ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210062
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
Even though the Rev. Leo Howard has retired as director of the Roanoke Valley Pastoral Counseling Center, his ministry to those who need low-cost care and like a religion-related approach will continue.
The Rev. Julie Hollingsworth, former director of Roanoke Area Ministries, is now its part-time director. She and Lilian Hagan, chairwoman of the center's board of directors, recently emphasized that fully qualified counselors still are available.
Not much at the pastoral counseling center has changed. The office will remain in Second Presbyterian Church in Old Southwest Roanoke, but the four staff counselors will arrange mutually suitable meeting places.
Fees are still be based on income, ranging from $10 to $40 a visit.
Hollingsworth said she is well aware of the need of Roanoke Valley residents for short-term, inexpensive counseling. She will work afternoons at the center after spending her mornings as a staff member of Our Lady of the Valley Retirement Community.
The other three counselors, all meeting standards set by the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, are the Rev. Carol Lacquement Penick of Troutville, the Rev. Larry Sprouse and the Rev. Steven W. Harris.
Penick's special interests include overcoming depression and "perfectionism," enhancing marital relationships, healing co-dependence and nurturing battered women and other survivors of sexual abuse.
Sprouse, full-time pastor of Melrose Baptist Church, has more than 16 years of counseling experience, with several areas of family conflict and with grief and divorce therapy.
Harris, chaplain at Baptist Children's Home and Family Services in Salem, has special interests in working with children and youth 10 years old and older and in marital and parenting skills.
All four professionals, said Hagan, are ordained and graduates of accredited theological seminaries. All worked with Howard, the center's founder.
For several months, Hagan said, the board has reorganized its program to save dollars and still meet needs. The $35,000 annual budget is expected to be met by gifts from churches, individuals and businesses with a commitment to professional-quality counseling.
Two clergy counselors, William B. Gold of Lynchburg and John DeVerter of Roanoke, supervise the counselors.
Hollingsworth said that her years at RAM House defined for her two different kinds of people: "those we care for and those we take care of."
Counseling often can help those in the first category to lead independent and productive lives, she said, while those in the "taken-care-of" group need continued support.
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