| Patmos Counselling Associates | |
Region: Toronto
Address:
86 Homewood Avenue
Hamilton, ON
L8P 2M4 |
Phone: (905) 525-2444
Fax: (905) 526-9196
Web Site: www.patmoscounselling.com
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Type of Service: Committed to working with clients personally, therapeutically and spiritually. Respectful of varied backgrounds, values and financial circumstances.
List of Services: Individual, couple, family and group pastoral counselling, psychotherapy and consultation
Fee Structure: $80/hr, this can be adjusted for those on fixed or limited incomes.
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Names of Staff
Beth Snyder :
- M.A., R.S.W., Reiki Master
- Experience therapist
- Client centered
- Recognizing connection between body, mind and spirit
- Combines psychotherapy with energy work and EMDR
- Specialties: anger, stress, abuse, separation, anxieties, life transitions
- Email: beth.snyder@cogeco.ca
Katrina Foss:
- R.N., C.S.T.
- Experienced nurse
- Practices shiatsu for health maintainence for overall vitality and resistance to illness
- Email: kfoss@sympatico.ca
Laura Noble Wohlgemut:
- B.A. DTATI
- Trained art therapist
- Facilatates finding creative voice in safe environment
- Works through isses with directed or spontaneous art
- Specialties: Eating disorders, self-identity, communication, relationships, anxiety, supporting people affected by cancer
- Email: arttherapy@sympatico.ca
Rose Janson:
- B.A., Waterloo, 1967
- M.A., Toronto, 1970
- Canadian Register of Professional Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Certified Specialist in Pastoral Counselling (CAPPE), 2000
- Cross-cultural experience - Europe, Africa, Latin America
- Teacher of Psychology, Communications, Ethics and Sociology (22 years)
- Life-time pursuit of learning and professional development
- Clinical member of the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists (OS) since 1998
- Twelve years experience counselling in the Hamilton area
Miki Beldman
- R.N., M.R.C., M.R.E., R.S.W
- Founding member of Patmos in 1992
- Seasoned Counsellor
- Many therapeutic approaches including pastoral counselling, energy work and psychotherapy
- Specialties: EAO, CISM, EMDR, EFT, Reiki, abuse and trauma, loss, anxiety, depression, anger management, families and individuals, relationship, marriage and marriage prep, stress, work-related issues, spiritual integration
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Mission Statement:
Pastoral counselling and psychotherapy is our ministry: bringing and witnessing to, understanding, hope, encouragement and love, with anyone emotionally troubled, searching, or spiritually distressed.
We are born into a broken world. In my understanding, evil exists in this brokenness - it is located in 'principalities and powers,' which include those social structures and systems that promote and condone oppression. (For example, the story of the Israelites in slavery in Egypt has resonance with impoverished clients who have no access to counselling in our society, simply because they are poor.) In this broken world, God's love continues to be there, calling us to be response-able and to engage ourselves with God in thr real and messy events around us. We are called to go with God, to respond to suffering and to injustices with righteousness and compassion, and not to let go of hope.
For me, this theology suggests the following for the practice of pastoral diagnosis and pastoral counselling:
- God is there, in our clients, in their lives and in the counselling sessions
- Healing and liberation are legitimate goals of counselling
- The clients' stories are to be listened to with great care and respect
- The pastoral counsellor is called to respond, with compassion and justice
- Personal and social change are intertwined in us and in the world
- The process of 'humbling changing' continues; we have not yet arrived
- We are not alone in our work, but in covenant with God and community
Pastoral counsellors can draw direction and encouragement from the revelation and experiences of the Biblical tradition. I am struck by how the central commandment emphasized so clearly in Deuteronomy, continues to challenge us. We are 'to love God and neighbour as ourselves, with out entire lives.' In my way of thinking, this commandment calls us to struggle for justice and fairness, as well as to be compassionate. Clearly the Bible tells us we are to feed the hungry, to be there for the oppressed, to speak out for those who cannot speak.
I see my role in pastoral pracetice as including "healer, witness, prophet advocate, clinician, educator and spiritual companion" (CAPPE definition of specialist). I seem to have gifts ('charisms') that make me suited to the ministry of pastoral counselling. I have been called to lay ministry to use my strengths and skills and to serve my community in the struggles towards personal and social empowerment. One of the charisms I have come to appreciate is a strong awareness of my 'unfinished-ness': I know that as pastoral counsellors, we need to continue and develop and learn; to be vigilant in self-assessment and self-monitoring ('strategies of purification').
I try to be mindful of my calling to be witness, prophet, healer, advocate, educator and spiritual companion when helping clients to sort out the stresses and fears that are not only personal but augmented in individualistic and materialistic societies. The pastoral counsellor allows space for spiritual concerns and questions, and affirms values such as commitment, truthfulness and community. The respectful expression of moral responsibility towards self and others, should be a part of pastoral counselling in a culture that promotes and normalizes self-interest.
Our clients need a respectful space to understand themselves in their contexts. In my pastoral counselling, the client is supported in clarifying the sources of their oppression. Sometimes they gain insight into how they made be "colluding" in their own opression. Pastoral counselling at its best aids healing and liberation through powerful knowledge and caring love.
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