Pastoral Group Counselling at a High Security Prison in Israel: Integrating Pierre Janet’s Psychological Analysis with Fritz Perls’ Gestalt Therapy

Abstract

This is a report of a short-term, pastoral counselling group conducted with Jewish internees in a high security prison in Israel. It was held as an adjunct to daily secular individual and group counselling and rehabilitation run by the Department of Social Work. Pastoral counselling employed spiritual and psychosocial methodologies to reduce anger, improve prisoner frustration tolerance, and develop a sense of self-efficacy and communal identity. It combined semi-didactic scriptural input with Pierre Janet’s personality model, Fritz Perls’ gestalt therapy, and analysis of the group process.