The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being

The Contemplative Counselor extends the discourse on pastoral counseling beyond theories and techniques to include a focal description of a life lived in active contemplation. The contemplative approach to life, care, and counseling demands a daily call to surrender the underlying attitude of meritocracy that heavily emphasizes good works to produce successful results in counseling. At a fundamental level, the contemplative counselor exhibits an unwavering reliance on the grace of God, which transforms all that is descriptive of the counseling encounter. Here, being precedes becoming, and the act of counseling emanates from the deep and quiet center characterized by silence and solitude of the heart. Such counseling targets holistically body, mind, and spirit as a way of facilitating an experience of well being and transformation.

Rolf R. Nolasco Jr. is Associate Professor, Department of Counseling Psychology at Providence Theological Seminary, Calgary, Alberta.