Kitchen Table Counseling was a program Muriel created in 1970 for woman-to-woman biblical lay counseling. She developed it at the request of a church that had seen a pastor fall into an affair while counseling women. The initial idea was to have women take on the role of counselors for women in the church. Over time the concept became a seminar to train women in other churches to do the same.
In 2006, Muriel
wrote a book by the same title with her daughter, Shelly Cook Volkhardt, an
associate with Paraclete Mission Group.
The publication of Kitchen Table Counseling opened doors for Muriel and
Shelly to share the techniques of “KTC” more widely. Now available in English, Spanish, Albanian, Romanian
and Chinese, with translations underway in Japanese and Polish, the book and
the concept have become an international support for women helping women. Men have been blessed by the book too,
although they were not the target of the original work.
Muriel died peacefully
on June 8, 2019 after a short illness. She was 89 years old. The family will celebrate a memorial service of her life on June 16, at 3:00 p.m. at Central Bible Church in Portland, OR.
Shelly travels
domestically and internationally teaching and demonstrating Kitchen Table
Counseling. Most recently she trained
women leaders in Kosovo. Many of the
places where Shelly travels cannot afford to pay her expenses.
Paraclete has established the Muriel Cook Memorial Fund for Kitchen Table Counseling. Funds given in memory of Muriel will
facilitate further Kitchen Table Counseling training around the world.
More about Muriel
UPDATE: A video of Muriel's memorial is now available online.
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