration Chart of basic needs and intrinsic qualities published in the Inner Counselor. These intrinsic needs and qualities are identified as: the individual qualities of strength, creativity, freedom, and control; the relationship qualities of connection, acceptance, and love; the transformational qualities of trust and peace; and the transcendent quality of joy.
How does the Inner Counselor ™ Process work?*
The Inner Counselor Process, developed by Bob and Ann Nunley, is an experiential tool that uses the symbolic wisdom of a person's higher mind (super conscious) to resolve these behavioral and emotional issues. During this guided fifteen-step process, the person's higher mind is contacted, key emotions are felt in the body; an incident of origin is revisited; basic needs are identified; and a highly satisfactory level of mental, emotional, and physical resolution is achieved. Old behavior patterns are transformed and transcended as new response patterns are integrated within the personality. Results are profound and lasting.
*For a more detailed description, see http://www.innercounselor.com.
Spiritual and Pastoral Counseling
Crucial moments occur in everyone’s life. These may be times of important decisions, anxious concerns, job stress, death and bereavement, marital difficulty, depression, family distress… the list is almost endless. We often turn to our family, friends and spiritual resources to give us strength as we live through these difficulties. There are times, however, when another resource… a professional therapist… can help us find new understandings and new options.
Good health is more than the absence of distress and involves a delicate balance of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual elements. During periods of stress this balance may be upset, yielding discord within the person, the marriage, or the family.
The ministry of Pastoral Care involves promoting positive personal development through a variety of positive (preventive) strategies; caring for the self and loved ones in crisis through support, counseling, and referral to appropriate community agencies; providing guidance individuals face life decisions and make moral choices; and challenging systems that are obstacles to positive development (advocacy). Pastoral care is most fundamentally a relationship—a ministry of compassionate presence. This was Jesus' caring stance toward all people, especially those who were hurting or in need. Pastoral care enables healing and growth to take place within individuals and their relationships. It nurtures growth toward wholeness, and it provides guidance in decision making and challenges obstacles to positive development.
The ministry of pastoral care has several distinct features that provide direction to comprehensive ministry efforts. Specifically, pastoral care
- develops the life skills such as relationship building, assertivenesss, nonviolent conflict resolution, decision making, and planning;
- guides people in making important life decisions, such as career and college choices, and discerning their particular spiritual vocation;
- fosters the spiritual development of people and the healthy integration of their sexuality and spirituality;
- creates networks of care and support for individuals and their families;
- strengthens family life by assisting families to improve family skills, such as communication, decision making, problem solving, and reconciliation;
- provides and connects indiviudals and families to support services, referral resources, and self-help groups to promote healing during times of loss, sudden change, unexpected crises, problems, and family or personal transitions;
- provides support and enrichment for people experiencing divorce, separation, or family problems; and connects them to appropriate counseling resources;
