Congregational Therapy

Ministry is more stressful than ever. We can all benefit from tools and techniques to help us manage the difficult leadership tasks of handing  conflict, fielding complaints and bringing change.

Rev. Kenneth Reeves, Ph.D., Facilitator
Ken Reeves earned a Masters of Divinity and has served congregations in Ohio and Delaware. He also earned a Masters in Pastoral Counseling and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. He is currently a clinical psychologist with a therapy practice, and a consulting psychologist with the Center for Career Development and Ministry. He is the author of The Whole Church: Congregational Leadership Guided by Systems Theory.

Class Topics

Session 1: Thinking like a therapist 

• The therapeutic alliance as it applies to ministry 
• A therapy theory: Systems theory 

Session 2: Diagnosis and general treatments

• Systemic anxiety, its causes and symptoms 
• Systemic anxiety in today's social/political context
• Treatment #1:  Giving people space and empathy which allows them to be safe 
• Treatment #2: Presenting oneself, principles, and values with self-definition and vulnerability 

Session 3: Changing a congregation

• Stages of change and interventions at each state 
• The change agent makes oneself vulnerable 

Session 4: Therapy for one systemic pain: conflict 

• Stages of conflict 
• Actions that escalate conflict
• Actions that resolve conflict

(The current political context would be included in this discussion of conflict.)

Session 5: Therapy for a second systemic pain: Difficult behavior 

• Interpretations of difficult behavior 
• The unconscious and difficult behavior 
• One particular difficult behavior: complaint and criticism 
• How to respond to difficult behavior and to complaint and criticism

Session 6: Preaching as an intervention in support of congregational therapy 

• Vulnerability and self-definition in preaching
• Values and principles in preaching

The therapy outcome: the healthy congregation 

• The congregation is clear about its identity
• The congregation is itself a provider of pastoral support for its people and the world