2 Corpus Christi churches add
Church Based Counseling Services

By Rachel L. Toalson
Managing Editor
Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas has expanded its Church Based Counseling Services in Corpus Christi, adding two more churches to the 23 in South Texas that provide counseling services to the local community.
St. Peter’s UMC, Corpus Christi, and Asbury UMC, Corpus Christi, joined the list. Asbury is to be a satellite location of St. Luke’s UMC, Corpus Christi.
“There’s an underserved area here,” said Harold Onwiler, pastor of St. Peter’s By the Sea UMC. “There is no counselor in the Flour Bluff area. That’s why we wanted to offer this. That and the fact that the fee scale is very attractive to people who are on minimal income and otherwise would not be able to get any kind of counseling services.
“One of the emphases of our mission statement in the coming year is making disciples, making a difference. That’s broken down into three areas: spiritual, physical and financial. This is spiritual and physical both.”
St. Peter’s By the Sea UMC shares Jerald Saenz, a licensed counselor, with two other churches in Corpus, Onwiler said.
Church Based Counseling Services, begun in 2003 in Hidalgo County, provides counseling services to those who might require mental health services but do not have the insurance or the means to pay for treatment, said Randy Hyde, division manager for case management and counseling support services at MHM.
Counseling services are provided to individuals, couples and families at local churches.
“We decided to offer professional counseling services from Methodist Churches, targeted for the underserved,” Hyde said. “It allows access for people to receive the services that they would not have been able to get before.”
The services are offered to any individuals or family living at up to 300 percent of the poverty level, which is about $60,000 for a family of four.
Hyde said counselors charge a nominal fee, “partly so the client would invest in their own process,” but the average fee is $2 per session. Fees range from $1 to $15 per session.
No one is denied counseling services because they can’t pay, he added.
Church Based Counseling Services started in Mission, McAllen, Pharr and Edinburg. In 2006, they became six counselors who cover the 11 churches in the fallen from Mission to Port Isabel, northward to Edinburg and Raymondville.
In 2006, MHM secured a grant and was able to bring on two more counselors. They decided to move into the Corpus area.
Churches offer counseling services at least one day a week, Hyde said.
They will stay at churches as long as a church will have them, he added.
“One thing we never want to do is begin services at a church site and then pull out,” he said.
They plant counseling services in churches where there is a Wesley Nurse, Hyde said. MHM hires and pays the counselors, but the churches are responsible for the utilities at the church where counselors office.
All counselors are licensed with the state of Texas, Hyde said.
Onwiler said the counseling services will help his church become more visible in the community.
“This will enable us to reach out beyond the four walls of this church to the people who are in need,” Onwiler said. “We’ll show them we are a church that cares. And if they haven’t got a church, our church is a church home.”
Methodist Healthcare Ministries is a faith-based, non-partisan, nonprofit organization, and one-half owner of the Methodist Healthcare System. It was founded in 1995, and since its second year of operation in 1996, has been the largest nonprofit private provider of healthcare services to the indigent in South Texas.