Gesundheit for the soul

So next semester I have to integrate both my majors into a semester long paper and presentation. Talking tonight over dinner, I got the idea to research and write about a "Gesundheit Institute" (Patch Adams) type of center for counseling; taking the intentional community vision as well as bringing in counseling aspects. Face it, we all have baggage. Would you much rather open up to a trusted friend that you know has your best interest in heart, or some stranger that while trained, has no invested interest in you personally. Personally I find a trusted friend, who mutually opens up their life, as much more valuable. Though being trained never hurts. And granted there is something to be said for the stranger aspect too. Bartenders and taxi drivers, for example get lots of confessions from strangers needing a listening ear. However, in those situations, the "counselor" is more in a friendship role; driving around with you, or pouring you a drink. I wonder what would happen if we intentionally broke down the barriers between counselor and counselee by inviting both to live side by side in the same community. Now I am not necessarily saying that they would live under one roof. What I am saying though is that we get beyond the idea that there is a wall of separation between professional and patient. A couple of years ago I remember studying how counselors aren’t advised to create friendships with their counselees. My question was why. Healing happens in the context of community; where every one is looking out for the interest of everyone else. Isn’t it the job of the counselor to foster those types of relationships, that kind of community? Along the same lines, why is self disclosure by the “counselee” frowned upon. Can’t healing happen both ways? Don’t we live through experiences for the benefit of helping others through similar traumatic experiences? At least that is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:3 – 4

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

It is this community of healing that I wish to write about next semester. It is also this community of healing I wish to help create this next year as we inch closer to opening up the house.