Shaping your life the way the way you find  meaningful is not always easy. Humanist pastoral carers help you by engaging in dialogues, giving advice and support when needed, in order to find balance when life becomes difficult.

Some moments in life are stressful, challenging and difficult to understand. Illness, problems at work or in the relationship, the death of a loved one or a family member. Events that take you out of balance and spark emotions and questions within you. It helps to vent your heart and have a good conversation with someone who listens and helps you to explore your thoughts and feelings.

A humanist pastoral carer is such a person. He or she listens, feels compassion towards your situation, and at the same time is involved in your story from a safe distance to help you make your own decisions. A humanist pastoral carer isn’t a therapist or counselor, but a conversation partner who supports you to re-balance yourself within your own value and belief system.

There are no amount of sessions required or the need to have a specific problem in order to receive support from a humanist pastoral carer. As a dialogue can be open ended, so is the support of a humanist pastoral carer. The vocation is person-centered and focuses solely on the need of the person. Some relationships may be just for two or three sessions to help the person get back on their feet, while some other relationships can carry on for years. The support is open-ended and it is up to the person to let the humanist pastoral carer know if they want to carry on in a conversation, or if they have found the support they needed to carry on on their own two feet.

The humanist pastoral carer believes that the client is responsible for their own choices in life and will never take away the responsibility of the client, but will only facilitate in exploring one’s own life themes to get a clearer understanding of what is happening in one’s life. The humanist pastoral carer focuses on existential themes in life, and tries to find meaning along with the client to life events which can be difficult to make sense of.

The humanist pastoral carer works through exploring themes in the narrative of the client and highlights the values of the client to make sense of what the client finds valuable in life. In that sense, the humanist pastoral carer can be seen as a facilitator in exploring the client’s own narrative.

The human being and his or her way of thinking and life view are central to a humanist pastoral carer. The humanist pastoral carer provides support from a humanist life view, without imposing their own ideas to someone.

For more information about the humanist pastoral care service, please contact me through my contact page