Cultivating Wholeness: A Guide to Care and Counseling in Faith Communities

by Margaret Zipse Kornfeld

Commissioned by the Blanton-Peale Institute, Cultivating Wholeness is a practical, comprehensive, contemporary guide to community care and counseling. Margaret Zipse Kornfeld, a pastoral psychotherapist for almost thirty years, focuses on wholeness, the dynamics change, an inclusive understanding of spirituality, the caregiver/ counselor, and on community as not merely the context for healing but also the means by which healing happens.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Psychology, Spirituality, Christianity, Counselling, Church

400 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

Reviews

[Molly Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a Pastoral Care class. It was quite helpful insofar as it gave us some metaphors for how we might approach Pastoral Care as a ministry of growth, cultivation, wholeness, and intentional process. I appreciate Kornfeld's treatment of a broad scope of topics and pastoral situations. It also offered up the idea that healing and wholeness happen in community and not as isolated processes. This may be an especially good perspective for the pastor who is responsible for a whole community of growth (as opposed to a pastoral counselor or chaplain who may be able to do more one-on-one work). However, it also reminds us that we must think of our own soil as caregivers, the soil of our counselees, and the environmental factors that are always at play in the world of spiritual care and growth.

Overall, a good read! (Though a bit wordy and lengthy at moments!)

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favorite book from my class in Pastoral Care and Counseling. The author's focus is on pastoral care as a community activity. According to her, we are all "caregivers in community." Her wholistic approach is also very much in line with my own theology and philosophy of care. We can't expect to help an individual, if we are not also working on the community around them and the systems that are causing their suffering.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the list of books recommended for Pastoral Counseling. Good use for clergy and both lay people.

[Josh Trice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid resource and reference guide for Pastoral Care and Counseling. It provides deep topical guidance in the realm of counseling and will be used in my life as a reference book for years to come.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Kornfeld wrote this book “to give voice to a book that would be helpful to religious communities and that would reflect Blanton-Peale’s philosophy” (p. xvii). It is a guide, a primer really, written for counselors in community to help them help care-seekers to wholeness. It addresses some of the unique circumstances of dual (or more) roles when both the caregiver and seeker are in the same community.

The author advocates a solution-focused method, and combines a metaphorical approach using imagery and poetry with conversation examples and practical forms and lists. It seems to be trying for a holistic approach. She also includes a variety of external resources, both those cited in her book, and those the reader might find useful in practice, or in achieving deeper understanding.

There is no “main argument” for which evidence is provided. It proceeds from a given holistic approach of mind-body-soul wholeness (p.12). It is organized into four parts, which are further divided into chapters. Appendices follow, A through E, which mostly provide practical tools referenced in the body of the book.

In this book, the emphasis in defining conflict is not in “fighting”, rather it is in “differing”. This is brought up to show characteristics of communities that do well with conflict (p. 23).

The best compliment I can pay the author is that I will be keeping, and referencing, this book. The organization and indexing, as well as the the suggested reading material will be valuable in the future. When I looked through the list of possible books on this subject, it was important to me that they start from a position of faith, and I feel that Kornfeld did an admirable job in that respect.

[Rev. Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the publisher: "Commissioned by the Blanton-Peale Institute, Cultivating Wholeness is a practical, comprehensive, contemporary guide to community care and counseling. Margaret Zipse Kornfeld, a pastoral psychotherapist for almost thirty years, focuses on wholeness, the dynamics change, an inclusive understanding of spirituality, the caregiver/ counselor, and on community as not merely the context for healing but also the means by which healing happens." - for one of my courses in Spring 2016.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up because my job title / description now has a slash with "pastoral counselor" following the "college chaplain." I appreciated it's community based approach, as well as the fact that it gave a relatively decent consideration of the spiritual needs of single folks, without children. I also appreciated the focus on making referrals, because I certainly recognize the importance of not getting in over one's head.

[Judy Maurer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a broad and basic overview of the work of the pastor, rabbi, priest, and so forth. Very sound approach. I particularly appreciated her writings on the difference between counseling a person whose life is intertwined with yours - in a faith community - and counseling a person you only see in the context of an office visit.

[Daniel Seifert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A text I used in seminary training (pastoral counseling) which continues to serve as a reference for reflection and growth. Kornfeld uses strong metaphor of a "gardener" to develop an image of pastoral care in a faith community. It is well written, insightful and provides ample references.

[VocalBillity - the Voice of one crying in the Bewilderness (tm) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is my coursework in my Doctor of Pastoral Psychology pursuit.