By Sara Miller

This is the first in a series of articles on pastoral counseling and spiritual direction. While this introductory article will explore the idea of "pastoral counseling," the rest of the series will profile individual counselors and spiritual directors at the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center.

Pastoral counseling is not that different from other counseling or therapy. Counseling, including pastoral counseling, is a way of dealing with personal or relationship concerns, issues, or problems that a person encounters in their life. Adding the word pastoral to counseling adds a sense of openness to airing spiritual questions, and pastoral counselors may have a greater comfort level with dealing with those questions though all clinicians can be attuned to the spiritual. An important note to go with pastoral counseling is  that there is openness to the spiritual questions being asked but the client has to ask the questions because the counselor will not automatically assume the client wants to talk about matters of faith.