Danielle Crissey

SSW 271 45 – The Helping Relationship

Service Learning Paper Assignment

Ralph Miller – Church of Jesus Christ – Pastor

Mission Statement: Church of Jesus Christ - A better life.
Location: 102 Foxberg Road, Normalville, PA 15469
Services: Drug/alcohol addiction counseling, marriage counseling, life counseling and a place of
worship.
Population Served: Varies from week to week but membership of the church is roughly 50
people. No numbers provided as to the number of individuals counseled, done on an as-needed
basis. The church is open for anyone to attend and Pastor is open to talk with or meet with
anyone who has a need. The church is positioned in a very rural and poor area with a
predominately white population. Majority of the population is uneducated and unemployed.
My family and I are members of the church. I teach Sunday School, organize Vacation Bible
School every August, assist in the Ladies Group’s activities, lead the Puppet Ministry Team, and
will occasionally pick up children from the neighborhood who need rides to church.
Summary & Application to Course/Areas of Interest:
I met with my Pastor to talk about his experience in counseling individuals in regards to various
issues, whether it be drug/alcohol addiction, marriage counseling, or just for advice on handling
life situations. From speaking with my Pastor I believe the main goal of his interactions is to be
an ear to lean on and a light to help lead other’s to a purposeful life of serving God. When
meeting with individuals they may be overwhelmed with the issues they are facing and may be
so focused on their problem that they aren’t able to understand the hope that awaits them if
they can just refocus their attention to the positives in their lives and ultimately God. In these
interactions, Pastor relayed, that it is important to listen to the individuals without casting
judgement on them and although most of the people that my Pastor meets with are individuals
that he already knows, and is already familiar with what their problem is all about, it is
necessary to hear the situation from that person’s perspective. It is imperative that people feel
heard and feel that what they are saying is valued and significant. A crucial part of the
interactions that my Pastor has is focusing on the solution and not so much the problem. From
what I could glean, my Pastor doesn’t have any SFT training, but the techniques he uses
(focusing on the positives, future based talk, and coming from the client’s frame of reference)
in his dealings with other individuals is overall very similar to what I have learned in the past
several weeks. Ultimately my goal is to obtain my bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and
advance my career but I would love to be able to use what I have learned in my education, this
class in particular, to assist my Pastor in working with troubled individuals. I feel that I could
easily step in and help any individuals in my church that may be facing a situation where a
solution needs to be uncovered. One goal that I have set for myself, being a full-time working
mother with three daughters, is to encourage and be a light to young women in our church. The
population we serve at church is very set in their ways and has an ‘old-school’ philosophy
where women predominately don’t have jobs and are only responsible for taking care of the
children and the household. Once I finish school and have some spare time, I want to start a
Young Ladies Ministry that helps prepare younger girls for life and helps them set goals for
themselves. I want to teach them life skills and help them seek out other options that they may
not consider based on their current circumstances. I believe I can use what I have learned from
my Pastor, and from this class, to reach out to others and help them find all different types of
solutions, maybe even solutions that they didn’t even know were an option.
 Susan Miller – Church of Jesus Christ – Greif Counselor
Mission Statement: Church of Jesus Christ - A better life.
Location: 102 Foxberg Road, Normalville, PA 15469
Services: Grief counseling.
Population Served: Varies from week to week but membership of the church is roughly 50
people. No numbers provided as to the number of individuals counseled, done on an as-needed
basis. The church is open for anyone to attend and Susan is open to talk with or meet with
anyone who has a need for grief counseling. The church is positioned in a very rural and poor
area with a predominately white population. Majority of the population is uneducated and
unemployed. My family and I are members of the church. I teach Sunday School, organize
Vacation Bible School every August, assist in the Ladies Group’s activities, lead the Puppet
Ministry Team, and will occasionally pick up children from the neighborhood who need rides to
church.
Summary & Application to Course/Areas of Interest:
When I first started considering who I wanted to interview for this assignment and what
questions I wanted to ask those individuals, I was considering meeting with Susan since she has
participated in grief counseling training and I was curious as to how those interactions would be
different from a SFT method along with how they may be similar. Prior to our meeting my mom
passed away, on March 27th, from cancer. Although we were preparing for this to happen, as
my mom had been diagnosed with terminal cancer over two years ago, this still came about
rather quickly. Nevertheless, I wanted to meet with Susan to talk about her techniques and I
took the position of being a client and allowing Susan to use her skills on me. Susan first
showed compassion and concern for my loss, she was able to relate to my situation and
develop a mutual bond. Next, Susan allowed me to talk about my situation and what I was
facing but Susan kept bringing up the positives, all the memories and all the good times. Susan
reassured me with talking about the support that I had from my loved ones. Overall, I would say
this was a very good meeting, although there wasn’t necessarily a solution to the problem, we
all have to face grief and find a way to continue living our lives I believe it parallels to SFT in that
Susan asked open-ended questions that invoked memories of my mom. These memories
helped me cope with the loss and overall kept the conversation positive. Susan did this while
treating me as my own individual and not trying to get me to grieve how others grieve, since
everyone is different. I was able to take what Susan and I talked about and talk to my children
about the loss of their grandma. I was able to use an approach that was similar to SFT: we
talked about good memories (focused on the positives), we empathized with each other, and
we encouraged each other. Overall, the solution in this will be to continue living our lives and
honoring my mom every day.
 Danielle Crissey – Church of Jesus Christ – Sunday School Teacher
Mission Statement: Church of Jesus Christ - A better life.
Location: 102 Foxberg Road, Normalville, PA 15469
Services: Sunday School Teacher.
Population Served: Varies from week to week but membership of the church is roughly 50
people with anywhere from 6-10 students in my class. No numbers provided as to the number
of individuals counseled, done on an as-needed basis. The church is open for anyone to attend
and I teach children with ages ranging from 10 years old to 15 years old. The church is
positioned in a very rural and poor area with a predominately white population. Majority of the
population is uneducated and unemployed. My family and I are members of the church. I teach
Sunday School, organize Vacation Bible School every August, assist in the Ladies Group’s
activities, lead the Puppet Ministry Team, and will occasionally pick up children from the
neighborhood who need rides to church.
Summary & Application to Course/Areas of Interest:
I have never been trained in any type of therapy and this is the first course I have taken in this
area of study. I wanted to see how successful I would be in using the SFT approach with the
children in my Sunday School Class and I was pleasantly surprised at their receptiveness. Every
week we take prayer requests and it almost always turns into a ‘problem focused’ conversation.
These kids are not afraid to share what issues they have going on in their lives, so when two
siblings shared a problem they were having in regards to their grandpa and their cat I put some
SFT techniques into action. I started with exploring the problem, very briefly, I asked what was
going on between their grandpa and their cat. Turns out the cat was climbing on things and
knocking things over in the grandpa’s room which made him very upset (I know this seems
childish but I think I can use interactions like these to build my SFT skills). I quickly summarized
the issue, empathized with kids about how they felt when grandpa yelled at the cat then quickly
shifted gears to what they have tried to keep the cat out of the room. Nothing. Nothing at all. I
had to remember that I was working with kids and that they might need a little nudge, so we
talked about what they could try and the kids came up with some ideas of how to keep the cat
out of their grandpa’s room and how this would help them avoid the issue they were having. I
did ask a watered down version of the miracle question which did illicit a positive response
from the kids. I was basking in a little victory when the kids quickly reminded me it was snack
time and we had to move-on. The next time I saw the kids they told me that what we talked
about was working and they were no longer having issues so I have to say that I think I’m pretty
good at SFT…at least when it comes to grandpa/cat issues. All joking aside, this concept of
focusing on the positives and focusing on the solution can be a way of life. This way of thinking
can be applied in every day interactions at work, at home, at church…really anywhere. I look
forward to using what I have learned to help family and friends with their problems…or should I
say with finding their solutions!