Rocky Mountain Center for Spiritual Caregivers

OUr Clinical Pastoral education Program

“As I teach, I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together. The entanglements I experience in the classroom are often no more or less than the convolutions of my inner life. Viewed from this angle, teaching holds a mirror to the soul. . . In fact, knowing my students and my subjects depends heavily on self knowledge. When I do not know myself, I cannot know who my students are. I will see them through a glass darkly, in the shadows of my unexamined life - - and when I cannot see them clearly, I cannot teach them well.” Parker Palmer

Might the same be said about those of us offering spiritual care?

All photographs by Maya Kraushaar

The Rocky Mountain Center for Spiritual Caregivers is excited to bring community based Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) to the Western Slope of Colorado and Utah.
We are an accredited training center through the Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation (CSCPF).

We are now accepting applications for our next
CPE Units which will begin in
January 2025 (On-Line)
September 2024 (In Person)

In-Person & On-Line Options available

***Please check out our calendar page for details

What is Clinical Pastoral Education?

The CPE model is based on the productive combination of action (ministry, chaplaincy, spiritual care giving) reflection (verbatim, case study, critical incident report) and academic theory (didactics.) These three dynamics of ministry are explored within the context of small group process. CPE is based on the action/reflection model of adult learning. A CPE intern is invited to go out into the world and provide spiritual care. They then come back to the group to process their experience in a self reflective manner.

How Does CPE Supervision Work?

"CPE supervision requires the organic integration of education theory, personality models, family systems theory and group dynamics. As a CPE supervisor my goal is to be familiar enough with all of these concepts and dynamics that I am able to recognize, name, navigate, and finally apply these concepts within the group process. When this is done, true growth and learning will take place for the interns, the supervisor and the group as a whole.

One of the most important responsibilities of a supervisor is to create a container within which all of these dynamics can play out in a safe and meaningful way. For, without a feeling of trust and safety within the group, learning will be difficult."
Wendy Jones

Topics Explored in a unit of CPE

A CPE Unit includes 400 clinical hours and offers . . .

One-on-one sessions for clinical supervision
Clinical placement in community-based care organizations
Small group seminars
Continuous personal, theological and ethical reflection
Verbatims and case conferences
Videotaped role-play feedback
Didactics in multi-disciplines
Personalized learning contracts including specialized reading and personal evaluations

Why take CPE?

"CPE provides potential chaplains the opportunity to explore their own history so they might know when their agenda or “baggage” is interfering with spiritual care. The Dean of Student Affairs at Princeton Seminary, Dr. Crawford, once told me, 'You go to seminary to ask and answer your own questions; so that you don’t ask your parishioners to answer your questions.'

CPE is the same type of process. CPE allows interns to explore the different pieces of their past and present, to ask questions, and explore their own answers with fellow interns rather than in the clinical setting with a patient/client. Are all the answers found? No. However, CPE provides an avenue for us to choose freely what we will do with our growing information in dialogue with our past."
Scott Hogue