Counseling women : a narrative, pastoral approach /
Christie Cozad Neuger.
- xi, 264 pages ; 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Setting the scene -- Building the frame -- Helping women come to voice -- Coming to voice in the context of intimate violence -- Helping women gain clarity -- Gaining clarity in the context of depression -- Helping women make choices -- Making choices in the context of aging -- Conclusion : helping women stay connected.
In this signal volume, Christie Neuger offers a new feminist paradigm for radical, effective, empowering counseling for women. She contends that pastors must take up the challenge of pastoral counseling, especially in light of the revolutionary pastoral implications of gender studies and feminist theology, as well as the continuing personal and social effects of sexism. The most sustained and systematic account to date, Neuger's model employs narrative psychotherapy -- a short-term, contextually sensitive, and teachable counseling structure. She espouses counseling in four phases: coming to voice, gaining clarity, making choices, and staying connected. Each is masterfully sketched and illustrated by a common therapeutic problem (e.g., intimate violence, depression, aging). Neuger's work promises to aid counselors "to help women resist and transform the negative effects of a woman-unfriendly culture" and so to reclaim their stories, their strength, and their lives.