Clinical Pastoral Education

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)...

Paul Tillich, in his sermon on the yoke of religion defined the yoke of religion as law, doctrine and dogma. I want to suggest these are equivalent to standards, outcomes, results and accreditation processes. The yoke of religion is parallel to the yoke of Clinical Pastoral Education. Rather than the standards, outcomes and resources being sources of liberation, they are in my opinion sources of restriction. Instead of them contributing to the transformational processes of new being or new creation, they tend to truncate whatever inner wisdom might evolve. In the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education programs are expected to address three major arenas: 1) Pastoral Formation, 2) Pastoral Competence and 3) Pastoral Reflection. Under Pastoral Formation there are three objectives. Under Pastoral Competence there are five objectives. And under Pastoral Reflection there are two objectives. If the student was to have a specialization in Pastoral Care there would be three more objectives...

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 furthe...

It's Time to Reinvent Freud By Richard A. Shweder; Richard A. Shweder, professor of human development at the University of Chicago, is currently a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. There is a panic inherent in the anticipation of professional extinction that is the dread of Freud's disciples these days. The announcement by the Library of Congress that it would shelve an exhibition titled "Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture" coincided with the winter meeting of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, prophetically titled "Is There a Place for Psychoanalysis in Contemporary Culture?" -- thereby confirming the fear of many psychoanalysts that the answer may be "no." The library's half-hearted decision to put the great guru in cold storage left some analysts in a sweat, feeling defensive, unloved and full of self-doubt about their prospects in the intellectual and economic marketplace. The delay is proba...

What I want to do this morning is talk about how congregations function like families. I am going to do it from a variety of points of view. I’m going to begin with a fable. This one is called "Burnout" and it’s about a fish tank with a scavenger fish in it, you know a scavenger fish is supposed to keep the fish tank clean. I’m trying to be as realistic about it in my use of language as possible so I hope that you will appreciate that. Once upon a time there was a scavenger fish that lost its taste for shit. (I don’t think I have to read the rest of the fable. You all got the message already!) It was your normal, garden-variety scavenger and had never previously shown any signs of being different from the other members of its species. It lived in a normal-sized tank with the members of several schools and, from the very beginning of its association with this ecosystem, seemed always to be in perfect harmony with the environment. It never got in the way of the others and th...