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Coastal Samaritan |
Following World War II, the counseling-psychotherapy-mental health movement in the United States burgeoned. Not only were Americans demanding professional resources on which they could rely in assisting them in dealing with emotional crises and developmental issues, they were demanding as well that there ought to be options available in meeting these needs. Although the federal government responded to some of these expectations---particularly in establishing community mental health centers—other professional groups in the private sector attempted to meet the demands as well. Still, the expectations regarding freedom of choice as to psychological and spiritual services available were not being met by many of the secular institutions. As has been historically the case with hospitals, colleges, universities, and social agencies, religious institutions—churches and temples—responded to such holistic needs by evolving alternative services to complement and enhance national, state, and local resources. One of the results of this call for greater freedom in the selection of mental health care came in the form of a network of pastoral counseling centers staffed by women and men with education and clinical training in both the human sciences and in the traditional theological disciplines and religious disciplines. In many respects, The Coastal Samaritan Center (formerly The Grand Strand Pastoral Counseling Service) is illustrative and typical of this growing network of faith-oriented facilities offering professional assistance in concord with federal, state, and private sectors of our democracy. In the
spring of 1980, The Reverend Tom Brittain, The Senior Pastor of The
First United Methodist Church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, contacted
Dr. Kenneth Smith to consider the establishment of a pastoral counseling
center to serve the Grand Strand area. At that time, Dr. Smith was serving
as pastor of the Lake View Charge but already had received his doctoral
degree from Vanderbilt University and was a Clinical Member of the American
Association of Pastoral Counselors, the national guild responsible for
certifying pastoral counseling specialists. With the permission of his
Lake View parishioners and with the approval of his bishop, Dr. Smith
began a part time (one day a week) counseling ministry in October of
1980. Within two months, however, the practice moved to two days per
week, due primarily to the large numbers of persons seeking this particular
kind of counseling and family therapy. As part of this expansion, in June of 1981 Dr. Smith was appointed full time director of the Service. With one secretary serving in a support role, Dr. Smith functioned as both director and pastoral counselor/psychotherapist. In less than a year, however, it became apparent that the growing demand for services made another clinical appointment necessary. In early 1983, therefore, The Reverend Frances C. Brown joined the clinical staff as a pastoral psychotherapist, later to be appointed as the associate director of the Service. Her first year’s salary was guaranteed by the Ocean View Foundation. Ms. Brown, an Air Force widow and ordained Baptist minister, had come from Columbia, Maryland, where she had been serving as a pastoral counselor for Resources for Family Growth, and agency of the Home Mission Board of the Baptist Convention of Maryland and of the Columbia Baptist Fellowship. A year later, in 1984, Dr. Roderick Dail joined the clinical staff as a part time pastoral psychotherapist. Dr. Dail had directed a counseling center at Christ Church in New York City. He served the Center for five years, retiring in 1989. In 1986, Dr. Orlo Strunk, Jr. was invited to join the clinical staff as a part time pastoral psychotherapist. Dr. Strunk had moved south after electing early retirement from Boston University where he had taught and supervised doctoral candidates in pastoral psychology and counseling for sixteen years. In August of 1988, Joseph Johnston, a native of Myrtle Beach with advanced education and training in family therapy, joined the clinical staff and served until his resignation in the Spring of 1992 in order to enter private practice. In 1991, The Reverend Luonne Rouse came to the Service as a part time pastoral counselor while serving as the founding pastor of a cross-cultural church in Conway, South Carolina. His tenure was cut short when his bishop sent him to another appointment. In March of 1993, Dr. Kenneth Smith resigned from the Center and the associate director, The Reverend Frances Brown, was appointed interim director. In early 1994, Mrs. Lee Gravely, a certified mediation counselor, was appointed to the clinical staff as a counselor and began her services and supervision leading toward her licensure as a Professional Counselor. Soon after Ms. Brown assumed the interim directorship, the Board voted to begin the process of becoming an accredited Samaritan Center, an affiliation which would link the Service to approximately five hundred similar counseling sites across the United States, including Hawaii. At this same time, the Board appointed a search committee to find a new director. And in November of 1994, the Board accepted the search committee’s recommendation that Dr. William Felder be employed as Executive Director of The Coastal Samaritan Center, Inc. Dr. Felder resigned his position as an associate director of a pastoral counseling center in Columbia, South Carolina, and assumed his responsibilities at CSC on December 1, 1994. On April
20, 1996, The Center was awarded full accreditation by the Samaritan
Institute of Denver, Colorado. In November of 2004, the first CSCC satellite office was opened by The Reverend Kathy Heustess at Trinity United Methodist Church in Conway. In January of 2005, Kathy opened another satellite office at Christ United Methodist Church. And in July of 2005, the Reverend Dr. G. Thomas Vaughn opened the third satellite office at Little River United Methodist Church naming it the “North Strand Satellite.” All satellite offices have advisory committees to insure the success of the ministry of pastoral counseling to each supporting congregation and the surrounding communities. In the fall of 2004, Dr. Bill Felder announced in writing that he would retire as Executive Director effective December 31, 2005. The Executive Committee of The Board of Directors, acting on their duties as a Personnel Committee, began the process of searching for a new Executive Director. And in November of 2005, the position was offered to The Reverend Kathy T. Heustess. She began her duties January 1, 2006. Three new counselors were added in 2006 in an effort to grow the Center through its satellite offices. Gretchen Smith joined the staff to assist in the Conway satellite. Susan Bulsza joined the staff as an intern to work toward licensure and gain experience in expanding her client base in the North Strand area. And Dr. Jim Remington moved from the state of Michigan to open a Southern Coastal Satellite in Litchfield at St. Paul’s Waccamaw United Methodist Church. In 2007,
the Center experienced some additional changes in the counseling staff.
Dr. G. Thomas Vaughn decided to pursue another opportunity, opening
the door for an additional counselor to be added to the staff. Christopher
“Kit” Galton then came on board in August of 2007. A retired
counselor from Waccamaw Mental Health, Kit worked one day a week at
the Little River Satellite as well as in the main office in Myrtle Beach.
Susan Bulsza began seeing clients at a second location on the North
Strand at Ocean Drive Presbyterian Church. Administratively, over the years the Center has attracted a cadre of loyal office workers with a missional spirit. Presently, (2008) it employs a full time business administrator and a full time intake and accounts specialist. In its attempt to have a broad community base and a firm ecumenical and interfaith breadth, it has formed a Board of about 15 members representing over a dozen churches on the Grand Strand and the community at large. The Center also maintains a team of consultants from such sister disciplines as psychiatry, medicine, psychology, education, and law. Although it sees itself primarily as a service agency (not a research or training facility), two of its clinical staff are licensed as Supervisors of Professional Counselors and Social Workers and therefore are qualified to offer supervision to educationally prepared persons seeking state licensure as Professional Counselors and Social Workers in South Carolina, as well as to local pastors in search of ways to increase their counseling skills within a congregational structure. The Center’s clinical staff also offers churches, community agencies, and business firms consultation and educational programs in such areas as conflict resolution and stress management. As pastoral
counseling centers have evolved in the United States, The Coastal Samaritan
Center may be characterized as one of those which is small, physically
housed in an ecclesiastical plant, community based with a professionally
educated and licensed/certified clinical staff, heavily dependent upon
client fees supplemented by contributions from churches, foundations,
the United Way, and individuals, and dedicated to a philosophical and
theological conviction that the complex crises and holistic health needs
of contemporary living require the very best knowledge and skills of
both the modern sciences and the spiritual and wisdom of the faith communities.
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