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Life isn’t always easy. . .Sometimes life gets too complicated for us to deal with all alone. When that happens, we need to talk to someone who has an objective viewpoint — someone who asks questions we may have overlooked or offers insights we have not considered. Someone like the trained professionals in the Pastoral Counseling Center. Knowing when to seek help isn’t always easy. We provide services to you and your family when you are faced with difficult personal, marital, family, spiritual or job related issues. The Pastoral Counseling Center integrates the insights and methods of Behavioral Sciences with a sound spiritual understanding of life to help individuals and families grow in the quality of love they have for God, self, and others. We employ experienced, state-licensed counselors to provide a wide range of counseling, education and consultation services to the people of South Carolina. We offer the following specialized resources to address your needs:
For more information, click on a link above, or call one of the numbers below.
What is Pastoral Counseling? How is it different from other kinds of counseling?
Choosing Pastoral Counseling Pastoral Counseling has been defined as a relationship of caring between persons which embraces both being and doing. It is being with persons in pain as well as working with them to heal, to reconcile, to alleviate their pain. With the help of trained Pastoral Counselors, people often are able to grow in the areas of problem-solving, interpersonal communication and coping with life’s disappointments and surprises. Pastoral Counselors also are trained to deal with more serious, long-term mental health illnesses. They can offer testing services and often work together with psychiatrists when a client requires medication in addition to therapy. We provide services to individuals, couples or families without regard to race or religious preference. In fact, some clients who have no religious preference choose counseling with us because they trust the commitment and respect the competence of our qualified staff. Our counselors can help with. . .
How to Make an Appointment? To make an appointment, call the center located
closest to you. Requests for appointments will
be handled promptly and confidentially. Fees are charged for the counseling services provided to clients. Insurance can be used to pay for services if deductible and co-payments are met. Your counselor will talk about this with you at your first session. What is The Pastoral Counseling Center? The Pastoral Counseling Center offers affordable, nondenominational, faith-based counseling in ten offices in the Midlands and UpState areas. Our counselors provide approximately 10,000 hours of outpatient counseling each year. While all of our staff are South Carolina licensed professionals, Pastoral Counseling remains true to its original mission of attending to the spiritual needs as well as the emotional needs of our clients. Many of our locations are partially supported by local churches and denominational associations, giving us a distinctly local flavor in our Advisory Boards and local leadership. Research has repeatedly confirmed that using an individual’s spiritual belief system enhances the healing process for both physical and emotional trauma and illness. The Pastoral Counseling Center of Palmetto Health has been treating clients successfully on this basis for more than 25 years.  The Mission of Pastoral CounselingTo provide quality counseling and programs that strengthen the spiritual, emotional and physical health of individuals, families, and communities we serve. Values that we hold are… COMPASSION, we help people who are in need; INTEGRITY, we adhere strictly to all of our professional codes, licensure laws and credentialing requirements; RESPECT, we counsel people of all faiths and value each person’s faith commitments. We believe that one’s spiritual values are essential to healing. SERVICE, we offer quality counseling for all socioeconomic groups. QUALITY, we pursue excellence in all that we do. STEWARDSHIP, We conserve resources in the present and for the future. We will continue to broaden community support of this ministry to assure that the services we provide are the very best available and to expand this care to everyone who seeks our specialized care. TEAMWORK, We achieve common goals together with our parent organization. We actively partner with churches, businesses and individuals and seek financial support of these groups to enhance our mission.
 Frequently Asked QuestionsHow do I know if I need counseling? There are times in life when you want opinions, thoughts and ideas from someone not involved in your life. This may be a time to seek help. Another time is when persistent problems continue in spite of your best efforts to settle them. These may be relational, spiritual, financial, or vocational in nature. Another time is when someone you love asks that you get professional help. Do ordinary people come for counseling or does it mean I’m “sick” or “crazy” if I admit I need some outside help? About 10 percent of the population in America is regularly receiving some kind of counseling help. Therefore, at any given time, there are about 28,000,000 of us getting help. You are not alone in your search for a more peaceful life. Many of these people believe that by addressing their concerns early, they are avoiding more serious problems later. A lot of folks feel that counseling is the smart thing to do. What are the signs that my child needs counseling? Any of the following may indicate the need for at least an evaluation by a professional:
Highly emotional negative statements such as:
How do I know if my relationship problems are growing pains or the beginning of the end of the relationship? All relationships experience tough times. These are usually handled with love and mutual respect. Danger signs are:
These signals almost always move the relationship to an end. What if my partner or my children won’t come with me for counseling? Or if they do come, what if they don’t participate? There are a lot of things one person in a relationship can do to improve the partnership. This involves you making the changes in areas where you have control. This does help. It also is important to understand that you have a lot of influence on your family. So, don’t give up on getting them to join you. Once you all are in counseling, let the counselor worry about their participation and involvement. Won’t opening up old wounds or examining my relationships intensify the problems? Sometimes this is the case, but most often it’s not true. The opposite is more likely. For example, by covering and denying the issues, your symptoms are much worse. The things you can’t or won’t deal with have the greatest potential for harm. What if I get a counselor I can’t relate to? Tell the counselor you are having difficulty expressing yourself to him/her. Ask if there is another person to whom you can be referred. Counselors aren’t friends whose feelings you need to worry about hurting. They are trained professionals whose only agenda is to help you with your problems. What are the counselor’s responsibilities if he/she determines that I or someone else in my family is being abused? How much help can I reasonably expect in this kind of situation? The majority of counselors are required by law to report abuse to appropriate authorities. This includes children, elders, and others unable to protect themselves. The counselor is subject to legal action for covering up or ignoring these abuses. He/She also is responsible to insure that the abuse stops. See our “Things You Should Know About Counseling” pages for more detailed information. What about confidentiality, What if I’m going through a messy divorce? Can my counseling notes be used against me? Refer to our “Things You Should Know About Counseling “ pages and to our Information on HIPAA laws and regulations. These detail how and when your confidentiality may or must be broken. Also refer to SC legal codes, S 19-11-90 priest penitent privilege; S 19-11-95 Confidences of patients of mental illness or emotional conditions: Regulation 36-5.2, 36-5.3, and 36-5.4. All of these relate to your legal rights for confidentiality. Generally, these regulations state that you have a right to have your confidentiality protected and spell out when the counselor must produce your records — such as when ordered by a judge. To make an appointment, call the Pastoral Counseling Center nearest you. We will ask you for some basic information when you first call:
Our intake counselor will choose a therapist, and someone from our office will call you back to offer an appointment time. If you are not in, the caller will protect your privacy by only leaving his/her name and a number for you to call back. It is our policy to contact first-time callers within 24 hours of the initial call to offer them an appointment. We can generally make an appointment for you within seven days of your initial call, depending on your availability. Pastoral Counseling
Center Toll Free Numbers:
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Many people ask us these questions.
It’s
really not so complicated.