Naming the Pain and Guiding the Care takes seriously the need for a humane and common sense way of talking about human suffering. This book bridges the language of counseling professionals with the ordinary experience of people trying to help one another. Psychiatrists, psychologists, pastoral counselors, social workers, and licensed professional counselors will find that this book integrates diagnostic categories with the resources of religion and theology. Students in general psychology classes and graduate students focused on gaining professional competence will find this book a helpful adjunct to introductory volumes and specialist volumes on diagnosis, religious counseling, and the use of spiritual resources. Individuals who have an interest in learning more about the topics of guilt, betrayal, and dread will find new ways of understanding these wounds on the human heart and life.

"Naming the Pain and Guiding the Care is an important text within the world of pastoral theology. It assists in building a bridge between human and sacred sciences. It offers a diagnostic schema that is grounded in pastoral theology and resonant with the deep themes that reside at the core of our humanity. Given these qualities, my thought is that the text would be of great benefit to pastoral clinicians, parish clergy, spiritual directors, emergency measure personnel, clinical pastoral educators, and theological schools. Another group for whom the book would be of us are secular psychotherapists who are sensitive to the spiritual themes that arise during a therapeutic process, and who are interested in expanding their theoretical perspective . . . Denton has produced a significant resource, one that begins and ends with an emphasis on the moral demands that are placed on those willing to accurately respond to the experience of pain." - The Journal Of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Spring/Summer 2009