Description: Valerie DeMarinis persuasively argues that the use of religious beliefs, symbols, and rituals - as well as other resources of the community of faith - is crucial to the therapeutic encounter in pastoral psychotherapy. Balancing "careful judgment" and "appropriate concern", DeMarinis constructs a feminist methodology of critical caring. Synthesizing her theoretical model from the fields of pastoral theology, feminist hermeneutics, and the psychology of religion, DeMarinis then demonstrates its clinical application using four case studies of women in different phases of the life cycle. The book is divided into two parts. In part 1, DeMarinis focuses on the hermeneutical and theoretical task of building a foundation for understanding the meaning of caring and the process of caring in the context of pastoral psychology. Chapter 1 explores the nature of caring and the nature of the field of pastoral psychology through its opportunities and contexts for critical caring. Chapter 2 details the need for a hermeneutical perspective for understanding the nature of the therapeutic encounter in the context of pastoral psychology and pastoral psychotherapy. Chapter 3 builds a clinical model of critical caring and reviews the clinical process involved in using the model. Part 2 of the volume then moves from hermeneutics and theory into clinical application. Chapters 4 through 7 examine the model in clinical use, with each chapter devoted to one case study of the model.

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