The Samaritan Institute Serves “the human becoming.”
By: Marylin Weber, President, Board of Directors*
*this article was written in 2004 before the name Samaritan Institute changed to the Samaritan Counseling Center. The insights are as meaningful today as they were then.
“What is the Samaritan Institute?” my friends ask as soon as they learn that I’m on the Board. When I say, “It’s an inter-faith center for counseling and education that offers a variety of pastoral counseling services,” they want to know how pastoral counseling is distinct from other therapy. Here is how six therapists describe pastoral counseling and what a client might expect at the Samaritan Institute.
“Individual clients understand God in various ways,” says Ann Ohlrogge Johnson, M.Div. LCPC, LMFT, Executive Director. “We welcome each client as a unique human being and as ‘a human becoming’, to use theologian Martin Buber’s wonderful phrase.” “God’s name is sometimes Christ, sometimes Yahweh and sometimes Allah, but in some therapeutic relationships God’s name never is spoken. In others, the journey towards wholeness and healing is full of the person’s experience of God. As therapists we listen carefully for the life experiences that have shaped the individual and for the meanings faith, religion and spirituality have had—or not had—in each person’s life.”
Supporting clients in the process of becoming—or transformation— is a focus of pastoral counseling for Rev. M. Allen Mothershed, M.Div, LCPC, a therapist. The Samaritan Institute is about the spiritual, emotional and relational transformation “that happens when a person is supported by a mature and attuned therapist to make a conscious connection with the deeper intuitions and wisdom of their heart. The joy of my work is supporting people who discover new possibilities and reasons for hope.”
“A place where folks can bring their whole selves, wounds, hopes, joys and questions,” is how Sara Griffin, M.Div, MA, LPC sees the Samaritan Institute. It is “not only for their emotional and psychological well being, but their spiritual growth as well. I believe we are about companioning people on their journeys.”
Therapist William Mueller, M.Div, MSW, an ordained minister for 28 years, explains that the term psychotherapy comes from two Greek words, psyche meaning soul, and therapeuein meaning to take care of, or to serve. So psychotherapy means serving the soul, not treating it. “I find the Samaritan Institute offers me the opportunity to live out my identity as a minister by serving—not simply treating—fellow clergy and laity with the tools of psychology and spirituality, both means of Grace.”
Likewise, Margye Smith, a member of the Board of Directors, stresses serving in her description of what the Samaritan Institute does for the community. “The Samaritan Institute strives to reach out to each individual, family or group we serve in a unique way, honoring the wonderful diversity that is part of being human. We strive to make our care accessible to all who come to us, always mindful that each encounter must be professional and of the highest quality.”
Kate Philben, Ph.D., Clinical Director, says the “The Samaritan Institute has been a home to me for fifteen years. It is a place where I feel part of a community of caring individuals and part of a meaningful mission. I strive to make my office home to the people that I see—a place where they may come with their pain and suffering and not be alone.”
Joan Merlo, MSW, says “Knowing what we value most and what we hold dear gives us a calming center in the midst of challenging or chaotic feelings and events. As an inter-faith pastoral counseling center, the Samaritan Institute supports and partners with each client in finding the practical and deep meanings of the issues and feeling they bring to psychotherapy, which enriches self empathy and understanding. We are aware that every clinical concern has a crucial spiritual dimension—distinct from formal religious practice or affiliation, which may or may not be part of a person’s life.”
The groups and educational programs offered by our therapists exemplify our commitment to serving and supporting individuals, families and groups on their way to becoming.
All Samaritan Institute staff therapists are licensed, certified and theologically informed. The Institute is accredited by the national Samaritan Institute of Denver, CO and the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.