They are recognizing the power of spiritual commitment creatively used in the healing process. The ever-growing interaction and collaboration between Pastoral Counselors and the larger mental health field is helping to bring this about. Treatment through a pastoral counseling center or a private practice Pastoral Counselor also mitigates the stigma often associated with the treatment of mental and emotional illness provided through a traditional psychiatric hospital or medical hospital. Persons have already acquired a level of comfort with their religious setting and, therefore, are less resistant to entering a pastoral counseling center. This setting, consequently, often provides a more acceptable and more therapeutic atmosphere that helps to bring a person into communion with one's true identity.
Places of worship are community gateways through which millions of persons pass each week.
Many of their problems and illnesses can be referred through the clergy to pastoral psychotherapists quickly, sometimes preventing individual and family tragedy before it strikes. Mental health education workshops are offered by Pastoral Counselors through church and synagogue settings. Many pastoral counseling centers also perform developmental and mental health screening to avoid and ameliorate illness. Pastoral Counselors are in a position to provide crisis-oriented assessments in early diagnoses of many debilitating personal states, and to effect appropriate outpatient treatment of these and other conditions. They also work in collaborative relationships with other mental health professionals in designating treatment plans that optimize care and follow-up for patients who require other levels of treatment or specialization.