Abstracts Category : Other

Crises andillness and seeking professional help : a pastoralperspective

by Bumani Mabasa

The context of this research is the Shigalo TabernacleWorship Centre, where the researcher is currently ministering. Thefaith community is within Shigalo Village in the town ofMalamulele in the Vhembe District, which has been plagued bynumerous forms of violence, inflicting emotional, physical andpsycho-spiritual pain on the community. Yet it has been theobservation of the researcher that very few members of thecommunity, particularly members who are also members of the faithcommunity, seek professional help help that is freely offered tothe community by medical and other professionals, psychologists,social workers as well as pastors. The narrative that theresearcher has identified in his involvement with this faithcommunity was that some members of the faith community choose torather suffer, by keeping all their physical, emotional,psychological, social and spiritual problems to themselves than toseek professional help. In the community there are variouspossibilities of seeking professional help from doctors topsychologists, social workers as well as pastors. The researchjourney explores and describes how families of Shigalo TabernacleWorship Centre perceive (view) professional help (counselling). Theresearch sought to understand this perception within the contextof their faith and their culture, trying to determine whatnarratives informed this perception. The objective of the researchwas first to understand this practice and second to seek ways inwhich these attitudes and perceptions can be overcome. To do thisresearch, a sample of members was chosen, together with variousprofessional caregivers: Two nurses, two social workers, twoeducators, two pastoral counsellors, one Medical doctor and apsychologist, who have been in the field of their specializationsfor more than five years and who are from the Malamulele areawithin the Thulamela Municipality of Vhembe district. The researchwas mainly to listen to the stories of the members andcomplementing these stories with the stories of the professionalcaregivers, trying to understand how these families constructedtheir view of faith and how it relates to seeking professionalhelp.Advisors/Committee Members: Meylahn, Johann-Albrecht (advisor).