How to assign a counselor to a counselee
The Basis
It’s helpful to assign counselors to counselees based on one or more of the following criteria:
- Prayerful Consideration (do you actually pray first?)
- Availability (of the counselor and counselee)
- Credentials (the counselor’s experience, specialties, training level)
- Caseload (how many cases a counselor can handle at a time)
- Gender (male or female. See Genesis 5:2)
- Age (experience and/or relatability)
Now, how should you go about assigning a counselor?
Option A: Assign a counselor off the top of your head (Recommended, if possible.)
If someone requests care and you know each counselor’s skillset/availability/etc. off the top of your head, then you could either reach out to the counselor and ask them if they’d like to take the case as a courtesy, or you could assign the counselor to the case and then notify the counselor that they’ve been assigned (the counselor may prefer this).
For privacy reasons, we recommend that communication about cases take place via phone, in person, or through encrypted messages (ex. through BibliCare).
Option B: Group Discussion
Some ministries have weekly counselor meetings where they’ll discuss a new case that comes in (keeping the counselee’s name anonymous or not anonymous) and determine as a group who should take the case. Some small ministries have reported that this works well for them, but for privacy purposes, we can’t recommend this option. Other reasons include:
- For larger ministries, a group conversation with several counselors about one case can become unwieldy.
- Not everyone in the group meeting may need to be there (for example, the conversation wouldn’t apply to counselors who don’t have the time to take on another case).
Option C: Reach out to each counselor individually to see if they can take the case. (Recommended)
After praying, check your counselors’ availability, credentials, caseload, gender, and/or age before you ask each counselor if they can take the case. This way, you won’t have to contact every counselor in your ministry, but only the ones who could take the case.