CPE Integration Praxis

Instructor:  Jamie Beachy, PhD jbeachy@iliff.edu

Course Synopsis

This course helps students integrate their completed CPE experience into their professional formation, ongoing coursework at Iliff and their knowledge of professional chaplaincy ethics and the process of becoming board certified as a chaplain or ordained as a religious leader specializing in spiritual care. Students will form a cohort group to discern how their CPE experience is part of their vocational discernment process at Iliff. Verbatim case studies will be used alongside readings in spiritual care and chaplaincy, in order to explore how students embodied their faith and core values through practice and professional ethical decision-making involving respect for diverse spiritual/religious identities and traditions. Verbatim case studies will also be used to analyze their engagement with and systemic assessment of their CPE context, especially in terms of leadership opportunities for increased agency and efficacy working towards social justice and peace. They will also use case study experiences alongside readings about professional ethics in chaplaincy to explore ethical decision making.

Prerequisites

• Consultation & Formation
  IST 1000 V&O
  IST 1001 IPD
  IST 4004 CPE

Requirements:

CPE Verbatim and Learning Goals: (15%: graded as complete/incomplete)

Each student will post a verbatim case study presented during CPE units, making sure all confidential identifiers are deleted or altered. Remember to delete/alter all identifying details of the care seeker. Please include at the end of your verbatim a statement of your learning goals for the CPE unit.

Remember that our course learning covenant stipulates confidentiality when we read and discuss these verbatim assignments (within the limits of mandatory reporting and Title IX reporting, stipulated in our course covenant).

Professional Ethics:  (25%: 20% for posting; 5% for responses)

This assignment will be posted by students in the week 3 forum (see instructions there) and will require students to research their state regulations for mandated reporting, their faith group’s professional code of ethics for religious leaders/chaplains, and professional codes of ethics of the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education and the Association of Professional Chaplains. 

Weekly Forum discussions and responses (60%)

• Discussions and responses in the first and last week will be worth 5% each week (10%)
• The weekly forums when verbatim assignments are presented and discussed, students will discuss verbatim case studies, bringing them into dialogue with assigned readings on chaplaincy.

PROFESSIONAL DEGREE LEARNING GOALS  

MDiv Degree: Demonstrate a complex interdisciplinary understanding of theological disciplines, as well as develop and embody a comprehensive range of ministerial responsibilities, skills, and capacities – intellectual and affective, individual and corporate, ecclesial and public – that inform and support a life of religious leadership.

MAPSC Degree: Demonstrate a complex interdisciplinary understanding of the human person in the social context, develop and demonstrate an intercultural approach to pastoral and spiritual care, and demonstrate personal and professional competencies needed by effective caregivers.

Courses in Theology and Religious Practices (PR): Engage in the analysis of contemporary religious traditions and institutions in order to assess, design, and perform meaningful leadership practices with sensitivity to contextual realities and relationships.

INTERCULTURAL SPIRITUAL CARE COMPETENCIES

Critical Thinking Skills: Develop critical thinking skills in religious, theological, and psychological studies, drawing upon coursework in all areas of one’s degree curriculum.

1. In religious studies (e.g., MDiv/MAPSC courses in Comparative Religious Traditions [CR]), become literate in core beliefs and practices of religions of the world (patheos.com); think critically about how a search for similarities among religions of the world has historically been a search for the ‘one God’ of Christianity (Prothero, 2010); use particularist approaches to religion that pay attention to differences among the worldviews, beliefs, values, and practices of religions of the world.
2. In theological, biblical, historical, and ethical studies (e.g., MDiv/MAPSC courses in Sacred Texts [TX], Social/Contextual Analysis [AN], Historical Development/ Expressions of Religious Traditions [HI], and Constructive Theology [TH]), identify the biblical, ethical, historical, and theological ways that religious and, in particular, Christian approaches to religions of the world—exclusivisms, inclusivisms, pluralisms, and particularities---shape pastoral and spiritual care within communities of faith, in religiously diverse settings like health care and military contexts, and in global contexts. Identify and assess values, beliefs, and religious/spiritual practices—especially related to suffering and hope—using biblical, ethical, historical, theological, and philosophical sources and critical methods.
3. In psychological studies of religion, know how to search databases to find and use research on religious coping, in order to provide evidence-based spiritual care that identifies and assesses how people draw upon aspects of religion and spirituality to cope with stress is helpful and/or harmful ways.

Outcomes: Students demonstrate critical thinking skills in forum discussions,  and an ethics assignment using your CPE experience, course readings and traveling knowledge from other courses. 

Spiritual Integration: Engage in a personal process of spiritual integration by finding and using intrinsically meaningful body-aware practices that

1. Increase self-awareness of one’s stress-based reactions/emotions that give rise to life-limiting, socially oppressive beliefs, values, and consumer ways of coping, especially for coping with academic stress.
2. Increase self-compassion, self-transcendence, and relational systems that support use of meaningful body-aware practices as a basis for searching for meanings about one’s stress responses and life experiences.

Outcomes: Students become accountable for their use of body-aware practices that foster spiritual integration.

Cultural Humility and Intercultural Competence: Develop and demonstrate an intercultural approach to pastoral and spiritual care that respects what is unique and distinctive about each person’s religious, spiritual, existential, or moral orienting system (values, beliefs, practices).

Outcomes: Students will demonstrate their intercultural capacity in the ways they respond to each other’s forum discussions.

Self-Differentiation/Reflexivity: Demonstrate psychological and theological self-differentiation by (a) tracking one’s personal theologies/orienting systems that arise from stress in the midst of a spiritual care conversation, and (b) using momentary spiritual practices in order to not blur boundaries between self and other, over-identify with the other, or emotionally disengage. 

Outcomes: Students will demonstrate self-differentiation in the ways they respond in forum discussions.

Theological/Religious/Moral Empathy: Demonstrate theological empathy by (1) respectfully stepping into another’s religious, spiritual, existential, or moral orienting systems; (2) imagining how these orienting systems ‘work’ contextually, especially as a way of coping with stress; and (3) using their social empathy and critical thinking skills to understand the personal and cultural contexts of the other’s beliefs and values, especially about suffering exacerbated by injustice and hope for justice.

Outcomes: Students will demonstrate theological/religious/moral empathy in the ways they respond in forum discussions.

Establishing Trust and Searching for Meanings: Understand these two key ingredients of intercultural spiritual care (Doehring, 2015):

1. Establish trust by (1) respecting care seekers’ values, beliefs, ways of coping and connecting with the sacred, and (2) helping care seekers experience self-compassion and safety by finding intrinsically meaningful spiritual care practices that make them aware of stress in their bodies.
2. Collaboratively search for life-giving intentional beliefs and values about suffering that arise from experiencing compassion that helps care seekers understand the ways automatic stress responses often make them feel anxious, angry, ashamed and guilty, which in turn gives rise to life-limiting values and beliefs and consumer ways of coping shaped by intersecting social oppressions.

Outcomes: Students demonstrate their understanding of spiritual care in forum posts and their final assignments.

Learning Covenant

Students develop critical thinking skills that they use in developing competencies for spiritual care, by integrating theory and practice through experiential learning. The competencies that shape these learning goals are also part of covenants necessary for intentional learning communities.  

Confidentiality: Personal disclosures are not to be discussed outside of class without agreement and permission. Students can talk about their stress/emotional reactions with trusted others, as long as the focus is on them and not the content of what other students share. In case study assignments that are not fictional, students need to disguise the identity of care seekers. Students must be aware of and abide by the mandatory reporting laws of the state in which they provide professional caregiving. If they are designated spiritual caregivers within their religious tradition, they need to also be aware of what their religious organization requires. If students have reason to suspect or have first-hand knowledge of recent, current, or ongoing child abuse or neglect perpetrated on a child currently under the age of 18 years, elder abuse, sexual and domestic violence, or threats of homicide or suicide in any of the pastoral situations they use for fulfilling the requirements of this course they need to seek immediate consultation with supervisors, denominational leaders, and the professor of this course so that proper reporting procedures can be ascertained. State laws on mandatory reporting are available at State Laws on Mandatory Clergy Reporting  Colorado mandatory reporting requirements may be found at Colorado Revised Statutes 19-3-304, 1a, 2(aa, II, III); 13-90-107c.  Faculty will abide by the bounds of professional and Title IX reporting laws rather than absolute confidentiality.

Self-Differentiation: In preparing forum posts and responses, assignments, and spiritual care conversations, students are responsible for (1) tracking how they experience stress in their bodies and stress-related emotions, and (2) using practices that foster self-compassion and empathy, such that their emotional/stress reactions are resources for learning, not liabilities.

Levels of self-disclosure: The purpose of self-disclosure is to develop competencies in spiritual care, especially a commitment to one’s own process of spiritual integration that enhances self-differentiation and a capacity for empathy. The purpose of self-disclosure in this learning context is not for personal healing. In deciding how to use/disclose personal experiences in assignments, students need track their levels of stress as they work on assignments, and to not use/disclose experiences that overwhelm their capacities for self-differentiation, spiritual integration, and critical thinking skills. Students need to use their support systems when they become overwhelmed and in making decisions about what personal experiences to share in weekly posts and journal/case study assignments.

Respect for differences: Students are responsible for using social and theological empathy to imaginatively step into and respect the worlds of those who are different from them in terms of beliefs, values, practices, and social location.

Group and team learning depends upon timely posts and assignments: Every effort must be made to post on time. If posts will be late, faculty, students must notify faculty, forum discussion groups, and/or learning partners. If assignments are consistently late and if late assignments will jeopardize peer learning, students may be required to withdraw from the course. Normally incompletes are not granted because all learning in the course is collaborative.

Availability of faculty: Spiritual care faculty offer support but not spiritual care or counseling, and are available to help students with referrals for spiritual care, spiritual direction, and counseling.

Academic standards: In all forum posts and assignments, students need to use academic and professional standards of good grammar, writing skills, and appropriate in-text citation using APA formatting (used through course material; see also writing center resources on APA formatting). Iliff School of Theology uses inclusive language, and language that respects all forms of religious traditions, theological, and political perspectives, and gender and sexual orientation diversity.

Learning Covenant

Students develop critical thinking skills that they use in developing competencies for spiritual care, by integrating theory and practice through experiential learning. The competencies that shape these learning goals are also part of covenants necessary for intentional learning communities.  

Confidentiality: Personal disclosures are not to be discussed outside of class without agreement and permission. Students can talk about their stress/emotional reactions with trusted others, as long as the focus is on them and not the content of what other students share. In case study assignments that are not fictional, students need to disguise the identity of care seekers. Students must be aware of and abide by the mandatory reporting laws of the state in which they provide professional caregiving. If they are designated spiritual caregivers within their religious tradition, they need to also be aware of what their religious organization requires. If students have reason to suspect or have first-hand knowledge of recent, current, or ongoing child abuse or neglect perpetrated on a child currently under the age of 18 years, elder abuse, sexual and domestic violence, or threats of homicide or suicide in any of the pastoral situations they use for fulfilling the requirements of this course they need to seek immediate consultation with supervisors, denominational leaders, and the professor of this course so that proper reporting procedures can be ascertained. State laws on mandatory reporting are available at State Laws on Mandatory Clergy Reporting  Colorado mandatory reporting requirements may be found at Colorado Revised Statutes 19-3-304, 1a, 2(aa, II, III); 13-90-107c.  Faculty will abide by the bounds of professional and Title IX reporting laws rather than absolute confidentiality.

Self-Differentiation: In preparing forum posts and responses, assignments, and spiritual care conversations, students are responsible for (1) tracking how they experience stress in their bodies and stress-related emotions, and (2) using practices that foster self-compassion and empathy, such that their emotional/stress reactions are resources for learning, not liabilities.

Levels of self-disclosure: The purpose of self-disclosure is to develop competencies in spiritual care, especially a commitment to one’s own process of spiritual integration that enhances self-differentiation and a capacity for empathy. The purpose of self-disclosure in this learning context is not for personal healing. In deciding how to use/disclose personal experiences in assignments, students need track their levels of stress as they work on assignments, and to not use/disclose experiences that overwhelm their capacities for self-differentiation, spiritual integration, and critical thinking skills. Students need to use their support systems when they become overwhelmed and in making decisions about what personal experiences to share in weekly posts and journal/case study assignments.

Respect for differences: Students are responsible for using social and theological empathy to imaginatively step into and respect the worlds of those who are different from them in terms of beliefs, values, practices, and social location.

Group and team learning depends upon timely posts and assignments: Every effort must be made to post on time. If posts will be late, faculty, students must notify faculty, forum discussion groups, and/or learning partners. If assignments are consistently late and if late assignments will jeopardize peer learning, students may be required to withdraw from the course. Normally incompletes are not granted because all learning in the course is collaborative.

Availability of faculty: Spiritual care faculty offer support but not spiritual care or counseling, and are available to help students with referrals for spiritual care, spiritual direction, and counseling.

Academic standards: In all forum posts and assignments, students need to use academic and professional standards of good grammar, writing skills, and appropriate in-text citation using APA formatting (used through course material; see also writing center resources on APA formatting). Iliff School of Theology uses inclusive language, and language that respects all forms of religious traditions, theological, and political perspectives, and gender and sexual orientation diversity.