Dr. Stokes as Counselor

Dr. Stokes has a significant knowledge and experience with pastoral and professional counseling. Just as teaching is a common part of cultural and religious education, so religious and professional counseling are connected.

In the broadest sense, counseling involves one person helping another. Encouragement, instruction, correction and admonition are all tools of the counselor.

            “One of the primary differences in professional and congregational counseling is the relational dynamic. In professional counseling a clinical setting is required and the relationship between the counselor and client is fiduciary responsibility and unequal power among relative strangers. This requires the strict use of ethics and law to protect the client from harm. As a result, therapists are required to maintain limited contact beyond the professional relationship with their client. In a congregational setting, a pastor or Christian counselor uses multiple relationship (friend, coworker, fellow believer) contexts and multiple meeting place strategies (home, clinic, restaurant, etc.) both for understanding the problem and creating a healing within family and community context.”

Dr. Stokes presently limits his counseling practice to Christians who are connected to his congregation or are referred to him by a pastor, professional therapist or counselor. Though a generalist, Dr Stokes has extensive experience in counseling related to:

            Pre-marital preparation

            Marital Counseling

            Parenting

            Personal and Family Discipleship

            Sexual Issues in Religion

            Self Injury

            Habitual and Compulsive Behavior