Presented to
Dr. Marcus Tanner
Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary
Lynchburg, VA
In Partial fulfillment
Of the requirements for the course
PACO 500 Introduction to Pastoral Counseling
By
Margaret Tlusty
February, 2012
HEY!
My Summary
Petersen, James C.2007. Why don’t we listen better? Communicating and connecting in relationships. Tigard, OR: Petersen Publications. James Petersen (2007) uses five parts to describe the talking and listening to help us process a better way of communicating and understanding each other. They are provided to help us connect in our relationships with others. According to Petersen, most of us think we listen well, but we don’t. Not…show more content… The card that Petersen designed is very creative and it is a helpful tool in counseling couples. I would have enjoyed more personal examples of his counseling sessions and what the outcome was. I would have enjoyed it more if it were Bible based and how scripture could be intertwined with the communication skills given. I wasn’t quite sure why we had to read this for an Introduction to Pastoral Counseling class, and with all the other resources we have it was quite challenging to envelop all this information. As I was reading about the Flat Brain Theory of Emotions, Petersen says “while many people are frightened of emotions or consider various one either good or bad, I believe they are involuntary and perhaps even God given-simply there for us to use”(12).I am not quite sure I agree with his statement and the view of emotions. I don’t believe they are involuntary, I feel they are a part of us and they make up our humanity. They may be God given however in whatever situation we are in our emotions reflect who we are. This book has helped me to maintain certain emotions when it comes to my Mother, because how I react to her state of being reflects on my whole family. His listening skills are helping me to use a different approach when dealing with certain people. The Hawkins Pastoral Assessment Model deals with the problem and fixing it from the inside out working on layers of the client. Petersen
