National Clinical Training Seminar-West ( NCTS-West) announces the dates and venue of the next gathering. Please mark on your calendar the dates of October 18-20, 2015 for the event which will be held at Christ the King Retreat Center in Sacramento, CA.

Keep in mind that the NCTS-West is designed for Clinical Chaplains, Pastoral Counselors and Psychotherapist, CPE Supervisors and Supervisors-in-Training. The event represents a unique opportunity to focus on clinical work and developing further ability for the use of self in clinical practice and doing so within the context of psychodynamic group training process.

Further details will be announced. For now, set these dates on your calendar and plan to attend.

Ruth Zollinger is serving as the coordinator for the fall event. She request that we contact her if more information is needed at this point.

________________________

Ruth Zollinger
runrz1@me.com

I entered the world of CPSP in late summer of 2011 as a supervisor in training. Since that time I have attended just about every National Clinical Training Seminar (NCTS) and have come to value numerous experiences along the way. As I reflect on the Spring 2015 NCTS I find myself connecting to the movement of my own journey as well as CPSP’s.

The heart of CPSP is what I believe to be the small group experience beginning in our chapters and then expanding to NCTS and the Plenaries where we present our work and experiences in small working groups. For me this is living into our covenant as “We commit to being mutually responsible to one another for our professional work and direction.”

My first presentation in this small working group experience was at the Fall NCTS 2011. I brought with me a complex diagram of a ‘clinical rhombus’ I was subjecting myself to with me in the center holding up how multiple organizations ‘needed’ to relate, ‘balancing’ dynamics as I imagined them and being ‘responsible’ for the relationships. The group process liberated me from the monster I imagined I was responsible for managing. Each NCTS from that first experience has provided me additional opportunities to present my experience and work for feedback and processing toward my growth and development as a professional pastoral clinician. The small working group experience has been invaluable toward my certification process.

The theme of Spring NCTS-East was New Procedures in Certification and Accreditation for Members and Those Interested in The College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy Credentials. As the new convener of our chapter these workshops provided me with forth coming changes in processes that affect the members of the chapter who are looking toward certification. We are engaging in how we are accountable and responsible for the candidates we produce from our chapter and what that means for each of us as we growth and develop in our clinical pastoral identity.

Also at the heart of the CPSP experience is the Tavistock experience focused on group relations as we work toward discovering the task of the group in conjunction with various agendas arising. At this particular Tavistock encounter I found myself wondering if the work we were doing at that particular time was what Recovery of soul looks like when We commit ourselves to a galaxy of shared values that are as deeply held as they are difficult to communicate. During the past year I have experienced a change in attitude at our gatherings as we welcome this ‘uncertain’ new beginning after hard labor. I understand it as being faithful to the labor of growth and change. It was the first time I felt I was living the covenant and not just reading the covenant and liking what it said.

The next NCTS-East gathering is November 2-3, 2015. I encourage you to attend if you haven’t already. It will not only enrich your professional growth and development but will deepen and add to the whole CPSP experience. 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.

____________________________________

Nancy Schaffer

nschaffer1@outlook.com

Nancy Schaffer is ordained with the United Church of Christ (UCC) and is a supervisor-in-training at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, Far Rockaway, NY under the supervision of Francine Hernandez. She is Head Chaplain for the Long Island Council of Churches at the Nassau County Correctional Center, East Meadow, NY. Nancy has completed her doctorate concentrating on Prisons, Public Policy and Transformative Justice through a pastoral care lens from New Brunswick Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, NJ. She is exploring community building through a community-based CPE program.

The initial phase of the review will be conducted exclusively under the auspices of the candidate’s chapter, as long as the chapter is in good standing with CPSP and has the critical mass to certify at the candidate’s level (at least 4 certified members holding the certification sought by the candidate). The Outside Reviewer will no longer be a part of the certification process. This change is intended to highlight the role of the chapter (unique to CPSP) in the certification process. The Certification Team has recognized a trend of chapters becoming less involved in the “midwifery” and review of candidates and their work. Many times it is apparent that the chapter has reviewed the candidate’s work and biography, for the first time, just prior to the review with the Outside Reviewer. This is not the intent of the chapter’s role in the candidate’s preparation for certification. The chapter is, rather, intended to be the MOST prepared to speak to the candidate’s work and preparedness for certification. 

Prior to the initial phase of the review, the candidate submits to the chapter, or portion of the chapter conducting the review, the required certification documents which are outlined in the Standards. These documents are submitted to the chapter in whatever form the chapter chooses. The candidate’s certification materials will be submitted and reviewed, by the chapter, well in advance to the chapter’s pre-certification review. The chapter may elect not to conduct the pre-certification review of the candidate if it determines the candidate is not yet prepared. If the chapter determines, following its review, that the candidate needs further professional preparation and development the chapter will continue to support and guide the candidate in addressing the deficiency. Once the candidate and chapter agree, the chapter can offer another review process to determine readiness for phase two of the process.

Chapters without the critical mass to certify at the candidates level will conduct this phase of the certification process under the direction of the Certification Team Representative, an authorized consultant, and a chapter that has the critical mass to support certification and the necessary follow up.

Candidates will be recommended to the Certification Team for the second phase of the process via an online report form submitted by the chapter convener (or the convener of the chapter assisting with the preliminary review for those candidates from chapters with insufficient critical mass to conduct the preliminary review). This report is new to the certification process and it will functionally replace the report previously submitted by the Outside Reviewer. The Chapter rather than the Outside Reviewer will report, among other items, its understanding of the candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, clinical and professional functioning, rationale for equivalencies, etc.

Candidates will then pay fees to the Treasurer and submit to the Certification Team the certification materials previously reviewed by the candidate’s chapter. The certification documents will be sent to the Certification Team via Dropbox.

Candidates from chapters who function in compliance with The Standards and who submit a complete file of certification materials will be referred to a four- person Review Panel. The Panel may be comprised of members of the Certification Team and others appointed by the Certification Team in consultation with the General Secretary. The Panel will conduct a preliminary review of the candidate’s materials and the chapter’s report of its review to ascertain if the candidate is prepared for an in-person review with the Panel. If not, the Panel will provide its rationale and suggestions to the candidate and the candidate’s chapter convener. If the candidate’s chapter does not have the critical mass for certification at her/his level, the authorized consultant and her/his chapter will also receive this information, in order to continue work with the candidate.

Review Panels will meet at each of the National Clinical Training Seminars on the day prior to the beginning of the scheduled events (currently there are two training seminars in the east and one in the west. Additional reviews may be scheduled in the west, and elsewhere if needed).

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These changes will begin August 1, 2015 with the first Review Panel meeting at NCTS–West at its fall meeting. Candidates for certification can continue to use the existing process. However, certification reviews under for those using the current process will need to have been scheduled by August 1, 2015.

The Certification Team encourages members to read the revised certification process which is posted on the website. Your chapter’s Certification Team Representative is available to answer questions and to assist candidates and chapters through the process.

Almost a century ago Anton Boisen changed the face of pastoral work. He taught religious professionals to be healers. Listening to persons suffering mentally or physically was his central theme. To get their stories. To make connections where connections were apparent. To support self-awareness and self-discovery. "It's not what the minister says to the boy (sic) but what the boy says to the minister," he proclaimed. By the time he died his followers were legion. And they, as he, had learned much from the psychoanalytic movement. The role of the minister was transformed in Boisen's own lifetime. He was a religious giant of the twentieth century. Because of him many teachers, preachers, and evangelists morphed by the middle of the century into competent psychoanalytically informed counselors and therapists.

This year a little book containing nine clinical pastoral cases appeared under the title Spiritual Care in Practice: Case Studies in Healthcare Chaplaincy, edited by George Fitchett and Steve Nolan. If this book, and others like it, carry the day we will write fini on Boisen's clinical pastoral movement and all that it represented. Boisen and his inheritance will have been trumped by a new form of evangelism. And then it will be only a matter of what the minister says to the boy. Religious proselytizing and browbeating will have replaced pastoral care and counseling. It's not a pretty picture.

This reversal of the Boisen tradition is well documented in Chapter 1, containing the first of nine revelatory clinical cases presented in this book. It documents with specificity the new order of chaplaincy, or spiritual care, as it is unhappily being called of late.

The patient is a 12-year-old girl stricken with a daunting disease, cystic fibrosis. Her options are limited. Her life likely will be short and confined, under conditions of rather extreme isolation from peers and loved ones. Her family's home is a long distance away, and she is alone most of the day. She has had more than one hundred surgeries in her short life. The chaplain generously notes at least ten substantive visits with her over the course of a year, visits that included burdensome infection-control measures such as gowns, face masks, and gloves. In short, the patient presents a heart-rending case that is almost unbearable to read.

The chaplain in question, who claims to have been trained in the Boisen tradition, turns the Boisen model on its head. Instead of seeking to hear the voice of the young girl in a desperate plight, he moves to instruct her in the practices of Christian piety. He is hell-bent on persuading her to pray. He's as heavy-handed as an evangelist at a tent revival calling for a belief in Jesus.

To give him due credit, the chaplain who has known the patient over a five-year period, generously spends significant time sitting with the young patient playing board games and drawing. These activities might have led to some opening in the patient whereby she might have been empowered to share some of her painful experience, which to any observer would appear unspeakably grim. But the chaplain can't wait for the patient to start feeling free to talk. He wants her to pray and to talk to God, and without delay. In nine of the ten noted visits the chaplain lobbies for the girl to talk with God and to pray.

In the fifth of the recorded visits the chaplain believes he has hit pay dirt when the patient tells him she believes that God is helping her by telling the doctors what to do. It would seem that the girl is grasping for straws, hoping to get the Chaplain off her back. She now has some God-talk to give back to the eager chaplain.

Hoping for a 12-year-old to open up enough to talk candidly with an adult, even after a 5-year relationship, may be more than can be wished for, so the chaplain's failure to hear the authentic voice of the patient may have been predestined. However, the chaplain's perpetual beating of the drum for prayer and God surely voided any hope of the patient's sharing anything significant about her own grim experience. She undoubtedly feels harassed by a propagandist.

The nadir of the chaplain's inappropriateness came on a visit to the outpatient clinic where he found mother and daughter together for the first time. He asked the girl "how she and God were doing." Such a question to a preadolescent could be considered crazy-making, as well as inappropriately evangelistic. Human beings who are sane will never know how they are doing with God - if indeed there is a God.

In his many visits it would have been sufficient for the chaplain to have asked simply, "What's it like for you here in isolation?" or "What's it like for you being so far from home in a strange place?" or "What's it like for you to have to protect yourself with all this gear and equipment?" or "How much do you miss your family?" She may or may not have ever been able to respond freely and talk about herself in that way with an adult stranger in the form of a chaplain. But we can be sure she would have understood the questions. However the question, "How are you doing with God?" is not a question she would have any way to answer. Even the chaplain, if he were honest, would be flummoxed by such a question put to him.

I suggest here that the failure of this chaplain to ask questions that might have evoked the girl's pain and sorrow and despair can be explained by the chaplain's avoidance of pain in his own life. That would mean, in Boisen's terms, that his own counter transference inhibited his ability to touch the girl's pain. He preferred to take the role of religious functionary, defending himself against the profound pain he likely would feel in identifying with her should she disclose herself to him. Boisen's clinical training movement was designed to engage pastors with their own unconscious and transferential material, which in turn sensitizes them and makes them aware enough to hear the pain of others. This chaplain would likely benefit from further clinical training, where with a competent supervisor he might understand what is buried in him that leads him to look away from the terrible pain of this 12-year-old.

As we in CPSP struggle to promote the inheritance of Boisen's teaching, we will have to do battle with the surging influence of such propaganda as this case and this book presents. It will not be easy. The purveyors of this new direction in chaplaincy - this new spirituality - are formidable, supported by millions of dollars in foundation monies. The future of a credible, therapeutic pastoral role is at stake. If we do not succeed in countering this alliance of superficial religiosity and money, the Boisen tradition of the psychologically competent pastoral clinician will vanish from our culture, and religious leadership will fall entirely in the hands of those with a competency level of used car salesmen and traveling evangelists.

For reviews of the other eight cases in the book, please contact Raymond Lawrence by email: lawrence@cpsp.org.

The ghastly event at Mother Emanuel AME Church Thursday in Charleston, South Carolina, was an unspeakable act of violence seemingly motivated explicitly by racial hatred.

We must do all we can to counter these kinds of outrageous assaults, and to be united with those who are victimized by them.

This incident calls attention to the disturbing rise of both overt and covert hostility in this country, particularly directed against racial minorities and the poor.

We in CPSP must do all we can to be in solidarity with the abused, the assaulted, and the oppressed. This is our moral and our prophetic pastoral responsibility.

I call for all in CPSP as well as those beyond the boundaries of our community, to renew our commitment to work toward a just and loving community for all people, with special concern for racial minorities and the poor among us.

Raymond J. Lawrence, General Secretary
College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy
raymondlawrence@gmail.com

Editor's Note: Below is a Pastoral Letter to the Columbia, SC and the CPSP community from Hayden Howell, CPE Supervisor.

Dear Columbia Chapter, CPSP (other colleagues, and former members of the Chapter)

It is with heavy hearts we must address one another as well as offer our “presence” to those close to the ones who died in Charleston last night while praying at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church. The African-American community is hurting and grieving this horrible loss. Our Columbia Chapter of CPSP joins heart and soul with our brothers and sisters in the common frailty of our humanity.

We are especially mindful of the impact this has made on those African-Americans who are (or who have been) members of our chapter. The following persons may especially be touched by this tragedy because of their heritage as African-Americans and/or their connection with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Rosalyn Coleman, CPE Supervisor; former Chapter Convener; and, A Presiding Elder in the AME Church

James Abrams, CPE Supervisor and former Convener

Deberry Cook, Hospital Chaplain; Aspiring Clinical Certification

Jacquelyn Hurston, AME Pastor; Supervisor in Training; Specialist in Grief Counseling

Melvin Coleman, (Husband of Rosalyn; AME Pastor; Provided food; set-up space for Chapter meetings)

Charmaine Ragin, CPE Supervisor; Chaplain; and AME Pastor (moved to another CPSP Chapter)

Robert Freeman, (AME Pastor; Chaplain; Left us to become a CPE Supervisor for the ACPE, Inc.)

As that ole Democrat LBJ used to say: “Let us come together.” And then let us comfort our people.

On behalf of Gene Rollins, who called me to say we needed to say something and in the awareness of our connection to the wider community of CPSP, I am copying this to Raymond Lawrence, Perry Miller, John Robbins and Charles Kirby. The latter two are colleagues in the Asheville/Stoney Mtn Chapter.

Grace and Peace to all,

Hayden Howell
CPE Supervisor, (Retired Emeritus)
jhowell4@sc.rr.com

The purpose of my going to the Correctional Centre, aka jail, was to meet with two artists confined to the facility, individuals who I hoped might be able to do some sketching for a writing project I am working on. 

Corrections? Or is it jail?
 I am tempted to stick with the word jail in that it’s a much less cumbersome term and possibly the more descriptive of reality. Certainly there are forces in our government and society as a whole that are more interested in jailing a person, to hell with correcting anything. But I decided I would not give in to such an attitude and refer instead to this place of incarceration as “Corrections”. Better to pray for what has been lost than to forget it. 

Right from the beginning I am reminded that I am entering a different world, one of restrictions, an environment I am not accustomed to. First, I was informed I had to “get clearance”, that is fill out a form, send it in and wait two days to hear if the powers that be deem I am a safe bet to visit the place. I was reminded of applying for visas when we went to the U.S. years back. Our son was then one year old, nevertheless we had to fill out a long questionnaire in which we assured the government he was not the owner of dangerous weapons and was not going to engage in criminal behavior. They let him in just as the authorities let me in yesterday, one old man looking for someone who can draw some sketches and who has paid all his traffic tickets. Can it be any other way? Probably not.

Upon arrival the mere look of the facility gives pause for thought. Call the place by whatever name you like, you can’t really disguise twenty-foot walls, adorned as they are with rolls of razor wire, concertina wire by name. Interesting word, concertina. Originally it referred to a hand held accordion, one of those happy little instruments that stretches and closes squeezing out a tune, light, gay sounds you can dance to. But here at “Corrections” the concertinas remain motionless and mute, their razor edges glinting in the sun.

I enter through a set of doors, heavy brutes comprised of half inch glass and steel that crunch close with a finality that sounds more like jail than corrections. Once inside I encounter, behind a screen, an attractive young officer, as neat and trim in her police black uniform as the tiles and glass that surround her. She instructs me to sign in which I do, fits me out with a tag and I am ready to go. 

A second officer appears and introduces herself, the same person I have been emailing with over the previous week. B.. is tall, plain featured, no make-up, a woman pushing 50, a little wary as she measures me up. She watches as I lock away my wallet and keys then leads me through another set of heavy sliding doors that close behind us, locking us in to a 6’ by 10’ glass walled chamber. A moment later and doors open on the opposite side and we step out into a space all its own. 

I have been in the hallways of other institutions. Schools, for instance, where there is a plant or two, a picture of the Queen on the wall together with posters proclaiming the value of tolerance and equality and getting an education, passageways that ring with the shouts of children and bear that distinctive smell that arises from the intermingling of chalk dust and the odor given off by fifty sets of sweaty little sneakers.

Hospital hallways are different. There is a distinctive smell as well, one of chemicals, body odors, and urine combined with a dash of air freshener to create an aroma like none other, one you will detect hours later in your clothes and hair. The space seems narrowed, confined, cluttered with carts and all manner of equipment together with staff - cleaning ladies, technicians, nurses on the move, and clumps of white coats in conversation -all vying for the same little bit of space. Wend your way through it all and you can find a patient. 

The hallways at “Corrections” are different yet again, passageways 12 feet high, hard rectangular tunnels of painted cement, tiles and heavy glass. Wherever you go you are visible. No pictures, no posters, no clutter. No smell. There are people, to be sure, two distinct groupings, those in neat trimmed black, men and women, and all the others, men only, dressed in some variation on sneakers, jeans and T-shirts.

We arrive at our destination, a classroom as barren as the hallway, the sole nod in the direction of human habitation are two arborite covered tables and some chairs in disarray. Actually we are fortunate to have even this little bit of space. When I arrive the following week I am told that due to overcrowding this room too has been taken over by bunks, as has the chapel. We must meet in B..’s office, a ten by eight cubicle crowded with two desks, a chair or two and “stuff”, as much a storage area as an office. 

Presently two young men arrive, one aboriginal, one not. The introductions go easily; they greet me with firm handshakes and smiles. I suppose I have been expecting a reticence on their part, an awkwardness in our meeting but this clearly has been my problem, not theirs. It remains with me to tell them why I have come, that I am looking for an artist to do some sketching. I am pleasantly surprised at the questions they have and the interest they show.

“Why did you choose us, why did you come here?”

It is the aboriginal man who speaks, a man of maybe 30, wispy mustache, and friendly demeanor. He is wearing a covering over his hair, made necessary because he is working in the kitchen from which he has time off to meet with me. Later he will say he is interested in writing, that he would like to try his hand at it. 

“I came here,” I reply, “because I have seen art work done by people like yourselves, by individuals who have experienced difficulty. I think good art comes out of adversity and you know about that.”  The conversation rolls on. We talk about what I want in my sketches. Less is more. Stripped down images, not too much detail. Suggestive. I read them a little of what I have written and they respond easily. We talk about how I might pay for what I receive. One of them offers to let me take one of his sketches –a beautifully drawn violin and bow, detailed, perfectly proportioned -to see if it can be reduced in size on a copy machine. 

We arrange to meet in a week’s time and review what they have drawn. If I can use their work we will proceed with the details of a contract and payment. B.. will arrange for our meeting. Although I suspect what the answer will be I ask her if I can bring some cookies or muffins for our meeting next week? Sorry, nothing of that sort allowed.

And a sinking feeling comes in the pit of my stomach. Later in the quiet of my home, at my leisure, where there is carpet on the floor, the doors close quietly and I can have a muffin with my tea, I take the time to reflect on my time spent in “Corrections”.

What an awful thing to lock a man up, take away his freedom and put him in a cell behind bars where the sights and sounds and smells of every day are swept up, denied, and in their absence imposed a terrible kind of neat and tidy order, a sterility that reduces everything to no, denying the very essentials that make us human. Of what value is this?

I know why Corrections locks people up, says no to cookies and muffins and most everything else that humans enjoy, but surely to God if you can build a place with concertina wire on the walls and every security feature in the book you can figure out a way to spot a bit of pot in a cookie or a razor blade in a muffin. Corrections? Jail? 

In discussion alone with B.. she talked freely of the adverse conditions that prevail in the facility, the overcrowding, a lack of programming, the hierarchy among the prisoners, the harassment many of them endure, the abuse staff themselves absorb. And she confirms what I have thought, “Nothing”, she says, “gets corrected here.” Later one of my artists echoes her words when he says, “It’s jail all the way.”

Under these conditions what can become of my two artists. What will happen to them? I have no idea. I imagine good things for them but then there’s reality. Their chances of success are probably on a par with the outcome of my writing project. Conformation of my fears comes a week later when I return to find one of the men has been sentenced to 28 months in the penitentiary. 

And yet… .

Even as I reflect on the dark side of “Corrections”, see the futility of what is being done, “that nothing gets corrected here”, I realize I am looking forward to going back to meet again with my artists and with B.. . Maybe I am looking for a fix, a happy ending for my sermon. Or maybe it’s something quite different, something humans do. We tell stories searching for an ending, an ending we can live with.

Whatever the case two moments, two scraps interrupt my narrative. 

At the conclusion of one of our visist sI had begun making preparations to leave and the men to return to their work. We discuss what kind of art supplies they will need. Some sketch pencils and paper. I am prepared to go and buy what is needed but B.., who seems to have warmed to the project, says she has a few supplies and will make them available. We stop by her office where I think I detect pleasure as she hands out what she has. As for the artists they are pleased, take the supplies eagerly, examine them, all smiles. And I am hauled up short, touched to the point of tears: gratitude over three sheets of paper and a box of pencils. And then there’s the candy.

On a desk in the clutter of B..’s office sits a bowl of hardrock candy wrapped in cellophane, sour cubes, the kind that once in your mouth refuse to break but take a half hour to slowly reduce to slivers and then dissolve. B.. has bought them at Dollarama and leaves them here for all who stop by. 

I help myself and even take three for my pocket. Then in occurs to me these bits of candy are breaking all the rules. God knows what could lie hidden in those colored chunks of sugar. More to the point, I am embarrassed. For most of the people who sit in this chair one piece of candy will be a week’s rations. More than that it will be a place to rest awhile and talk, time to enjoy the care of a mother who knows what a man requires. I put the three back and suck more thoughtfully on the sliver that remains.  

_________________________________ 

Ron Evans is a CPSP Diplomate living in Saskatchewan, Canada is a a published author. He has frequently presented his poetry and prose at meetings of the CPSP Plenary as well as contributed articles for publication in the Pastoral Report. 

The following are two of his recent book publications:

Coming Home: Saskatchewan Remembered

The Sourdough Bagel: Confessions of a Loner Who Likes Company

Below are several of his articles published on the PR:

Five Books At One End of a Shelf

A Word From the Lord

To contact Ron Evans, click here.

Dr. Valerie Cooper, Associate Professor of Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School, in a recent interview on WUNC.ORG's NPR station provides a rich and thoughtful perspective on the Charleston, SC killings and the history of the black church.

Go To: WUNC's the State of Things with Frank Stasio, Host and listen to the interview.

WUNC.ORG

(An Extended Review of Spiritual Care in Practice: Case Studies in Healthcare Chaplaincy George Fitchett & Steve Nolan, Editors)

NOTE: See Part I

I

The Case

Erica is the mother of a two-year-old girl with cancer, admitted to the ER. There are several young children at home, a grown daughter, and a new husband who doesn't understand Erica's religious affections. She describes herself as a "redneck" with a faith in Jesus that was making it possible for her to cope. God has spoken to her directly and powerfully, and she relates stories about the voices. Erica is certain that God has a plan, but she is not sure why God would speak to her. She keeps all this from her husband, who couldn't understand.

Erica had requested a chaplain when admitted to the ER. She responded negatively to the first chaplain she met, a female who was 'dressed too fancy,' unlike the present chaplain who is dressed down, in blue jeans and turtleneck. The chaplain responds to Erica's sharing of her experience of God speaking to her by relating the story of God talking to Moses.

Later Erica rants over the many misleading translations of the Bible in current circulation, arguing that only the King James Version is authentic. She is vexed specifically that the new translations do not declare Mary a "virgin." In response the chaplain offers a mini-lecture on the problems of translating ancient manuscripts. It did not seem to occur to the chaplain that Erica may have some thoughts or feelings about virginity itself, or perhaps the circumstances of her own deflowering, and thus might have become fixed on this biblical text.

It appears that every chaplain visit is ended with a prayer, and sometimes at the chaplain's own request.

The chaplain reports an intuition along the way that Erica might have a substance abuse problem that she was not disclosing. This would seem to be a good guess. In response to this supposition, the chaplain decides to divulge her own past history of substance abuse. She took this action, she says, subsequent to a message from the social work department reporting that Erica had made a request there for referral to a "Christian counselor" for help with one of her older children. The chaplain discloses her knowledge of this request by advising Erica to find a competent counselor rather than a specifically Christian one. There is no inquiry and no speculation as to why Erica went to social workers for referral, and not to the the chaplain herself. One would think this would have been an insult and a negative reflection on the pastoral relationship itself, a devaluation of the chaplain's authority and/or wisdom. Yet, that is not explored.

Erica and the chaplain appear to have some difficulty finding places to talk in private. Or perhaps Erica's need to smoke is the motivation to exit the hospital. In any case, the two of them devise a plan to move outside to a nearby street corner, and to sit on the curb while they talk and Erica smokes. It is in that context that the chaplain shares her own substance abuse history and her 12-step program experience. This is a rather poignant picture, an institutional chaplain counseling on the street, sitting on the curb. If nothing else, this chaplain is resilient.

At one point Erica's husband arrived unexpectedly in the hospital room while the chaplain was present. Erica suddenly fired four shots with a toy gun that emits plastic globs, leaving him nonplused. Erica immediately proposed to go for a private conversation with the chaplain, leaving the husband with their daughter.

The chaplain reports that every visit with Erica began and ended with a hug, and it seems to have been a serious hug at least some of the time. One such incident is described as Erica holding her baby and sobbing, throwing herself into the chaplain's arms, while the chaplain embraced them both and stroked Erica's back as she prayed

In her summary, the chaplain assesses herself in relation to this patient as eager to get religion out of the way so that spiritual care could begin, and to move the conversation to a deeper level.

She feels she became Erica's "mentor and spiritual friend."

The chaplain also contends that she has been "a transitional object" for Erica, as described by the psychoanalytic authority, D.W. Winnicott. Very few readers will have any idea what a transitional object means, or whether it promotes understanding of the pastoral role here.

II

The Published Critique

The co-editor's (Nolan) assessment of the case is that Erica had "a keen Christian faith," that the chaplain "models good practice in multi-professional working," and that she models "an incarnational approach." The editor also notes that while self-disclosure can be a first step towards "violating the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship," the chaplain here "offers chaplains an example of good practice in this sensitive area."

The other two critical assessments are more substantive - and more accurate. The clinical chaplain critic (Bull) seems to be mostly undecided and feeling ambivalent about this case, but he does question the chaplain's identification of herself as a Winnicotian "transitional object." He also "felt ambiguous" about the religious focus that emerged in the case. Even more telling, he felt that the chaplain "may have had her own deconstructive agenda" in her claim that her goal was "to get religion out of the way" in favor of spirituality. He also "wonders," astutely, about the chaplain's compliance with Erica's request to leave her child and husband in the room (after shooting him!) while the two of them went off to talk.

The psychologist critic (Cotton) is somewhat more decisive and direct. He says the researcher in him wants to know what the definition of "spiritual care" is, and if the chaplain is off-loading religion in its favor. He certainly belled the cat on that one. I suggest he better not wait around for an answer.

III

Author's Critique

We have here a very complex and troublesome clinical case, followed by three critical responses. It should be said first that the chaplain deserves credit for courageously jumping in water over her head, publicly disclosing a number of poignant and serious issues, and making herself the object of public scrutiny. She certainly should get high marks for courage. Maybe we can all learn from her mistakes as well as her commitment.

I strongly second the psychologist critic (Cotton) who asks for a definition of spiritual care that is distinct from religious or pastoral care. As I have already suggested, I believe that will be hard to come by. No one should look for it anytime soon.

As to the other clinical responses, I concur with the chaplain critic (Bull), but with less ambivalence. Contrariwise, I take issue with the co-editor's (Nolan) assessment of Erica's "keen Christian faith," and that the chaplain is a model of an incarnational faith. For the latter point, I do not know what he is talking about. The chaplain is certainly in the flesh, probably too much so, if that is what is meant by an incarnational stance. As for Erica's faith, it seems to me a borderline or even psychotic construct. Persons today often refer to God speaking to them, typically meaning "metaphorically speaking." But Erica sounds as if she is not speaking in metaphors. She suggests that she may in fact be hearing voices, in which case she would seem to qualify as psychotic, or at least borderline.

Now there is nothing wrong with being psychotic, or borderline. Anton Boisen taught us that lesson well. But the question is how to work with a person in such straits. The best answer yet is that we should listen to them, and keep listening until we can make some sense out of their irrational thought processes. My problem with Erica's chaplain is that she does not seem to recognize that she may have an exceedingly troubled woman on her hands. And the chaplain does not do much listening. She lectures on the Bible, and engages in discussion of the meaning of the Trinity. She shares her own past history of substance abuse. She prays and prays ad nauseum. She hugs. But she does not really listen in depth. She does not seem to wonder what might underlie Erica's troubling personal disorganization.

For example, what might it mean that Erica shoots her husband with the toy gun in the presence of the chaplain, and then whisks the chaplain away from her husband for a private talk? Shouldn't it be useful for the chaplain and for Erica to meet and converse jointly with the husband? Is the chaplain no more than Erica's pawn in this family drama?

I am also concerned about the extraordinary amount of physical contact that takes place between the chaplain and Erica, an issue only lightly touched upon by one of the critics, the clinical chaplain (Bull). The boundary between the two seems much too permeable. Hugs at the beginning and end of each visit, along with intimate back-rubs during prayers while Erica sobs. A male chaplain acting in such a way would place himself in grave danger in the current environment of sexual hysteria. But political issue aside, most authorities in the field consider such physical intimacy to be inhibitory to a significant pastoral or counseling relationship. I doubt that the permeable physical boundaries between Erica and the chaplain are useful in furthering the therapeutic process.

I also wonder about the wisdom of the chaplain's self-disclosure of her own history of substance abuse. As with the issue of physical contact, this seems to be the consequence of boundaries that are too permeable.

However, in spite of all I have written, I am quite struck by the articulate if somewhat skewed closing words of the chaplain writing in her own self-defense for this case:

"So I believe that the most important part of the work I will ever do is inner work, plumbing my own fears and chaos so that I will not pull away from the fears and chaos of others."

Agreed. Well said. She is eminently correct, as far as she goes. And the chaplain in this case, indeed, did not pull away from Erica's chaos.

But it's like a reverse of the old parable of falling over backwards while trying to avoid falling on one's face. It could be said that the chaplain fell on her face, but did avoid falling over backwards.

The chaplain blessedly did not pull away from Erica's chaos, but she did get swallowed up in it, and thus lost her way and abandoned her role. The chaplain must revise her philosophy of pastoral care, and resolve neither to pull away nor to get swallowed up, but to remain close and intimate, while remaining distinct and separate, and watching with a third eye...and patiently listening until some sense of meaning in the craziness begins to emerge from the patient herself. It often takes a long time.

This case is an excellent teaching instrument from which we all can learn. I do hope the chaplain can endure the critique in the service of her own learning as well.

Raymond J. Lawrence

In a recent article published on CounterPunch.org entitled: Prophets of the People or Chaplains of the Status Quo?, William Alberts, PhD launches a searing attack against the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education for its failure to live up to its mission statement as "... the first and leading self-described “multicultural, multi-faith organization devoted to providing education and improving the quality of ministry and pastoral care offered by spiritual caregivers of all faiths through the clinical education methods of Clinical Pastoral Education.”

Although his article was written just prior to the Charleston, SC slaughter of the of those gather in Emmanuel Mother Church for prayer, Alberts' article is disturbingly and profoundly relevant to the event.

I quote: 
“The Powers that be.” ACPE may fear losing its U.S. Department of Education endorsement if it becomes too political. ACPE may also avoid political issues, fearing losing the goose with the golden egg, as the Chaplain Corps uses ACPE training for military chaplains, with CPE centers also on military bases and in VA hospitals. In the latter, the supervisors may be military, but are also ACPE certified. It is the politics of religion that often keeps religion out of politics—out of risky political issues."

CPSP escapes his critical critique, although his critique, might equally apply to CPSP and other pastoral care and counseling organizations.

Stating the above, however, as Publisher and Editor of the Pastoral Report, I published position statements written by CPSP leadership related to the Iraq war, gay marriage and the Charleston, SC killings. These were not personal opinions. They were official public positions of CPSP. The first two public positions by CPSP were disturbing and criticized by some members of the CPSP community. In the face of such public and controversial stance by CPSP leadership, a number of CPSP members ended their membership with CPSP or found a way to attack the CPSP leadership on other issues as a subterfuge.

Here are links to CPSP public statements:

October 14, 2003. The CPSP Governing Council Meeting in Washington, DC Issues Position on War with Iraq addressed to President George Bush:

...The drumbeat for war emanating from the national leadership is deeply troubling and divisive. The current national leadership may well be privy, as you claim, to secret information affecting the nation’s security and well being. While it is almost impossible for citizens to assess the weight of evidence that impels us toward war, the call for terror to meet terror in the case of Iraq leaves us wary. ... 

http://www.pastoralreport.com/the_archives/2002/10/the_cpsp_govern.html

March 14, 2013. CPSP Public Declaration: Commitment to Marriage Equality

"The College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP) declares publicly in the name of justice its dismay with the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) passed by Congress in 1996 and the subsequent Defense of Marriage Act laws passed by some states designed to penalizes persons due to their sexual identity.

The College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy endorses the right of civil marriage and that it should be available to all who wish to make this relational commitment.

... Every human being is entitled to justice and dignity as a given right and that we have an obligation to respect and defend the dignity of every human being and of every loving relationship including the relationship of raising future generations..."

http://www.pastoralreport.com/the_archives/2013/03/cpsp_public_dec.html#

June 19, 2015. Raymond Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary, Response to Charleston, SC Tragedy:
"The ghastly event at Mother Emanuel AME Church Thursday in Charleston, South Carolina, was an unspeakable act of violence seemingly motivated explicitly by racial hatred.

We must do all we can to counter these kinds of outrageous assaults, and to be united with those who are victimized by them.

This incident calls attention to the disturbing rise of both overt and covert hostility in this country, particularly directed against racial minorities and the poor.

We in CPSP must do all we can to be in solidarity with the abused, the assaulted, and the oppressed. This is our moral and our prophetic pastoral responsibility.

I call for all in CPSP as well as those beyond the boundaries of our community, to renew our commitment to work toward a just and loving community for all people, with special concern for racial minorities and the poor among us."

http://www.pastoralreport.com/the_archives/2015/06/raymond_lawrenc_11.html#more

I searched for similar official statements from the ACPE and found none. If they do not exist, it provides credence to William Albert's critique. If they exist, Albert's critique is off the mark. If Dr. Alberts is correct, however, ACPE is subject to Albert's critique:

"...the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education’s emphasis on “cultural competency” apparently did not lead its members to issue a policy statement on a major issue raging around them at their May meeting in Atlanta. That major issue, which continues to draw protests nationwide: the killing of black men and youths by white police officers in Ferguson, Staten Island, Cleveland, North Charleston, Baltimore and other cities. One would think that a self-proclaimed commitment to “heal a hurting world” would lead ACPE to use its annual meeting, especially with all members gathered, to declare “Black Lives Matter!,” and to issue a policy statement and plan of action to join with other community groups in addressing the “hurting world” of persons of color."

Below is the link to William Alberts' Article, "Prophets of the People or Chaplains of the Status Quo?"

The sad truth is that William Alberts, in general, is on the mark and that we in the clinical pastoral movement, not just the ACPE, have sold our soul for a space in the public market place.

Perry Miller, Editor
Pastoral Report

___________________________________
Perry Miller, Editor
Pastoral Report
perrymiller@gmail.com

Note: Those wishing to respond to Dr. Alberts' article can do so: William Alberts

His recent book, The Counterpunching Minister (who couldn't be "preyed" away) can be found on Amazon.com.

Arriving during the midnight hours at Dover, Massachusetts for a six-day international residential training was an experience I will not soon forget.

The conference, presented by the A.K. Rice Institute, was titled “Learning for Leadership 2015: Working Across Differences” and was billed as “An International Experiential Leadership Opportunity.” The event was held at Boston College’s Connors Family Retreat and Conference Center, which dates back to the early 1900s. Boston College is situated on 280 acres of land along the Charles River, offering a variety of wonderful hiking and running trails through wooded areas, wetlands, gardens, bocce ball greens and basketball courts. The comfortable temperatures, along with pesky mosquitoes, hooting owls, an orchestra of tree frogs and frequent deer sightings, all contributed to a very memorable experience.

Being an International conference, participants came from as far away as the Faroe Islands, Alaska, Hawaii, Germany, the United Kingdom and Ontario, Canada, as well as many members of the administrative staff who reside outside of the United States. Membership included a large number of working professionals and leaders in the fields of behavioral health, education, government, and business. A respectable 25% of the attendees came from CPSP.

The learning environment was intensely challenging, unconventional and practical. It provided unique opportunities for the most valuable kind of learning: experiential. In my assigned small group, I had the opportunity to continue learning from my CPSP colleagues as well as to gain fresh insights from members from Minnesota, Ontario, and the UK.  I made enlightened discoveries about the unconscious nature and behavior in groups – and about myself. Sometimes, the learning was emotionally challenging. During one brutally honest session, I learned where my personal responses come from and how they intersect with the interests of the group. I came to understand my responsibility for engagement and not, as I’m often inclined in group settings, to withdraw and simply listen to others.

Our assignment was to build a new organization — quickly. From this exercise and the inherent group dynamics, I gained a better understanding of leadership at the interface of an individual, groups and organizations.  The stress of building a new institution was exhausting and painful at times, but allowed me to see how the conscious and unconscious interactions of every member influences change, giving me a unique and valuable opportunity to study various aspects of how people and organizations work.

This conference provided me with an extraordinary opportunity to “tune in” to the frequency of group and organizational life experiences that’s always present, but virtually never approachable due to everyday work demands.  I found the experiential learning, as well as the opportunity for reflection in small groups with other participants of different cultures and beliefs, to be sometimes exhilarating, often exhausting, but always richly satisfying.

Regardless of whether you are new or a well-seasoned member of The College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, or perhaps still completing your CPE training, I highly recommend that you challenge yourself and plan to attend one of these conferences. The experiences you will gain in group relations work will bestow indescribable benefits to you, those you serve and our entire CPSP community.

________________
Ruth Zollinger
Board Certified Clinical Chaplain
runrz1@me.com

The following announcement appeared on the (UAMS) website:

"CAPPT Accreditation of UAMS Clinical Pastoral Education Training Program

"On June 10, 2015, the Clinical Pastoral Education Training program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) was granted full accreditation by the Commission for Pastoral and Psychotherapy Training (CAPPT). UAMS, under the leadership of CPSP Diplomate in Supervision George Hankins-Hull, is the first College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy program to receive CAPPT accreditation. CAPPT accreditation is an acknowledgment of the strength and quality of a training program.

CAPPT accreditation is the result of a rigorous audit of a Clinical Pastoral Education Training Center’s CPSP Accreditation process, involving a review of the Training Center’s self-study materials together with the CPSP site team’s report of the site visit. CAPPT seeks to assure that the CPSP Accreditation process is entirely consistent with CPSP Standards of Accreditation, and comparable with ‘best practices and standards’ of cognate accrediting organizations involved in professional training, i.e., the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the Association for Graduate Medical Education, and the Association of Professional Chaplains.

A successful accreditation review designates a training program as educationally and fiscally sound, with clear administrative support for the continued functioning integrity of the training center. CAPPT accreditation assures trainees and potential employers that the training program meets the most rigorous standards of the profession.

A CPSP training center which receives CAPPT Accreditation may indicate on the Training Center’s website that it has achieved this seminal industry designation.

CPSP anticipates that all of its CPE training programs will be submitting their programs to the CAPPT Accreditation process for review."

Congratulations to George Hankins-Hull, Director, his CPE supervisory staff and to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for this achievement of excellence.

George Hankins-Hull, Director
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 
JHull@uams.edu

Editor's Note: For information about the Commission for Pastoral and Psychotherapy Training (CAPPT) click here.

The Current Crisis in Healthcare Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care(An Extended Review of Spiritual Care in Practice: Case Studies in Healthcare Chaplaincy George Fitchett & Steve Nolan, Editors)

Part Three

Raymond J. Lawrence

I The Patient

Angela is a blonde, blue-eyed, petite 17-year-old who, after a family argument, lost control of her car on an icy road and suffered a severed upper spine. She was paralyzed from the neck down, with no prospect of remedial treatment, suddenly an almost certain lifelong quadriplegic.

The female Catholic chaplain visited her for four “rapport-building visits” and then used the Spiritual Assessment Tool designed by the spirituality guru, Christine Puchalski. The Spiritual Assessment Tool recommends putting the following questions to the patient:

- Do you have spiritual or religious beliefs that help you cope during this time? 
What importance do your beliefs have for you at this time?
Are you a member of a religious or spiritual community? 
Are there any particular spiritual or religious activities important to your well-being while you are in the hospital?

On reading this list of four, my first thought was that if I were a patient suffering from such a catastrophic, life altering event, and a chaplain came asking me such questions, I would call security and have them removed from my room. My second fantasy was that if in the unlikely event I had any spirit left in me I might play with the chaplain and reply to the first question, "Yes. My god is a large cosmic cat who is coming soon to deliver me from this nightmare, and take me to cat heaven."

The basic Puchalski theology is that religion is something like a Swiss Army Knife, a little tool with many uses that often comes in handy in a pinch. That's what you get when you turn a physician into an expert on pastoral care and counseling.

Next, the chaplain used what she calls her own specially devised "Spiritual Assessment Tool" that leads to discussions of how patients feel centered or anchored, called or motivated, whether they feel connected to relationships beyond themselves, and contribute to the good of the world and/or the good of others in grand or small ways. It is not clear why the chaplain needed two sets of so-called Spiritual Assessment Tools. One seems about as inhumane as the other. The chaplain wrote that she weaves the questions into conversations, presumably in order that the patient will not feel surveyed.

Angela, it turned out, was a member of a small Protestant church and had not been attending or engaging in any religious practices. But now she was praying several times a day and having the Bible read to her. Obviously she could not lift the book to read on her own.

For the first days after her accident, Angela was in denial, expecting to go home soon. Her mother, too, was in denial, promising her that if Angela prayed hard enough, God would give her a miracle. And of course, the chaplain was asked by Angela to pray for that same miracle, which she did. (What are chaplains for anyway?)

The chaplain thought Angela to be coping adequately in the early days after the accident, though she thought Angela to be unaware of the likely permanence of the injury. But it would have been clear to any clinical observer that Angela was in massive denial. During this period the chaplain discussed with Angela how God was working in her life. The chaplain believed that God is always with us, especially in our deepest darkness. That Angela has just been made a quadriplegic but that God is with her is the ultimate non sequitur driven by denial.

Angela's pastor came to visit, but the chaplain reported that Angela does not relate to him.

Into the second week of hospitalization Angela's illusions, hopes, and prayers began to fade. She stopped caring for herself, refused to work with the psychologist, and stopped eating and drinking. The chaplain nevertheless persevered in her visits, laying aside her "spiritual resources" agenda and most of her pious defense of God, and finally began to listen quietly to Angela's despair. "I have lost everything! Absolutely everything!" was her cry. And so it seems. Who in the world would not feel exactly the same way? The chaplain finds the emotional barrage a bit disorienting and difficult to bear, but she is for a space of time blessedly quiet, finally. The chaplain silently comforts herself (but not Angela, thank God!) with the belief that God is with us always, even in our deepest darkness. And it appears that the chaplain blessedly and to her credit stayed relatively quiet with Angela in her despair, if only for a while.

The chaplain then thinks to herself, "Angela has lost her spiritual center." (The meaning "spiritual center" is not exegeted.) Certainly Angela has lost the will to live. Certainly we can agree that Angela has experienced a horrifying life-altering blow at age 17, a blow from which she will likely never much recover, and as a result, it is not even clear that she will recover the will to live. What else does the chaplain need to know? And if Angela could find a "spiritual center" would her anguish be over?

The next phase of the relationship between Angela and the chaplain is full of discussion topics about the power of prayer, the power of God, whether God actually reached down and broke Angela's neck, or not, as well as the discussion of several biblical texts introduced by the chaplain. The chaplain is increasingly propelled into a catechetical mode. It's as if she were instructing a potential novice in the mysteries of the Christian faith. And the chaplain's lines in the verbatim sections become significantly longer than the patient's, usually an indicator of a chaplain's dysfunction. Pastoral counseling has collapsed and the chaplain has morphed into a catechist or propagandist. The chaplain says to the patient, for example:

"I believe that God's will for us is always related to what is truly good for us, but that in the middle of a painful situation, especially one as painful as yours, it's hard to find the good. With time, though, we might see it."

Yes, perhaps. And with time we might not see it. My thought in first reading this was the wish to be able to send this Pollyanna chaplain down to the underworld to give that bit of pious wisdom to all the dead from Auschwitz. She could report back, "It's hard to see the good in those deaths, but we know it must be there, because God is good."

The chaplain, as pocket philosopher, has lost her way.

"Suffering is so hard to understand," says the chaplain, in a further display of banality. And then she expresses surprise and dismay that Angela thinks that God actually reached down and severed her spine. Why wouldn't Angela think that? Omnipotence means the power to do anything.

Discussions ensue as to whether God is responsible for the accident and injury. The chaplain seems to do most of the talking, and is very protective of God's innocence, as is typical of religious authorities.

Then in the midst of the sermonizing and religious education a ray of hope breaks in. Angela says, out of the blue, that it always helps when Josh visits. Josh is another rehab patient Angela's age who has similar injuries. Angela has found a new friend, one her age and in a predicament like her own. Then Angela asks the chaplain to assist her in blowing her nose, something she of course cannot do for herself. Angela cannot even hold a tissue. Next she asks the chaplain to wash her face, and afterward says, "That feels better, so much better. Thank you." We have the first recorded inkling of Angela's recovered will to live, faint as it may be. Angela dismisses the chaplain and asks that she return tomorrow. In her departure the chaplain of course feels the need to offer yet one more prayer.

In due course Angela is discharged to a long-term treatment center. Her family is unable to care for her and seemingly little interested. We never hear about her further.

II The Critique

The published critiques were quite weak.

The Editor's (Steve Nolan) critique merely summarizes, adding nothing.

The Psychologist critic (Sian Cotton) points out that the chaplain aims to "be a sign of God's incarnational love" and to help Angela establish a relationship with God that would "center and sustain her" in the future. He calls the chaplain's interventions and clinical choices "spot on." He also claims that the chaplain's "spiritual care transformed and assisted Angela." He does add, appropriately, that the chaplain might have explored Angela's parental abandonment, along with her other losses resulting from her accident. His one assertion, that I heartily concur with, was that this was "one of the most emotionally...powerful" stories he has ever read. On balance, the psychologist critic failed in his assignment. He was far from "spot on."

The Chaplain critic (Alister W. Bull) was the strongest of the three. He felt ambivalent about the religious focus that emerged in this case, as well as in the previous two cases. He charges that the chaplain often took the lead in introducing religious language and constructs with which they were familiar. I wish he had been less ambivalent and more direct, but nevertheless I say "bravo to the chaplain critic!"

III Author's Notes

Clinical pastoral criticism in the U.S., coming as it does out of the Boisen movement, is a tradition of strong clinical criticism. The critics in this case hardly qualify as strong. Except for the one offered by the chaplain critic, the critiques of this case were almost useless.

Overall Angela's chaplain assumed too much of the role of God's little defense attorney. She should already know that that's a role, ever since Job, that no one should undertake under any circumstances. How could anyone defend the turning of a lively 17-year-old girl into a quadriplegic? Who would even want to? But who can put God in the dock? It's a case one cannot win.

The proper posture of a clinical chaplain is agnostic, regardless of the chaplain's own personal beliefs and allegiances. The clinical role demands it. In this era, chaplains present themselves to persons of many different faiths, and faiths within faiths as well as persons of no faith at all. A proper clinician does not represent any specific religion or tradition if the chaplain wants to remain a clinician. Indoctrination and proselytizing do not belong in the clinical setting. The chaplain in this case was continually promoting her own pious beliefs. That is not acceptable.

I think we must be suspicious of the chaplain's cavalier dismissal of Angela's own congregational minister on the grounds that Angela didn't relate to him. Angela was in no condition to relate to anyone for much of her time in the hospital. Unless there are clear contraindications— and there may be— the chaplain should encourage the connection between the minister and Angela. One visit can hardly be determinative. Angela has only meager support from her family. The chance that any minister might take an interest in her should be valued on its face. We have to be suspicious that discounting- the minister is rooted in the half millennium of hostility between Catholics and Protestants, and wonder in this case if the chaplain's own Catholicism was skewing her assessment of Angela's Protestant minister. The minister and the chaplain were, after all, in a competitive role during Angela's hospitalization. Suspicion is warranted.

The one point in the case that was clearly redemptive, in my view, was Angela's reporting that it always helps when the 17-year-old Josh, a quadriplegic like herself, comes to visit. Mirabile dictu, she has found a boy for a friend, a boy immobilized like herself, and in that she has found, perhaps, even the will to live. Then she asked the chaplain to help her blow her nose and then to wash her face. "That feels better, so much better. Thank you," she said, and then asked the chaplain to return the next day. The quadriplegic 17-year-old Angela has found a will to live, if only for that moment. It's enough to make a grown man weep.

Buried in all the chaplain's religiosity and talkativeness, Angela must have sensed that there was a compassionate human being in there, human enough to be asked to blow her nose and wash her face.

This case demonstrates that we can be instruments of healing sometimes even when our skills abandon us and our awareness is dim. Perhaps it is a matter of simply being human, utterly human: blowing the nose and washing the face of a young quadriplegic girl who has just met a boy she likes.

I do conclude that the chaplain in this case was ultimately a blessing to Angela—but in spite of herself. It was a very close thing. The chaplain made a revelatory confession in her concluding paragraph, stating, "I entered Angela's darkness while keeping my eyes on the light of hope." This tells me that the chaplain's own countertransference was so strong that she could hardly bear staying focused on the patient. For her own protection—and sanity, perhaps—she piled high her religious teaching and her piety as a defense against the horror of Angela's predicament. But enough humanity broke through her anxiety, enabling the chaplain to reach Angela. Perhaps one day she will be able to do much more.

The fact that the chaplain in this case now is teaching other chaplains as well as medical students and psychiatric residents about the work of chaplaincy should sound the alarm to any who care about the profession. I do wish this chaplain would get into advanced clinical pastoral training that is psychodynamically oriented, in the Boisen tradition. Her heart seems to be right, but her practice is very much lacking.

I do wonder what eventually happened in Angela's life, and in Josh's. They are now in their mid-twenties. If they are alive. I fear the worst.

____________
Raymond Lawrence
raymondlawrence@gmail.com

Editor's Note: This is the third article of a series written by Dr. Lawrence critiquing the clinical case studies found in An Extended Review of Spiritual Care in Practice: Case Studies in Healthcare Chaplaincy by George Fitchett & Steve Nolan, Editors). Additional articles on the subject will be published on the Pastoral Report.

Please review:

Article One:

Article Two:

Join us for this year’s NCTS-West at Christ the King Retreat Center in Sacramento, California.  

This will be an intensive, experiential, residential conference intended to expand your clinical awareness and deepen your capacity to provide pastoral care. Over three days we will create a temporary learning organization offering an opportunity to notice how we function in groups and the institutions in which we work—without the pressures and politics of the actual workplace. In this unique environment, insights can be developed that help increase our influence and effectiveness.
 This is the first CPSP Group Relations Conference co-hosted with Grex, the West Coast affiliate of the A K Rice Institute, offering CPSP the opportunity to work with highly experienced Group Relations practitioners in a focused and reflective environment.

Due to the unique goals of this training model, the number of participants at this conference will be strictly limited. Registrants will pay a significantly reduced cost for this all-inclusive event.

> For conference fees and registration, go to the NCTS-West web site: cpsp-ncts.org

SOME OF THE LIKELY TOPICS FOR REFLECTION

> What is the relationship between my personal and pastoral identities and my professional role?

> How in my role do I affect the individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions that I work in, and how do they, in turn, impact me and my ability to stay in role? > Where do I get the authority to do my work?

> What is my experience of leading and following? > What does my training help me to see, and what might my training cause me to miss seeing? > How are the human needs to belong and connect manifest in the complex environments in which we work? 

CONFERENCE OUTCOMES

While group-relations conference learning is a very individual matter, there are common outcomes for CPSP members that could include: 
  
> Increasing appreciation of the power of the group unconscious, for example, in CPE and your CPSP chapter.

> Enhancing awareness of self in relation to the group dynamics present with patients and families we serve.

> Noticing the group dynamics within interdisciplinary care teams and learning how to work in them effectively. 
 

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

The conference will help you understand Boundaries, Authority, Role, and Task (BART) as they are applied. In addition, each participant will be part of an Application Group and receive individualized consultation on their unique work situation. After the conference, a staff-hosted online Video Post-Conference will offer the opportunity to continue to integrate the experience and apply the learning at work. 
 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Participation in an experiential group-relations conference is a requirement for all CPSP Supervisors-in-Training (SITs) prior to being certified as Diplomates. It is also an invaluable clinical learning experience for all Clinical Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors committed to excellence. For those certified as CPSP Diplomates in Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, it goes without saying that a thorough understanding of group relations is absolutely essential. 
 

THE DIRECTOR AND STAFF 
  
Directorate

Jack Lampl, Director, is the past-president and current board member of the A K Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems and of Grex. He has been collaborating with CPSP for the past three years to enhance the quality of clinical training and broaden the exposure to group relations concepts. He is a regular staff member at group-relations conferences at the Leadership Institute of the University of San Diego.

Micki Seligson, Associate Director, is a Jungian Analyst, former board member of the A K Rice Institute, Senior Research Associate, Project Director, Founder, The National Institute on Out of School Time, Wellesley College Centers for Women, Wellesley MA (ret.)

Administration

David Roth, Administrator, is a Diplomate CPE supervisor and director of spiritual care at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, co-founder of NCTS-West, general editor of the Boisen Books Project, and a member of the board of directors of Grex.

Ed Luckett, Jr., Associate Administrator, holds an M.Div. degree, is Hospice and Palliative Care Chaplain for Kaiser Permanente, and Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Additional Consultants

Kate Regan holds a doctorate in Organizational Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA, as well as a Master’s degree in Religion from Fordham University, in New York. She has over 30 years of experience working with public, private, and not-for-profit organizations as both an internal and an external consultant. 

Tom Butler holds an M.Div. degree and is in private practice. He is a former board member of the A K Rice Institute. 
  
Mojgan Jahan is a clinical psychologist with over 30 years of clinical experience. In addition to treating individuals with chronic medical conditions, traumas, anxiety, depression, and relationship concerns, she conducts workshops and trains other medical providers. 

Isabelle Reiniger, LCSW, is in private practice in Chicago and Evanston, IL; previously Group Psychotherapist at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.

____________________

David Roth NCTS-West Director
drdavidroth@gmail.com

Publisher described in its email announcement as:

"Scientists and scholars representing diverse disciplines and worldviews describe and interpret their experience of feeling called to a particular life path or vocation. The spectrum of perspectives represented in this collection ranges from atheist neuroscientists to agnostic psychologists to devout theologians. This collection functions as the definitive reference guide to callings, while serving as fascinating reading - especially to readers who have ever tried to make sense of a calling."

I've not yet read the book but given one of our own, CPSP Diplomate Harold Ellens, is one of the editors and contributors, it must be a substantive examination of what it means to be "called" from a variety of perspectives, not just clergy who want to corner the market place on the idea.

One drawback is that Amazon lists the price of the book as $48. Has the publisher not heard of E-books that can be downloaded at a reasonable price?

The Pastoral Report will be interested in your response to the book.

Perry Miller, Editor
perrymiller@gmail.com.

Editor's Note: Bill Scar, CPSP President, sent the following message to all members of the CPSP Governing Council:

To All Members of the CPSP Governing Council,

Greetings!

We now look forward to the upcoming meeting of the CPSP Governing Council, which has been revised to become a cyber meeting. As you know this change was indeed the result of many concerns expressed about total costs to the CPSP and to individuals for this business meeting. In addition, there were those who indicated that they could not make it to New Jersey and asked us to find some arrangement for them to be "present" electronically.

The solution to these concerns was to move creatively to cyber meeting technology for the entire event. Although we cannot make everyone happy about this decision, we can ask for everyone to cooperate and help us to make the very most of this opportunity to work together using the latest in media.

Our success will depend on the good faith efforts of everyone involved, and this will move our beloved CPSP forward into the 21st century at last. Individual Chapters and committees are already using the Internet. The willing spirits and faithful example of our Governing Council members next month will redound to the benefit of future events and our future leaders. This is really about our future, at a time when other clinical organizations are stagnating or terminating their programs.

In concurrence with our General Secretary, Raymond Lawrence, I am calling the Governing Council into session to begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday, September 20th. The schedule will be organized to take advantage of the possibilities afforded by this form of meeting technology. The meeting will end no later than 3 p.m. on Monday, September 21st.

Our ethic is fulfilled when we bring together the input from all parties. Right now, the three Chapters [Chapter of Chapters, Diplomate Chapter, and Executive Chapter] that form the Governing Council, along with our Standing Committees, are meeting to complete their work, from which the agenda and schedule will be finalized. At that time, participants will be informed of the procedures for connecting to the GC meeting. We have already been testing the technology, and it is superior to what was available even just a year ago.

We are excited to initiate a new format for engaging one another and the work that must be done. Neither the meeting nor we have to be perfect. With patience, good will, and a spiritual blessing or two, we will learn and we will succeed.

Cordially,

Bill Scar, President
GoodSamCtr@aol.com

Francine Hernandez, Coordinator for NCTS - East, announces the dates and venue for the gathering of the National Clinical Training Seminar-East.

Please place on your calendar the dates of November 2-3, 2015.

The venue is the Loyola Retreat Center, Morristown, New Jersey.

The NCTS training event is designed for Supervisors-in-Training, Pastoral Counselors and Psychotherapists, CPE Interns and Residents, Clinical Chaplains, Training CPE Supervisors, etc.

Howard Friedman and a portion of his team (affiliate with A.K.Rice) will provide the leadership to focus on group work at the Fall NCTS.

Further information will be provided relative to the theme of the training event.

Please use the Registration Form posted below to register.

Download: NCTS-East Registration Form
____________________

Francine Hernandez, Coordinator for NCTS-East
fangel@ehs.org

In an article posted in the NYTimes by Dr ROBERT KLITZMAN, M.D on August 13, 2015, Dr Klitzman, MD comments:

"Eventually, my patient dying from cancer did speak with a chaplain. I noticed him visiting her one day as I walked by her door. I again spotted him two days later heading toward her door. The next morning, I thought that she looked calmer, more relieved than I’d seen her in weeks. She still had unremitting fevers and died a few months later, in that room. But the chaplain had helped her, I felt, in a way that I and medical treatment could not.

I still regret my silence with that patient, but have tried to learn from it. Doctors themselves do not have to be spiritual or religious, but they should recognize that for many patients, these issues are important, especially at life’s end. If doctors don’t want to engage in these conversations, they shouldn’t. Instead, a physician can simply say: “Some patients would like to have a discussion with someone here about spiritual issues; some patients wouldn’t. If you would like to, we can arrange for someone to talk with you.”

Unfortunately, countless patients feel uncomfortable broaching these topics with their doctors. And most physicians still never raise it.

Certainly this article must encourage Clinical Chaplains to become even more proactive within their institution and with physicians to be a vital member of the medical team to provide care and counseling in such heartbreaking situations.

Let's also hope that chaplains who are called upon in this role are well trained as clinical chaplains, equally versed in matters of faith and theology but equally true, and some times even more important, they have a solid and informed utilization of the social sciences in the field of counseling and psychotherapy along with a generous amount of self-understanding and use of self in the pastoral engagement. There must be a creative tension between both disciplines and utilization of self in clinical practice.

The recent critique of chaplains in their work with patients in similar situations as described by Dr Klitzman, Raymond Lawrence in recent published articles on the Pastoral Report, calls into question how well prepared are chaplains to enter into such a clinical arena with such patients. 

Perry Miller, Editor
perrymiller@gmail.com

Ever heard it said, “There are no politics in the chaplaincy profession,” Yeah right! I would like to believe that politics is not a constituent characteristic of the chaplaincy profession. However, I submit to you that such is a fantasy that betrays a lack of understanding, as well as a propensity to remain within the infantilized protection of a quintessential inner circle of the herd. Truth be told, there are a many political forces and interests that push and pull on the chaplaincy profession.

Politics, no matter the context, is the practice of influencing others to gain and maintain power and influence in a government or an institution. The chaplaincy, as a profession, is no exception to the innate human propensity to seek to protect and secure its own professional niche within an ever growing politicized society with its many competing social constructs.

Although ordinarily thought of in terms of belonging to the clergy caste, a chaplain is in fact not only of the clergy but more frequently a non-clergy member that exercises the role and function of the chaplaincy. This is somewhat confusing to the outsider.

To the outsider the chaplain is a minister of some particular faith tradition. In some faith traditions a chaplain is exclusively a role and title reserved for the official clergy. In other faith traditions a non-clergy is able to exercise both the role and function of the chaplain. For instance, it was the traditional expectation in Lutheran clergy circles that before considering to enter a chaplaincy the cleric required a minimum of 3 years of prior experience as a pastor of a congregation. It was thought that such congregational experience would be foundational to the future chaplain`s pastoral identity, work, and practice as a chaplain representing the faith community.

There are instances where soon after completing the standard four years of graduate theological program in a Lutheran seminary that a select candidate could be placed into the chaplaincy instead of the parish. On its face and without too much difficulty, the preferential nature of such an appointment in light of the minimal prior congregational work expected of all other clergy, clearly betrays that such appointments demonstrate a politicized reality.

Unlike the Lutherans with whom I served many years, other faith groups can commission and ordain a minister to serve exclusively within the chaplaincy without any graduate theological education. There are even chaplaincy associations whose exclusive function and raison d’être is to train and ordain protestant ministers as chaplains. In and of itself, this manifests that there is indeed a significant politicized reality that gives shape to such distinctions among and within faith traditions.

Anecdotally, the training and employment of chaplains remains among the silently politicized professions in the United States. This is evident as one seeks training for the chaplaincy. As important as it is to have some notion about the social stratification and design regarding where chaplains actually serve and employed in our society, it is as important to know where and what kind of training will be necessary to equip others for this highly politicized profession.

When I was a college student in the mid-1980`s and already serving as a volunteer chaplain assisting local Lutheran pastors make hospital visits of sick, I applied to the local hospital`s clinical pastoral education program thinking that the training would be of help in preparing me to better serve. To my surprise I was refused a placement in the program because the CPE supervisor wished applicants to have a minimum of a bachelors degree to qualify. Although I did have an associates degree, sadly I was rejected from participating. I learned then and there that the very training for chaplaincy itself was a politicized reality and that I did not at the time possess the requisite tools. Suffice it to say that the CPE supervisor did also say that I could apply again when I had a bachelors degree. I did not apply for a CPE program until it was required of me to do so as an M.Div. student nearly ten years later.

The CPE program that I applied to was listed in the ACPE booklet provided to all seminary students at my school. Both the seminary field education director and the CPE supervisor were supervisory faculty members of the ACPE, Inc. Upon acceptance into the summer intensive CPE program in 1994 in NYC, I learned that the CPE unit was governed by the Standards of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, Inc. Apparently, this detail must have either been overlooked by the field education director and I was permitted to attend the CPSP CPE program in fulfillment of my CPE unit required by the seminary. As I look back, it is plausable that the field education director might have engaged in some political considerations that allowed for me to complete a unit of CPE at an ACPE accredited center with an ACPE supervisor that also offered CPE education governed by the Standards of CPSP. The fact that the CPE unit governed by the Standards of CPSP was accepted for graduate level credit at the seminary also makes for an interesting discussion as to whether it matters or not that CPE was from an accredited ACPE or CPSP training center. Upon review by the faculty, the CPE unit that I completed was accepted by the seminary to meet the expected requirements.

I was very encouraged by my first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education training. I was encouraged not because I was learning theology but because there was something so real and palpable about encountering and learning how to journey with other human beings that now found themselves in the most vulnerable and often life and death situation of their lives. I think I did more learning and introspection in one unit of CPE than I did in three years of seminary. Don`t get me wrong, I value seminary training and I ranked among the top five percent in my seminary class. I am thankful for my seminary education. It was the seminary curriculum after all that led me to my first CPE unit.

Here is where the politics continue. Upon graduation from seminary I wished to be assigned to a chaplaincy in addition to a congregation. I was provided the expected and necessary guidance by the denominational leaders that required that I obtain a denominational endorsement from the specialized ministries office at headquarters. To my surprise I was informed that I would require having 4 units of CPE training completed at an ACPE, Inc. program if I wished to come up for review and endorsement in chaplaincy. This prompted me to investigate who the specialized ministry staff were and to learn something about their particular chaplaincy affiliations. Lo and behold, I learned that the key staff at the specialized ministries office were supervisory faculty members of the ACPE, Inc. Might this suggest that although shrouded in Lutheran garments the ACPE, Inc. had member ambassadors promoting the exclusive recognition of their own CPE units as the only acceptable chaplaincy training for endorsement within a Lutheran denomination? The endorsement process for Lutherans was indeed a politicized process. It can appear to the outsider that the ACPE, Inc. , as a non-Lutheran entity, not only demonstrates its political power and the political reach it wields through its representative Lutheran members; it also might suggest that as an organization some of its members are religiously devoted to shaping their own church polity to remain in conformity to the ACPE, Inc. political agenda of securing and maintaining a veto power for CPE training programs it will accept and CPE training it will reject. Such political behavior might also be explained by the endorsement leaders themselves seeking to consolidate and maintain their own place as endorsers within the denomination, to create and promote church polity that requires Lutheran members with ACPE affiliation to call the shots for the specialized ministries within the denomination at the exclusion of all others.

This is not to suggest that there is any conspiracy out there being orchestrated by ACPE, Inc. Rather it appears part of normal political process within faith groups and their representative members who hold varied political affiliations and views to allow those particular interests to also shape their church polity even at the expense of a fairness, inclusion, or neutral principle.

However, there remain real and undisclosed political forces at work in the chaplaincy profession that should not be ignored or underestimated. This is all the more true if you belong to a new organization like CPSP. I can imagine the murmuring saying: “But CPSP is not new.” To some degree CPSP is not new and to a greater degree it is a new player on the block, a unique organization that yearns to remain continually renewing itself as a prophetic community somewhat still at the margins. As CPSP members, we have witnessed the growing pains of CPSP`s ongoing transformation.

There is a great virtue in CPSP. It is an organization that has made a space for many, especially minorities and persons of color, to enter and remain sustained in the chaplaincy and pastoral counseling professions. It should not be overlooked that wherever new professional organizations are formed and a shift occurs in the status quo, political forces and traditional interests often seek to push back to maintain the previously existing political equilibrium that insured their dominance within the profession.

CPSP has also created a space for ACPE supervisors who experienced professional angst and were not entirely satisfied with the direction of their ACPE colleagues over 25 years ago. Some of them are the founders of CPSP and they remain our connection to the origins of the clinical pastoral education movement in this country, and we remain as the legacy of their arduous journey to speak the truth to power. There is much politics in that too and there will always be political consequences that come with change in any profession and daring to speak the truth to power in a silently politicized profession.

Belen Gonzalez y Perez, CPSP Diplomate
belengyp@aol.com