Counselor, Know Thyself

“The more you learn about yourself, the more you feel compassion.” In a few words, Sanjog Patro cuts straight to one of the facets that makes Garrett’s pastoral care and counseling program so distinct. “The crux of what we’re taught is to venture deeply into who you are, knowing yourself, pushing your boundaries, expanding where you feel comfortable.” With its focus on trauma-informed care, spiritual formation, and emphasis on clients as protagonists in their own story, the MAPCC has quickly become the seminary’s fastest-growing degree program. As Patro graduates, he already has a job lined up as an expressive therapist at Lake Behavioral Hospital, ready to put what he’s learned into practice.

For the past two years, Patro has served as a counselor to people who have suffered sexual trauma, an experience that swiftly challenged him to employ that training. “For someone like me who had no prior experience working with clients, you’re thrown right into the deep end and you learn to swim,” he says. “But I fell in love with counseling, and pastoral counseling specifically.” One particularly helpful lesson was to reflect on the energy he brings into a counseling space. “I still remember so freshly the first class I had, Dr. Nolasco’s course on human relations,” he says. “The skill of being present sounds so simple yet is so complex. But if you truly believe that the image of God is in the person before you, then you become holistically present to their life.” At his new job, he’ll mostly counsel formerly incarcerated people and folks undergoing court-mandated therapy, but he says Garrett prepared him to see the commonalities across different patients. “Trauma may manifest with different symptoms, but its roots are the same,” he notes. “And regardless whether someone has suffered sexual trauma, emotional abuse, or physical violence, your task is to create a collaborative process that places your client at the center of their own healing.”

As he describes the excitement he feels to enter this new chapter of his vocational journey, Patro expresses deep gratitude for the ways Garrett makes theological education accessible. “It’s very important to understand how Garrett provides a financial possibility for students like myself,” he says. “We want to talk about ideologies or counseling disciplines, but you have to understand that as a foreign student, financial access comes first. I never thought it was possible to study in the U.S. The aid Garrett provides is why the program is a space of such diverse voices, which is essential for effective counseling.”

Overwhelmingly, what emanates from Patro is abundant joy at the prospect of leaving seminary ready to do the work to which God calls him. “It feels almost surreal, after all the classes and hundreds of clinical hours,” he exclaims with a wide grin. “I’m excited to work, man.” Not only is he poised for meaningful service, he’s entering that vocation brimming with confidence. “Self-actualization is so important to counseling’s ongoing, dynamic process,” he says. “What’s powerful about Garrett is they know that spiritual formation for the self is essential to care for someone else.”