Alan Melton, LPC
Let’s say you are the pastor of a large metropolitan faith community that has a number of minister specialists on your staff. There is a minister of music. There is a minister of social work. And there is an opening for a minister of pastoral counseling. What qualifications would you look for in your search for a minister of pastoral counseling or a pastoral counselor or a pastoral psychotherapist? First of all you would need to know that pastoral counselors/psychotherapists are a specialty of general pastoral ministry. Just like a medical doctor may specialize in psychiatry, a minister/pastor may specialize in pastoral psychotherapy. ( pastoral counselor and pastoral psychotherapist are one in the same.) This is not unlike a minister of education, music, or social work specializing in their field of ministry. What it means is you do a great deal of extra work to become a specialist. The pastoral psychotherapist training goes like this: First you need to have a four year college degree. It does not really matter what you major in at this level of undergraduate education. Next you will need to go to a three year seminary and obtain a masters of divinity degree. This is the basic masters degree that qualifies you to be a pastor. Some ministers will go on to obtain a ThD or a PhD from a seminary or Divinity School. Then you will need to serve at least three years in the general pastoral ministry as a pastor of a congregation. A congregational pastor is a generalist, like a primary care physician in a generalist. They have to do it all: preaching, teaching, weddings, funerals, pastoral counseling, outreach, administration, etc. During your three years as a pastor you will need to decide that although you may enjoy the general ministry role, you really want to specialize in Pastoral Counseling. So you next enroll in a pastoral counseling institute for further training. These programs last about 2 years and you graduate with a certificate in pastoral counseling. Included in the requirements for your certificate will be a unit or two of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and supervision of your psychotherapy practice. Once you graduate you should be able to qualify as a Certified Pastoral Counselor with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC.) Some pastoral counselors will obtain a masters degree or a doctorate in pastoral counseling. Regardless of your chosen path, you are now qualified to take the pastoral counseling position that the large metropolitan faith community is offering. Once you are in the position as minister of pastoral counseling you will want to continue your education. The next level in AAPC is the Fellow level. This level requires a doctor of ministry degree or some other doctoral degree in pastoral psychotherapy It also includes several more years of supervision by a Diplomate level pastoral psychotherapist. Once you have obtained the level of Fellow then you will be even more qualified in your position as a fully trained pastoral psychotherapist. But what if you want to teach pastoral psychotherapy at the Institute, College or Seminary level, and supervise others in the specialty? Then you will need to proceed to the top level of training in AAPC, which is to become a Diplomate. This level requires more supervision and a major paper that demonstrates that you are qualified not only to practice pastoral psychotherapy but to also teach and train others in the field. So if you are considering becoming a fully trained pastoral psychotherapist, this is the training and supervision path you will follow. In addition to this didactic training and supervision it will also be quite helpful if you pursue your own psychotherapy as well. It is very difficult to be successful as a pastoral psychotherapist if you have not spent some quality time in your own personal therapy. Some training programs require personal psychotherapy. Others strongly encourage it. So there you have it! This is the traditional path for the training of a pastoral psychotherapist. This path has been in existence since the founding of AAPC in the early 1960’s. This was my path from 1971 to 1997. I did my BS degree in Sociology. I then attended seminary and received a masters of divinity degree. This was followed by a doctor of ministry degree, and 16 years in pastoral ministry. Once I decided to specialize in pastoral psychotherapy I trained at a Pastoral Counseling Institute, obtained a license to practice as a Licensed Professional Counselor, pursued my own personal psychotherapy, and became a Fellow in AAPC. For me this was a gradually unfolding vocation to arrive where I have as a pastoral psychotherapist who has now practiced for 26 years. There a newer alternative ways to train today (2021.) I will share those paths in a later post…..