COPING WITH THE STRESS OF PASTORAL COUNSELING

Using a stratified random sample of the three membership categories of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, this study investiga ted the experience of stress, related to the pastoral counseling profe ssion, among 143 pastoral counselors and 95 of their spouses. In addit ion, the study examined how pastoral counselors were coping with stres s by evaluating self-reported functional and dysfunctional behaviors. The data indicated that pastoral counselors and their spouses did not report high levels of stress related to the pastoral counseling profes sion. However, significant differences were found by work setting and age for pastoral counselors regarding the level of stress experienced. The data also indicated that pastoral counselors reported using more functional stress reduction behaviors than dysfunctional stress reduct ion behaviors.