Facing Trauma With Parishioners: Emotionally Intelligent Caring

This article integrates insights from pastoral care with concepts from emotional intelligence to provide guidelines for ministry with persons facing trauma. The ABC method of pastoral crisis intervention, which includes achieving contact, boiling down the problem to its essentials, and coping, is used to guide ministers to care appropriately. Also addressed are implications for ministry from Daniel Goleman's five dimensions of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Ministers are encouraged to integrate competencies of emotional intelligence, skills of crisis intervention, and spiritual resources to care effectively with persons facing trauma.