Clergy & Congregation Services

The Danielsen Institute has a profound interest in clergy who offer much of themselves to their ministries and who often bear a significant burden. As such, our goal is to provide consultation and ministry enhancing resources to clergy, parish leaders, and religious communities who seek to improve and enhance their well-being, ministry, and congregational life.

Counseling Services

See below for more information.

Consultation/Coaching Services

See below for more information.

The Clergy and Congregation Services (CCS) team at the Danielsen Institute is devoted to coming alongside of clergy, clergy families, and congregations to assist in strengthening ministry (coaching), providing counseling (individual, couples, family, and group therapy) and assessment (testing) services, and presenting customized programs/workshops about pertinent issues to religious leadership and faith communities (e.g., relationships, mental illness, stress management, etc.)

Furthermore, The Danielsen Institute’s CCS team provides consultation services to parish teams and religious communities who may be seeking to enhance their ministerial work and life together. The focus of this service is to facilitate the development of collaborative and constructive ministerial teams and communities. Toward this end, issues related to communication, conflict resolution, group dynamics, and leadership styles are addressed.

Clergy and congregation consultations include an initial assessment, along with the option of short or long-term interventions that are designed to address the issues or concerns of the individual, team, or community. Consultations may be held at the Institute or on site. Fees for services are determined on the basis of the specific type of consultation utilized, but are also negotiable in accordance with the demonstrated needs of the congregation or clergy member.

The team has worked with the United Church of Christ, Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, a variety of Roman Catholic Dioceses, the Church of the Nazarene, United Methodist Church, various Jewish communities, and many other denominations and religious groups to date.

In summary, Clergy and Congregation Services include:

• Spiritually/Religiously Sensitive Therapeutic Care: individual, couples, family, and group therapy, as well as psychiatric assistance for clergy, clergy families, and congregation members

• Clergy Consultation Assistance: needs assessments, clergy coaching, leadership team and program consultation

• Congregation Resources: customized programs for clergy leadership and faith communities including workshops, didactic sessions, information sharing, and referrals for clinical services

• Assessment and Testing Services: vocational, strength finding, neuropsychological, cognitive, intellectual functioning, and personality/emotional

For more information about these services, please contact our James Burns Ph.D.—by calling 617-353-9737 or by emailing him at: jpburns@bu.edu.

The Danielsen Institute’s Clergy and Congregation Services is a part of the Samaritan Institute’s Clergy and Congregation Care (CCC) Group program.

CCS staff are members of the Alban Institute.