Today’s ethics class is going to cover the area of misconduct. Unfortunately, misconduct means here the illicit sexual contact between the counselor and counselee. In 2004, sexual misconduct played a role in 35% of complaints to the APA committee on ethics (2005 American Psychologist, 60:5, p. 526). How are pastoral counselors doing on this matter? I’m reminded of some words Diane Langberg used to describe abuse of power in the church. Pastors and leaders rarely fall in to sexual misconduct through their weaknesses. Rather they do so through their (perceived) strengths.
So, a counselor’s empathy is used to draw the client to serve the counselor’s needs just as a pastor’s way with words might be used to make a sinful act one that is “beautiful.”
But back to the science end of things. in 1999 and again in 2004, Katheryn Meek and Mark McMinn (then both at Wheaton College) published articles on training counselors and seminarians in how to deal with sexual attraction. The underlying assumption is that seminaries may not be doing an adequate job in training students to deal with these feelings in ministry. In the 2004 publication they note that another study revealed that 37% of pastors confess to inappropriate sexual contact with someone in the church. 70% know of another pastor who has been inappropriate with church members.
Here’s what they found about seminary education regarding sexual attraction training (585 respondants from 5 seminaries):
- There is some training going on about counseling and about sexuality in general, but little in how to deal with sexual feelings after seminary.
- Graduates of seminary had little concern over the values and behaviors of their teachers but felt, by-in-large, that their schools didn’t do a great job making it possible to explore the sensitive issues of sexual feelings in ministry.
- Very few graduates admitted to either (a) engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with parishioners, or (b) engaging in sexual fantasy about a parishioner (2/3s denied ever doing this)
- 39% denied ever being sexually attracted to a person in their congregation. 50% said it was always unethical to be sexually attracted to someone in their ministry (this is compared to 26% of christian psychologists and 75% of lay christian counselors).
- Pastors primarily rely on themselves to deal with their sexual feelings. They rarely share them with others (supervisors, other pastors, etc.)
Meek and her colleagues are concerned that both christian counselors and pastors are more likely than others to deny their sexual feelings, thereby allowing more denial and self-deception to enter, which in turn creates more opportunity for using one’s strengths for personal gain.
Meek, K.R., McMinn, M.R., et al. (2004). Sexual ethics training in seminary: Preparing students to manage feelings of sexual attraction. Pastoral Psychology, 53, 63-79.
Their 1999 article on christian and secular graduate psychology programs was published in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 30, 423-427.
Musings on Faith and Psychology 