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Notes the problems involved in attempting to define pastoral psychotherapy by using descriptive attributes. Defines pastoral psychotherapy as "a psychotherapeutic activity in which a pastoral psychotherapist observes, understands, and interprets the psychological, religious, and moral dimensions of the ongoing process through psychological, theological, and ethical frames of reference." Offers a brief clinical illustration of how such a definition may find expression in the actual clinical practice.For a number of reasons, the problem of defining pastoral psychotherapy as a distinct enterprise is crucial to the theory and practice of this specialized ministry. If for no other than purely pragmatic interest, we pastoral psychotherapists should be able to articulate the nature of the therapeutic service we offer to the community, what distinguishes it from an endless list of therapeutic alternatives, why a prospective client might be interested in and helped through this approach. Second, I have the impression that experienced clinicians practice more or less effectively without ongoing critical examination of their own idiosyncratic personality theory and clinical theory. Addressing the question of what is pastoral psychotherapy provides an opportunity of bringing implicit aspects of our practice to a more explicit level, where they can be examined, evaluated, and potentially modified. A deeper understanding of our clinical theory cannot but enhance our clinical skills. Third, each of us is faced with the task of understanding how the ideas and resources of our theological education and pastoral experience fit together with those of our psychological study and clinical training. The exploration of the problem of defining our craft serves as an opportunity to reconsider questions which have, in addition to clinical significance, biographical and academic meaning.It is my purpose in this article to discuss some problems of defining pastoral psychotherapy by examining a few representative approaches and subsequently submitting my own evolving position for discussion. I will begin with a consideration of four descriptions of pastoral psychotherapy. In exposing the inability of these descriptions to serve as viable definitions, I will raise some of the methodological issues involved in formulating an alternative approach."This article was written while I was a member of the clinical and training staff at The Center for Religion and Psychotherapy in Chicago. I would like to thank my colleagues there for inspiring discussion and reflection, particularly Randy Mason and Marie McCarthy.

Provides a description and a reinterpretation of the concept of empathy as originally explicated by the psychoanalyist, Heinz Kohut; and argues that empathy might well be considered as the essence of pastoral psychotherapy. Notes the qualities of the empathic response from the perspectives of psychology, ethics, and theology.