Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie navorsing is gerig op die aanwending van narratiewe pastorale terapie met breadwinners wat werksonsekerheid tydens 'n rasionaliseringsproses ervaar. Die studie is kwalitatief van aard en is gebaseer op narratiewe pastorale gesprekvoerlng esook die proses van meervoudige refleksie waardeur die navorsing gerig en aangepas word. As navorser was ek deelnemer in die proses van verandering waarin veralgemening genegeer is en die rol van persoonlike kennis beklemtoon is. Die terapie is gerig op proaktiewe optrede tydens die rasionaliseringsproses en is ten opsigte van elkeen van die deelnemers aangewend in pasmaakgesprekke waartydens hul unieke behoefles aandag geniet het. Deur die metode van eksternalisering is die invloed van werksonsekerheid op die deelnemers geeksploreer en is hulie aangemoedig om in 'n ander verhouding tot die probleem van werksonsekerheid le staan. Namate die deelnemers tydens hierdie proses belangrike skuiwe op die vlak van identiteit gemaak het, ken hulie die toekoms met nuwe hoop bejeen. / The research was directed at the application of narrative pastoral therapy with breadwinners experiencing job insecurity during a process of rationalisation. This qualitative study was based on narrative pastoral conversations as well as the process of multiple reflection through which the research was directed and adapted. As researcher, I was a participant in the process of change in which generalisations were negated and the role of personal knowledge emphasised. The therapy was directed at proactive action during the rationalisation process and was applied in respect of each of the participants in a customised conversation. The influence of job insecurity on the participants was explored through the method of externalisation and they were encouraged to adopt a new relationship to the problem of job insecurity. In the process, as each participant made important shifts on the level of identity, they wera able to view the future with new hope. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Praktiese Teologie (Pastorale Terapie))

This dissertation of limited scope explored via a qualitative reflective approach how pastoral therapy and care practices contributed to workplace transformation and ethics at a factory that had to be restored to profitability. In Chapter 1, the study's research curiosity questions how pastoral therapy and care practices could inform business in its resistance of workplace trauma and injustice. The epistemology of contextual theology and social constructionism is reviewed in Chapter 2 in its support of the research. Themes and ideas such as; participatory ethical care, ethics, the prophetic role, narratives, workplace culture, witnessing and participant awareness and empowerment are applied to workplace culture transformation. Chapter 3 explores the factory's dominant story of low morale, financial loss and feelings of no hope for the future in context of discourses of capitalism. In resistance to the dominant story, Chapter 4 focuses on practices and experiences that supported the factory's alternative story and Chapter 5 reviews the factory's alternative story in context of purposeful transformation practice. Chapter 6 concludes the study by reflecting on the research curiosity, the research aims and the researcher's development. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th ((Specialising Past Therapy) Practical Theology)

This qualitative participatory action research project examined how the spiritual dimension in pastoral therapy served as a life-giving resource to facilitate healing and growth in the lives of three Christian female university students. A postmodern epistomology, social construction theory and a contextual feminist theology informed the praxis of pastoral narrative therapy. The themes of subjectivity, meaning, religious development and religious experience were the focus of this study. Narrative practices were engaged in to utilise spiritual talk in the co-construction of an alternative relational identity with the research participants. The theory of religious development is discussed from a social constructionist perspective with an accent on a personal relationship with God as central to the developmental process. The religious experiences of the participants contributed to a spiritual awareness of being connected, in a dynamic way, to God, that transformed the clients' perceptions of problems and ways of addressing problems in their lives. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

Text in Afrikaans with summaries in Afrikaans and English / Mishandeling is een van die mees traumatiese ervarings wat die adolessent kan beleef en beïnvloed sy totale ontwikkeling. Die doel met hierdie navorsing was om deur intervensie te bepaal of mishandeling enige implikasies het vir die adolessent se verhouding met God. Die pastorale en Gestaltterapie is aangewend om die adolessent wat mishandel is in sy verhouding met God te begelei. In die pastorale Gestaltterapiebenadering is daar rekening gehou met die dinamiese konteks van lewenservaring en betekenisvelde in die Godsbeeld van die adolessent. Hierdeur is die impak bepaal van die adolessent se ervaring, waarneming en verwagting van God. Die uitgangspunt van die pastorale Gestaltterapie was dat die adolessent se verhouding met God disfunksioneel geword het as gevolg van mishandeling. Met behulp van die intervensienavorsingsmodel is tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die pastorale Gestaltterapeutiese benadering die verwronge Godsbeeld van die adolessent verander het sodat die verhouding met God kan herstel. SUMMARY Abuse is one of the most traumatic experiences the adolescent can have and influences his total development. This research was aimed at establishing, by means of intervention, whether abuse has any implications for the adolescent's relationship with God. The pastoral and Gestalt therapy was applied to guide the abused adolescent in his relationship with God. In the pastoral Gestalt therapy approach the dynamic context of life experience and areas of meaning in the adolescent's image of God was taken into account. Thereby the impact of the adolescent's experience, observation and expectations of God was established. The starting-point of the pastoral Gestalt therapy was that the adolescent's relationship with God became dysfunctional as a result of abuse. With the aid of the intervention research model, it was concluded that the pastoral Gestalt therapeutic approach has changed the distorted God-image of the adolescent to restore the relationship with God. / Social work / M.Diac. (Play Therapy)

Text in Afrikaans / In this qualitative research study the landscape of the age-old tradition of contemplative spirituality within the context of the reformed tradition was investigated. An empirical study was done to determine the pastoral needs and experiences of Afrikaans speaking believers from the reformed tradition, involved in contemplative spirituality. Questionnaires and qualitative interviews were used for this purpose. The research path has been further shaped by social construction theory as a postmodern approach. This study was born out of my own discovery of the healing qualities of contemplative spirituality and secondly due to the growing demand among Afrikaans speaking reformed believers for exposure to the disciplines of contemplative spirituality. Little research is available on this topic and is it the hope of this research to open new conversations about contemplative spirituality in the Afrikaans reformed tradition. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Praktiese Teologie)

For over four decades, segregation, as the master narrative in South Africa, favoured the development of whites as mental health workers and empowered them to research and write about the lives of people of colour, thus becoming the experts on their lives. In this project I do something in reverse by being an Indian pastoral therapist to white counsellees. The project describes a postmodern narrative approach and social construction epistemology and the application of these towards culturally sensitive and respectful ways of doing pastoral therapy. Important feedback from white counsellees on race, culture and spirituality enabled me to reflect on culturally sensitive ways of doing pastoral therapy in a multicultural post Apartheid South Africa. A narrative perspective also provided me with a voice to tell my own story in a way that was healing to me. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology (Pastoral Therapy))

Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie navorsing is gerig op die aanwending van narratiewe pastorale terapie met breadwinners wat werksonsekerheid tydens 'n rasionaliseringsproses ervaar. Die studie is kwalitatief van aard en is gebaseer op narratiewe pastorale gesprekvoerlng esook die proses van meervoudige refleksie waardeur die navorsing gerig en aangepas word. As navorser was ek deelnemer in die proses van verandering waarin veralgemening genegeer is en die rol van persoonlike kennis beklemtoon is. Die terapie is gerig op proaktiewe optrede tydens die rasionaliseringsproses en is ten opsigte van elkeen van die deelnemers aangewend in pasmaakgesprekke waartydens hul unieke behoefles aandag geniet het. Deur die metode van eksternalisering is die invloed van werksonsekerheid op die deelnemers geeksploreer en is hulie aangemoedig om in 'n ander verhouding tot die probleem van werksonsekerheid le staan. Namate die deelnemers tydens hierdie proses belangrike skuiwe op die vlak van identiteit gemaak het, ken hulie die toekoms met nuwe hoop bejeen. / The research was directed at the application of narrative pastoral therapy with breadwinners experiencing job insecurity during a process of rationalisation. This qualitative study was based on narrative pastoral conversations as well as the process of multiple reflection through which the research was directed and adapted. As researcher, I was a participant in the process of change in which generalisations were negated and the role of personal knowledge emphasised. The therapy was directed at proactive action during the rationalisation process and was applied in respect of each of the participants in a customised conversation. The influence of job insecurity on the participants was explored through the method of externalisation and they were encouraged to adopt a new relationship to the problem of job insecurity. In the process, as each participant made important shifts on the level of identity, they wera able to view the future with new hope. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Praktiese Teologie (Pastorale Terapie))

In South African schools various factors influence relationships between facilitators and learners, compounding their frustrations: class sizes, cultural and language barriers, and hierarchical power/knowledge relations. These problems have led to a polarisation between facilitators and learners which could cause facilitators to experience a lack of appreciation and agency. Learners participated in this qualitative study experienced themselves as without voices, and wanted to be acknowledged as people with worthwhile knowledges of their own. This report shows how the therapist and participants engaged in a participatory process of narrative co-search during individual and group conversations where social construction of knowledges and practices of acknowledgement and care, enchanced by letters and externalising conversations, led to the co-creation of a better understanding of one another. This resulted in a more caring, supportive and acknowledging school community, where facilitators re-connected with their preferred stories, and learners found acknowledgement for their own knowledge and preferred ways of living. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Theology)

Black women in historically challenged communities in South Africa carry the burden of triple oppression: (a) the social engineering policies synonymous with apartheid have marginalised women economically and socially, (b) patriarchy, embedded in cultural and religious discourses, has rendered women voiceless and powerless and (c) HIV/AIDS targets the most vulnerable: women and children. Not only are women carrying the brunt of HIV infections, but they also carry the extra burden of caring for the sick and the orphaned. The main aim of this research was to reach a holistic understanding of the untold stories of women in historically challenged communities, infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS, and specifically about their experiences of care and the lack of care. The two secondary aims were: 1) to research alternative ways and means of making the unheard stories known in South African society; and 2) to disseminate research findings on the stories of these women in such a way that developmental policies could be influenced to enhance alternative, holistic stories of care in the South African society. A family of three women and a translator participated as co-researchers with the writer in this research experience. The researcher reflected on the research experience with volunteers from two home-based care programs in the community. The researcher uses drama as metaphor to document her ‘colourful’ research experience and to make sense of the many intricate and intertwined narratives and discourses, documented over a period of six months in her research diary, through recorded interviews, through her participation with the co-researchers and through the ethnography she had engaged in. The research experience has found that to be able to ‘care someone else into existence’; it is paramount that you as carer experience ‘empowering care’ yourself. ‘Empowering care’ is not possible if injustice prevails. This research experience challenges Government to investigate the ethical implications of the policy of placing the burden of care for the dying and the orphans on the shoulders of women in historically challenged communities. / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

The Cape Flats is characterised by widespread poverty, unemployment and frequent incidents of domestic and gang related violence. The presence of gangs in and around many of the schools in this area poses a serious problem for the community and the Western Cape Education Department. Schools are disrupted, while principals, teachers and learners are in constant fear and danger of gangsters' bullets. Families in these communities are exposed to chronic traumatisation from both gang and domestic violence. This qualitative study was concerned with exploring a narrative pastoral therapy approach to trauma counselling in schools. It focused specifically on crisis counselling as well as counselling with regard to loss and abuse. Informed by contextual and feminist theology, an action research model was used in this study. I documented my own developing practice by telling the stories of adults and children struggling against the trauma threatening to overwhelm their lives. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology -Pastoral Therapy)