Clinical Pastoral Education
What is CPE?
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) a multi-faith, multi-cultural, hands-on, course that combines clinical supervision of the spiritual care of patients, families, and staff in a diverse health care setting with an academic education component on site. Students are offered the opportunity to develop and expand professional caring skills for addressing a person’s spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. The textbooks for CPE include an in-depth study of “the living human documents” – both the people who receive care as well as a study of ourselves, the givers of care. The experiential learning takes place through the practice of ministry and the reflection thereon with ACPE Certified Educators and peers.
One unit of CPE consists of 300 hours of clinical service; during which students visit and support patients, their families, and care-givers, plus 100 hours of dedicated classroom education. CPE is a mix of practical ministry, instruction, one-on-one supervision, group process, reading, research, and writing. CPE’s core learning methodology is action/reflection/action. Developed more than 75 years ago by Anton Boison, this method encourages students to act, reflect, and act again with a renewed sense of professional competency and skill.
The Saint Francis Hospital/Trinity Health Of New England CPE Center offers four programs of CPE credit:
- Extended Internship – A part-time (volunteer position) extended internship:
- Winter Unit: January – May (1 unit)
- Fall Unit: September – April (1 unit)
- Residency – A full-time (employment) year-long residency:
- August – August (3 units)
- Summer Intensive – A full-time (volunteer position) Summer Intensive unit:
- June – August
- Certified Education Candidate (CEC) a three (3) - four (4) year program
- Certified Educator Candidate education addresses the competencies and issues of the art of supervision, educating qualified persons in the theory and practice of supervision of Clinical Pastoral Education.
Our programs have been nationally accredited by the Standard for Spiritual Care & Education since 2010. Students receive credit for every 400 hours of training completed. Many students accumulate 1,600 hours toward application for board certification by the Association for Professional Chaplains (APC), or the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC) or Neshama: National Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC).
The Saint Francis Hospital/Trinity Health Of New England Clinical Pastoral Education Center is accredited to offer Level I and Level II, and Certified Educator Candidate education by:
The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education
1 Concourse Pkwy, Suite 800
Atlanta, GA 30328
Phone: (404) 320-1472
Fax: (404) 320-0849
Email: acpe@acpe.edu
Web: www.acpe.edu
The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education, Inc. is a nationally recognized accrediting agency in the field of clinical pastoral education by the U.S. Secretary of Education through the U.S. Department of Education.
What are the Programs’ Objectives?
- Spiritual Formation and Integration
- Spiritual formation as a spiritual care provider includes the awareness and integration of one’s narrative history, socio-cultural identity, and spiritual/values-based orienting systems. ACPE defines the word “spiritual” as inclusive of theistic and non-theistic/values-based orientations.
- One’s narrative history is at play in every care encounter. Paying attention to how one’s narrative history intersects with the care receiver’s story will influence the kind of care that is provided. Understanding one’s narrative history helps to identify the values and beliefs that shape spiritual care. Research from the behavioral sciences will help one understand and evaluate how one’s narrative history informs one’s values and beliefs about spiritual care.
- Awareness of Self and Others
- The CPE process helps build awareness of self and others as a vehicle for greater spiritual care. Awareness includes learning about oneself and developing greater awareness of the experiences and values of others.
- Self-Care is essential to deeply engage the pain of others. Being present and holding the pain and grief of others necessitates self-care to promote sustainability and resiliency in this sacred work. Research has shown that trauma-informed approaches are beneficial for realizing and addressing the needs present.
- Attending to Self-Care, addressing Justice-Seeking awareness of bias, and cultivating Intercultural and Interreligious Humility ensure dignity is afforded to oneself and others.
- Relational Dynamics
- Spiritual care and education require empathy and healthy relational boundaries grounded in warmheartedness for self and others. Empathy includes caring about and taking the perspective of others’ experiences, values, beliefs, and practices. Healthy relational boundaries include respect for differences in spirituality. Empathy and relational boundaries work in tandem to ensure helpful, rather than harmful, spiritual care. Students who learn and offer care in and among groups will grow in their relational capacity and can bring this increased skill to their spiritual care. Concurrently, they will gain greater understanding about how group dynamics relate to spiritual care contexts.
- Spiritual Care Interventions
- CPE guides students through the formational and experiential learning process and the interventions necessary to address spiritual distress. Spiritual care includes understanding one’s role and the power and authority embedded within it. As students develop spiritual care relationships, they will explore their formational development and learn the practical communication styles and skills necessary for effective spiritual care. One way of addressing the spiritual care needs of care seekers is to utilize cultural, religious, and spiritual resources that are congruent with their values and beliefs.
- Professional Development
- One of the hallmarks of learning within CPE is through the method of action, reflection, new action, which defines the clinical method of learning. In CPE, the “action” of providing spiritual care is “reflected” upon in the educational time, which in turn leads to an improved “new action” when continuing to provide spiritual care.
- There is an emerging recognition of the importance of research for the development of the profession of spiritual care. Initially, a basic awareness of the importance and relevance of research in our field of spiritual care is grounding for beginners to this vocation. Developing research literacy means reading research, knowing where to find it, being able to understand what the research is indicating, recognizing major limitations, and then integrating helpful findings into one’s spiritual care. Doing so will lead to improved spiritual care, greater professionalism, and bringing in diverse voices that can inform our practice. Research literacy enables interaction with the interdisciplinary team with an increased capacity to take in data to support their practice. Research literacy supports one’s ability to become a lifelong learner.
- Prepare for a Wide Variety of Spiritual Careers
- The Saint Francis Hospital/Trinity Health Of New England CPE Program's practical application of spiritual education prepares students for ministry careers in many settings, including:
- Healthcare chaplaincy
- Industrial chaplaincy
- College and University chaplaincy
- Military chaplaincy
- Prison chaplaincy
- Spiritual direction and counseling
- Spiritual care and counseling in churches, synagogues, and temples
- The Saint Francis Hospital/Trinity Health Of New England CPE Program's practical application of spiritual education prepares students for ministry careers in many settings, including:
Who is Eligible?
People of all cultures, religious traditions, genders, nationalities, sexual orientations, and denominations, who are interested in serving as chaplains and learning to facilitate whole-person healing and health, take CPE. Laity, theology students, and clergy may take CPE in order to serve alongside an interdisciplinary team of caring professionals in a hospital setting.
CPE groups often include seminarians who are required to take one unit of CPE as part of their degree program or who take more than one unit as their ministry internships. Our students also include clergy and non-certified chaplains who serve in congregations and other community settings and want to improve their skills.
Some students decide to complete the four units required to become board certified chaplains. Often this route includes a summer Intensive or an Extended Unit followed by a (3 unit) Residency. Others, whose commitments and responsibilities do not allow full-time study, pursue CPE through Extended units. Seminary students often enroll in an Intensive Summer Unit.
To qualify for the Residency Program, applicants must have earned a Masters level degree in theology, or an Mdiv, or an equivalent level of education, and one prior unit of CPE.
Contact Us
For question or more information, call either of the faculty members directly at:
The Rev. Dr. Celillon Alteme (860) 714-4304 Celillon.Alteme@trinityhealthofne.org