Does any denomination or religion require its ministers to be licensed psychologists?

[More Than A Feeling]

If not, I think it would be a good idea. After all, millions go to their minister, priest, etc for guidance, and it'd be nice if we could be confident that a large percentage of clergy knew what they were doing in the same way that someone you'd actually pay directly to help you would.

[MistressOverdone]

1. I don't know about licensed

but I know ours (Episcopalian) take a lot of coursework in it. Some emphasize it in their ministries more than others. I've had priests who will refer you to another priest, and I've had priests who have office hours like any counseling office, but for free.

[checks-n-balances]

2. There's a program that requires supervised hrs. in institutuional chaplaincy

during which time there's a lot of scrutiny & feedback from peers, helping the ministry candidate to examine his or her motives and the direction the person may be headed in. People sometimes bring a lot of "baggage" into ministry and this program helps people to be more honest and caring with their future parishioners. I went through the basic program one summer, but there are more intensive programs that go one for a year or more.

Unfortunately, it isn't a required program for all persons studying to be pastors, and I don't know if the program is still as good as it used to be, but I know that my father went through it at Duke over 50 years ago and he was a very compassionate counselor while being a pastor at the same time.

[varkam]

3. That's too high a requirement to be placed on people trying to become ministers

In addition to becoming comfortable with all of the theological scripture, in order to become a licensed clinical or counseling psychologist you'd have to go to a PhD program in it for a good four or five years, do a massive dissertation, and then pass board exams to obtain a license to practice.

Personally, I think it's a dangerous idea to give legitimacy to the idea that ministers can treat mental illness as effectively as trained professionals can. I think it's a good idea that they should be given training in empathy and basic therapeutic methods, but beyond that I think the lines would begin to blur.

[happyslug]

4. Most religion require at least 4 years of Study

And that study does include Psychiatry (Through NOT a Major). This came out of the Reformation where one of the Protestant Attacks on the Catholic Church of the time period was it huge number of barely educated Clergy. This seems to be more of a problem in the growing urban areas, do to the huge increase in Urban Population while the number of people who could become priest was limited by the Celibacy rule. At the same time most Priests and Bishops were VERY educated, but the level differed greatly depending on which Diocese you were in (And seems to be more of an excuse than a real reason, many of the alleged ill educated Religious stayed on in the Protestant Churches after adopting Protestantism).

Anyway, since this was one of the Protestant Attacks on the Catholic Church, The Catholic Church slowly (Took about 50 years) to upgrade their Seminaries. The protestant either anticipated this move (i.e. made sure their minsters were well educated) or matched the improvements in the Seminaries. This has continued to this day when you speak of Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox and most other Christian Religions (I am less knowledgeable about non-Christian Religions, but the Moslems seems to have similar education requirements as do the Jews).

Note I said "Mainline Protestant" Churches. The reason I use that term is many non-mainline (i.e Fundamentalist) Churches do NOT have the same requirements. Many Fundamentals will take anyone as a "Reverend" if they go through some sort of Correspondence course that shows they can read their Bible (But do NOT go into the background of the bible, the times it was written in OR how it was interpreted since the time of Jesus). I knew one man who became a "Revered" while in Prison on a Murder Church. These non-Mainline Churches have had a long history of IGNORING psychological problems for they have no background in it (and many suffer from psychological problems and they embrace the bible as a way to handle those problems).

This come up after 911. Many religious people went ot New York to help people handle their grief. I did NOT hear of any complaints abort the Catholics, Jews, Orthodox, Mainline Protestants, Buddhists, Moslems, etc. All of this minsters had training in how to help people grieve. I did hear of problems with fundamentalist Christians who took people to Accept Christ as the only way to handle their grief. These minsters caused more damage than help and as a general rule were asked to leave.

You do NOT need a Psychological or Psychiatric degree to see of someone need mental health help. You do NOT need Psychological or Psychiatric degree to help someone grieve, but you do need some training on the subject and the Bible was written by people who had such training and assumed the people reading it also had such training. Thus people how undergo a four year program of Religious studies do take courses on how to handle difficult parishioners. They takes classes on how to handle someone who is grieving. Most Churches have refresher courses on such subjects (Parishioners do die and leave love ones behind).

One last comment most Seminaries require not only training in HOW to handle people who have Psychiatric problems but also to recognize such cases and to make a referral to a Psychologist or Psychiatrist. This is all that is needed by a Minster or a Priest. A Minster or a Priest does NOT need to know HOW to handle a person with Psychological problems, but only need to be able to recognize it and make a referral to a Psychological or Psychiatric expert.
the parishioners to a professional. Please note part of the training is to .