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Dr Sonya Hunt’s journey began on a farm in South Africa, where she grew up as the youngest of five siblings. As a result of her family’s differences in political and social beliefs, she found herself in a community where acceptance wasn’t easy, shaping her identity and fostering her independent outlook on life.
Her educational path took her from a technical college in Johannesburg, where she learned various skills, to Cape Town, where a job in human resources revealed gaps in her education. This realization led her to pursue a B. Com degree, majoring in Industrial Psychology and Business Economics through UNISA. However, her heart wasn’t in the corporate world, leading her to delve deeper into psychology, earning honours and master’s degrees from Stellenbosch University.
Tragedy struck when her youngest daughter passed away from bacterial meningitis, a moment that pushed Sonya and her husband to grow from their grief rather than be consumed by it. Through this pain, she authored “Dancing Dolphins – Grieving with Hope,” a book detailing their journey. Her pursuit of healing led her to explore practical theology, earning a clinical pastoral master’s degree. This enabled her to establish a branch of HospiVision at False Bay Hospital, providing pastoral care and counselling to patients and staff until the pandemic imposed its closure after fifteen years. Concurrently, she completed a Ph.D. in practical theology, developing a framework to identify spiritual indicators for diagnoses, treatment, and referrals in clinical and pastoral practice.
Dr Hunt has applied these principles in her practice, witnessing positive experiences from those who felt understood and encouraged rather than judged. Her courses, based on research and personal experience, aim to uplift and heal, fostering mature faith and grounded hope. Dr Sonya Hunt hopes these concepts will continue to evolve in the hands of responsible pastoral practitioners.
This advanced program focuses on honing skills essential for pastoral counselling.
This program focuses on refreshing basic counselling principles.
The Spiritual Indicators Course caters to pastoral practitioners, adept in foundational counselling skills and well–versed in narrative practices. This advanced program focuses on honing skills essential for pastoral counselling, including recognizing spiritual cues, conducting spiritual assessments, devising collaborative interventions,
and knowing the appropriate moments for referrals in accordance with ethical guidelines.
At the heart of this course lies the belief in the spiritual essence of humanity and the profound connection between God and humans are best understood through an exploration of the sanctuary as a divine–human interface. Rooted in a theological understanding of human nature in relation to God, this framework draws upon the analogical integration of the wilderness tabernacle sanctuary and Paul’s anthropological insights from Scripture. The resulting ‘Sanctuary Model’ portrays a symbolic ‘body’ where God’s presence resides through His indwelling Spirit, akin to the tabernacle sanctuary hosting divine presence in the wilderness. This model forms the basis for comprehending various spiritual indicators derived from the wilderness tabernacle, offering a comprehensive view of biblical sanctuary dimensions, harmonized with Paul’s anthropological concepts.
Orientation and Introduction
Imaging God
The Nature of God
– Being–Doing Spectrum
– Biblical Metaphors
– Inappropriate Imaging
– Perception of God Applications
The Spiritual Indicators Course is for experienced pastoral counsellors familiar with basic counselling and narrative practices. It focuses on understanding spiritual cues, assessing them along a spectrum of possibilities, planning interventions, and knowing when to refer individuals to other professionals.
This course revolves around the idea that humans are spiritual beings that our connection with God can be best understood by looking at the sanctuary as a place where divine–human interactions happen. It’s based on a view that combines insights from the wilderness tabernacle and Paul’s writings in the Bible to create what’s called the ‘Sanctuary Model.’
This model helps identify various spiritual signs found in the tabernacle, such as rituals involving blood, water, food, and light, and how they relate to our current lives. It also explores the transformation people undergo from just living beings to Spirit–filled individuals as part of their journey towards salvation. Overall, it’s about understanding our relationship with God and the hope found in Jesus Christ through
the resurrection and new creation
