What Bethel Does
Bethel provides counselling and support to anyone who has experienced negative experiences in their church life in the Uniting Church.
How Does Counselling Help?
Counselling provides a safe and supportive space for people experiencing distress to explore their thoughts, feelings, and challenges with a trained professional. It can help you develop coping strategies, gain new perspectives, and build resilience to improve their emotional wellbeing and navigate life's difficulties more effectively.
Who Can Contact Bethel Centre?
- Anyone directly impacted by an event during their church life, congregation members, leaders, volunteers
- Leaders needing to consult about someone they are concerned about
- Family members or friends of someone who is experiencing or has experienced negative experiences during their life in the church
Independence
As an independent service of the Uniting Church Synod Victoria Tasmania, Bethel understands the sacred need to protect and maintain confidentiality. To ensure independence …
- Bethel is located in its own premises, enabling a respectful distance from Synod.
- A committee of elected members supports and oversees the operation of the service.
When to reach out
- Persistent feelings of sadness, anxiety, stress or overwhelm.
- Difficulty coping with life changes, loss, grief or trauma
- Relationship or family difficulties that are causing ongoing distress.
- Increased conflict, anger, irritability, or emotional outbursts.
- Changes in sleep, appetite, concentration, or motivation.
- Feeling isolated, lonely, or disconnected from others.
- Excessive worry, fear, or panic that impacts daily life.
- Low self-esteem, feelings of hopelessness, or loss of purpose.
- Using alcohol, drugs, food, or other behaviours to cope with emotions.
- Repeated patterns of unhealthy relationships or behaviours.
- Work, study, or daily responsibilities becoming difficult to manage.
- A sense that you are "stuck" and would benefit from support, guidance, or a confidential space to talk.
Spiritual Aspects
- Feeling distant from God or struggling to connect in prayer or worship.
- Ongoing feelings of guilt, shame or condemnation that are affecting daily life.
- Spiritual doubts, confusion, or questions that are causing distress.
- Difficulty finding hope, peace or meaning during challenging circumstances.
- Unresolved grief, hurt, or disappointment related to faith, church, or ministry experiences.
- Experiencing burnout from caring for others, ministry involvement, or service responsibilities.
- Struggling to reconcile faith with personal suffering, loss, or life challenges.
- Feeling spiritually dry, stuck, or lacking a sense of purpose and direction.
