Crystal's Counselling Department plays an important role in pastoral care. Counselling from a Christian perspective is a process that produces change and growth in a person through the offices of a pastor or counsellor who seeks to use all available human and divine resources to bring healing, wholeness and maturity to the counselee
Counselling offered
Pre martial counselling: Christian premarital counselling prepares a couple seeking marriage to enter into a relationship based upon sacrificial love for one another and to place the needs of others before the needs of self. The Christian couple is encouraged to invite Jesus Christ to be not only a personal Saviour but also the third cord spoken of in Ecclesiastes 4:12. The counselling runs over a three month period and we cover topics such as family values, finances, budgeting, intimacy in marriage, and relationship with in-laws, respecting your partner and yourself
Marriage Counselling: Marriage with or without Christian pre marital counselling is a challenging adventure that can be both rewarding and fulfilling if it is characterised by unconditional commitment and sacrificial love. But marriage is also a union of two individuals who have come together from different families each with a different set of expectations concerning the marriage. It is our desire through counselling to assist couples to fulfil their commitment based on the vow "till death do us part"
Family Conflict Resolution: A family can be compared to a rowing a boat, as long as all the rowers face the front the boat will sail along nice and smoothly. But if one of the rowers decides to row in the opposite direction to the other rowers, we have a problem. We have a family in conflict. That family is in need of some basic family conflict resolution skills. After the problem has been identified and a plan to solve it has been created, the next logical step in family conflict resolution is to work the plan; this is where good counselling steps in
Bereavement Counselling: Helps people cope with the death of a family member or a loved one. The effects of bereavement can take time to fully manifest as some people may only feel a need for counselling sometime after the death. It is important for mourners to know that it is a normal and accepted reaction to seek help when they feel they need it
Vision
It is our desire to work with people to discover the truth about their situation and personally be responsible in planning a solution to their problem. As we help people work through their current situation by merely guiding or facilitating the process, they learn for the future. People are more likely to change because they own the solution.
Truth regardless of the source is useful. God's word is the only infallible source. Scripture is the final