Clinical Pastoral Education

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 t...

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 conti...

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.

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

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 ...

The National Clinical Training Seminar (NCTS) is right around the corner. The NCTS will meet October 11 and 12th, 2010. IMPORTANT: The event will be held in a new venue: Stella Maris Retreat Center located at 981 Ocean Avenue, Elberon, NJ 07740. Our theme for the upcoming fall NCTS is: “On the Varieties of Courage: Anton Boisen, Daniel Berrigan, Frank Serpico and The Pursuit of Liberty and Happiness. The featured presenter Joseph M. Kramp, PhD candidate Drew University will use Heinz Kohut’s theory as a framework for his presentation. Most of his presentation will focus on Anton Boisen's autobiography. To learn more visit the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy CPSP committed to providing affordable face to face clinical learning experiences in the pastoral tradition.

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.

“The central task of ministry is the formation of a community with an alternative liberated imagination that has the courage and freedom to act on a different vision and a different perception of reality”-Walter Brueggeman Twenty years ago, at a place called Phoebe Needles’ Conference Center in Calloway, Virginia a small group of people gathered to define the type of community they wanted in the pastoral care movement. While they were at Phoebe Needles’ Conference Center they began to put together the ingredients of an alternative pastoral care community whereby the members of that community would see themselves as spiritual pilgrims seeking a collegial and professional relationship with each other. They thought this community first and last would be theological. They imagined that this community would deal with such things as accreditation, certification, and ethics complaints through what they were to call “chapters”. The chapters were made up of small groups of people that would sh...

As one who has been involved in pastoral training and education for over forty years (certified as a “Chaplain Supervisor” by the Council for Clinical in 1964), I have experienced a good deal of change in the pastoral education movement. It now seems that history is repeating itself. The present friction between CPSP and ACPE is not unlike that of the Council for Clinical Training and the Institute of Pastoral Care. The Council folk looked at the Institute folk as a bunch academic heads who overlooked the psycho-dynamic approach to “CPT”. One of my first supervisors, Tom Klink, once stated that the Institute super-visors needed to get acquainted with Sigmund Freud. On the other side of the fence, the Institute super-visors saw the Council supervisors as a bunch of feelers who refused to think. This war of words, so to speak, went on for several years. In the mid-sixties, I supervised CPT students in up-state New York. When the New York supervisors would get together, we would often dis...

Challenged to Cooperate: 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

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

"We are also concerned about the face of pastoral care that is presented to our institutions and endorsees" AN OPEN LETTER to CPSP and ACPE Association of Religious Endorsing BodiesP.O. Box 340007, Nashville, TN 37203-007 January 11, 2010 To: 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 excelle...

A Blessing be upon you, my brothers and sisters. As you gather together, in this meeting of CPSP, keep in your minds and hearts all those of us absent in body, but present in the Spirit along with those who have vacated this earthly tabernacle. Allow this meeting to be a blessed time of sharing your stories, both of victories as well as defeats, of winnings and losses, of good health and bad. Let it be a time of exploring and renewing your mind about what God had in mind in bringing you into the creation. Also find a way to share that with others. Be open to share your struggles with others, and be open to listen to those whose struggles are more than they can bear alone. And remember that when you are heard, you are blessed. God, we believe that you stand ready to bless us and to forgive us and protect us from all evil. Let his blessed name hold you close in a love that never fails. Amen. Learn more about The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy by visiting the lin...

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 ...

The Joint Commission conducts two types of tracer events: 1. Patient tracers 2. System tracers Patient tracers follow the path of selected patients through a healthcare organization. Everyone involved in caring for the patient and their loved ones, directly or indirectly can potentially be interviewed by a surveyor during the tracer activity. This is an actual assessment of how effectively and safely the care of a patient and their loved ones is managed. The Joint Commission surveyors first review the patient’s medical chart to gather information, after which they interview staff concerning the care of the patient. Patient and family members may also be interviewed. System tracers differ from patient tracers. In the system tracer the Joint Commission’s surveyors explore high-risk system processes common to healthcare organizations. This includes medication management, infection control and how data is used. System tracers are scheduled interviews involving leadership, dire...

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.