"Ordinary Grace...will make you proud to be a human being. It should be read every night after you finish your evening paper."-New York Times bestselling author Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

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"Readers seeking reassurance that people can be good as easily as not will find inspiration in these personal stories; they may even be motivated to their own good deeds."-Publishers Weekly

As ministers and practitioners, how do we help those who come to us for counsel?  Where are the boundaries between psychological counseling and spiritual counseling?  How do we know when it is time to refer a client for psychological help?  When should we refer them to another minister.  Inquire into these areas and practice being of service with your classmates.  

What do we say when our clients ask us for advice in areas that would be better suited to consultation with another professional?  How do we know what those areas are?

While we are trained to see Spirit within the individual, how might we assist our counseling clients with rediscovering this light within themselves?  Tough things happen in life and everybody faces certain issues: their own mortality, job losses and disappointments, rocky relationships, the death of a loved one, and many other spiritual bumps in the road. It is our job to reacquaint our clients with their divine nature, and in so doing, allow them to find a solution that suits them and for which they can choose to be responsible.

Sometimes, the first thing we need to do is to examine ourselves for who we know our clients to be.  Our text will assist us in doing just that.

  TEXT:  

Ordinary Grace: An Examination of the Roots of Compassion, Altruism, and Empathy, and the Ordinary Individuals Who Help Others in Extraordinary Ways, Kathleen A. Brehony

"I just happened to find this book one day while browsing around in a bookstore and was intrigued by the title. Little did I realize what a gift I had stumbled on. I have cried and laughed and thoroughly enjoyed every story told by the author. I will definitely be sharing it with friends and family. What a necessary reminder that there are good deeds done everyday if we choose to notice them. This book is a perfect antidote to the evening news or front page of the newspaper and will surely put a smile on your face!"

From Kirkus Reviews , January 15, 1999
A heartening inquiry into why ordinary folks routinely go the second mile for others, by clinical psychologist Brehony (Awakening at Midlife: Realizing Your Potential for Growth and Change, 1996). What causes altruism in some people? Is it nature or nurture? The author makes a strong case for nature here, drawing from research on newborns and primates to argue for an innate, biologically based compassion. Such instincts are either reinforced or quelled by life experiences, though Brehony says that in some people, even truly horrifying childhood traumas only intensify the impulse to be kind to others. The quiet strength of this book lies in its storytelling, as Brehony draws upon field research, follows up on media stories, or even employs members of her own family to demonstrate that people can and do carry out tremendously empathic actions every day. We meet a New Jersey couple who have adopted four HIV-positive Romanian orphans, and a doctor who sacrifices all of his free time to procuring computers so that terminally ill children can communicate with one another in cyberspace. Brehony devotes a whole chapter to organ donation, describing incidents with both deceased and living donors (in two instances, people felt moved to donate a kidney to a casual friend). Another chapter explores how a couple who lost their child to a degenerative illness raised tens of thousands of dollars to design and build a ``wheelchair-friendly'' playground where all kids can play together, regardless of physical ability. Brehony writes that those who exhibit this kind of ``ordinary grace'' classically show an optimism about the fundamental goodness of humanity (``Anyone would do what I did''), as well as a conviction that they are the ones who have been blessed by the giving. A restorative tonic, more than mere chicken soup for the soul because it may well inspire readers to go out and do something good for somebody. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

 

The book may be ordered from www.Amazon.com or special order it from any local bookstore.

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Kathleen A. Brehony holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and has been in private practice for twelve years. She has been published widely in academic journals and has been on the faculty at Virginia Tech. She is the author of Awakening at Midlife: Realizing Your Potential for Growth and Change, which was a finalist for the "Books for a Better Life" award. Dr. Brehony divides her time between Virginia and Los Angeles.