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INDEPENDENT CHRISTIAN COUNSEL

bY CHINASOM UZODIMMA ELEKWACHI

EDUCARE

 

 

EduCare is a holistic person-centered care approach that makes use of prior Christian educational knowledge, understanding, and pastoral care to outline a personalised plan of repentance (lifestyle change) based on the consideration of an individual’s personal circumstances. The EduCare: Individual Education and Pastoral Care Plans were created and developed by Chinasom to improve Christian lifestyle change outcomes by providing defined repentance strategies and solutions that can (1) improve the pastoree’s perception of success based on Bandura’s psychological principle of self-efficacy, and (2) minimise the considerations that are normally involved in Christian lifestyle change, which then has the potential to significantly minimise the time that it takes for an individual to receive the Holy Spirit. Hence, EduCare is the modern fusion of the Christian faith, Christian practice (years of personal Christian lifestyle experience that led to success, which is defined by receiving the Holy Spirit), research, education, psychology and healthcare principles, which are the outcome of Chinasom’s culmination of knowledge, skills and experiences across the different areas of expertise.

 

  • The holistic person-centered care approach means that the pastoree is directly involved in the outline of their own EduCare: Individual Education and Pastoral Care Plan. Hence, EduCare is respectful of human agency by recognising the importance of people’s own choices, as self-determination is perceived to be one of the greatest influencers of people’s achievement of personal success. This idea is associated with the psychological concept of self-efficacy.

 

  • Self-efficacy is a psychological concept developed by Albert Bandura, which is one aspect of the concept of self, that describes a person’s perception of their ability to successfully undertake and complete a task or course of action.

 

  • The EduCare: Individual Education and Pastoral Care Plan guides the pastoree in an organised series of changes based on their personal circumstances, which then makes the concept of Christian lifestyle change (repentance) more manageable. Thereby “decreasing the load of difficulty” that some people may associate with repentance, especially for people who have trouble managing their personal life, whether it is related to perceived lack of time, self-management  and self-reflection skills.  

 

  • The EduCare Pastoral Care process encourages and supports cross-disciplinary professional and expert opinions from medical, mental health and dietary professions throughout different aspects of its process. This approach is encouraged for the purpose of ensuring that the pastoree is provided with the best range and combination of overall healthcare; the respect of the abovementioned professional disciplines; and for the consideration of those work within them.

 

 

 

EDUCARE JUNIOR: INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION AND PASTORAL CARE PLANS

 

‘EduCare Junior: Individual Education and Pastoral Care Plans’ were created for the purpose of providing the children of Christian parents with Pastoral Care that is suitable for their age and level of maturity. For children undergoing the Pastoral Care there are slight variations in the EduCare Junior Pastoral Care process, for example:

  • Parents must be present during the Pastoral Care session.
    • This is recommended to help build openness between child and parent, which enables a child or teenager to express themselves freely and without fear of punishment due to past or current behaviour. Hence, the focus of EduCare Junior Pastoral Care is overcoming problems by working out a solution in a peaceful and respectful manner, which promotes and facilitates the role of parents as loving, caring and guiding figures of authority. 
    • The presence of parents in the EduCare Junior Pastoral Care process also helps ensure the upholding of cultural and familial values, which means that the EduCare Junior Pastoral Care process is also culturally sensitive and respectful towards various modes of parenting.

 

Pastors that specialise in EduCare Junior Pastoral Care must undergo training in the portfolio area of ‘Parenting, appropriateness and Discipline’.

 

 

 

EDUCARE: INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION AND PASTORAL CARE PLANS

 

EduCare: Individual Education and Pastoral Care Plans are currently only available in person, and are only available for the purposes of:

  • Additional Pastoral Care during Church Reform Processes
  • Licensed use in Churches or Christian Education Institutions for general public use.
  • Training and licensed use for The EduCare: IEPCP is considerable and suited to Christian mental health professionals like psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists (individual licensing not available, licensing is only possible through a larger official organisation or professional body).