Pastoral Counseling
Very good weekend--still have a lot to process.
Attended ~12 hours of classes on "Pastoral Counseling." Now, I had an interesting conversation with stevensteven about the opposition that the Pastoral Counseling Workshop is meeting internally within the OTO. I should note that I don't actually read the LJ "discussions" regarding OTO policies, programs and practices as I have very low tolerance for the grandstanding and politiking they (the LJ "discussions") seem to so often degenerate into, so I was unaware that there existed a major concern that the Psychology Guild is trying to "make therapists" out of Clergy and Novitiates in the course of a single weekend. If this is a genuine objection (as I said, my information comes via another source and is essentially, therefore, hearsay), then I can only assume that those bringing it up have not bothered to attend or even legitimately investigate the Pastoral Counseling Workshops, which I, personally, found more practically useful than many of the other OTO sponsored events and programs I've attended (i.e., two Kaabas, an Initiation symposium, several NOTOCON lectures and similar presentations, a number of Gnostic Mass workshops, etc.).
First of all, it should be noted that no one in their right mind should think that they could learn to be a therapist in twelve hours, or conversely think that they could teach someone to be a therapist in so short a time. But then, this was in no way a goal of the workshop. Instead, attendees were given an overview of some useful tools and advice on how to talk to and listen to people who will, inevitably, come to Clergy and visible OTO members with spiritual questions and personal problems. Clergy-work in many, many systems includes guiding and assisting people with life issues, and many new people coming into OTO have questions and issues they want/need to address, and the Clergy especially, but OTO membership in general, will find themselves being the people to whom newcomers turn, and it can only help to be prepared for it when it comes. I've seen this a lot in the roles I've taken on within KTO. For nearly two years I was KTO's Secretary, a job which, at the time, included running the now discontinued KTO Coffee Nights (since replaced by other events), at which I or another member or members would take over a table or two at a preselected coffee shop or restaurant and meet with interested new people and answer any questions they may have had. I discovered pretty quickly that once people begin to talk about magick it leads into their own personal practices--and often includes doubts and concerns that they have. Most commonly, many people were simply looking for validation that they weren't "crazy" for practicing magick. Don't get me wrong, some of them were loonier than Randall P. McMurphy--but many were simply isolated and weren't receiving the support that could make them feel good about their magickal practices and explorations. Many didn't really want or need active particpation in the OTO and I never saw them again, but almost always I could see a real positive change in someone just on having found out that, yes, there are other intelligent and sane people in the world who practice magick to positive effect. And while I think I got pretty good at helping people see magick as a normal and productive part of their lives, I can most certainly say that my job would have been a bit (or perhaps a lot) easier had I had exposure to much of the material covered this weekend.
After I gave up the Secretarial job and began to focus more specifically on the Gnostic Mass, a whole new level of questioning from people developed. I was still getting many of the same questions and concerns that I'd heard at the Coffee Nights, but since I was now acting in the much more visible roles of an Ordained Deacon and Novitiate Priest, the questions began to take on a deeper and more spiritial tone than I'd been used to before. It's always been a struggle to keep my personal views and opinions about the Gnostic Mass separate from the Oasis work I do--so I found that the best way to help people learn about and explore the Mass was to direct them to official OTO sources, but also to get them to talk about their own impressions and experiences, and to try to relate to them on that level. Again, by getting people to open up I could find out what they really wanted to know, and often dispel fears and anxieties about the Mass which stemmed from misconceptions people weren't always comfortable asking about. This, too, is an area where the Pastoral Counseling Workshop can be of assistance.
Finally, I've discovered that sometimes people have come to me with personal issues that, while falling outside the realm of the Gnostic Mass and cermonial magick in general, are very much True Will and Thelema-based. Now, I'm not going to pretend to be qualified--before or after the Pastoral Counseling Workshop--to advise anyone on their life, Will, or magickal path, but the fact remains that people have come to me with these issues, and it helps to be able, if not to advise, to give people a chance to talk things out in an environment that's safe and non-judgemental. Up to now, I haven't had the benefit of any formal training in this area, and have largely just tried to do my best--as most OTO members in this position will have to do. In this regard, the Pastoral Counseling Workshop is a very useful tool. The idea is not to advise people, nor is it to heal or direct people, but rather to present a safe, confortable and (within reason) confidential forum for people to explore things which, simply put, they have no one else to talk to about.
If anything, the goal of the Pastoral Counseling Workshop seems to be to teach people how to listen better. And, believe you me, that's something the OTO dearly needs.
Attended ~12 hours of classes on "Pastoral Counseling." Now, I had an interesting conversation with stevensteven about the opposition that the Pastoral Counseling Workshop is meeting internally within the OTO. I should note that I don't actually read the LJ "discussions" regarding OTO policies, programs and practices as I have very low tolerance for the grandstanding and politiking they (the LJ "discussions") seem to so often degenerate into, so I was unaware that there existed a major concern that the Psychology Guild is trying to "make therapists" out of Clergy and Novitiates in the course of a single weekend. If this is a genuine objection (as I said, my information comes via another source and is essentially, therefore, hearsay), then I can only assume that those bringing it up have not bothered to attend or even legitimately investigate the Pastoral Counseling Workshops, which I, personally, found more practically useful than many of the other OTO sponsored events and programs I've attended (i.e., two Kaabas, an Initiation symposium, several NOTOCON lectures and similar presentations, a number of Gnostic Mass workshops, etc.).
First of all, it should be noted that no one in their right mind should think that they could learn to be a therapist in twelve hours, or conversely think that they could teach someone to be a therapist in so short a time. But then, this was in no way a goal of the workshop. Instead, attendees were given an overview of some useful tools and advice on how to talk to and listen to people who will, inevitably, come to Clergy and visible OTO members with spiritual questions and personal problems. Clergy-work in many, many systems includes guiding and assisting people with life issues, and many new people coming into OTO have questions and issues they want/need to address, and the Clergy especially, but OTO membership in general, will find themselves being the people to whom newcomers turn, and it can only help to be prepared for it when it comes. I've seen this a lot in the roles I've taken on within KTO. For nearly two years I was KTO's Secretary, a job which, at the time, included running the now discontinued KTO Coffee Nights (since replaced by other events), at which I or another member or members would take over a table or two at a preselected coffee shop or restaurant and meet with interested new people and answer any questions they may have had. I discovered pretty quickly that once people begin to talk about magick it leads into their own personal practices--and often includes doubts and concerns that they have. Most commonly, many people were simply looking for validation that they weren't "crazy" for practicing magick. Don't get me wrong, some of them were loonier than Randall P. McMurphy--but many were simply isolated and weren't receiving the support that could make them feel good about their magickal practices and explorations. Many didn't really want or need active particpation in the OTO and I never saw them again, but almost always I could see a real positive change in someone just on having found out that, yes, there are other intelligent and sane people in the world who practice magick to positive effect. And while I think I got pretty good at helping people see magick as a normal and productive part of their lives, I can most certainly say that my job would have been a bit (or perhaps a lot) easier had I had exposure to much of the material covered this weekend.
After I gave up the Secretarial job and began to focus more specifically on the Gnostic Mass, a whole new level of questioning from people developed. I was still getting many of the same questions and concerns that I'd heard at the Coffee Nights, but since I was now acting in the much more visible roles of an Ordained Deacon and Novitiate Priest, the questions began to take on a deeper and more spiritial tone than I'd been used to before. It's always been a struggle to keep my personal views and opinions about the Gnostic Mass separate from the Oasis work I do--so I found that the best way to help people learn about and explore the Mass was to direct them to official OTO sources, but also to get them to talk about their own impressions and experiences, and to try to relate to them on that level. Again, by getting people to open up I could find out what they really wanted to know, and often dispel fears and anxieties about the Mass which stemmed from misconceptions people weren't always comfortable asking about. This, too, is an area where the Pastoral Counseling Workshop can be of assistance.
Finally, I've discovered that sometimes people have come to me with personal issues that, while falling outside the realm of the Gnostic Mass and cermonial magick in general, are very much True Will and Thelema-based. Now, I'm not going to pretend to be qualified--before or after the Pastoral Counseling Workshop--to advise anyone on their life, Will, or magickal path, but the fact remains that people have come to me with these issues, and it helps to be able, if not to advise, to give people a chance to talk things out in an environment that's safe and non-judgemental. Up to now, I haven't had the benefit of any formal training in this area, and have largely just tried to do my best--as most OTO members in this position will have to do. In this regard, the Pastoral Counseling Workshop is a very useful tool. The idea is not to advise people, nor is it to heal or direct people, but rather to present a safe, confortable and (within reason) confidential forum for people to explore things which, simply put, they have no one else to talk to about.
If anything, the goal of the Pastoral Counseling Workshop seems to be to teach people how to listen better. And, believe you me, that's something the OTO dearly needs.