PROFESSIONAL CHAPLAINCY

Clinical Chaplaincy University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

2011-11-29T07:54:00.001-08:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More hospital

Being There
The Art of Clinical Pastoral Care
By Jon Parham

Staff Chaplain Susan McDougal says she wants patients to know that she cares and she will be there as long as they need her.

A Code Blue alert for a patient in cardiac distress at UAMS Medical Center quickly brings medical help – and a chaplain.

While health professionals tend to the patient’s medical needs, the chaplain offers pastoral support for family members, friends, other patients or employees. In this sometimes emotional situation, a UAMS chaplain may serve as a liaison for the patient and family with physicians, nurses and other caregivers. Perhaps more importantly, they are simply there.

“I want to let them know – whether it’s a patient or a family member – that I care and that I am there for them,” said Susan McDougal, UAMS Medical Center staff chaplain. “I will stay with them as long as they need me.”

This personal connection is key for a chaplain, who is a minister serving in a specialized setting, usually a hospital, prison or the military. At UAMS, chaplains are available for pastoral support 24-hours-a-day.

“Chaplains at UAMS do not proselytize,” said George Hankins-Hull, director of pastoral care and clinical pastoral education training programs at UAMS. “And we’re not here to replace a patient’s own pastor. We’re present to provide emotional and pastoral support during a time of crisis or hospitalization.”

Pastoral care at UAMS is primarily about relationships and the stories people tell about illness. “The least known role of the clinical chaplain is as interpreter of the metaphors and the connections people make while telling their stories that allows them to navigate their hospitalization,” Hankins-Hull said.

“We play a supportive role to help the patient call upon their own faith or philosophy of life as a source of comfort,” said George Buck, Ph.D., a chaplain and instructor in the UAMS clinical pastoral education program.

UAMS chaplains honor each patient’s individual religious traditions and needs. A patient’s own pastor and other representatives of their faith community are welcome to visit patients at any time, and they are often contacted by UAMS chaplains on behalf of patients.

UAMS chaplains make rounds throughout the hospital every day, and they are also on call at all times. Patients and family members may page a chaplain or call the UAMS operator to request a chaplain visit.

The pastoral care team also conducts a nondenominational service every Sunday at 10 a.m. in the hospital’s Walton Chapel. The chapel is open at all other times to accommodate patients, families and those simply seeking a space apart.

The chaplains see patients in the hospital, the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy and other programs such as the palliative care service, which provides compassionate care for patients living with a severe illness or when the goal of care becomes comfort.

McDougal, a Quaker, is the newest full-time chaplain at the Medical Center, joining the team in June 2011 after completing the UAMS Clinical Pastoral Education program. Her interest in becoming a chaplain was kindled by 18 months spent in prison for refusing to answer grand jury questions related to the Whitewater investigation of then-President Bill Clinton.

“I was frightened in jail,” said McDougal. “These were women at the worst time in their lives, yet they embraced me and cared about me.

“It changed me and made me want to live up to that by offering a personal connection, comfort and caring to those who are in a time of trauma.”

Teaching the Art of Caring

While UAMS is widely known for its academic programs in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and other health professions, a lesser-known but strong pastoral education training program is also offered.

About 18 ministers or lay people are chaplains-intraining through the program at any given time. Training can be completed on a full or part-time basis, or over the course of a summer. Pastoral care trainees present clinical case studies on their pastoral interventions and attend seminars while serving as chaplaincy interns or residents. They serve as chaplains for different areas of the hospital, which allows them an opportunity to experience the full range of care settings in a modern medical facility.

Graduates of the program may go on to become boardcertified clinical chaplains through the College of Pastoral Teaching the Art of Caring Supervision & Psychotherapy, the national organization that accredits the training programs at UAMS.

George Hankins-Hull, director of pastoral care and clinical pastoral education at UAMS, has led the program since 2005 and says it attracts people from all faith backgrounds. That was the case with him, a Methodist pastor in Northern Ireland who was drawn to the clinical model of pastoral training as the best means of caring for others.

George Buck, Ph.D., a chaplain and instructor in the UAMS clinical pastoral education program, who led the program prior to Hankins-Hull, is retired from working as a full-time chaplain, but still enjoys teaching in the program. “It is a privilege to supervise people through their spiritual growth and development,” said Buck.

CPSP & ACPE Possible New Era of Mutual Collegiality

2011-11-23T09:47:00.001-08:00

At this Thanksgiving season we in CPSP have much to be thankful for. We are prospering as a community both in this country and overseas. We have come into our own as a significant community among the many communities that promote clinical pastoral work.

We are also approaching November 30, the first anniversary of the Mediation Agreement signed by the ACPE and CPSP, signed appropriately enough in Philadelphia. This agreement put an end to two decades of animosity that was subverting the high goals of both communities.

We are grateful especially to leaders of the Religious Endorsing Bodies without whom this agreement might ever have come to fruition. We are grateful, and we look forward to a deepening sense of collegiality between the two communities.

The members of the CPSP Mediation Team who, with our ACPE colleagues brought this agreement to pass, are Jim Gebhart, Perry Miller, George Hankins-Hull, and me.

In February a subcommittee was appointed to undertake the detailed discussions with our ACPE colleagues as they implemented the Agreement. This sub-committee has had one face to face meeting and numerous phone meetings. Jim Gebhart chairs this committee, which includes Annari Griesel and John deVelder. They have addressed and are continuing to address several complaints that have been presented from our side to ACPE of possible violations of the Mediation Agreement.

We have every hope that this dialogue group will continue its work in the positive and cooperative spirit in which it began.

We believe we are entering a new era in which the ACPE and CPSP will be more fully colleagues in our common work. And for that anticipation we can all be very thankful.

Given our progress together we are thankful that we seem to have entered a new era of mutual collegiality as becomes our common calling.

I wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving.

-Raymond J. Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary

Read the Pastoral Report the on-line Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

When Helping You is Hurting Me

2011-09-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Self-awareness as a pastoral care giver is essential to good pastoral care. Issues of transference and counter-transference loom large in pastoral encounters. Consequently , it’s of importance for the pastoral care giver to understand the use of the Self in the pastoral role.

In her book, When Helping You is Hurting Me, Carmen Berry addresses the detrimental aspects of a lack of self-awareness in the person of the care giver in what she calls the “Messiah trap.” The “Messiah trap”, is defined as continued circumstances in which individuals are persistently putting their own needs aside in order to help others.

Berry offers an important caution to all in the helping professions against becoming addicted to helping and then, like an addict, seeking out supplies for their fix. Further complicating the issue is what Berry calls the double-sided trap of helping: ‘If I don’t do it, it won’t get done’ and ‘Every one else’s needs come before mine’. In addition, she demonstrates how falling into this trap can hurt the person of the care giver as well as the one in need of care.

Individuals addicted to caring have a deep need for approval and engage in caring for others as a means of self-care.

Berry identifies the following as Messiah characteristics:

One who tries to earn a sense of worth by "acting" worthy.
One who lets others determine his or her actions
One who needs to over achieve.
One who is attracted to helping those with similar pain.
One who experiences difficulty in establishing peer and intimate relationships.
One who is caught in a cycle of isolation.
One who is driven to endless activity.
One who stops only when they drop .

The following are Berry’s seven distinct types of the ‘Helping Messiah’:

The Pleaser: This individual tries to earn a sense of self-worth by acting worthy. This is someone who doubts his or her own self-worth.

The Rescuer: Lets others determine their actions. This is someone who needs a response from others to feel self-worth.

The Giver: This person is driven to overachieve in an attempt to earn self-worth.

The Counselor: Is attracted to helping others with similar issues, hurts and pains. It’s easier to deal with others hurts than one’s own.

The Protector: Is an individual who finds difficulty in establishing peer and intimate relationships that are equal. This person is someone who always has to be helping and looking out for others.

The Teacher: Is someone who is caught in a cycle of isolation. The teacher is one who needs to feel special in the midst of others and sense that they are needed. This person cannot feel both part of a group and special at the same time.

The Crusader: Is one who is driven to endless activity and stops when they drop. This person takes on too much in a crazy attempt to earn a sense of self-worth and value

Published twenty years ago When Helping You is Hurting Me is a useful book to read for anyone entering the caring professions because in the end there is no short cut to self-awareness.

The perfect man of old looked after himself first before looking to help others.
-Chuang Tzu
_________
When Helping You is Hurting Me: Escaping the Messiah Trap, Carmen Renee Berry, Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1988.

Fall 2011 CPSP National Clinical Training Seminar

2011-09-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

Francine Hernandez, National Clinical Seminar-East Coordinator, announces the theme for the Fall 2011 National Clinical Seminar:

Compassion Fatigue: "Caring for Ourselves, Caring for Others".

National Clinical Training Seminar-East will be held November 7 – 8, 2011 at the Stella Maris Retreat Center – Elberon, New Jersey.

Francine Hernandez expands on her thoughts about the theme she selected:

This presentation is reflective of a central CPSP theme: “Recovery of Soul”. The workshop presentations will focus ways for us as caregivers to understand the nature of our call to help others, and be present with and for them in the context of their individual needs and their individual stories. We, however, need to understand the importance of taking care of ourselves before we can take care of others.

This seminar also explores ways for caregivers to nourish themselves in order to be more effective in their professional roles and in their personal journey. We will also explore the role that attitude has on our health as well as on those we are called to care for.

For more information visit the Pastoral Report the online journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

UPDATE ON THE ACPE-CPSP MEDIATION PROCESS By Raymond J. Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary

2011-08-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

CPSP continues to be in conversation with the ACPE as both sides continue to work together to implement the Joint Mediation agreement reached on November 30th, 2010. The mediation agreement stipulates that each organization will refrain from misrepresentations or disparagements of the other.

The CPSP Mediation Committee consists of Perry Miller, George Hull, Jim Gebhart, and Raymond Lawrence. Jim Gebhart was appointed chair of a mediation team to meet on a continuing basis with its ACPE counterparts in an effort to implement the Mediation Agreement. Annari Griesel and John deVelder are members of that team. The implementation team has been in dialogue with its ACPE correspondents during the past several months. They have processed six complaints about violations of the agreement by ACPE persons. The complaints have been processed or are in process currently.

There have been no identified complaints about CPSP behavior. We urge all members of the CPSP community to continue to abide by the terms of the Mediation Agreement and to refrain from any disparagement or misrepresentation of ACPE programs. At the same time, we urge persons in both communities to report without delay to the Mediation Team any incidents that may represent disparagement or misrepresentation of either organization. We anticipate that such reporting will eventually result in mutual respect between ACPE and CPSP.

Click here to Read the ACPE CPSP Joint Mediation Statement

Read the Pastoral Report Online Newsletter of CPSP

2012 CPSP Plenary Gathering

2011-08-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

The 2012 CPSP Plenary March 25th-March 28th 2012 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The 2012 CPSP Plenary gathering will take place at Doubletree Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh City Center. The hotel is situated in a prime location, which is right in the middle of Pittsburgh’s vibrant downtown. A block of rooms have been reserved March 24, 2012-March 28, 2012. The special room rate, $119.00, will be available until March 4th or until the room block is sold out.

You can reserve your room by clicking on the following link:
Doubletree Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh City Center

We look forward to seeing you in Pittsburg March 25th-March 28th 2012.

Visit the Pastoral Report for more information about CPSP: Pastoral Report

CPSP is committed to making Clinical Pastoral Training affordable

George Hankins Hull
CPSP Plenary Secretary

UAMS Clinical Pastoral Education Residency Openings

2011-06-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

UAMS Clinical Pastoral Education Residency Program

The Clinical Pastoral Education training program focuses on the development of self-awareness, formation of pastoral identity, professional functioning, and the ability to address issues from a competent clinical and pastoral perspective.

The CPE residency program is designed for the ordained person with a seminary degree and at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. On occasion, a lay person may qualify for admission. CPE residents and interns serve as ecumenical chaplains, under supervision, to assigned areas throughout the UAMS Medical Center and clinics. The setting provides a rich base for clinical experience and opportunities for continued personal, professional and pastoral development.

The UAMS Clinical Pastoral Training programs follow the standards set by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP), the accrediting organization. A typical unit of CPE requires a minimum of 400 hours of supervised ministry in a clinical setting.

Stipend: 25,000 plus medical benefits: This training opportunity carries on call responsibilities

George Hankins Hull
Director of Pastoral Care &
Clinical Pastoral Education Programs
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
4301 W. Markham St. #561,
Little Rock, AR 72205

(501) 686-6888

Tolerance and Encouragement: Among the Roots of the Clinical Pastoral Tradition

2011-06-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

From the CPSP Covenant:

"We believe we should
make a space for one another and
stand ready to midwife one another
in our respective spiritual journeys.”
“We commit to being mutually responsible to one another
for our professional work and direction.”

Tolerance and Encouragement: Among the Roots of the Clinical Pastoral Tradition by Robert Charles Powell, MD, PhD

23 May 1911 - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle [NY]
PRESBYTERY ARGUES LONG OVER SEVEN CANDIDATES:
Four of the Applicants for Ordination Had Agnostic Views.
ALL WERE FINALLY PASSED.

It was one of the longest drawn-out meetings of the Presbytery ever held, and two hours of it or more were in executive session, it being nearly midnight when the ministers and elders decided to ordain and license seven young men, four of whom came from … [one] Seminary. It is known that there was decidedly divided opinion in the matter of making ministers of these four men, for a number of the ministers found it convenient to leave the room before it was finally decided to vote for the ordination of the young men … .[:] Robert A. Watson, Elmer Fred Eastman, Anton T. Boisen, and Herman N. Morse. …

To read the rest of this article visit the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

CPSP Philippines

2011-05-31T10:32:00.000-07:00

Dr. Cesar Espineda with several CPE trainees at May 14 Symposium in Baguio City, Philippines

In April and May of 2011 Dr. Raymond Lawrence, General Secretary of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, and CPSP Diplomate and chair of the Accreditation Committee Dr. Cesar G. Espineda visited the Philippines to provide training and assessment for the clinical pastoral training being done.

On April 20, 2011, in a ceremony in Asin, Benguet, Philippines, Dr. Raymond Lawrence formally inaugurated the first CPSP Philippine Chapter, Baguio City. At the same event, Bukal Life Care & Counseling Center and the Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary were designated as training centers of the CPSP in the Philippines. Dr. Ryan Clark, professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Seminary, and Ms. Celia Munson, the training coordinator for Bukal, represented these institutions at the event.

This new Chapter, the second Chapter in Asia after Hong Kong, is the culmination of work by Rev. Joel S. Aguirre, who has worked for several years seeking to improve clinical pastoral care, counseling, and chaplaincy in the Philippines. As part of this, in 2010 the CPE program of Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary was partnered with Bukal Life Ministries to form Bukal Life Care & Counseling Center, an ecumenical faith-based ministry in Baguio City, Philippines. From the beginning the goal of Bukal Life has been to provide clinically competent counseling and training within a faith context.

Read this full article on the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy National Clinical Training Seminar

2011-05-24T09:38:00.001-07:00

Francine Hernandez, National Clinical Training Seminar Coordinator, encourages all members of the CPSP community to mark your calendar for the Fall 2011 NCTS Seminar.

The event will be held at the Stella Maris Retreat Center, Elberon, NJ on Monday, Oct. 24-25, 2011.

For more information visit the Pastoral Report the online journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

CPSP A Diverse Covenant Community Fostering Professional Accountability

2011-05-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

At a Glance one can see that for CPSP diversity is a fact of life.

CPSP creates community through relationships of accountability and ongoing professional development. The CPSP covenant is the bond that holds the CPSP community together in a way that promotes clinical pastoral competency through ongoing face to face relationships of accountability.

The CPSP Covenant:

We, the CPSP members see ourselves as spiritual pilgrims seeking a truly collegial professional community. Our calling and commitments are, therefore, first and last theological. We covenant to address one another and to be addressed by one another in a profound theological sense. We commit to being mutually responsible to one another for our professional work and direction.

Matters that are typically dealt with in other certifying bodies by centralized governance will be dealt with primarily in Chapters. Thus, we organize ourselves in such a way that we each participate in a relatively small group called a Chapter consisting of approximately a dozen colleagues. Teaching or counseling programs directed by CPSP Diplomates are the primary responsibility of the Chapter.

We commit ourselves to a galaxy of shared values that are as deeply held as they are difficult to communicate. “Recovery of soul” is a metaphor that points toward these values. We place a premium on the significance of the relationships among ourselves. We value personal authority and creativity. We believe we should make a space for one another and stand ready to midwife one another in our respective spiritual journeys. Because we believe that life is best lived by grace, we believe it essential to guard against becoming invasive, aggressive, or predatory toward each other. We believe that persons are always more important than institutions, and even the institution of CPSP itself must be carefully monitored lest it take on an idolatrous character.

We intend to travel light, to own no property, to accumulate no wealth, and to create no bureaucracy. We are invested in offering a living experience that reflects human life and faith within a milieu of supportive and challenging community of fellow pilgrims.

To learn more about the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy click on the link below to visit the Pastoral Report:
CPSP Pastoral Report

CPSP A Truly Green Community

2011-04-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

The uniqueness of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is that CPSP is a covenant community. One of the most significant aspects of the CPSP covenant is the commitment to travel light. Traveling light means among other things that CPSP is committed to owning no buildings and having no paid professional staff. This means that the CPSP community is not burdened by high due structures needed to maintain corporate headquarters and to pay high salaried executives. Thus, the very way in which CPSP organizes its common life together provides a significant alternative to corporate models of governance that truly flourishes and prospers. Owning no buildings means that CPSP has the least carbon footprint of any organization in the clinical pastoral care and training movement. Consequently, CPSP is an environmentally responsible organization by virtue of the CPSP covenant. The CPSP covenant really makes CPSP a different kind of professional community and making a difference is in essence what CPSP as a community is all about.

The CPSP Covenant:

We, the CPSP members see ourselves as spiritual pilgrims seeking a truly collegial professional community. Our calling and commitments are, therefore, first and last theological. We covenant to address one another and to be addressed by one another in a profound theological sense. We commit to being mutually responsible to one another for our professional work and direction.

Matters that are typically dealt with in other certifying bodies by centralized governance will be dealt with primarily in Chapters. Thus, we organize ourselves in such a way that we each participate in a relatively small group called a Chapter consisting of approximately a dozen colleagues. Teaching or counseling programs directed by CPSP Diplomates are the primary responsibility of the Chapter.

We commit ourselves to a galaxy of shared values that are as deeply held as they are difficult to communicate. “Recovery of soul” is a metaphor that points toward these values. We place a premium on the significance of the relationships among ourselves. We value personal authority and creativity. We believe we should make a space for one another and stand ready to midwife one another in our respective spiritual journeys. Because we believe that life is best lived by grace, we believe it essential to guard against becoming invasive, aggressive, or predatory toward each other. We believe that persons are always more important than institutions, and even the institution of CPSP itself must be carefully monitored lest it take on an idolatrous character.

We intend to travel light, to own no property, to accumulate no wealth, and to create no bureaucracy. We are invested in offering a living experience that reflects human life and faith within a milieu of supportive and challenging community of fellow pilgrims.

2011 CPSP PLENARY INVITATION & SCHEDULES

2011-03-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

On behalf of the CPSP Plenary organizing committee, we warmly invite you to join us for the 21st gathering of the CPSP community. We meet at the Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel Virginia Beach, Virginia March 27th -30th. We are delighted to have the Rev. Dr. John Patton as our plenary speaker. Dr. Patton served as the Director of the Georgia Association of Pastoral Care & Counselling. He is Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia and a retired ACPE Supervisor. He is a pastoral counsellor and marriage therapist.

Dr. Patton is a prolific writer in the clinical pastoral field. Some of his writings include:
Is Human Forgiveness Possible, Pastoral Care in Context, Pastoral Care: An Essential Guide and From Ministry to Theology: Pastoral action & Reflection. He is also an associate Editor of Abington’s Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling and a retired Methodist minister.

The CPSP plenary gathering is unique in many ways and one of the most important aspects of our gathering is the mutual sharing of our work and our lives in a small group context. Please come prepared to share yourself and your clinical work as we come together to hear each and to respond to each voice in the community.

Your participation in the gathering is essential to the success of the event and we look forward to your arrival.

Blessings,

Barbara McGuire
Al Henager
George Hankins Hull
CPSP 2011 Plenary Organizing Committee

DOWNLOAD: 2011 CPSP PLENARY PRE-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

DOWNLLOAD: 2011 CPSP PLENARY SCHEDULE

Visit the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

CPSP 2011 Plenary Speaker Professor John Patton

2010-12-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

The 2011 Plenary of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy will be held March 27-30, 2011 at the Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel Virginia Beach VA.

We are pleased to announce John Patton as the Plenary speaker.

CPSP has a tradition of honoring and listening to the living patriarchs of the clinical pastoral community. John Patton is one of those living patriarchs. This will be his first time on the platform at a CPSP Plenary. We are honored to have him.

John is Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia and a retired ACPE Supervisor. He has practiced as marriage and family therapist is the author of many books including: Is Human Forgiveness Possible, Pastoral Care in Context, Pastoral Care: An Essential Guide and From Ministry to Theology, Pastoral Action & Reflection. John is also an associate Editor of Abingdon’s Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling and a retired United Methodist minister.

The room rate for the event is $99 per night. Contact the Sheraton:

888-627 8231 or
757-425-9000

ACPE & CPSP Come To Terms in Mediation Process

2010-12-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

Representatives from the ACPE and CPSP met in Philadelphia on November 30, in an attempt to mediate their twenty-one year conflict. They used the services of JAMS, and in particular, retired federal court judge Diane Welsh who served as mediator.

The results of this mediation exceeded our expectations, as you can see in the joint statement below. I want to thank the members of our delegation and to praise them for their wisdom and conciliatory posture. Our team consisted of Jim Gebhart and George Hankins-Hull who with me were mediators, as well as Perry Miller and Charles R. Hicks, our attorney, were also present and participated in the decision. (Our original six-person team of mediators and consultants was reduced to five with the death of John Edgerton.) On the ACPE side were Teresa Snorton, Sally Schwab, and Tim Thorstenson.

If we succeed in living up to this agreement we will have marked a sea change in the clinical pastoral community. This will mean that ACPE and CPSP will continue in their respective missions without mutual disparagement of the other’s programs or procedures.

We owe a special thanks to the leaders of the Religious Endorsing Bodies (REBS) who last year made a public call for an end to hostilities. I believe that this prophetic witness played a large role in bringing the parties to the table.

Mediation requires give and take on both sides. We appreciate the willingness of the representatives of ACPE to have engaged fully and responsibly in this vigorous and spirited process.

Let us all resolve to implement faithfully this historic agreement and ensure that its spirit is maintained into the future.

Raymond J. Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary
lawarence@cpsp.org

Download ACPE CPSP Joint Statement

NACC Assumes Management Role in the Failed Spiritual Care Collaborative

2010-11-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

Following the withdrawal of the Association of Professional Chaplains from the Spiritual Care Collaborative the National Association of Catholic Chaplains assumed management responsibilities for SCC. The SCC has yet to make a public announcement on its website as to the recent split in its organization. The SCC had initially made some big claims to effect a change in the Clinical Pastoral Care and Training movement and now the SCC itself is charged with lacking vision and being too costly.

Spiritual Care Collaborative Proves Costly & Ineffective

2010-10-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

The Spiritual Care Collaborative "has no specific goals, outcomes or joint projects in the horizon"

"At its fall 2010 meeting, the APC Board of Directors passed the motion that the Association of Professional Chaplains withdraw from formal participation in the Spiritual Care Collaborative."

The reasom given by APC's outging president, Sue Wintz, for the APC withdrawal is that "the SCC has no specific goals, outcomes or joint projects in the horizon. The APC board determined it was not a good use of organizational funds, or volunteer and staff resources, to continue to pay the yearly dues of SCC or participate in monthly conference calls."

To read the full APC announcement follow the link below:

Association of Professional Chaplains Discontinues Spiritual Care Collaborative Participation

CPSP CPE Trained Chaplains Gaining Ground in The US Army Corps

2010-10-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

When newly ‘minted’ Army Chaplain Pete Christian recently graduated in September 2010 from the US Army Chaplain Basic Course in Fort Jackson, North Carolina he also soon afterwards became the first CPSP CPE trained Army Chaplain to receive the US Army 7- Sierra clinical specialty designator for Chaplains who have successfully completed advance training and demonstrated clinical competence in healthcare ministry.

Owing to a recent change in Army leadership and policy, CPSP CPE trained Army chaplains who have successfully completed their CPE training in a medical center/hospital are now eligible (just like ACPE trained Chaplains) to apply for this Army Chaplain Corps clinical specialty designator.
Chaplain Christian completed his CPE training at the VA Medical Center, in Salt Lake City, Utah where his CPE Supervisor, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Allison, who is also the State Chaplain for the Utah National Guard, said “I am doubly pleased about this news and shift in Army policy…both for Pete and for all current and future CPSP CPE trained Army Chaplains.”

To find out more about the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy read the Pastoral Report the online Journal of CPSP

CPSP, NAJC & ACPE Working Together in Israel

2010-06-08T00:06:00.000-07:00

More than five years ago, the Executive Director of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains, Cecille Asekoff had a dream of starting CPE in Israel. Rabbi Zahara Davidowitz has fulfilled that dream by supervising CPE for the past four summers through the Schechter Seminary in Jerusalem. Zahara is a Diplomate of CPSP in the New York/New Jersey Chapter.

Photo- John deVelder with Devorah Corn of Tishkofet (Life's Door) one of 20 organizations at the Conference, Cecille Asekof, Executive Director of NAJC and Teresa Snorton, Executive Director of ACPE.

Since Zahara began the first CPE programs in 2006 interest in CPE and professional chaplaincy is growing in Israel. This May, the NAJC invited a delegation of about fifteen ACPE and CPSP leaders to attend the Fourth National Conference on spiritual care in Jerusalem.

Read the rest of this article on the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy.

Association for Clinical Pastoral Education & the College of Pastoral Supervision Challenged by Religious Endorsing Body to End Rift

2010-05-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

I welcome the letter from the Association of Religious Endorsing Bodies that challenges the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education and the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy to work collegially together in the best interests of those they train. The Religious Endorsers are quite rightly concerned for their constituents who are caught in the middle of the rift between ACPE and CPSP.

Challenging the ACPE & CPSP to put the professional wellbeing of those they train above the politics of self-interest is not only the right thing to do it would also be the best possible pastoral response.

George Hankins Hull

Read the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

Raymond Lawrence Replies to Religious Endorser's Plea for an End to the ACPE CPSP Rift

2010-05-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

A MESSAGE TO THE CPSP COMMUNITY FROM RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE

We are heartened by this public expression of concern by the Religious Endorsing Body representatives (REBS) meeting in Nashville last fall. They have the interest in the wider religious and therapeutic community at heart in this call to reconciliation.

There is plenty of work to be done in the field of clinical pastoral supervision, chaplaincy, pastoral counseling and psychotherapy. No one organization can respond to the current public needs. The expenditure of time and money in efforts to undermine each other is wasteful and disgraceful.

We in CPSP hope that this letter from the REBS signals the end of hostility between the various clinical pastoral organizations, and the end of triumphalism on the part of any one organization or group of organizations.

Raymond J. Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary

This letter was published on the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

ACPE & CPSP Challenged to Cooperate

2010-05-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

AN OPEN LETTER to CPSP and ACPE Association of Religious Endorsing BodiesP.O. Box 340007, Nashville, TN 37203-007January 11, 2010To:

CPSP and ACPEFrom: Association of Religious Endorsing Bodies (AREBS)

Dear Colleagues in Pastoral Care Ministry,We have been fortunate to be in conversation with all of the cognate groups in Nashville.These meetings have helped us to clarify our identity as endorsers. That search for identity continues to drive us to more clarity and to deepen our relationships with all the cognate groups. We thank you for your patience with us as we have learned about your organizations, your organizational requirements, and also, your help in clarifying our understanding of your identity.

What we have discovered is that we share one thing in common and that is our dedication to the goal of providing the best in pastoral care. We all strive for excellence in that process and we understand your dedication in training and certifying our constituents. We have ironed out some of the difficulties and removed some of the obstacles to provide excellence in pastoral care.

One of the public issues that deeply concerns us is the chasm between CPSP and ACPE. We are working to understand the history of each of your organizations so that we can understand some of the identity issues that you face. As Miroslov Volf says in his early work, “Exclusion and Embrace”, the establishment of identity gives a kind of confidence that allows us to look at otherness and at others without the fear of losing our own identity. Volf says that an exploration of identity issues and otherness issues are prerequisite of reconciliation. We have prayed that reconciliation might happen between your two organizations because we feel that some of our constituents are suffering due to the rift between your organizations. We are troubled when our people become vulnerable to this rift. We are also concerned about the face of pastoral care that is presented to our institutions and endorsees.

We confess to being somewhat protective of our constituents, but our major concern is that we remove barriers to a pursuit of our shared goal of excellence in pastoral care. It is important that we find ways to be transparent and to seek each others’ healing. In the meanwhile, we, as endorsers have covenanted to be in prayer for reconciliation.

Prayerfully Yours,
Susan GalassoAREB Chairperson

This Letter was published in the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Pschotherapy

College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy 2010 Plenary

2010-01-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

The Uniqueness of the CPSP Plenary:

Many meetings and conferences fail because they follow an agenda which places the conference speaker at the heart of the event and the attendee as observer. The structure of the CPSP plenary stands in sharp contrast to the linear model of many conferences which place an exclusive emphasis on an individual speaker. We avoid this in CPSP by placing the emphasis on the small group process in which the plenary presenters take part in the consultative process of the small group experience. CPSP is unique in our field in how we structure our gathering in a way that wisdom is shared, consultation is sought and community is fostered in terms of accountability. Please click on flyer for further details.

CPSP Diversity and Opportunity as a Living Experience

2009-12-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

It was to be my first conference with my new found colleagues and mentors. I was shifting into a new role and looked forward to being with same minded people who truly believed in the integrity and grace of the human spirit. Though anticipation was undeniable, I consciously shifted into my Buddhist self so as to be comfortable in the place of “not knowing”.

To read more visit the Pastoral Report the online journal of the College Of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy:

Pastoral Report

CPSP Changing the Face of Clinical Pastoral Education

HIPAA & Chaplaincy

2009-12-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

Chaplaincy & Recent Changes to HIPAA
Recent changes strengths the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and are designed to ease the public’s overall comfort with electronic medical recording keeping. One of the most significant changes to the HIPAA regulations is the new rules concerning the breach of protected health information (PHI).

What is a Breach?

A breach is, generally, an impermissible use or disclosure under the Privacy Rule that compromises the security or privacy of the protected health information such that the use or disclosure poses a significant risk of financial, reputational, or other harm to the affected individual.

What is an example of a breach PHI?

An employee accesses the record of a patient outside the performance of their job duties.
An unencrypted laptop containing PHI is lost or stolen.
PHI is sent to the wrong fax, mailing address, an email address or printer.

What happens if a breach occurs?

Generally speaking, your institution’s HIPAA compliance officer will need to be notified of all suspected breaches immediately upon discovery of the breach.
The HIPAA officer determines if there exists a reportable breach.
If a reportable breach of PHI has occurred your institution’s HIPAA compliance office handles the notification.
Every individual whose unsecured PHI has been breached must be notified in writing as soon as feasible and within a 60 day period.
Breaches are required to be reported to Health and Human Services (HHS).
If less than 500 individuals are affected: log and report annually.If more than 500 individuals are affected: HHS must be notified at the same time the patient is notified. The media must also be notified.

How can Clinical Chaplains help prevent breaches of PHI?

Be alert about your responsibilities to protect PHI while carrying out your tasks. Take special care in these situations:

When faxing be sure to always use your institution’s official fax cover sheet and reconfirm the recipient’s fax number before transmittal.
Do not put PHI, including patient stickers and medication labels, in regular trash. Shred or place in privacy bins for special disposal.
When retrieving information from the printer or faxing PHI determine each page corresponds to the correct patient
Double check the name of the patient before you put information in the envelopes for mailing.
Log off your computer prior to stepping away from it.
Use password protection and encryption features for your Blackberry, cell phone and other mobile devices such as thumb drives and CDs.
Only store PHI on mobile devices when absolutely necessary for your institution’s business purposes and delete as soon as feasible.
Encrypt any email containing PHI sent outside your institution.
Never share your password or use someone else’s sign on information as this could lead to you being disciplined by your institution.

For further information on the new HIPAA standards follow the link below:
US Department of Health and Human Services

Troubling Trend in Anti Obama Religious Political Rhetoric

2009-11-18T14:11:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1970’s I know firsthand how dangerous it is when religious dysfunction underpins political dysfunction in a way that creates a space for sectarian violence. I see something similar happening here in the US as certain religious and political groups oppose President Obama. The most recent anti Obama political religious rhetoric comes in the form of a prayer taken from Psalm 109 verse 8 which reads “May his days be few, may another take over his position.” The next verse in the Psalm reads “May his children be orphans and his wife a widow.” Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is right when he comments “The issue is not the scripture quoted or the name by which God is called by those doing the praying. The issue is invoking the God in whom any of us believe, to act as executioner of those with whom we disagree.” This is a troubling trend in anti-Obama political religious rhetoric which must be opposed by all people of faith and goodwill.

To read Rabbi Hirschfield’s comment select the link below:

Psalms 109:8, An Ugly Prayer for President Obama

Director of Yoth Ministries Position

2009-09-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

First United Methodist Church a 1200 member downtown congregation in Little Rock, Arkansas is seeking a qualified applicant for the position of Director of Youth Ministries.

The director is responsible for all aspects of youth ministry for a constituency of almost 100 youth between the ages of 12 to 18.

A college degree in a related field is expected. A passion for Christian discipleship with young people and their families is vital.

A competitive salary with benefits--contact Sr. Pastor, Rev. Michael L. Mattox. mmattox@fumclr.org

Cover letter and complete resume with references should be sent to:

Sr. Pastor, Rev. Michael L. Mattox.

723 Center Street,
Little Rock, AR 72201

Parished-Based College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy CPE Residency Position

2009-08-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

PARISH-BASED CPE RESIDENCY POSITION:

Stipend $40,000. Rural Parish with Recreation Ministry; Contracted with the South Carolina Department of Corrections and the Midlands Area Pastoral Counseling Services, Inc.

Program Accredited by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (January 4 – December 31, 2010).

Inquire at Liberty Hill Presbyterian Church, Box 170, Liberty Hill, SC 29074

Telephone: 803-273-9191

lhpc@comporium.net. Gene Rollins, Supervisor.
For more information about CPSP visit the link below:
http://www.cpsp.org/.

Health Care Reform-The Debate Compromised by Inflammatory Language

2009-08-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Health care reform is a scary subject for ordinary Americans and this is not been helped by the tone of the current national debate on this issue which has turned terribly nasty. One of the most heated concerns to have emerged recently relates to end-of-life conversations. End-of-life conversations are difficult at the best of times and made all the more difficult in these uncertain days of economic upheaval when many Americans have lost their jobs, health care insurance and homes. Unfortunately, some public figures and national leaders have chosen to offer their critique of the proposed health care reforms using only the most inflammatory language possible. The tenor of this debate does not bode well for the American public in terms of any real substantial change to a health care system which is too costly to sustain and unequal in terms of access. These difficult days call for true leadership which does not fail for lack of nerve to embrace the courage of change in the best interests of all in the culture. End-of-life conversations invite everyone involved in the conversation to figure out the right thing to do in each individual case and to have the courage to follow through on the difficult decisions reached. In the same way the American public needs national leaders who will engage the health care reform debate with the same gravitas as those loved ones involved with end-of-life decisions.George Hankins Hull

The Uniqueness of the CPSP Plenary

2009-07-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Many meetings and conferences fail because they follow an agenda which places the conference speaker at the heart of the event and the attendee as observer. The structure of the CPSP plenary stands in sharp contrast to the linear model of many conferences which place an exclusive emphasis on an individual speaker.

We avoid this in CPSP by placing the emphasis on the small group process in which the plenary presenters take part in the consultative process of the small group experience. CPSP is unique in our field in how we structure our gathering in a way that wisdom is shared, consultation is sought and community is fostered in terms of accountability.

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

2009-04-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy
TASK FORCE FOR THE FUTURE REPORT:
Delivered at the 2009 CPSP Plenary By Luise Weinrich

The late writer David Foster Wallace, a man of great soul who I believe would have loved a community like CPSP, told this story at Kenyon College's commencement: in 2005:

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and says "What is water?" (David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College commencement address, 2005).

For over a year now, the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy's Task Force for the Future has been at work, talking with our members about your vision for CPSP. We've been seeking your views about where we are, and where we're headed in the future, finding out what the water is like our community.

Our work is ongoing. We've conducted dozens of interviews so far. These interviews are in-depth conversations. Most have been conducted by telephone and have lasted from 30-60 minutes, yielding on average 2-3 pages of notes per call.

Because CPSP is an international community, our task force has also made use of Internet technology to speak with people across the country and in other parts of the world. We have intentionally spoken with members of our community whose voices are not usually heard at our formal gatherings in hopes of gaining a broader view of our community in all its diversity. We have spoken with new members and members who have been a part of CPSP from its inception, and many in-between.

From those conversations, the following five themes have emerged:

1. Our members deeply value local chapters. Almost to a person, CPSP members report that the work they do and the depth of community they share in their local chapters lie at the heart of the CPSP experience for them. Members indicate that the challenge, support and peer supervision they receive in local chapters is life-giving, and positively impacts the quality of their clinical work and ministry.

They also state that chapter life has enriched their lives in significant and positive ways. Members describe life in chapters as a rare, precious gift. One person noted that no other professional organization – of doctors, lawyers, care givers etc. – has anything approaching the depth of communal and professional support we have in our CPSP chapters.

Chapter life is not perfect. Some members expressed concern that other chapters are not functioning in an ideal manner. Our observation from speaking with individual members of chapters is that the overall level of health in chapters is quite high. Members frequently state that it is this rare quality of human community, shaped by the values of CPSP's covenant, that draws them to CPSP and sustains them in their work and in their life together.

Several chapter members have spoken of how valuable it has been for them to receive outside consultation about their chapter's process, while other chapters seem less clear about this requirement. Our task force believes that the policy for chapters to be in ongoing consultation with an outside consultant is a good one that promotes health and vitality in chapters.

We recommend that this practice continue to be encouraged. We also recommend that we continue to make the strength and vitality of local chapters the central focus of CPSP.

2. Our members value CPSP's commitment to traveling light. Overwhelmingly, CPSP members have voiced their appreciation for our decentralized organizational structure and our commitment to keeping administrative operations, costs and bureaucracy to a minimum. Members also appreciate that the leadership in our organization is informal, flexible, and personal.

Members have noted that our streamlined, grass-roots way of organizing ourselves allows us to move quickly into a variety of settings and to provide vital services in communities and to people who would otherwise not have access to high-quality clinical care.

Members appreciate that when they see a need, they are able to establish training programs, clinical services and ministries in a wide variety of contexts without the excessive bureaucracy, "red tape" and high administrative costs that might otherwise render these services cost-prohibitive.

There is also appreciation that our work is carried out not by a paid staff in a centralized office but rather is accomplished by individuals who see a need and voluntarily give of their time, energy and resources to meet the need.

A number of voices, old and new, have cautioned that, while structure seems to promise security or stability, the creation of unnecessary structure would in fact weigh us down, take the focus away from our mission, and decrease our ability to respond to and serve people in need.

We as a task force echo what we have heard from the community on this matter. We urge CPSP not to let conscious or unconscious anxiety about our growth lead us to create unnecessary structures that would hinder rather than support our carrying out the creative work of ministry that gives us our vitality and, after all, is the reason for our existence.

3. Our members appreciate the current leadership and have some anxiety about future leadership. While a couple of members called for a change in leadership, there is widespread satisfaction with and appreciation of the present leadership. Some members expressed anxiety about what will happen when the "old guard" passes away or its influence wanes. Some excitement has been expressed about new leadership emerging. Some have observed that there has been a "changing of the guard" in recent years as new leadership has increasingly stepped forward.

Our task force believes that there is strong leadership in our community. We note that the covenant states that we value personal authority and creativity. We trust that, with such a covenant to one another, CPSP will manage well leadership transitions that occur in the future.Luise WeincrichCPSP a professional community committed to accountability in which every member has a voice.

To Read the rest of the CPSP Task Force Report or to learn more about the CPSP Community vist the Pastoral Report the online Journal of CPSP

Association of Professional Chaplains Experiencing Significant Financial Challenges

2009-03-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

The Association of Professional Chaplains recently informed its membership that the organization is experiencing “significant financial challenges.” The APC president, Sue Wintz, related in a letter to the APC membership that the association has made some $80,000 cuts to its budget. The president’s letter requested that APC members consider making a donation of at least $25, 00 to help off set any additional cuts which might have to be made to the organization’s budget. APC Board Certified Chaplains pay annual dues of $265.00 representing some of the highest fees in the profession.

College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy- The Tavistock Group

2009-03-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

CPSP Plenary 2009

“Tavistock” is the label commonly given to a particular type of group seminar that follows the tradition of Wilfred Bion and his colleagues who were geographically based in a section of London called Tavistock.

The basic premise of the Tavistock approach to group work is that ownership of the group belongs to the membership, and that the consultant(s) will take a posture “outside the group” and will make consultative contributions to the group as a whole, not to particular individuals. A consultant in the Tavistock model does not take a leadership role in the specific work of a Tavistock group, but does provide consultation as well as protecting the boundaries of the group with regard to time and space. A Tavistock group relations seminar has the character of a laboratory in that a specific time and place is set apart to do a specific kind of disciplined task.

The traditional Tavistock group (so-called) is the closest thing to a sacrament that the Plenary has---an action symbolizing things that are complex and difficult to fully define.
It is a combination free-for-all, Quaker meeting and psychoanalytic couch.

In the CPSP Tavistock group no hierarchy exists. There is a center, middle and fringe. Any voice may be heard, and all voices are subject to interpretation, analysis, or rebuttal, but no voice should be quashed.

If no words are spoken in Tavistock we should not consider that to be a failure. We should simply contemplate the meaning of the silence.

The non-hierarchical structure of Tavistock well symbolizes the CPSP community.

We hope that the willingness to dare to do creative work in the Tavistock group will also reflect the commitment of the CPSP community.

No subject is out of bounds in the Tavistock meeting.

CPSP: “Promoting competency and accountability in the clinical pastoral tradition”

Clinical Pastoral Education Objectives

2009-02-07T20:40:00.000-08:00

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

CPSP CPE Objectives:

CPSP Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) programs provide an opportunity for ministers, seminarians and lay people to develop pastoral competency within a particular pastoral setting (usually a hospital, parish, hospice, or retirement home). The CPE approach to training is based upon an "action-reflection" model of learning. Pastoral trainees function as ecumenical chaplains providing pastoral care in assigned areas and use their experience in pastoral encounters as a basis for their learning.CPSP CPE focuses on the development of personal and pastoral identity and the growth of professional competence as a minister. Specific objectives of CPE are:

To become aware of one's self as a minister and of the ways one's ministry affects people.
To become a competent pastor of people and groups in various life situations and crisis circumstances and to develop the maturity to provide intensive and extensive pastoral care and counseling.
To utilize the clinical method of learning.
To utilize the support, confrontation, and clarification of the peer group for the integration of personal attributes and pastoral functioning.
To become competent in self-evaluation and in utilizing supervision and consultation to evaluate one's pastoral practice.
To develop the ability to make optimum use of one's religious heritage, theological understanding, and knowledge of behavioral sciences in pastoral ministry to people and groups.
To acquire self-knowledge to a degree that permits pastoral care to be offered within the strengths and limitations of one's own person.
To develop the ability to work as a pastoral member of an interdisciplinary team.
To develop the capacity to utilize one's pastoral perspective and competence in a variety of functions such as preaching, teaching, and administration as well as pastoral care and counseling.
To become aware of how one's attitudes, values, and assumptions affect one's ministry.
To understand the theological issues arising from experience and to utilize theology and the behavioral sciences to understand the human condition.

To learn more visit the Pastoral Report The onlone Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

George Hankins Hull, Dip.Th., Th.M.

CPSP Diplomate in Clinical Pastoral Supervision

Clinical Pastoral Residency Openings

2009-02-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

The CPE program focuses on the development of self-awareness, formation of pastoral identity, professional functioning, and the ability to address issues from a competent clinical and pastoral perspective.

The residency program is designed for the ordained person with a seminary degree and at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. On occasion, a lay person may qualify for admission. CPE residents and interns serve as ecumenical chaplains, under supervision, to assigned areas throughout the UAMS Medical Center and clinics. The setting provides a rich base for clinical experience and opportunities for continued personal, professional and pastoral development.

The UAMS Clinical Pastoral Training programs follow the standards set by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP), the accrediting organization. A typical unit of CPE requires a minimum of 400 hours of supervised ministry in a clinical setting.

Stipend: 25,000 plus medical benefits: This training opportunity carries on call responsibilities

George Hankins Hull
Director of Pastoral Care&
Clinical Pastoral Education Programs
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
4301 W. Markham St. #561,
Little Rock, AR 72205

(501) 686-6888

2009-02-06T19:10:00.000-08:00

2009 Plenary of The College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy

2009-01-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Invitation...

Come join us in Virginia Beach, Virginia
at the Gathering of the Community for the
Nineteenth Plenary Meeting

March 29th-April 1, 2009
Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel
Virginia Beach, Virginia

Hotel Registration...
Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel, 36th Street and Atlantic Avenue,
Virginia Beach, VA 23451 Tel: 800.521.5635 -or- 757.425.9000
Registrants must contact the hotel, at the telephone numbers
listed above, to reserve sleeping rooms.

Special Conference Rate: $109-$119 +tax. This rate is guaranteed
only though February 26, 2009, and for a limited number of rooms,
on a first-come basis. The price of the room will vary according to
the view. The hotel rooms are quite spacious and will accommodate
three or four persons comfortably. You are urged to register as early
as possible if you intend to stay at the Sheraton.

Please Note:
Registration Rate after February 26, 2009: $245. Meals/Refreshments for Non-Registered Companion or Spouse: $75.

For additional information please go to our web sites; http://www.pastoralreport.com/, http://www.cpsp.org/, or email the Registrar, Krista Argiropolis, at: jarg@metrocast.net

All Registrants are Requested to Bring a Clinical Paper or Case for Presentation:

This is a working conference. The heart of the program is the mutual sharing of our work and our lives. Thus each registrant is expected to come prepared to share something from his or her life or work in a small group context. There are no ground rules about what particular individuals may decide to share.

The small consultation groups have become a highly significant part of the Plenary Meeting. They represent this community’s commitment to hearing and responding to each voice in the community. They also have become educational events as we come to give both care and consultation to each other.

George Hankins Hull
Plenary Secretary

Spiritual Care Collaborative A Jarring Note of Discord

2008-09-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

The Spiritual Care Collaborative sounds all the right notes when it comes to promoting and advertising the SCC as new breakthrough in collaboration between pastoral care and counseling organizations. High ideals expressed on paper sound good and make a good sales pitch but unless accompanied by serious results on the ground amount to nothing more than lofty words blowing in the wind. Rather than creating harmony in the midst of the pastoral care and counseling movement the SCC sound a jarring note of discord tainted by an exclusive elitism. The SCC recently admitted(1) that it has no developed mechanism for including other participating organizations in the partnership of collaboration. So much then for lofty ideals and claims of Collaboration mere code words used as cover for darker motives of control and monopoly.

Note (1)

NOTICE TO MEMBERS OF THE CPSP COMMUNITY RE. RELATIONS TO THE SPIRITUAL CARE COLLABORATIVE
September 3, 2008

Notice to Members of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy Community
From the Executive Committee
Re: CPSP Relations with the Spiritual Care Collaborative

We in CPSP have made ourselves collegially available to the Spiritual Care Collaborative (SCC) since the SCC and its precursors began in 1996. John deVelder and Jim Gebhart have been in good faith, extensive, and ongoing communication with SCC leadership during the past twelve years. The results of years of collegial conversation have come to no resolution.

The SCC has reported officially to John deVelder that it has developed no process for including other organizations in its membership. Thus, the SCC's claim to be a collaborative organization is to date only talk.

The SCC (and its precursors) was founded originally by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education(ACPE). The data suggest that the ACPE purpose from the beginning was to establish a monopoly in clinical pastoral training under the aegis of ACPE, in a joint venture with the Association of Professional Chaplains(APC).

We in CPSP had hoped that the ACPE, allied with the APC, had abandoned the dream of monopoly. Apparently it has not. There can be no hope of collegial relations until the dream of monopoly is abandoned. For the time being we must consider our conversations with SCC to be fruitless.

CPSP will continue in its mission to promote with all its energy the training and certification of pastoral clinicians of several levels of expertise. We will continue to make ourselves available collegially to other organizations in the field. But we will also energetically resist any claims of monopoly from any other organization in our field of work.

Visit the Pastoral Report the Online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

Spiritual Care Collaborative Fall at First Hurdle

2008-06-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

The Spiritual Care Collaborative has recently had to acknowledge to the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy that the SCC has failed to develop a means of including other clinical pastoral training and certifying bodies as members of the SCC. Sadly the admission of the SCC to CPSP that the SCC does not know how to revise its founding documents or whether it should reveals that it is more of a political power block than a truly collaborative organization.

George Hankins Hull
CPSP Diplomate in Clinical Pastoral Education

FROM THE CPSP GENERAL SECRETARY: SCC Unable to Act On Question of Whether to Invite CPSP

We applaud the Board of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) that last month unanimously voted in the affirmative to invite CPSP to join the Spiritual Care Collaborative.

We also applaud the National Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC) for taking the same action.

However, neither CPSP nor any other organization should hold its breath waiting for an invitation to join the SCC. The SCC Board reported on June 16 that it was unable to reach a consensus because it does not know how to revise its founding documents in order to include new groups such as CPSP. It seems that the SCC has built a monster, an organization unable to act on such critical issues. It crows about its inclusivity but has no process for including anyone. It is an organization muscle bound, unable to make a decision. The decision-making process they have created is dysfunctional.

The SCC decision-making process goes like this: All important questions are first presented to the individual boards of member organizations for a decision. After all the individual boards have met (a process of many months), representatives of the respective boards hold a phone conference. Unless there is total unanimity there is hardly any way for a decision to come out of such a phone conference. The SCC appears to have created itself in such a way as to make tough or controversial decisions impossible.

On Feb 23, 2003 in Toronto, George Hanzo famously said of the formation of the embryonic SCC (at that time called the Council on Collaboration):"Ten years from now, you won’t recognize the face of professional chaplaincy, and it’s because of the incredible work we’ve done here today."

Well, more than five years have past now since that date and the SCC can’t figure out how to make decisions. We hope that’s not what it means by changing the face of pastoral care and counseling in this country. We’re terribly afraid George might be right.

We wish the SCC well. We certainly need more honest dialogue and more inclusivity in the pastoral care and counseling world. Perhaps when the SCC gathers for its much-touted summit in Orlando next February, it can figure out how to reconstitute itself in a way that decisions can be made.
Raymond Lawrence, General Secretary
To Email Raymond Lawrence, click here.

Spiritual Care Collaborative Falls at First Hurdle

Rev. Francine Angel Installed the 8th President of the College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy

2008-04-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

The Rev. Francine Angel was installed as the Eighth President of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy at the 2008 CPSP Plenary held in Little Rock, AR this April.

She is an honor graduate of Morehouse School of Religion at the Interdenominational Theological Center, 1996. She received her M.Div in Psychology of Religion and Pastoral Care. In 1995 she was listed on the National Dean List and in Who’s Who among Students in American Colleges and Universities.

In addition to her academic accomplishment, she spent years being clinically trained that culminated in significant accomplishments in the clinical pastoral field: Board Certified Chaplain, Board Certified Pastoral Counselor and Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor.

For many years she has been the creative force as the Coordinator of the National Clinical Seminar (NCTS) for the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy. This seminar is scheduled twice a year (Spring and Fall). NCTS is geared toward offering continuing education and clinical consultation within a psychodynamic small group process. Under her leadership the NCTS has soared.

She served as the Acting Director for the Department of Pastoral Care and as the Program Coordinator of Clinical Pastoral Education Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Presently, The Rev. Francine Angel is a CPE Supervisor for Episcopal Health Services in Far Rockaway, New York. In this context she directs both the CPE Residency program and the Extended Evening CPE Internship program.
The CPSP community is delighted and honored that for the next two years we will have the talent, experience, wisdom and leadership ability of The Rev. Francine Angel, not only as a trusted colleague but as our CPSP President.

College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy

2008-03-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

CPSP Hosting National And International Events

2008-03-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

CPSP Sponsoring Asia-Pacific Symposium on Clinical Pastoral Care

November 17-21, 2008, the Asia-Pacific Symposium on "Clinical Pastoral Care, Counseling, and Education in the Asian Cultural Context" will be held in the dazzling city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It promises to draw seminal theoreticians and clinicians together, in the midst of a vibrant, culturally-diverse environment, to examine and discuss contextual and cultural relevancy in the pastoral care and counseling disciplines.

CPSP inaugurates the first CPSP chapter in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

February 26th, 2008 Dr. Raymond J. Lawrence, General Secretary for the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy reviewed four candidates for Board Certification as Clinical Chaplains and inaugurated the first CPSP chapter in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

CPSP 2008 Plenary Gathering

CPSP invites you to join us for an exciting time at the 2008 CPSP Plenary March 30 – April 2, 2008. This year's Plenary will feature informative speakers, dynamic group process, and a fun-filled evening with a great Klezmer band.

Arthur Frank will share with us his insights into the role of storytelling in the healing process. Carolyn Cassin brings us insights on improving care for patients at the end of life.

Tuesday evening's "Dessert and Dancing" will feature the joyous Meshugga Klezmer Band as we dance to the sounds of lively Eastern European Jewish folk music.
Be sure to register and make your hotel reservations right away!

Click the link below to download a .pdf file of the 2008 Plenary brochure.
2008 PLENARY BROCHURE file

Hotel Rate Deadline Fast Approaching for 2008 CPSP Plenary
The deadline for the $79.00 hotel rate for the 2008 CPSP Plenary is March 8, 2008, After that date, the rate reverts to the regular room rate of $129.00 per night.
Save yourself some money, and reserve your room NOW!
Call 1-866-657-4458 or the hotel directly at 1-501-371-9000.
Hurry so you won't be disappointed!
CPSP National Clinical Training Seminar

Tuesday, May 6, 2008"Contextual Supervision: Isomorphism and Parallel Process in the Clinical Arena"
Presenter this year is Dr. Jim Pruett
Contention: Identification and management of isomorphism and parallel process provides contextualization of the clinical arena (expanded from the clinical rhombus) pertinent to administration, service, training, education, supervision, certification, accreditation, and regulation

NATIONAL CLINICAL TRAINING SEMINARCarmel Retreat CenterMahwah, New JerseyMay 6-7, 2008

For more Information on all CPSP Educational Events click here to visit the Pastoral Report

The College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy In Conversation with Professor Arthur W. Frank

2008-02-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce that Professor Arthur W. Frank will be the Keynote speaker at the at the 2008 Plenary Gathering of The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy.
Arthur W. Frank is professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Alberta Canada. Dr. Frank received his undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University (High Honours, 1968), his M.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University (1975). He has taught at the University of Calgary since 1975. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of The Hastings Center, the preeminent U.S. bioethics institute, and also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, which is the highest honor that Canadian academics can receive.

He is the author of At the Will of the Body: Reflections on Illness (Houghton Mifflin, 1991), the story of his 1985 heart attack and subsequent testicular cancer. The book has been translated into four languages and won the 1996 Natalie Davis Spingarn Writer's Award from the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, Washington, D.C. A new edition was published in 2002 with a new Afterword. In 1995 he published The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics (University of Chicago Press), a study of first-person accounts of illness. Both of his books have had excerpts reprinted in multiple anthologies in medical sociology, social medicine, and the meaning of illness.

His most recent book, The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live, was published by The University of Chicago Press in 2004. The review in the New England Journal of Medicine describes the book: “Frank rightly understands that communication gains its importance not in achieving a technical mastery…but in educating one to face difference, frailty, and limitation. Through a rich telling of stories and reflection on them, Frank conducts a symphony of ideas about medicine…” (Dec 30, 2004).

His recent journal publications have appeared in Qualitative Health Research, Qualitative Sociology, Health, Families, Systems & Health, health:, The Hastings Center Report, BioSocieties, and Literature and Medicine.

Dr. Frank is on the editorial boards of Body & Society, Families, Systems & Health, Qualitative Health Research, Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, and International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Health and Well-being. In 2002 he became book review editor of the British journal Health. He is a corresponding editor of Literature and Medicine.

In 1998 Dr. Frank was William Evans Fellow in the Bioethics Research Programme, University of Otago, New Zealand. In July-August 1999 he was Visiting Professor at the Centre for Values, Ethics, and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia. In 2000 he delivered the R.A. Goodling Lectures at Duke Divinity School. His most recent invited lectures include delivering the 2007 Carl Moore Lecture at McMaster University’s Department of Family Medicine. He has given workshops on narrative analysis in Canada, Korea, South Africa, Britain, and Australia.
His national research awards include a Killam Resident Fellowship and a three-year project, funded by Social Science and Research Council of Canada, titled “Survivorship as moral choice.” He has been a participant in two working groups at The Hastings Center: “The Role of the Clinician-Patient Relationship in Cancer Care and Research” and “Surgically Shaping Children.” He is currently a collaborator on “The Experience and Resolution of Moral Distress in Pediatric Intensive Care Teams: A Canadian Perspective”, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.participant in two working groups at The Hastings Center: “The Role of the Clinician-Patient Relationship in Cancer Care and Research” and “Surgically Shaping Children.” He is currently a collaborator on “The Experience and Resolution of Moral Distress in Pediatric Intensive Care Teams: A Canadian Perspective”, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The 2008 Plenary of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy will be held March 31 through April 2, 2008, at the Wyndham Riverfront in North Little Rock Arkansas

For more information about the 2008 CPSP Plenary click here to visit the Pastoral Report

2008 Plenary of The College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy A Gathering You Cannot Afford To Miss

2008-01-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

An organizations philosophy of how it organizes itself can cost a community when it comes to conference time in terms of dollars. Organizations with a top down corporate structure have higher over head costs for staff and buildings. In contrast to the corporate model the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is a grass roots organization bound together by its covenant to travel light.

CPSP's commitment to traveling light, having no paid professional staff and owning no buildings allows us to keep the costs of membership and conferences at a minimum. The cost of registration for the 2008 CPSP Plenary is $195.00 inclusive of meals and banquet and the hotel room will cost you $79.00 with $10.00 for each additional person. As part of the CPSP covenant of traveling light CPSP does not solicit any corporate sponsorship or endowments.

For more information about the CPSP Plenary visit the link below:
CPSP Pastoral Report

Only 20% of Association of Professional Chaplains Attend Annual

2007-11-20T06:04:00.000-08:00

Executive director, Jo Schrader, indicates APC members complain about high costs of conference.

In the May/June edition of the APC News Jo Schrader, executive director of the APC, indicates that out of the 4000 membership only 800 members attend the annual conference. Schrader relates that equates to only 20% of the total APC membership. The Executive director went on to relate that high costs of the conference are cited by members as to the reason they cannot attend.

Read Schrader's comments at link below: https://www.professionalchaplains.org/uploadedFiles/pdf/APC%20News%20Final%20Proof%20May-June%202007.pdf

Carolyn Cassin Presenter for the 2008 CPSP Plenary

2007-09-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Plenary of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy will be held March 31 through April 2, 2008, at the Wyndham Riverfront in North Little Rock Arkansas.

Carolyn Cassin is an internationally recognized expert in end of life care, organizational management, and the efficient, effective delivery of healthcare services. Long considered a leader in the national healthcare community, in 1983 she helped guide the first Medicare reimbursement for hospice successfully through Congress. Since then, Carolyn has taken on the challenge of advancing both the quality and accessibility of hospice care. She has consulted with many principal healthcare leaders and advocates, including President Bill Clinton, Senator Bob Dole, Governor John Engler, Senator Carl Levin and Representative Leon Panetta.

In 2002, Carolyn joined Continuum Hospice Care in New York City. Almost immediately and for the first time in its history, she led the hospice to profitability. In only four years, average daily census has more than quadrupled to well over 450 patients, and Continuum Hospice Care’s facilities have grown to 2 inpatient units and a hospice residence, with another scheduled to open this fall. Under Carolyn’s leadership, Continuum Hospice Care was recently honored with the prestigious American Hospital Association’s 2006 Circle of Life award. Formerly called Jacob Perlow Hospice, Continuum Hospice Care is now New York City’s largest hospice with a comprehensive program that reaches throughout the City, caring for patients in their homes, nursing homes, hospitals and Continuum Hospice Care’s own facilities.

Before tackling New York, Carolyn accepted a one-year appointment by Governor John Engler to manage Michigan’s $1.5 Billion Medicaid Managed Care program. As Bureau Director, Office of Medicaid Managed Care, she was also responsible for the Medicaid Pharmacy program, Managed Care enrollment, Customer Service Bureau and 15 contracts providing healthcare to over 1 million Medicaid recipients.

Carolyn’s deep experience managing some of the largest hospice programs in the nation, in fact, in the world, prepared her to take on the challenges of elevating hospice services in New York City. As COO of VistaCare, the nation’s second largest hospice program, she created national standards of care, effected annual growth of 25%, improved EBITDA at all sites, and improved profitability basis for the company’s IPO (Nasdaq: VSTA). VistaCare’s 45 programs served over 2,000 patients daily and 10,000+ patients yearly in 15 states.

During her 10 years as President and CEO of Hospice of Michigan in Detroit, Carolyn headed the acquisition of 11 hospice programs and merger into one corporation. She created and ran the nation’s first and largest statewide hospice program, serving 5,000 patients and their families each year.

While overseeing a staff of 800, as well as running a statewide hospice fundraising program, pharmacy, and a hospice computer software company, Carolyn turned around the agency fiscally, balancing the budget and generating operational surplus. Under her leadership, Hospice of Michigan established Hospice Home, the state’s first freestanding, specialty-built hospice facility.
Carolyn gained much of her political insight and acumen as Chairperson and President of the National Hospice Organization (NHO) (1983-1986) where she served as chief spokesperson and political advocate. Carolyn has been called upon again and is currently serving on the Board of Trustees for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Of the numerous honors and special assignments given her, Carolyn is particularly proud of her achievements with NHPCO, including being honored with the 2006 Founder’s Award; initiating the National Hospice Work Group (1992 – present); serving as Governor appointed Trustee, Board of Control, Ferris State University (1997 – 1999); earning the "Best Managed Non-Profit" award, Crain’s Detroit Business, 1994; being named one of "Detroit’s 100 Most Influential Women," Crain’s Detroit Business, 1997; and receiving the first prestigious "Heart of Hospice Award", by NHO in 1993.

Carolyn earned her Master of Public Administration degree from Western Michigan University, her BA from Miami University, and the esteemed National Leadership Fellowship, from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to study health care systems throughout the world.

A REPORT TO RELIGIOUS JUDICATORIES AND SEMINARIES ON THE CURRENT STRIFE IN THE CLINICAL PASTORAL FIELD

2007-05-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

We write on behalf of the Executive Committee of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP) to inform you of the current struggle between CPSP and the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) and to request your assistance and consultation.

It has become clear in the past year that the ACPE has shifted its position vis-à-vis the CPSP from one of rigorous competition to one of a vicious campaign to discredit CPSP altogether.

Our first thought was to counter this new campaign with a laundry list of ACPE shortcomings and failures. We are quite capable of this. Such a response would escalate the conflict far beyond what is now taking place. The thought of two religious groups fighting each other for the right to do the same kind of work frankly is unacceptable. We imagine what would be gained, for example, were the Methodists to launch a campaign to discredit the Presbyterians, and the latter responding in kind. The end result would be a disgrace to both parties, no matter who got the upper hand.

CPSP certified chaplains, pastoral counselors, and pastoral supervisors currently serve hundreds of institutions, and serve them creditably. No evidence suggests that CPSP certified persons are in any way shorting the communities they serve. The ACPE is bent on discrediting these committed and dedicated persons, their ministry, and their clinical training programs. This campaign by ACPE is not acceptable behavior from a pastoral care organization.

The standards followed by both the ACPE and CPSP are substantively identical, but we are different in our governance and our organizational structure. Presbyterians and Methodists are also different. This is the meaning of diversity. We believe that diversity is a good thing. We oppose the attempt by the ACPE to establish itself as a monopoly in clinical pastoral training, or CPE, as it is commonly known. Monopolies are troublesome creations. Religious monopolies are the most insidious kind. We hope that you will agree with us that this ACPE attempt to assert itself as a monopoly in clinical pastoral training is not good for anyone.

The extent of human suffering, brokenness, and estrangement even in our own country - not to mention the rest of the world - far surpasses the resources of all our pastoral care and counseling groups combined. Money spent attacking another pastoral organization is a disgrace and a repudiation of our vocation.

There are no perfect communities; nor are there any perfect certifying and accrediting organizations. CPSP has not found a perfect way to function in upholding quality. Neither has ACPE. We propose that history decide which organization might turn out in the long run to be the most fruitful in promoting a competent ministry to suffering or broken persons.

We urge you to join us in a call for ACPE to stop altogether its public denigration of CPSP. We ask you to come to our aid in helping us draw the line against the current attempt of the ACPE to promote itself as the only legitimate clinical pastoral training organization in the country. We urge you to oppose a monopoly in the clinical training and certifying of clergy and lay people. We want to meet with you personally to answer any questions you might have or address any concerns which may require further clarity. To this end please call upon us at your convenience.

Finally, we are embarrassed and chagrined that we even need to write this letter. The limited resources that we control ought to be dedicated fully, not in self-promotion or self-defense, but in reaching out to those in need, and to help create a more just and humane community.

James E. Gebhart, President
jgebhart@wowway.com

Raymond J. Lawrence, General Secretary
lawrence@cpsp.org

ACPE Motion 43 An Indication of a Troubled Organization

2007-05-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

In May of 2006 the ACPE Board of Representatives at it's spring meeting in Atlanta, a motion was adopted that ACPE accredited centers can no longer offer CPSP units of CPE training. The following reasons were presented as to the rational for the motion:

MOTION # 43: ACCREDITATION OF DUALLY ALIGNED (CPSP AND ACPE)

CENTERS Whereas, the Accreditation Commission has consistently received reports from students and seminaries of a lack of informed consent about the contrast of ACPE CPE and CPSP CPE;

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission has experienced a lack of consistent application of the program standards of CPSP CPE programs,

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission finds a lack of transparency with the organization of CPSP, its curriculum processes,

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission has received reports ofACPE CPE centers who hire CPE Supervisors who have membership inboth organizations being dropped from the ACPE roster and offeringonly CPSP CPE after telling the hospital administration the CPSP CPE is "cheaper".

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission has received reports ofstudents being offered both CPSP and ACPE units at the same time butbeing told that the ACPE units are more expensive and therefore they would have to pay a higher tuition fee. The student is then given the choice of which they would like to be granted.

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission works diligently to up holdt he standards required by the DOE accreditation. This is stated onthe certificate we give to each ACPE CPE center. When an ACPE supervisor offers CPSP within the same center it is theAccreditation Commission's belief that this gives the appearancethat both organizations have the same rigorous process.

Therefore, the Accreditation Commission requests the ACPE, Inc.,Board of Representatives to immediately establish a policy that noACPE, Inc. accredited center can conduct units of CPSP CPE.

The motion:Move that the ACPE, Inc. Board of Reps immediately establish a policy that no accredited ACPE, Inc. Center conduct units of CPSP CPE.

Made by Art Lucas, seconded by Miriam Needham and passed with one abstention.

While listing grievous charges against CPSP members the ACPE went public with its allegations and at no time addressed the alleged issues with CPSP.

Following the adoption of motion 43 the ACPE took the following action:

All ACPE Centers to receive a letter from Decatur asking to declare and report what kinds of CPE the center currently offers: ACPE,NACC, CPSP or other. This response (signed by each center's primary Supervisor, Professional Advisory Group chair and Administrator responsible for CPE) will be required to accompany each Center's2006 Annual Center Report. A process for addressing ACPE Centers offering CPSP is in place and ACPE accreditation will be withdrawn.

The ACPE then sent a letter to seminaries across the US informing them of motion 43.

At no time has the ACPE addressed any of its concerns with CPSP.

While making serious allegations against CPSP the ACPE was reprimanded by the Department of Education for placing students at risk.

Department of Education evaluator, Ms. Jones, who recently attended meetings with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Educationdirects ACPE to end a practice which "has frequently created problems and put students at risk." The issue, as outlined in theDecember 2006 edition of the ACPE North Central Region News, is as follows: There have been many occasions when ACPE supervisors,despite having clear guidelines in the Accreditation Manual and duly designated colleagues with whom to consult about accreditation processes, have initiated units in satellite or component sites that have not been assessed and approved by those charged with that task. Colleagues on accreditation committees have felt themselves held hostage there after by appeal to students' welfare. ("If you don't give us retroactive provisional approval, our students won't get credit for their unit!")

Ms. Jones pointed out that "the greatest disservice to ACPE students was the continuation of a unit in an unevaluated site."The DOE evaluators unequivocal counsel was that "such situations should receive a cease and desist order rather than accommodation."

While alleging a lack of consistent application of the program standards of CPSP CPE programs, an internal ACPE report revealed that:

while the ACPE "excels at developing thoughtful standards to guide supervisory practice, it remains a challenge to embed the standards into actual practice, given how practices evolve differently from center to center and supervisor to supervisor, andhow processes for peer review and continuing education reflect wide variance."

The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education a Trouble Organization

The report further reveals the ACPE as a troubled organization in which the peer review process has broken down. The report reads "the peer review process in the ACPE is not structured to support the growth and development of our educating supervisors and no other processes have been formally identified.

Additionally this month the ACPE is required by the DOE to "develop and implement complaint procedures for addressing complaints against programs and institutions related to violations of the agency's educational standards and procedures and to develop and implement complaint procedures for addressing complaints against the agency. In other words to put in place a satisfactory mechanism for addressing complaints against itself.

Association for Clinical Pastoral Education Question Competency of Department of Education Committee

In response to the Dec. 2006 DOE re-recognition hearing the ACPE's Deryck Durston reflected in the ACPE News that the ACPE representatives questioned the competency of the DOE committee members in relation to their task. Now isn't it interesting thatCPSP is not the only organization that the ACPE leadership considers to be incompetent. The bottom line is that CPSP is in the good company of the DOE.

Association for Clinical Pastoral Education-The Numbers Game

2007-03-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education Failing Numbers
In its recent meeting with the Department of Education the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education reported that it had 254(1) accredited centers while claiming to have 350(2) accredited centers on the associations website. In the same vein the association’s website indicates there are about 600 CPE Supervisors(3) while reporting in its various newsletters that its active pool shrank from 588 to 536.

The ACPE is currently unable to fill positions in some “19 centers across the country and this does not take into account multi-supervisor Centers who might currently be short staffed.”

Notes:
(1) Transcript ACPE/DOE December 2006 Hearing:“Currently, this Commission accredits 254 centers along with their programs. Recognition bythe Secretary enables ACPE and its accredited centers and programs and/or students of theseprograms to participate in non-HEA programs, such as the International Exchange Visitors Program administered by the Department of State and the Veterans Educational Benefits Program, or the GI bill, administered by the Department of Veterans affairs.”

(2) http://www.acpe.edu/Among the 2,600 members that make up the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education are some 350 ACPE Accredited CPE Centers and about 600 ACPE certified faculty members (called CPE Supervisors). There are 113 Theological Schools Members and 23 Faith Groups and Agencies who are partners with ACPE in seeking to provide excellence in theological education. Other groups of ACPE members are Clinical Members (over 500), students, individuals, Retired Supervisors, retired members, and ACPE Networks.

(3) ACPE News of The North Central Region December 2006“ACPE statistics show that, as an organization, over the past six years we have seen our supervisor pool shrink from 588 to 536 while our retired supervisory membership has gone up from 217 t0 316. Retirements have out distanced new certifications by a 2:1 ratio. Given this reality, it is not surprising that there are 19 centers across the country currently without supervisors. And this does not take into account multi-supervisor Centers who might currently be short staffed.”

ACPE Certification Process Experienced As "Subjective & Adversarial"

2007-01-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

ACPE certification process experienced as "subjective and adversarial, without definable processes for advocacy and mentoring of candidates."

REPORT OF THE ACPE PRESIDENTIAL TASK GROUP ON TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION AUGUST, 2006

Regarding certification:

While our certifiers provide high quality and dedicated assessment, our standards for certification are open to subjective interpretation and often reflect differing understandings.

Dominant and emerging concepts in supervisory education lack articulation and uniform understanding.

The certification experience is sometimes surprising and painful and is occasionally perceived by candidates as failing to reflect the core values of our organization.

The presenter's report, while typically reflecting a high level of insight and skill on the part of the writer, remains a tool of arguable value that demands a great deal of work from one person.

At its best, the report clarifies and focuses the competencies being assessed, and yet it often tends to unintentionally create bias and can contribute to future misconceptions.

We do not have a process in place to assess the qualifications of supervisors to serve on the Certification Commission, many of whom have no experience providing supervisory education.

The certification process is often experienced as subjective and adversarial, without definable processes for advocacy and mentoring of candidates.

Current certification processes are not transparent and afford little opportunity for self-learning and process improvement.

The relationship between the Certification Commission, the Ethics Commission, and the Accreditation Commission regarding appeals, complaints, and competency issues is undefined and problematic.

No avenue exists for the certification subcommittee to coordinate further training with the training supervisor.

The "peer review" process in the ACPE is not structured to support the growth and development of our educating supervisors and no other processes have been formally identified.

The ACPE Presidential Task Group recommends that "supervisory education experience itself needs to move toward a collaborative, mentoring model that supports both personal integration and professional competency development."

Read The Full ACPE Presidential Task Group's report at:

http://www.acpe.edu/certification_news.htm

Association for Clinical Pastoral Education to End Practice Which Places Students At Risk

2006-12-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education seeking Re-Recognition by the Department Of Education counseled to cease & desist a practice which "has frequently created problems and put students at risk"

Department of Education evaluator, Ms. Jones, who recently attended meetings with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education directs ACPE to end a practice which "has frequently created problems and put students at risk." The issue, as outlined in the December 2006 edition of the ACPE North Central Region News, is as follows:

There have been many occasions when ACPE supervisors, despite having clear guidelines in the Accreditation Manual and duly designated colleagues with whom to consult about accreditation processes, have initiated units in satellite or component sites that have not been assessed and approved by those charged with that task. Colleagues on accreditation committees have felt themselves held hostage there after by appeal to students' welfare. ("If you don't give us retroactive provisional approval, our students won't get credit for their unit!")

Ms. Jones pointed out that "the greatest disservice to ACPE students was the continuation of a unit in an unevaluated site."

The DOE evaluators unequivocal counsel was that such situations should receive a cease and desist order rather than accommodation.

ALL BEHAVIOR HAS MEANING IN THE LEARNING PROCESS

2006-12-13T07:01:00.000-08:00

ALL BEHAVIOR HAS MEANING

IN THE LEARNING PROCESS

L. George Buck

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is a method of learning pastoral care in a clinical environment. This method of learning is experiential or relational in nature. John Dewey (the American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer) was one of the pioneers of experiential learning. He recognized the importance of the subjective experience of individuals as being important to learning. At the core of the CPE learning process is the on-going evaluation of one’s experience. The clinical setting affords the trainees the opportunity to experience themselves in various pastoral encounters which they are then called upon to evaluate.

Resistance to learning is an integral part of the relational learning process. Characteristically, trainees resist the change they feel is imposed upon them in a critical evaluative process. This resistance to learning is not something that happens in the trainee’s relationship with his or her supervisor; it involves the trainee’s total training experience. Whether it be the program structure, supervision, peer group involvement or clinical involvement, trainee’s resist and even fear the change that the evaluative relational learning process imposes. For as much as the person in training may want to learn (and learning involves change), change is feared and resisted. Old and familiar ways of relating are challenged and new and unknown ways of relating are resisted.

The Counsel for Clinical Training defined “Clinical Pastoral Training” as a “method of learning the dynamics if human behavior and ways of dealing with it.” Understanding the dynamics involved in resistance to learning is an important part of the teaching and learning process. Resistance to learning is not something that is either a positive or a negative dynamic—it just is.

What follows are some of the ways trainee’s resist the learning process:

Asking “how to” questions (how, why, when or should).

Many trainees, especially in the beginning feel dependent upon others to give them answers to relational concerns. Understandably, the beginner is often confused and uncertain about their professional role. Accordingly, when the trainee does not feel professionally competent, they may ask such questions as:
· “How do I relate to this depressed cancer patient?”
· “How should I have responded to the patient’s anger?”
· “Should I have confronted this man about his unrealistic religious beliefs?”
Such questions, sincere as they are, avoid evaluating one’s relational involvement. The trainee often resists taking the risks necessary in the experiential learning process.

By putting on an appearance of being ignorant or confused.

Often, when a trainee feels threatened they will claim to be ignorant or confused as to what is expected of them. Such behavior may cause the other person to give repeated explanations. And regardless of how many times something is explained, the trainee may try to avoid self reflection or self involvement by claiming, “I just don’t understand.”
This may cause the other person to become defensive in the light of repeated attempts
to explain the situation. Again, appearing ignorant or confused can be a resistive way of avoiding the relational learning process.

(3) By claiming individual uniqueness that you cannot understand.

This, of course, is a resistive and effective way of avoiding dialogue. By putting up a defensive shield that insists that the other person cannot possibly understand your uniqueness, the trainee attempts to avoid hearing or reflecting on what is being communicated. In claiming, “I’m different, therefore, this does not apply to me”, is a way of resisting identifying and evaluating oneself in relation to others. As was pointed out, this kind of resistance is often a reaction when the trainee feels threatened.

(4) By stating, “That’s just the way I am”.

In an effort to resist reflecting and possible change the trainee may defensively state, “Well, that’s just the way I am”. This is a way to cut off dialogue with the other person who may be threatening the trainee’s self image. To state that you are just who you are and that’s that, is to state that there is no further need to pursue the issue and that you just want to be left alone. Holding onto one’s self-image (however frail it may be) is often safer than unknown change.

(5) By talking (or writing) in detail.

The trainee who is resisting self-reflection may do so by putting up a shield of details. In an attempt to keep others at a distance, the trainee may give detailed descriptions of a pastoral experience. This can involve minute descriptions of the patient’s illness, the patient’s family and religious background, the patient’s reactions to his illness and so on. For example, a verbatim or case study report may be filled with so much detail that there isn’t time left in the seminar to evaluate the trainees involvement.

(6) By using another student to deflect confrontation.

At times, when a trainee feels that he or she is being singled out and is being pushed to reflect upon his or her relational dynamics, a common reaction or defense may be to compare themselves with another trainee. For example, the trainee may insist that they have shared, learned and have been involved as much as student X.

Accordingly, by claiming that one is no different (when it comes to involvement) than trainee X, an individual is resisting reflecting and evaluating his or her unique learning needs. An example might be, “I’ve been involved as much as Jane, so why are we focusing on me?”.

(7) Claiming to meet all the requirements.

This method of resistance is similar to comparing oneself to another trainee. This time, however, it is an attempt to avoid personal and or professional evaluation by attempting to put the focus upon program structure: i.e., the program requirements. For example, the trainee may state, “I’ve meet all the requirements of the program. Why are you being critical of me?”

(8) By focusing on “doing” and “performing” ministry.

In an effort to resist the evaluative process, the trainee will spend as much time as possible focusing upon doing ministry and on their performance as a pastor. This is often the focus of the student who has a strong need to “look good” performance and recognition are priorities. It is an attempt to avoid being evaluated. A common response may be,“I believe the patient is more important than focusing on my ministry.

(9) By insisting on confidentiality within the peer group seminars and then stating, “I have a trust problem”.

This remark may put the trainee’s peers between a rock and a hard place. It is a demand that others be trustworthy, and then telling them that they can’t be trusted because, “I have a trust problem.” The trust issue is often used to justify one’s passive non-involvement. To justify his silence, the trainee will claim, “I get more out of just listening”.

(10) By insisting that he or she is just the “victim of circumstances.”

This is a claim that events happened which were beyond the trainee’s control and that she is not really responsible for what happened. If the trainee can successfully convince others that she is a victim of circumstances, then she is not responsible for what happened and, therefore, cannot be evaluated for their own behavior. A common claim may be, “It just happened that way”.

(11) Sub-grouping with another trainee.
Sub-grouping can be a way of avoiding the whole peer group evaluation of one’s relationships. Trainees may attempt to avoid learning through peer group review by trying to solve a group learning issue (raised in the group seminar) outside group time with one or more of his peers. This often happens when there is an unsolved conflict in a seminar. To minimize the threat of the group and to resist the peer group learning process, an individual may hope to resolve the conflict outside the group. This, of course, robs the trainee’s peers of participating in the conflict with the trainee.

(12) With efforts to control the group.

Controlling takes many forms. Coming in late to the seminars is one way to control a group another is by placing oneself at the center of attention by talking a lot or remaining silent. Complaining about something unrelated to the program or the learning process. Attempts to control are often ways one uses to conceal one’s low self image. The conscious or unconscious motive is, “if I can control the situation, I can keep you from seeing how I really feel about myself.

These are some of the behavioral dynamics that can be used to resist learning and change that is involved in the relational learning. There are more that could be listed. How the trainee resists and how the trainee works through their resistance is a learning dynamic that is significant and is vital part of the learning process.

THE WOUNDED HEALER

2006-11-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

“The painful irony is that the minister, who wants to touch the center of men’s lives, finds himself on the periphery; often pleading in vain for admission….He never seems to be where the action is.” I wonder if this says more about Henri Nouwen than it does about the minister’s involvement in critical and crisis situations.

“ The minister, the story tells us, is sitting among the poor, binding his/her wounds one at a time, waiting for the moment when he/she will be needed. The minister is called to be the wounded healer, the one who must look after his/her wounds and at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.” --- Henri Nouwen.

In his article titled “Wounded Healers”, Thomas Maeder quotes a child of psychiatrists (both parents): “I Think my parents were crazy, I think that, somehow, being psychiatrists kept them in line. They used it as a protection. They’re both quite crazy, but their jobs give them really good cover.”

It is no secret that the so-called “helping professions”, such as nursing, social work,
psychotherapy and ministry, attract people for curious, and sometimes some rather crazy, and psychologically suspect, reasons. Many rather odd people proclaim, “I want to help people”. The underlying assumption being that they are in a position to help and that others will want to be helped by them.

Consider the profession of ministry. What might be some unhealthy reasons people are “lured” or “called”, knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously, into the ministry?

(1) Being in a position of authority
(2) Dependence of others
(3) Wanting to have a benevolent image
(4) Position of adulation
(5) The hope of vicariously helping themselves by helping others

George Christian Anderson, in a book edited by Wayne Oates, “The Minister’s Own Mental Health”, writes about exploiting the clinical profession: “Some clergy consciously or unconsciously exploit their profession to satisfy childhood needs for attention. Children who are insecure, or who lack affection, endeavor to obtain these things by attracting attention to themselves….Some persons never outgrow infantile needs for attention and, not having the emotional maturity to satisfy these needs in a mature way, continue to behave like children.” How is this actualized? One way is by using the pulpit to satisfy one’s need for attention. The motives of a minister who says “I just love to preach”, may be quite suspect. Another way is dependency on constant admiration for security, and needing to be admired by others to boost one’s ego. Unfortunately, the person who is solely dependent on external strokes (co-dependent personalities), often have high positions in their denominations or church organizations.

Carroll Wise has pointed out the problem of what he called the “neurotic need for helping other people.” Certainly, the desire to help others is not necessarily a sign of some kind of emotional imbalance. But such a desire may stem from unresolved unconscious need. Sigmund Freud theorized that a strong desire to help others stems from longings that are the consequence of child-hood losses. Such folk grew up in rejecting and dysfunctional families and were led to what Karl Menninger called, “an unhealthy professional interest in lonely, eccentric, and unloved people.”

The idea of the “wounded healer” did not originate with Henri Nouwen. It has ancient roots. In Greek mythology, Chiron, who taught medicine, suffered an incurable wound from the hands of Hercules. Saint Augustine was not alone among Christians in using his own weaknesses and his struggles against them to help him find compassion and strength. Mythology and religion are full of those who must learn to heal themselves before healing others and who must recognize and forgive their sins before they can, with authentic humility and understanding, forgive another. Freud himself often drew upon his own experiences to show that he regularly used his own wounds to aid the empathic process. Having emotional problems may not be a prerequisite or an advantage for a minister, but having had past wounds is not in itself a handicap, so long as these wounds have been recognized, confronted and reasonably resolved (accepted).

The danger comes when the wounded healer has not successfully dealt with, accepted, and therefore, cannot control his or her wounds or injuries. The minister can follow one of two paths. The more difficult, but ultimately the most satisfying, road leads to some painful confrontations with a person’s own problems and weaknesses, and ultimately to a healthy self-understanding. Ideally, the person can accept their wounds as a part of their history, which can lead to embracing one’s own pilgrimage. The end result being that one has a reasonably clear picture of their own needs and ambitions and why they are in ministry. It can enable the person to approach others with honesty, compassion and humility---knowing that one is motivated by genuine concern and not an unhealthy or unresolved motive.

The other path is easier and less painful, but disastrous. The minister comes, consciously or unconsciously, to see ministry as way of avoiding the need to deal with his or her problems. Such a person is able to justify their actions in almost every circumstance and, when necessary, to shift the blame onto someone else when the going gets rough. There are those who, as a result of a rejected childhood, become rigid and demanding preachers who exhort and chastise their flock from above, who have no sympathy for their weaknesses, and who condemn their church members’ transgressions, instead of leading them to an understanding of a grace- filled life. Basically, they do not understand their parishioners because they do not understand themselves, and they cannot help others with their emotional problems because their own solution is to repress their problems and, therefore, be unable to deal with them.

One of the most interesting and significant is the person (often the first born) who is rushed through childhood too quickly, who was forced to become a little adult. Such people grow up believing that hard work and responsibility are the only things that give them value in others’ eyes. They have a chronic low self-image and have great difficulty receiving love and acceptance from others. It is only their selfishly selfless labors that make them feel satisfied with themselves. As a result, these people may be driven into a frenzy of wholesale helping which is motivated, not by genuine concern, but by a desperate need to fill a vacancy. A Jungian scholar puts it this way: “They give too much, without knowing how to receive. They build up all kinds of inhibitions against taking or receiving anything for themselves—which is labor. They easily justify this attitude biblically by saying, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’. They are into loving their God and loving their neighbor, but forget that crucial addition: ‘as yourself’.” To put it another way, they are people who search for wholeness in ministry, rather than to express wholeness through their ministry.

Ernest Jones, who best known as Freud’s biographer, wrote a paper entitled, “The God Complex”. He described those in the helping professions (who have such a complex), as having a subtle belief in their own importance, and are unable to see anyone else as comparably important which, of course, colors every aspect of their relationships. Jones goes on to characterize them as aloof, inaccessible people who are happiest in their own home—in privacy and seclusion—with a desire to withdraw from the world. They tend to have fantasies of power and believe themselves to be omniscient. Jones felt that people with God complexes were more likely than others to go into psychology and related professions.

It is no secret that ministry attracts people with God complexes. Ministers are sometimes expected and expect others to address questions that are well outside the range of their expertise. Because of their education (theology and psychology) the minister is sometimes expected to understand all things human and divine. And those with God complexes often do not understand their limitations, and to not have the personal strength and equilibrium to resist the temptations of such power and tend to thrive on adoration of others because of the self-importance they feel. Carl Jung believed that a person who is in a place of power, and who has a self-centered complex, and who wields it in the name of some perceived ultimate good, is always potentially dangerous.

The “God complex” is, of course, related to narcissism a disorder having to do with grandiose self-images, unrealistic notions of one’s ability, power and wealth, intelligence and appearance, and who feels they deserves things they have not earned simply by virtue of grandiose importance.

What type of home environment breeds narcissistic people? According to Heinz Kohut, the narcissistic person is generally deprived in infancy and childhood of the affection and emotional interactions with their parents that would have allowed the normal development of a distinct sense of personal value. The parents, who are often narcissistic themselves, did not treat the child as a dependent person of worth, but instead used the child for their own gratification. As a result, the child’s self-worth was stunted and the child’s values were structured around an ability to comprehend and fulfill the parents’ wishes. This ability is then perfected. As caregivers, narcissistic people are insensitive and lacking in empathy. Though they make an extravagant show of generosity and concern for others, this behavior inevitably proves to be just that—a show, which serves to polish the fine image they strive to hold of themselves. Unfortunately, the ministry is wrought with those with grandiose self-images (to cover an unacceptable low self-image). Practically every Sunday you can see them preaching in pulpits and on television.

Maxine Glaz affirms Nouwen’s premise that one’s experience of loss and pain (wounds) can be facilitators for effective pastoral work. However, she rightly asserts that there are limits to the usefulness of suffering as potential sources of strength and empathy in pastoral care giving. There are simply those with serious emotional problems (some who have been abused as children) who exhibit such negative patterns of involvement with others that they cannot be empathetic pastoral caregivers. For some, being a victim of past abuse or neglect can cause them to form victim identities. Such victims may well acknowledge their past helplessness to fend off violence, but continue to live by fending off violence others don’t intend. This constant defensiveness, or being constantly on guard, becomes a way of life. They have been unable to get a mature balanced perception of their personal histories or of those around them.

It is essential for people to understand that the suffering and pains they endured in their pasts were often not merited; that they were not necessarily of fault and that they can and need to develop trusting relationships. Such insight and maturity often involves extensive therapy which may result in allowing the person to develop a healthy understanding of their history, and to put a proper perspective on their abused and pains to escape the conclusion that no one is to be trusted.

In his book, THE WOUNDED HEALER, Henri Nouwen writes of an old legend in the Talmud which gives a picture of how ministry to others can unfold:

“Rabbi Yoshua ben Leir came upon Elijah the Prophet while
He was standing at the entrance of Rabbi Simeron ben Yohai’s
cave….He asked Elijah, ‘When will the Messiah come?’ Elijah
replied, ‘Go and ask him yourself’…..’Where is he?’ ‘Sitting at
the gates of the city.’ ‘How shall I know him?’ ‘He is sitting
among the poor covered with wounds. The others unbind all
their wounds and the same time and then bind them up again.
But he unbinds one at a time and binds it up again, saying to
himself, ‘Perhaps I shall be needed; if so, I must always be
ready so as not to delay for a moment’.”

In his somewhat pious way, Nouwen asserts (and I repeat), that the minister is the one who must look after his own wounds (therapy)but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others. Nouwen lists separation, isolation, loneliness and alienation as wounds the minister endures tries to endure. He does not get into the personal psychological reason for these wounds, but rather the situations in which the minister finds himself doing ministry. As to loneliness he writes, “Óur failure to change the world with our good intensions and sincere actions and undesired displacement to the edges of life, have made us aware that the wound (loneliness) is still there.” He sees the minister’s loneliness as the result of not being included in much of the center of people’s lives: “The painful irony is that the minister, who wants to touch the center of men’s lives, finds himself on the periphery; often pleading in vain for admission….He never seems to be where the action is.” I wonder if this says more about Henri Nouwen than it does about the minister’s involvement in critical and crisis situations.

Paul Tillich, one of my favorite theologians, writes (The Courage to Be) about the importance of having the courage to accept acceptance. This does not mean just being accepted now, but the acceptance of our whole being—our whole life. Courage is the affirmation of one’s being---the act of affirming all the wounds of the past and embracing them—embracing the whole of one’s life and one’s whole selfhood.

(Note: This is a kind of scissors and paste paper---read it according) G.B.

George Buck, Ph.D., is a Diplomate in the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy and is dually certified as a Pastoral Psychotherapist and as a Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor. Dr. Buck supervises the part-time and extended units of CPE at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences-Medical Center Little Rock, Arkansas.

A CPSP Perspective "Lack of Clarity Plagues the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education"

2006-10-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

For nearly a decade the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) has erroneously promoted itself as the only legitimate provider of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and, therefore, the only provider of CPE to qualify for Medicare Pass-through payments. Statements to this fact have been made by Lerrill White an ACPE supervisor and former ACPE President Bill Baugh. In addition former ACPE President James Stapleford further complicated the issue with the misleading comments that recognition by the Department of Education was a necessary qualifier to receiving such payments. The comments by these well known ACPE leaders carry authority and are misleading both to the ACPE membership and to the public at large. It is regrettable then that the ACPE Board of Representatives has failed to take any corrective action to publicly correct the erroneous comments made by some of the organizations most prominent members. One might conclude that the ACPE membership is not well served by its national leaders whose lack of leadership on this issue promotes continued confusion in the ACPE and the public at large.

George Hankins Hull
CPSP Diplomate in Pastoral Supervision

The CPSP Advantage

2006-09-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is unique among the national pastoral care training, certifying and accrediting agencies in that CPSP is a covenanting community. At the heart of the CPSP community is a covenant of mutual accountability grounded in the concept that people are more important than institutions. Believing that life is best lived by grace, the CPSP community places a premium on the significance of relationships between its members. What other organizations attempt to legislate for by standards CPSP is by nature, a community of professional accountability. The CPSP advantage is that people come first.

The Covenant of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy

Spiritual pilgrims
We, the CPSP members see ourselves as spiritual pilgrims seeking a truly collegial professional community. Our calling and commitments are, therefore, first and last theological. We covenant to address one another and to be addressed by one another in a profound theological sense. We commit to being mutually responsible to one another for our professional work and direction.

Chapters
Matters that are typically dealt with in other certifying bodies by centralized governance will be dealt with primarily in Chapters. Thus, we organize ourselves in such a way that we each participate in a relatively small group called a Chapter consisting of approximately a dozen colleagues. Teaching or counseling programs directed by CPSP Diplomates are the primary responsibility of the Chapter.

Recovery of soul
We commit ourselves to a galaxy of shared values that are as deeply held as they are difficult to communicate. "Recovery of soul" is a metaphor that points toward these values. We place a premium on the significance of the relationships among ourselves. We value personal authority and creativity. We believe we should make a space for one another and stand ready to midwife one another in our respective spiritual journeys. Because we believe that life is best lived by grace, we believe it essential to guard against becoming invasive, aggressive, or predatory toward each other. We believe that persons are always more important than institutions, and even the institution of CPSP itself must be carefully monitored lest it take on an idolatrous character.

A Living Experience
We intend to travel light, to own no property, to accumulate no wealth, and to create no bureaucracy. We are invested in offering a living experience that reflects human life and faith within a milieu of supportive and challenging community of fellow pilgrims.

For more information about The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy Visit:
http://www.cpsp.org/

For information about Clinical Pastoral Education at UAMS Medical Center Visit:
http://www.uams.edu/cpe/training_programs/default.asp

OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERSHIP OF ACPE

2006-09-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL PASTORAL EDUCATION (ACPE)

The ACPE has lately been taking the low road in its competition with CPSP. Its information and announcements have been marked by faulty claims and aggression. I urge the leadership to consider taking the high road of competitiveness supported by a gracious collegiality.

The larger community needs a healthy, decent ACPE that travels the high road. We in CPSP especially need for the ACPE to travel that road. We share a crucially important common task. There is plenty of work for both communities.

Besides that, ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred years from now, when small-minded persons take over the leadership in the CPSP, some of us might ourselves seek another, kinder community, one that fosters justice truth, and a generosity of spirit.

Raymond J. Lawrence

General Secretary

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care & Spiritual Care Job Openings

2006-07-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

Keep a breast of Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care and Spiritual Care job openings by visiting Chaplaincy-Jobs at:

http://chaplaincy-jobs.blogspot.com/

Chaplaincy-Jobs is a listing of current chaplaincy and pastoral care job openings automatically updated on a daily basis. Good luck with the job search.

VA Clinical Pastoral Education Requirements for Chaplains

2006-05-31T19:41:00.000-07:00

In order to qualify for VA Chaplaincy, an individual must have completed 2 units of Clinical Pastoral Education, or demonstrate equivalent training. Units of CPE completed and certified by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy, National Association of Catholic Chaplains and The Association of Clinical Pastoral Education count toward this requirement.

Equivalent training is not less than 800 hours of supervised ministry in a health care setting, such as a hospital or nursing home, which incorporated both ministry formation and pastoral care skills development

To be considered equivalent to CPE, training must include the following components:

1. It must be a formal educational program, with curriculum, theological reflection, and evaluation components, which includes a component of performing health care ministry.

2. The program must include 400 hours of supervised education, training and ministry for equivalency to one unit of CPE.

3. The educational supervisor(s), preceptor(s), teacher(s), or coach/mentor(s), responsible for the program must be qualified to provide the supervision.

4. The educational model must include an action/reflection component (that may vary from one program to another) that may have included but not be limited to: verbatims, case conferences, worship seminars, spiritual assessments, theological reflection, and group process.

In describing supervised ministry that you would like to be considered as "equivalent training" please include the following information for each period of training

To be considered equivalent to CPE, training must include the following components:

1. It must be a formal educational program, with curriculum, theological reflection, and evaluation components, which includes a component of performing health care ministry.

2. The program must include 400 hours of supervised education, training and ministry for equivalency to one unit of CPE.

3. The educational supervisor(s), preceptor(s), teacher(s), or coach/mentor(s), responsible for the program must be qualified to provide the supervision.

4. The educational model must include an action/reflection component (that may vary from one program to another) that may have included but not be limited to: verbatims, case conferences, worship seminars, spiritual assessments, theological reflection, and group process.

In describing supervised ministry that you would like to be considered as "equivalent training" please include the following information for each period of trainingPlease provide supporting documents along with your narrative description of the training.

Examples of supporting documents include: Written evaluation of your performance in the program, showing that you successfully completed the training, signed by the supervisor or an appropriate individual; or a certificate, letter, or other document verifying completion of the training.

Excerpt from the Website of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy230.

Objectives of CPE:

CPE is designed to provide theological and professional education utilizing theclinical method of learning in diverse contexts of ministry. There are professional benchmarks of expected outcomes from CPE which formulate the competency objectives.

They are as follows:Professional Competencies:

230.1 To develop the ability to make use of the clinical process and theclinical method of learning. This includes the formulation of clinical data, the ability to receive and utilize feedback and consultation, and to make creative use of supervision.

230.2 To develop the self as a work in progress and to cultivate theunderstanding of the self as the principal tool in pastoral care andcounseling. This includes the ability to reflect and interpret one’s own life story both psychologically and theologically(see Accreditation Manual, p.14).

230.3 To demonstrate the ability to establish a pastoral bond with personsand groups in various life situations and crisis circumstances.

230.4 To demonstrate basic care and counseling skills including listening, empathy, reflection, analysis of problems, conflict resolution, theological reflection and the demonstration of a critical eye so as to examine and evaluate human behavior and religious symbols for their meaning and significance.

230.5 To demonstrate the ability to make a pastoral diagnosis with special reference to the nature and quality of religious values(see Accreditation Manual, p. 15).

230.6 To demonstrate the ability to provide a critical analysis of one’s own religious tradition.

230.7 To demonstrate an understanding of the dynamics of group behaviorand the variety of group experiences, and to utilize the support,confrontation and clarification of the peer group for the integration ofpersonal attributes and pastoral functioning.

230.8 To demonstrate the ability to communicate and engage in ministrywith persons across cultural boundaries (see Accreditation Manual, p. 15).

230.9 To demonstrate the ability to utilize individual supervision forpersonal and professional growth and for developing the capacity to evaluateone’s ministry.

230.10 To demonstrate the ability to work as a pastoral member on aninterdisciplinary team.

230.11 To demonstrate the ability to make effective use of the behavioral sciences in pastoral ministry (see Accreditation Manual, p. 15).

230.12 To demonstrate increasing leadership ability and personal authority.

230.13 To demonstrate familiarity with the basic literature of the field:
clinical, behavioral and theological.

Excerpt from the website of The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education
www.acpe.edu

WHAT IS CLINICAL PASTORAL EDUCATION?

Clinical Pastoral Education is interfaith professional education for ministry. It brings theological students and ministers of all faiths (pastors, priests, rabbis, imams and others) into supervised encounter with persons in crisis. Out of an intense involvement with persons in need, and the feedback from peers and teachers, students develop new awareness of themselves as persons and of the needs of those to whom they minister. From theological reflection on specific human situations, they gain a new understanding of ministry. Within the interdisciplinary team process of helping persons, they develop skills in interpersonal and interprofessional relationships.

THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS IN CPE INCLUDE:
The actual practice of ministry to persons
Detailed reporting and evaluation of that practicePastoral Supervision
A process conception of learning
A theoretical perspective on all elements of the program
A small group of peers in a common learning experience
A specific time periodAn individual contract for learning

For More Information visit:
Department of Veterans Affairs National Chaplaincy Center

National Clinical Training Seminar

2006-05-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Reflections On John Edgerton’s National Clinical Training Seminar Presentation by Linda Walsh

I was grateful to be at the NCTS. John Edgarton is a master storyteller - using visions of scary woods, dogs and loving relatives to lure us into the experiential and effective lesson of the Narrative as a vehicle for transformation and liberation. Each patient's story unlocks a subversive message of hope...a liberation process to transcend the sorrow.

He urged his audience to search the patient's biography to discover the "Holy", like a muse, to reflect that God has been there all along. John's compelling personal disclosure woven through contextual references personalized, for me, the responsibility we carry in this spiritual role. In therapy we expose our own story and awareness - but in clinical practice we take that same story objectively and use it to assist and build strength in others.

The good news is that each CPSP meeting is experiencing larger multi-cultural attendance. This enriches my small group experience by weaving wisdom with dynamic reflection. Although I was unable to attend Tavistock, the reverberations were intense. I am reminded that I am personally in control of my own education. Who decides if I am educable or engaged if it is not my choice to be the instigator? John Edgarton followed up on Friday by engaging our place as the Prophet - not as rebels against the law - but as "Outlaws"; agreeing to evolve with and empower the community to transcend the law.

The prophet holds a dream. In CPSP and clinically, we instill a vision that is attainable together. He suggested that empathy requires that we do not revel in the same depression as the patient/community and strive to find that intuitive place of hope. By reviewing President Lincoln's Gettysburg address, John explained how to define a transforming vision that people can get into their imagination....by speaking simply and clearly. It is no wonder that a totalitarian regime is afraid of the artist, the visionary and the creative thinker. The outlaw Prophet has an imagination that is contagious; as is our vision at CPSP.

CPSP Promoting Competency Through an Ongoing Process of Peer Review

2006-02-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy promotes competency through an ongoing process of peer review which is a central aspect of our covenant relationship and Chapter life.
CPSP is unique among the national pastoral training and certifying organizations. Credential’s held by CPSP members are renewed annually and contingent upon satisfactory participation in Chapter life and the Chapter's recomendation for renewal.
CPSP understands its task to be first and foremost theological and that ongoing peer review is centered in the CPSP covenant. Within Chapter life, CPSP members covenant together to being held mutually responsible to one another for their ongoing personal/professional development and direction.
Peer review for the majority of our professional colleagues is something that occurs every five years in contrast to CPSP members for whom it is an ongoing feature of Chapter life. In this way CPSP has set the industry standard for a peer review process which is the most dynamic of any of the national pastoral care training and certifying bodies and one that best promotes competence.

Clinical Pastoral Education- An Historical Perspective

2005-12-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

Clinical Pastoral Education

In the 1920’s theological education began to be profoundly reshaped by the medical model of education which itself was being transformed in response to the renowned Flexner Report of 1910.

Theological education, which was at that point in history almost entirely academic, theoretical, and forensic began to change just as medical education was changing. Pastors began using the mentorship approach to learning “at the bedside” in contact with living persons and their problems.

Thus, began the art and science of Clinical Pastoral Training or Education, the disciplined examination of specific cases of pastoral care and counseling, and the application of the clinical method to the work of ministry.

Clinical Pastoral Education has come to be known as the study of persons and their problems of relating and structures of meaning. This training has become accepted as a formative component in the preparation of persons for religious ministry.

Anton Boisen (1876-1965) was the individual who most provided the initial impetus toward making this change in theological education. Motivated by the urgency to understand his own psychotic episodes and their religious and developmental implications, Boisen inaugurated and institutionalized this new component in theological education known as Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).

At first CPE attracted only a few selected individuals, most of whom sought Boisen because of his and their dissatisfaction with normative theological education. Subsequently, CPE has burgeoned to such an extent that many theological schools require an introductory unit as a prerequisite for graduation.

Clinical Pastoral Education in General:

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) programs provide an opportunity for ministers, seminarians and lay people to develop pastoral competency within a particular pastoral setting (usually a hospital, parish, hospice, retirement home, etc.), and seeks to foster the pastors own self-awareness as a pastoral care-giver.

The CPE approach to training is based upon an "action-reflection" model of learning. Pastoral interns function as ecumenical chaplains providing pastoral care on assigned areas and use their experience in pastoral encounters as a basis for their learning.

While seminary settings provide an academic environment for the study of pastoral theology in contrast the CPE center provides the clinical basis for learning.

For more information about CPE programs at The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences contact: George Hankins Hull 501-686-6888

The 8th Asia Pacific Congress on Pastoral Care & Counseling

2005-11-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

Religious and Spiritual Impact in Psychic Process:Implications for Pastoral Psychotherapy
BY Rev. Dr. Joseph George

Introduction by Robert Powell, MD, PhD
The 8th Asia Pacific Congress on Pastoral Care and Counseling , held 7-11 August in Hong Kong, had a specific theme and a lofty objective: "Spiritual Formation of the Human Heart" – Tested Models of Caring and Counseling." Thus the following manuscript by the Rev. Dr. Joseph George, of Bangalore, India, tries to address both issues – personality formation and a tested model – at the same time, which is not an easy task. While many will enjoy his clear outline of how we got to Winnicottian "object relations theory" -- which handles religious rituals quite well – we might as well telegraph Dr. George's conclusion:
"The use of religious rituals in pastoral psychotherapy sessions helps the counsellees:
* to recollect their past experience* to narrate their present experience* to re-narrate their sense of self* to understand the nature of their relationships* to identify areas of conflict* to motivate change in behavior* to experience a sense of hope* to promote conscious self-reflection* to create a space to contain anxiety* to resolve any intrapersonal and interpersonal issues* to gain new direction psychologically and theologically* to reflect a realistic self-image"
One more point: Anton Theophilus Boisen and Helen Flanders Dunbar were both intrigued by the use of religious rituals and symbolism as a means of meeting suffering persons "where they were". Indeed, there must be a reason why "Amazing Grace" has been called "one of the most recognized songs on the planet". Apparently it connects with people. This "connecting" could bear further study. -Robert Powell, MD, PhD
Full text of Dr. George’s presentation can be found at:
http://www.cpsp.org/

BOARD CERTIFICATION FOR CLINICAL CHAPLAINS

2005-10-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy
CPSP is an international, theologically based covenant community, offering accreditation and certification to individuals and programs that meet standards of expertise in pastoral counseling, pastoral supervision and psychotherapy.

CPSP confers Diplomate, Pastoral Counselor, Board Certified Clinical Chaplain and Board Certified Associate Clinical Chaplain credentials to persons who demonstrate competence, meet its standards, aspire to its principles, and commit to its discipline.

CPSP confers accreditation on clinical pastoral education (CPE) programs and pastoral counseling training centers.CPSP a community in which power is located in the grass roots, with a minimal hierarchy and minimal budget.CPSP a community in which power is located in the grass roots, with a minimal hierarchy and minimal budget.

The CPSP Chapter

is a group of at least six members, but not more than twelve, who commit themselves to the Covenant and to further the life of the CPSP community.
are geographically based for convenience and have no fixed geographical boundaries.maintains communication and collegial relationships on matters of importance between meetings.
is the designated context for settlement of all matters related to accreditation and certification, adjudication and continuing education.
provides support, challenge, discipline, consultation, education, and theological reflection for its members.
is the entry point for persons seeking to participate in the CPSP community.The Governing Council
is the governing body that determines the standards, policies, procedures, and boundaries of the CPSP community.
consists of general officers and representative from each chapter.provides oversight toChapters and their programs.
certifies annually that Chapters are in good standing and faithful to the Covenant.ratifies on March 17 of every year the respective Chapters’ submission of names for persons to be re-certified.
settles matters that Chapters may be unable to resolve.is the court of last resort in the CPSP community.

Committed to being mutually responsible to one another in their professional work and direction." -from the CPSP Covenant

Programs

CPSP accredits a wide range of training programs in clinical pastoral education, pastoral counseling, and pastoral psychotherapy. CPSP programs meet or exceed generally accepted standards of training for pastoral counselors, institutional chaplains, and pastoral psychotherapists. CPSP programs also meet traditional seminary requirements for candidates seeking graduate theological degrees as well as minimal standards set by various denominations and governmental agencies. CPSP programs are designed to prepare persons for credentials as Pastoral Counselor, Board Certified Clinical Chaplain, Board Certified Associate Clinical Chaplain, Dipolmate in Pastoral Supervision or Diplomate in Pastoral Psychotherapy. Clinical work in accredited CPSP programs may be transferred to certain universities for the pursuit of advanced theological degrees. (D.Min., Th.D.,etc)

Quality

The unique character of Chapter life fosters mutual accountability and collegiality among members. The Chapter provides an on-going community for consultation, discipline, continuing education, support and fellowship.
Discipline in CPSP is a pro-active process rather than a reactive one.
All credentials are continually reviewed by the Chapter and all credentialed persons must be endorsed annually by the Governing Council in order to remain current.

History

CPSP was founded in 1990 in a response to a widely felt need in the pastoral education and counseling community for a recovery of soul. CPSP stands in the tradition of Anton T. Boisen, Helen Flanders Dunbar, Russell Dicks, Seward Hiltner, Carroll A. Wise, Thomas W. Klink, and numerous other pioneers of the clinical pastoral training movement who fostered the exploration of the inner-self leading to personal transformation of the clinically trained minister.

As the preeminent historian of the clinical pastoral training movement, Robert C. Powell has indicated, transformation rather than skill development is the essential meaning and purpose of the movement. Thus CPSP is committed theologically and primarily to the development of the idiosyncratic self of the clinically trained pastor. It is further committed to the development of specialists in Pastoral Counseling, Clinical Chaplaincy, Pastoral supervision and pastoral psychotherapy.

The Covenant of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy

Spiritual pilgrims
We, the CPSP community see ourselves as spiritual pilgrims seeking a truly collegial professional community. Our calling and commitments are, therefore, first and last theological. We covenant to address one another and to be addressed by one another in a profound theological sense. We commit to being mutually responsible to one another for our professional work and direction.

Chapters
Matters that are typically dealt with in other certifying bodies by centralized governance will be dealt with primarily in Chapters. Thus, we organize ourselves in such a way that we each participate in a relatively small group called a Chapter consisting of approximately a dozen colleagues. Teaching or counseling programs directed by CPSP Diplomates are the primary responsibility of the Chapter.

Recovery of soul

We commit ourselves to a galaxy of shared values that are as deeply held as they are difficult to communicate. "Recovery of soul" is a metaphor that points toward these values. We place a premium on the significance of the relationships among ourselves. We value personal authority and creativity. We believe we should make a space for one another and stand ready to midwife one another in our respective spiritual journeys. Because we believe that life is best lived by grace, we believe it essential to guard against becoming invasive, aggressive, or predatory toward each other. We believe that persons are always more important than institutions, and even the institution of CPSP itself must be carefully monitored lest it take on an idolatrous character.

A Living Experience
We intend to travel light, to own no property, to accumulate no wealth, and to create no bureaucracy. We are invested in offering a living experience that reflects human life and faith within a milieu of supportive and challenging community of fellow pilgrims.

Inquires
Persons interested in CPSP membership or in training programs may contact:

George Hankins Hull
hankinshull1@netzero.com