The Unique Needs of Protestant Clergy Families: Implications for Marriage and Family Counseling

摘要

ABSTRACT. The unique needs of clergy families in the United States today present special challenges for counselors. Research is limited, and focuses mainly on the pastoral work experience. The author will utilize the available research on family life in the ministry, supplemented with personal anecdotes by clergy family members and the author's own experiences during over forty years of life in the parsonage, to give the reader a grounding in the milieu of life in a ministry family and provide some understanding of the counseling needs for this special population. These representative experiences give focus to possible solutions and directions for counseling.