About Us

A PASTORAL Counseling Center:

The Samaritan Counseling Center of Southeastern Michigan is a pastoral counseling center. This means that we provide counseling and psychotherapy that integrates the best in psychological and psychiatric theory and practice with the resources of the client's religious/faith tradition. Pastoral Counselors utilize a holistic approach in their counseling. giving attention to intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual dimensions of personhood. An important ingredient which makes pastoral counseling different from other forms of counseling and psychotherapy is the conviction that life's crises and transitions are best met by both the wisdom of religious teachings and the knowledge and skills of the human sciences, such as psychiatry and psychology.

 

 

 

A Brief History:

The Samaritan Counseling Center was established by a consortium of local churches in the Farmington, Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield communities. The idea for such a center originated with The Rev. Robert L. S. Brown, then pastor of Orchard United Methodist Church. After study, the congregation decided that such an endeavor was better developed ecumenically, and other churches were invited to join in the effort. Twelve churches responded to the call. A Board of Directors was gathered from all participating congregations, and the Center was incorporated as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization in March 1985. The Center's first offices were in the First Presbyterian Church of Farmington and in April, 1988, a branch office was opened in the Embury United Methodist Church in Birmingham. When the Center outgrew its space at First Presbyterian, the Center's main offices were moved to the Nardin Park United Methodist Church in Fam1ington Hills. The staff has grown from one to seventeen and the number of sponsoring parishes has grown to thirty-nine.

Mission Statement:

The Center's Mission Statement, as revised by the Board of Directors March 29, 1999, is as follows:

The Samaritan Counseling Center of Southeastern Michigan provides professional therapeutic counseling and educational services to all God's people seeking wholeness through emotional and spiritual growth.