21 Jan 2013 Schmidt Center keeping clergy healthy
by Renee Hunter
Research has long shown that clergy, particularly those in parish ministry, have unique mental health needs. In Central Arkansas, these needs were neglected until a confluence of events that the Rev. Rebecca Spooner believes was God-inspired.
Spooner had completed her master’s degree in counseling at the University of Central Arkansas at about the time that Vera Lloyd Presbyterian Home and Family Services received a grant to pursue the issue from the Laurence E. Schmidt Trust.
Vera Lloyd’s first step was to conduct a survey in 2006 of 600 ministers. The survey brought to light statistics showing that ministers are two to three times more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety than lay people, and 75 percent report that they occasionally need mental health assistance, but don’t seek it due to financial, confidentiality or trust concerns.
The survey resulted in the establishment of The Laurence E. Schmidt Center, which offers a variety of mental health services, primarily to clergy and their families. Located at 1501 N. University Ave. in Little Rock, the center saw its first clients in 2007. Spooner, an ordained Presbyterian minister and licensed family counselor, is the center’s director.
A minister, and the daughter and niece of ministers with experience in parish ministry, Spooner is uniquely equipped for her job. She understands the unrealistic expectations and isolation that often accompany parish ministry.
“Pastors are completely dependent on their congregations for everything,” she said, which often makes it difficult for them to preach their convictions. “And they’re expected to be experts in everything. The job also tends to lend itself to poor boundaries.”
The Schmidt Center offers monthly clergy support groups that provide a safe place to talk about any worrisome issue, personal or job-related.
“The group lends itself to universality and hope,” Spooner said. Ministers discover that they aren’t alone and that their problems are shared. While they are required to join for at least five months, some ministers remain in a group for years.
Besides individual, group and family counseling, the center offers several unique services:
Preparation for the ministry to discover “whether they have accurately determined that they are accurately discerning their call,” Spooner said. “A call to ministry is like a call to marry; we don’t understand what that means until we have said ‘I do.’” She recalls that she fell in love with parish ministry while in seminary and had many “grandiose ideas about how I would save the world.” During her first pastorate, however, “grandiosity met reality.”
Emotional intelligence testing to discover if the minister knows how to recognize and handle his own emotions and whether he is able to read the emotions of others. The inability to read emotions, Spooner said, “is like being color blind.” Testing throws light on both liabilities and strengths in this area and helps the minister compensate for any inadequacies.
Retreats in such areas as conflict management, family dynamics and Benedictine Spirituality.
Free referrals to counselors throughout the state so that ministers can get help close to home. “All those individuals are people of Christian faith, licensed in their profession and experienced in working with clergy and congregations,” Spooner said, adding that a person’s faith is very important to wholeness and mental health.
The Schmidt Center, which was named for the son of a Presbyterian minister, has covenanted with two presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church-(USA), with the region’s United Methodist Church and with several local congregations to provide mental-health services. It is overseen by the board of Vera Lloyd, a multifaceted agency of the PC-USA, which includes psychiatrists, psychologists and ministers.
In addition, the center also offers training in pastoral care for lay pastors, elders and deacons. And Spooner leads group therapy sessions for UCA students working toward a master’s degree in counseling. Although the students aren’t required to participate in the therapy, Spooner says they find it beneficial because “they experience what they are learning.”
For more information on the Schmidt Center and its services, visit veralloyd.org.
