Self psychology in pastoral counseling

This article provides a general explication of how a pastoral counselor might use the self psychology perspective in conjunction with theological and ethical approaches. A particularly appropriate structure for this explication is self psychology's theory and practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy as a two-phase process: an observation-understanding phase, in which empathic introspection is the central method, and an explanation-interpretation phase, in which by these empathic means the therapist hopes to consolidate further and mobilize developmentally an individual or group's self-cohesion. Each of these phases and the self psychology theory behind them provide an organizing rubric by which we can discuss how theological and ethical approaches might be carried out in a working alliance with the self psychology framework.