Denver Seminary Becomes a CPE Training Center

  • Jan McCormack
  • Nov 30, 2010

 For 10 years we have required Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) as part of many students’ curricula here at Denver Seminary. CPE is a form of “action-reflection” education whereby students are placed in a ministry site (usually a hospital setting or a church) where they function as a pastoral caregiver with people in crisis or stress. Students then bring back to group and individual supervision what they did for their reflection and learning. We have graduated over 200 CPE students in our 10 year history and been pleased with their growth in their pastoral functioning and confidence.

In order to offer CPE under the auspices of ACPE, we have had to function as a satellite of three other accredited Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) CPE centers over the course of those 10 years. As our seminary student population grew and we wished to give more students the opportunity to learn experientially, we felt we needed to become our own CPE training Center. This summer Denver Seminary did the self-study evaluation required, contracted with an experienced and seasoned supervisor, Dr. Ed Kopp, and applied to the ACPE to become an accredited CPE Center. At the November ACPE board meeting, it was announced that we had been granted ACPE center status to train Level I and Level 2 CPE students and to provide Supervisory Education training as well.

This is an incredible honor for our seminary and Dr. Fred Gingrich and his faculty are to be commended for their foresight and tenacity in bringing this to fruition. Currently, we are only the third seminary with ACPE accreditation and the only seminary involved in training future CPE Supervisory faculty. Some of the unique aspects of our CPE Center are that we place students in many ministry sites in the community: from traditional church and hospital settings to police departments to businesses and even sporting venues. Chaplains/pastors wanting to get additional units of CPE or enter supervisory training CPE, with or without being concurrently enrolled in our DMin Chaplaincy track, can do their training without leaving their place of employment. We are confident that adding this CPE element will continue to prepare students for ministry to those in crisis. 

For further information on our CPE program contact Dr. Jan McCormack, Director of Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counseling, .

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