Stephen Ministry: carrying each other’s burdens

ABSTRACT

Stephen Ministry is a popular nondenominational Christian caregiving model, training lay persons in church congregations to care for fellow congregants in a quasi-therapeutic context without formal licensure requirements. It is argued that Stephen Ministry, based on the principles of person-centered psychotherapy, imposes a one-size-fits-all strategy for helping the client (i.e. clients receive empathy, validation, encouragement, and spiritual tools such as prayer). Stephen Ministry’s strengths and limitations in the context of attachment theory, as well as its applicability to individuals who display each of four attachment relationship models, are discussed. A case illustration of a Stephen Ministry caregiving relationship is offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Stephen Ministry
• person-centered psychotherapy
• attachment theory
• treatment process
• intervention strategies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).