History of Kanawha Pastoral Counseling Center
Founded: June 1970

Original purposes for which the Center was established:

1. To provide counseling for all persons irrespective of color, creed, nationality, or socioeconomic status in a church centered facility by a counseling staff of clergymen especially trained in this field.

2. To provide training for those clergy who desired it to better enable them to counsel their own parishoners when called upon to do so.

The above recognized the existing sources for counseling in the valley but also recognized certain deficiencies:

1. Their inability to serve the large numbers of individuals needing counseling.

2. The cost of counseling which for many was prohibitive.

3. Where one's religiious of moral convictions were a source of conflict for the client, too many questions remained unaddressed leading to further conflict or if the direction of counseling proceeded without this recognition, further impairment in the condition could occur.

It was likewise recognized that many clergy were expected to counsel their flock and were doing so with minimal education in what they were doing. The result of which could be detrimental.

Discussions at some of the early meetings also centered about concern over the manner in which some clergy conducted their hospital visits to minister to their sick members turning such occasions into opportunitites to evangelize an entire ward of patients.

The first meeting of the Pastoral Care and Counseling Center was held on February 12, 1970. The subject of the first meeting was to establish a Pastoral Care and Counseling Service Center for the Greater Charleston Area. The Board consisted of 6 members of the clergy, 6 laymen and 3 professional persons.

The proposed budget was as follows:

$15,000.00 Salary for counselor

2,250.00 part time secretary

1,000.00 supplies, travel

1,500.00 contingencies

$20,000.00 total

Method of running:

1. fees on a sliding scale $ 5,000

2. local churches 15,000

(3 years asking)

Target Date: September 1970 or January 1, 1971

Certificate of Incorporation in the State of West Virginia was signed on July 23, 1970 by 12 individuals.

1. Rev. Walter Mycoff (St. Matthews Church)

2. Rev. John J. Wilkes (Baptist Temple)

3. Rev. John R. Grandstaff (Humphrey's Memorial Church)

4. Joseph P. Moriarity (Psychologist)

5. William Entley (C&P)

6. Rev. Thomas H. Morris (St. John's Church)

7. Marshall J. Carper, MD

8. Rev. Paul Watlington (Calvary Baptist Church)

9. Father H.V. (Larry) Cann (Blessed Sacrament Church)

10. Regina Scaggs (Mrs. Joe)

11. Rev. Leslie Robinson (Grace Covenant Church)

12. Franklin W. Kern (Attorney)

Signed by John D. Rockefeller, IV, Secretary of State of WV

Article IV-The corporation shall be operated as a non-profit corporation exclusively for charitable, religious and educational purposes. (501-C-3)

August 21, 1970 Meeting

Committees:

1. to secure a pastoral counselor

2. finance and fund raising

3. secure office for center

4. to write by-laws

5. counseling relationship with the psychiatric community

March 17, 1971 (from the statement of purposes and goals)

What distinguishes Pastoral Counseling from the broader field of counseling is its avowence of religious orientation. Pastoral Counseling either deals with problems that are directly and immediately moral or religious in character; or it deals with other problems to the extent that they bear on the basic theme of man as a religious creature.

December 15, 1971 Minutes:

Dr. Benfield agreed to serve on the board.

February 15, 1972 Minutes:

A call was extended to Rev. Lee Myers to become the director of KPCC at $20,000 per year FTE at 40 hours per week. The Center was to be located at First Presbyterian Church and will start June 1972.

First meeting of Board at the new Center June 21, 1972.

Budget June 1, 1972 - May 31, 1973 $26,000 ($2,175 / month)

First Client seen June 7, 1972

Fees collected for first year $16,129 (average fee $14.54)

April 25, 1973 J.R. Keener approved as second counselor and he arrived in July 1973.

Information from May 5, 1972 Charleston Gazette

The directors job would include: Training clergymen in marriage, family, individual and group counseling based on the fact that "about 60 percent of the persons with mental health problems go to their minister first. A minister can be an important aid in preventing mental illness...Most clergymen have received little if any special training in counseling."

Lee Myers believed that the church has lost a lot of its ministry of healing. And in a way, the church has done more harm...Often the church has been more interested in making its members feel guilty rather than helping them have a sense of self-esteem, wholeness, and love of themselves and others...There is no better institution to deal with the prevention of mental illness because it was the only institution that had contact with people from birth to death.

Another news article on the opening:

"The Center will emphasize the training of ministers in counseling, but, Mr. Myers points out, services also will be available to individuals and families on a fee basis for assisting in solving individual, marriage and family problems."

"A third phase of the center will be to set up preventative programs through local churches."

Members of the Board:

Rev. Thomas Morris, Rector of St. John's Episcopal Church

Rev. A.D. Ellison, Executive Presbyter of Kanawha Presbytery

Dr. Marshall Carper

Dr. Rose Kirby

Dr. Ralph H. Nestman

Dr. J.B. Moriarity, Clinical Psychologist and Director of the WV Research and Training Services Center at Institute

Dr. W.A. Benfield, Jr., First Presbyterian Church

Rev. Paul Chesney, Ruffner Memorial Presbyterian Church

Rev. Ferrall Walters, First Christian Church

Rev. Jim Wilkes, Baptist Temple

Rev. Hilarion Cann, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church

Rev. Truman Potter, Christ Church United Methodist

Polly Edmunson of The YWCA

Richard Moses

Mrs. Joseph Scaggs

WJ Entley

Franklin W. Kern, Attorney

Derrill Pierce, Executive Director of Committee of 100