Pastoral Counseling

Telecounseling describes providing health care services—especially mental health care—through electronic means. It offers a secure and convenient way for clients to receive clinical counseling.

MSMC uses a HIPAA-compliant system called Spruce Health for phone sessions. Clients can download the Spruce Health app on their phone or computer at no cost while working with MSMC. If clients prefer not to download or use the app’s additional features, they can simply call their counselor’s Spruce phone number like a regular phone call and still access the HIPAA-compliant phone system.

Studies show that telecounseling can be as effective—and sometimes more effective—than traditional face-to-face counseling. Although you don’t meet your counselor in person and miss nonverbal cues like body language and facial expressions, our experience reveals three key reasons why telecounseling remains just as effective or even more effective than in-person counseling.

Three Reasons for Effectiveness

First, phone sessions improve continuity because clients can easily engage in counseling from anywhere. Second, the anonymity of phone conversations and the comfort of being in your own environment encourage greater openness, which helps clients make faster progress than in-person counseling. Third, telecounseling increases availability by connecting clients with professionals who share their faith beliefs, regardless of distance.

Because pastoral counselors do not diagnose mental health conditions and state licensure laws do not regulate pastoral counseling like clinical counseling, health insurance plans do not reimburse it. This approach offers increased privacy, confidentiality, and autonomy in the counseling experience. It also provides an authentically Catholic pastoral counseling experience unrestricted by state licensure laws, allowing counselors to offer services across the country and worldwide. This flexibility lets individuals seeking a genuine Catholic approach to counseling access these services even if their area or state lacks availability.

Signing up for pastoral counseling is easy! You can reach out through our contact page here.

Once you submit your request, MSMC will respond within 2–3 business days with instructions on how to set up a free 15-minute consultation and provide available session times if you’re ready to schedule your initial session. We will also include information about intake forms and payment in this initial communication.

After your first session, your counselor will contact you directly to schedule follow-up sessions.

We require you to give at least 24 hours’ notice to reschedule or cancel a session. While we make exceptions for emergencies, we charge the full session fee for all other late reschedules or cancellations. We reserve that time exclusively for you, which prevents another client in need from booking that session slot.

We require you to keep a debit or credit card on file to ensure payment for services. You can provide this information via email, over the phone, or through MSMC’s electronic health record (EHR) system.

MSMC uses SimplePractice as its EHR, which sends a secure link to your email so you can safely enter your payment information. After your sessions, SimplePractice automatically bills you.

Attending a session is easy! You just need a phone or computer and an internet connection. Your counselor will give you their work phone number before your first session, and you’ll use that same number throughout your counseling relationship. At your scheduled session time, you can call your counselor directly. If you have a video session, our EHR system, SimplePractice, will send a link to your email before the session begins.

You can attend sessions from anywhere with a clear, consistent phone signal, but we recommend choosing a quiet, peaceful, and private space in your home where you can focus without distractions. Using headphones can help but isn’t required.

MSMC uses HIPAA-compliant platforms for its services, ensuring privacy and confidentiality on our end.

However, your environment plays a key role in telecounseling. While your counselor conducts sessions from a private, confidential space, we recommend that you also attend your sessions from a quiet, comfortable, and private place to maintain your privacy and confidentiality.

Telecounseling does not suit every situation. If you experience suicidal thoughts, face an urgent threat to your life or health, or actively use substances, we strongly recommend that you seek in-person counseling or contact emergency services immediately.

Pastoral counseling and clinical counseling share many similarities, and you will experience this as a client. The biggest difference lies in their focus: pastoral counseling emphasizes deepening your relationship with God as the Healer and Giver of Life, helping you integrate spiritual and evidence-based insights to overcome life’s challenges and more fully live out the Catholic vision of relationships and wholeness, and aligning your actions and relationships with the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and its traditions, rather than diagnosing mental illness. Pastoral counseling seek mental wellbeing through living a virtuous life. While MSMC’s clinical counseling also integrates these faith-based elements, secular clinical counseling rarely includes this approach.

By offering pastoral counseling, MSMC provides an authentically Catholic approach to mental wellbeing worldwide without state licensure limitations. This is why MSMC offers clinical counseling only in Wisconsin but provides pastoral counseling globally. Together, these approaches advance MSMC’s ultimate goal: to make Catholic counseling and access to Catholic counselors available to people everywhere.