Father Tobin (The Rev. Roger M. Tobin, M.S., M.Div.) has been providing effective and innovative pastoral care and counseling for individuals and couples for over 30 years. With specific expertise in Crisis Counseling and Intervention, Transitional Ministries (Premarital and Marriage Counseling, Separation and Divorce, Death and Dying), Individual and Couples Counseling, and Addiction Treatment, he has developed a reputation in the south Florida region as a uniquely qualified and experienced caregiver. Ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1978, he has served in a variety of capacities for over four decades, as a youth minister and counselor, in family ministries and education, and as the Rector and CEO of two congregations, first in Pittsburgh, and for the past 25 years, as the head of St. Thomas Episcopal Parish (Church and Elementary School) in Coral Gables, Florida.
Father Tobin grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he was immersed in the Episcopal Church from an early age. The Church soon became a way of life for him and his entire family as they became active in leadership at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, and Roger then received his High School education at Breck Episcopal Academy and his College education at Hobart College, in Geneva New York, one of four Episcopal Colleges in the United States. It was at Hobart that Father Tobin first met his wife, Jan Root, of Cooperstown, New York, and they were married in 1971. Jan and Roger have now been married for over 40 years and have two sons, Nathaniel (married to Maryann Tatum) and Jonathan (married to Emily Allongo) both of whom practice law in the Miami area. Nathaniel and Maryann have blessed those around them with the arrival of their daughter, Genevieve. Grandparenthood has proven to be more joyful than Roger and Jan could have ever imagined.
Jan & Roger with their granddaughter, Genevieve
It was during his time in college, and the tumultuous 1960’s and early 1970’s, that Father Tobin first began to feel that he had a call to the priesthood. In 1975, he entered seminary at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he majored in Pastoral Theology, with and emphasis in Pastoral Counseling. He worked as a member of the crisis intervention team at Project Place, a Teen Crisis center in South Boston, for three years while in seminary, where he became adept at crisis counseling and intervention. He received his M. Div. in 1977, and went to work for five years as a youth minister and assistant priest for family ministries at St. Thomas in Rochester, New York. In 1982, Father Tobin accepted the call to be the Rector of St. Stephens, a small congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he served until 1986, at which time he became the Rector at St. Thomas, Coral Gables.
During these many years of ordained ministry, Father Tobin constantly felt drawn to developing his counseling skills more completely. So in 1994, he entered Barry University to study in the Counseling program there. After many years of academics and clinical work, Father Tobin obtained a Master’s of Science degree in Counseling with a dual major in Marriage and Family Counseling and Mental Health Counseling. He chose Systems Theory as his clinical psychological theory, with a particular emphasis in the Narrative Therapy technique.
Over the many subsequent years of providing pastoral care and counseling, Father Tobin has developed his own unique and eclectic style of working with his clients. He strives to meet people where they are at rather than to fit them into psychological, spiritual or diagnostic labels. His primary goals are to empower his clients with the knowledge that God loves them unconditionally, no matter what their situation might be, and to empower them also with the tools necessary to choose new and healthy pathways for life and living. To this end, Father Tobin is committed to working with clients of all backgrounds and all walks of life. And to this end, he functions with a set fee for services ($150/hour) while offering a sliding scale for all of his clients.
