Wounded Healer Summary

The metaphor of the shepherd is a primary way used by biblical authors to conceptualize leadership throughout the Old and New Testaments. The aim of this paper is to offer a brief summary of the “Wounded Healer” metaphor as suggested by Henri Nouwen before critically discussing and comparing the merits of this metaphor in comparison to the traditional shepherd metaphor.

In 1979 Henri J.M Nouwen published a book called “The Wounded Healer”, in it he suggested the idea of the minister as wounded healer. Nouwen describes wounded healers as people: “who must look after there own wounds but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others. They are both wounded ministers and healing ministers”.1 The concept of the wounded healer is found

These elements of have been summarised as: “knowing, feeding, leading and protecting.”12 Souls are entrusted to his care, the truth is entrusted to his stewardship, and eternal realities hang in the balance.13 Whilst these elements are valid and biblical the metaphor lacks space for the exploration of the ministers own struggles within leadership. The framing of minister as Shepherd, the one who watches over the Sheep, doesn't speak to the commonality of our shared experience of faith. It's view of the Shepherd as above or over the sheep,whilst a contextual ideal, often doesn't match the existential reality of pastoral care and authority. This paternalistic view can create distance between the carer and caree and elevate the carer to a place of unrealistic expectation in the eyes of the

The Shepherd is the one giving care, the caree receives, the caree is the one being known, being fed, being lead, being protected. The wounded healer metaphor seeks to offer an experiential framework,It speaks of a relational process, The pastoral carer and the caree are companions on the same journey; change appears to come about through experience in the relationship; Nouwen placed great emphasis on “being present” in the midst of others woundedness. Being now aware of his wounds, he is not only giving treatment, but also getting help and insight. That makes him a sensitive, touching, Wounded Healer. One who heals because they have entered the depths of their own experience of loss and have found hope again. The aim of the wounded healer is not to remove pain but to deepen it, to point beyond it it to Christ. Here we encounter the metaphor's paradox once more: Wounded healers heal most effectively by sharing their own vulnerability. Finding a place for this sense of vulnerability remains difficult in the Shepherd metaphor, the Shepherd is called to courageousness, even to the point of laying down ones life for the sheep.14 Knowing, leading, feeding and protecting speaks of the giving of the Shepherd to the sheep, the added aspect of laying down ones life brings in the concept of martyrdom too,