"Church members who seek spiritual guidance or have weighty problems should make a diligent effort, including earnest prayer and scripture reading, to find solutions and answers themselves. If they still need help, they should counsel first with their bishop. If necessary, he refers them to the stake president. These leaders are entitled to the discernment and inspiration necessary to be a spiritual adviser and temporal counselor to members who need such help."
- The Church Handbook of Instructions

Counselors in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the "Mormon Church" because of its belief that The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is companion scripture to the Bible) help church members obtain their own divine guidance. This approach to counseling avoids some of the ethical issues faced in other approaches.

The primary responsibility for counseling resides with God (as the introductory quotation indicates). The bishop assists members to receive this counsel. A bishop (roughly equivalent to a pastor in the Catholic Church) presides over a congregation of 300 to 600 members, called a ward. He is assisted by the stake president, roughly equivalent to a bishop in the Catholic Church. A stake president presides over a "stake" of six to ten wards.

Neither bishops nor stake presidents are paid for what they do in the church. They are not even allowed to accept gifts for performing baptisms, marriages, or other ordinances. They support themselves through secular employment. For example, I am an administrator and professor at a university.

Primarily A Spritual Process
Mormons believe that through feelings, impressions, thoughts, and other means people can receive divine guidance once they properly prepare themselves and ask in faith. We are to "search it out in [our] own minds," using all the information, wisdom, and experience available to us, not merely ask for a revelation.

A church member once called me to arrange for professional counseling. I knew her and her circumstances and felt impressed that-with support, inspiration, and effort-she could handle her challenging circumstances. I told her that I could arrange for counseling with the wisest counselor anytime anywhere at no charge. She was thrilled. When I added that the counselor was God, she laughed. We worked together to help her prepare for and learn to recognize God's inspiration. She received guidance about whom to talk to and what to explore and confirmation about what to do.

One of her decisions was to return to college. She called me a year later to say that a prominent psychologist had addressed one of her college classes. She had asked him some questions about the challenges that she had faced and was impressed with how much more insightful her own inspiration had been.

This is not to say that everyone can handle everything through inspiration alone. Though counseling in our church is primarily a spiritual process, it is not necessarily independent of more conventional approaches. Professional counselors have a role. I often refer people to licensed counselors at their request or after my encouragement. I also rely on professional counselors, lawyers, and other resources in my own counseling-the church makes these freely available to me-but personal inspiration is a powerful source of guidance for members and me, the final touchstone of personal decisions.

Individual Responsibility
Individual agency and self-reliance are essential principles of church doctrine. Counselors are to assist, but individuals are responsible. A frequently quoted statement of church doctrine is "...teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves" (Joseph Smith, 1842). Members are to "make a diligent effort ...to find solutions and answers for themselves" before seeking counseling. Counselors are to enable spiritual and informed decisions by helping the person to receive and recognize divine guidance and by asking questions about alternatives and implications.

A young woman came to me many years ago. Away from home for the first time, she had recently become pregnant. The father was an ex-convict from a very different background. She began our meetings upset and confused. After praying and counseling together, a very good feeling came. I asked her questions about the situation and the implications of various choices. I was amazed at how the combination of the presence of the spirit and her attentiveness to the questions clarified her thinking. She came to know exactly what she wanted to do. My last contact with her was several years later. She still faced difficulties, but she had a peace and determination that was seeing her through.

Counseling within the church also permits the congregation or selected members to participate. Every family is assigned members of the congregation to help it and almost every member is assigned to help some family. They meet with each other at least monthly and, with permission, alert the bishop when special help is necessary. The member so assigned can arrange for other members to provide meals or care for children during a time of illness or other stress. This support system does not always work, but often does. For example, I once was able to arrange for members to provide 24 hour companionship for a few days to a member recuperating after release from a mental hospital.

Repentance
Christ taught that we must take the beam out of our own eye before we can see clearly (Matthew 7:5). My primary role as a religious counselor is to assist people in doing this. Speak "nothing save it were repentance and faith in the Lord," our scripture enjoins (The Book of Mormon, Mosiah 18:20). Trying to follow this principle can be very challenging, but powerful.

For example, a couple came to me once with serious marital problems. As is my practice, after first meeting with them together, I met with each separately and reminded them of the commitment made at baptism into the church to keep the Lord's commandments and serve him by serving his other children, "willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light" (Mosiah 18:8). I then asked, "What does the Lord want you to change in your life? Is he pleased with how you are living? Are you enjoying the spiritual peace and guidance that are the fruits of your conversion?"

Initially, each was irritated because I seemed to be taking the other's side. I explained that I was trying my best to take the Lord's side, helping each rather than siding with either. I reminded them of the Lord's promise, "my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John, 14:27). 1 assured them that through their faith and repentance they could have a peace that no one could take from them.

She claimed that peace. He did not. She changed in many ways, receiving strength and wisdom to handle the challenges that he continued to bring to the relationship. She had to work to maintain the peace, but she did. Eventually, she decided that she should divorce him, but not until she had a peaceful confirmation of the decision, a confirmation that kept her from doubting the decision when her children later questioned it.

Non-Judgement and Hope
Christ taught, "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matthew 7:1). Even though a bishop in the church has to make judgments about calling people to formal service and even excommunication, I learned as a young bishop that I had no right to judge. My responsibility is to love and understand, even empathize, before seeking a spiritual confirmation about what action should be taken. Of course, in counseling, no action is necessary.

One of the cardinal rules of pastoral counseling is, I think, to ensure that everyone who leaves a counseling session leaves with some hope, a hope confirmed by the spirit. One way to accomplish this is to have the member describe in detail a desired outcome that the spirit confirms is achievable through faith, effort, and the Lord's help. I then tell the member if I can see that outcome in the future. For example, I once felt impressed to reassure troubled parents that I could see them with their children dressed in white in one of our temples, a condition that would require a major change in the children, a change the parents despaired of.

Plainly, my counseling depends on a spiritual world-view largely shared by the people whom I counsel. The focus is on their maintaining responsibility for their own lives as fully as possible and seeking spiritual guidance through a willingness to change as they recognize the need for it. This focus gives them and me an assurance that the resulting decisions have a firm foundation in God's complete love and understanding of all affected, but without eliminating the accountability of each of us for our own actions. Guiding questions, temporal resources, and individual effort are essential to the process.