Faculty Directory

Melissa Kelley

Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling

Profile

Melissa M. Kelley is associate professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at the md´«Ã½¹ú²ú¾ç College School of Theology and Ministry. Previously, she was on the faculty of Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. She has many years of pastoral-clinical experience, including in college campus ministry and individual pastoral counseling. She holds a Ph.D. from md´«Ã½¹ú²ú¾ç University in pastoral psychology.

Professor Kelley is a pastoral psychotherapist with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education and a Fellow in Thanatology: Death, Dying and Bereavement through the Association for Death Education and Counseling, a primary organization in the country for bereavement researchers, educators, and clinicians. She has served as a pastoral formation guide with the Southern New England Association of the United Church of Christ and has produced numerous presentations and publications related to grief, including Grief: Contemporary Theory and the Practice of Ministry, published in 2010 by Augsburg Fortress Press.

Selected Courses

  • Introduction to Pastoral Care and Counseling
  • Grief & Loss
  • Pastoral Care of the Family
  • Death and Dying

Selected Publications

Kelley, M. M. (forthcoming 2023). Theological education that promotes resilience. In C. Griffith and H. Ospino, eds., Formative Theological Education, Mahway, NJ: Paulist Press.

Kelley, M. M. (2021). Teaching Meaning: A Pedagogical Strategy to Help Ministry Students Understand Meaning Making in Narrative Perspective. Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling, 75(3), 207–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/15423050211038905

Kelley, M. (2017). The Holy Spirit as dynamic meaning maker. In R. Lennan and N. Pineda Madrid, eds., The Holy Spirit: Setting the World on Fire (pp. 173-183), Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.

Kelley, M. (2017). Sharing our stories: Emotional comfort for survivors. In I. Silverman and E. B. Siegel, eds., Aging Wisely: Wisdom of our Elders (pp. 3-8), Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Kelley, M. (2014). Review of Stations of the Heart: Parting with a Son by Richard Lischer. Theology Today 75 (3), 709-710.

Kelley, M. (2014). Pastoral implications of Psalm 121. Lectionary Homiletics, 25 (2), 51-2.

Kelley, M. (2014). Pastoral implications of Psalm 95. Lectionary Homiletics, 25 (2), 59-60.

Kelley, M. (2014). Author’s response to reviews of Grief: Contemporary Theory and the Practice of Ministry. Pastoral Psychology, 63, 117-122.