What is CPE?
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is an interfaith
professional training program in the skills and art of spiritual care. Using an action/reflection model of
training, participants have the opportunity to grow personally and
professionally in their effectiveness in providing spiritual care. Wes
McIntyre (pictured at right) is the Director of Spiritual Formation and leads CPE at The
Chaplaincy.
Through intense
involvement with people in need of spiritual care, and the feedback that
the student receives from both teachers and peers, a new awareness is
developed of skills necessary for interpersonal and inter-professional
relationships.
The CPE program at The
Chaplaincy offers participants a unique opportunity to provide spiritual
care in a multiplicity of sites and to work as a team with our
professional staff chaplains. Students paired up with on-site staff
chaplain mentors have named this teamwork as an outstanding part of their
learning experience.
The Chaplaincy offers two units of CPE a year. Both are extended
(part-time) units that run for 24 weeks each. At present, the
Chaplaincy is not offering a summer CPE unit.
A typical week in one of the two extended units offered each year is
divided between 5 hours of peer group seminar and 11-12 hours of
clinical time at one of the various settings where staff chaplains work.
The peer group seminars include case review, theological reflection
seminars, didactic presenters, reading discussions, group process, and
use of various media for reflection and learning. Clinical time is spent
providing spiritual care to patients, families and institutional staff
in one of 7 different clinical placements. The clinical placements
include hospitals, hospice, an outpatient cancer treatment center and
detention facilities for youth and adults. On-call experiences (about
once every two weeks) find students working in sites other than their
primary clinical placement. Having one’s own transportation is
essential though no facility is more than 20 minutes away from another.
Our
Center has been a nationally accredited Clinical Pastoral Education
training center for over 30 years. Chaplains trained here have been
successful in getting their professional certification and work in
health care systems throughout the Northwest.
