Clinical pastoral training in an emergency psychiatric service

Summary This paper reports the utilization of an emergency psychiatric service as a new factor in the clinical pastoral training experience. The usual pattern of clinical setting for these students is the hospital ward, where the patient has already been admitted and is making some adjustment to hospital routine and treatment. In such a setting the student misses the opportunity to see the patient at the crisis point of the illness and does not see the large numbers of individuals troubled enough to require psychiatric help but not sick enough to be hospitalized. The latter group constitute the largest portion seen by the parish minister even before psychiatric referral is arranged. During a twelve-week clinical pastoral training program, each student spent a major portion of his time for two of the weeks working on an emergency psychiatric service with a psychiatrist and social worker and seeing a large variety of patients, most of whom were not hospitalized. The experience provided an opportunity to develop evaluative skills and knowledge of appropriate community resources, and offered some experience in brief counseling under supervision. The clinical pastoral training student and the personnel of the emergency service all felt that this was an experience of mutual value and that it should be for a longer period. It is suggested that other clinical pastoral training programs would find it of value to utilize emergency psychiatric clinic settings where available.     

Clinical pastoral education as professional training: some entrance, curriculum and assessment implications

Clinical Pastoral Education is professional training for pastoral care. This paper compares CPE against the professional training model. While limiting the discussion to Christian pastoral care, the professional education model suggests a clarification of the trainee's theological and other entry requirements for a basic unit, a more thoughtful provision of information during CPE training, a careful attention to group membership and an appropriate integration with the theological curriculum. It also suggests more specific competency standards and more reliable, valid and objective assessment methods.     

Human relations training in a comprehensive school

A series of weekly double periods were used to try out aspects of human relations training with a group of mixed-ability, fourth-year students in a comprehensive school. A variety of structures and exercises were attempted. Emphasis was placed on looking at situations as they occurred, inviting the students to examine their feelings and thoughts during the experiences. The success of the programme, the problems encountered, and the implications for relationships in schools, are discussed.     

Personal religious history as a pastoral tool

A personal religious history is a picture of the theological dimensions of an individual's past and present. Early religious teaching and memory, beliefs and attitudes, and family rituals compose parts of a religious history. The history is secured by asking questions. The hypothesis of this writer is that religious history can have diagnostic utility for assessing the needs and resources of persons under the care of a minister. Data secured from a religious history can be evaluated in five areas: suffering-hurting patterns; covenant-commitment capacities; binding-freeing components; identity projections; and reality foci. Insights secured in diagnostic evaluation can lead to a more creative ministry.     

The body as theology in pastoral psychology

The physical body is explored as a metaphor of transformation and healing in pastoral psychotherapy. Three sections of the paper outline 1) the perception of the body as a point of critical clinical intervention, 2) the understanding of body as a living image of soul, and 3) the body as corporal participant in the mystical Body of Christ. Primary concern focuses on correcting possible misperceptions (among both secular and pastoral bodyists) of bodily dysfunction as retribution for sinful existence rather than, more biblically, as signaling an opportunity for the inrushing of healing, divine grace. A brief clinical example highlights some possible theoretical and methodological consequences of this clinical world view.Terrill L. Gibson, Ph.D., is a Director of the Christian Counseling Service in Tacoma, Washington, where he serves as Minister of Finance and Education.     

Prison pastoral care: The seer as a new paradigm

The purpose of this essay is twofold: to review two existing paradigms (the Priest and the Prophet) of pastoral care with prisoners; to propose a new paradigm (the Seer). The prison chaplain has been traditionally identified as a priest or a prophet. The change of pastoral setting from parish to prison is a drastic one that requires a paradigm shift. Incarceration is understood in terms of liminality which is a transitional period of a life re-ordering. To those in liminality, the Seer as a divine visionary of hope comes to reawaken a sense of God's presence and aims at renewing of covenant faith.This article is an edited version of an address presented by the author to the Chaplains of Tennessee Department of Corrections at their annual meeting in January 1990.     

Opportunities for study,training, and experience in pastoral psychology—1965

Pastoral Psychology -     

Writing as an aid in pastoral counseling and psychotherapy

Summary A method of spontaneous note-writing has been presented. When the material is handled like any verbal associations in a therapeutic session, this technique has been especially helpful with the majority of patients in facilitating free association, overcoming resistance, gaining access to deep material more quickly, working through the positive and negative phases of the transference and promoting insight. It helps patients to expose themselves earlier in treatment, to express their conscious thoughts, and to furnish material for discussion. It is a form of mental catharsis.This technique aids in showing the progress, trends, and method of therapy, and to observe the needs and strivings of the patient. In a few instances, due to particular problems, the method was not advantageous. It means additional work for both therapist and patient. It cannot take the place of spontaneous verbalization in the therapeutic session; however, it can aid both patient and therapist in facilitating treatment, and provides another adjunct to the procedural psychotherapy.