Program

Doctor of Ministry

Year Approved

2020

First Advisor

Friesen-Smith, Katie

Abstract

The research conducted in this project revealed most military chaplains possess innate skills that are valuable to counseling. Combining these skills with proven counseling methods increase service members’ spiritual resilience. Military chaplains’ empathy and the ability to actively listen to care-seekers is one such innate skill. Empathetic listening builds rapport and creates a safe client-focused environment. Within this safe environment, military chaplains can encourage service members with spiritual or practical wisdom. Additionally, military chaplains can provide assurance and peace through prayer, reading of sacred documents, or administering religious rites. These religious activities connect the care-seeker to their source of faith. Military chaplains’ ability to incorporate the aforementioned skills and capabilities into their counseling methods create a safe client-centered counseling environment. This type of environment is an essential element for implementing the narrative therapy counseling method. Incorporation of narrative therapy into military chaplains counseling sessions can increase service members’ spiritual resilience. The narrative therapy method is conducive for military chaplains to use because it is the least technical or scientific counseling method implemented by behavioral health counselors. Narrative therapy provides a structure that empowers the caregiver, including military chaplains to help care-seekers share, understand, and reshape their narrative or personal story.

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

Document Type

Doctoral thesis

Terms of Use and License Information

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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