About This Course
In Pastoral Care I, you will develop and deepen your understanding, comfort, experience, and skill level in offering pastoral care and counseling in various settings and contexts.
During the semester, we will apply both theoretical and practical approaches to the discipline of pastoral care. The course will consist of
- 9 live virtual classes (participation is crucial)
- Assigned readings to be read prior to class
- including prior to the first class
- Weekly written reflections integrating that week’s class reading materials with one’s personal experiences
- Additional reading assignments may be added
Because this class relies on student participation, you will not pass this course if you miss more than one class.
If you do miss one class, you are still required to do that week’s assignment.
If you wish, you may work in chavruta for any assignment other than our last assignment. If you do, please focus on the different points of view of the chavruta and incorporate those in your individual reflections. Chavruta is an invaluable experience and very much a tradition of Jewish learning.
Class is Tuesday evenings at 8 PM Eastern in the Zoom classroom
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students should
(i) have deepened their listening and reflection skills
(ii) be familiar with various models to develop one’s own spiritual assessment competence
(iii) have cultivated a toolbox of interventions to allow for effective pastoral caregiving
(iv) understand various concepts necessary for sustained pastoral caregiving, including transference, self-care, theological reflection, ethical decision-making
(v) be able to discern when additional referrals are indicated.
Course Requirements
- Weekly reflections (500-700 words, double spaced) integrating one’s own personal experiences with the reading materials (and optionally adding an addendum based on the classroom discussion), other than on weeks when another written assignment is due
- Spiritual Assessment
- Verbatim
- Theological Reflection
Required Reading
Please purchase before the start of the course
Rabbi Dayle A. Freedman, Ed., Jewish Pastoral Care: A Practical Handbook from Traditional and Contemporary Sources, 2nd Edition (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing 2005) [Jewish Pastoral Care]
Carrie Doehring, The Practice of Pastoral Care: A Postmodern Approach, Revised and Expanded Edition (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press 2015) [The Practice of Pastoral Care]
Stephen B. Roberts, Ed., Professional Spiritual & Pastoral Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain’s Handbook (Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing 2012) [Professional Spiritual & Pastoral Care]
Download the PDF for all the information above as well as information from the introduction and all units in the course.
Meet Your Instructor
Contact information: (914-391-1655); fredda.cohen@gmail.com
Rabbi Fredda Cohen, MA, JD, BCC, is the Director of Pastoral Care and Education at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. She has lectured extensively in the fields of pastoral education, bikur cholim, palliative care and spirituality. Rabbi Cohen was ordained as a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2010, where she also earned an MA in Judaic Studies. She is a board certified chaplain under the auspices of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC), and currently serves on its board. Rabbi Cohen received the prestigious Chaplain of the Year Award conferred by the New York Board of Rabbi in 2015. Prior to her career as a chaplain/rabbi, she worked as a trusts and estate attorney.
Smicha, Jewish Theological Seminary
MA, Jewish Theological Seminary
JD, Fordham University School of Law
Ratings and Reviews
Lior AvrahamRabbi Cohen is transformational. She has helped me see an area of the rabbinate I had not considered working in. I can't wait to take part 2 of this course.
I learned a lot in this class; a lot of densely meaningful and practical work was concentrated in nine weeks. My favorite classes were the ones were we got to interact with and learn from each other in addition to Rabbi Fredda, who is wonderful.