Through close involvement with supervisors, student peers, people in crisis, and other professionals, CPE students are challenged to improve their personal integration and the quality of their pastoral relationships. The heart of CPE is ministry with people and learning from that ministry through reflection, discussion, and evaluation with other students and the supervisor. CPE utilizes verbatims, case studies, and other clinical tools to present ministry for supervision. CPE offers a dynamic learning group with other students and a supervisor, which provide opportunities for mutual supervision, care giving, challenge and appreciation. The Clinical Pastoral Education programs are conducted in units of 400 hours each, with approximately 125 of those hours dedicated to individual and group educational sessions.
All students function as chaplains in the system as well as students of pastoral care.
The CPE programs function with a community based orientation that views all persons as embedded in communities and thus both contributing to and benefiting from the wellbeing of their communal context. Residency - A yearlong residency experience is available for students who have successfully completed at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education, in this center or in another center. The residency curriculum emphasizes spiritual assessment, grief work skills, alcoholism referral competencies, family systems concepts, medical ethics involvement and pastoral group leadership. An on-site interview is generally required before acceptance into a resident year. A Master of Divinity degree is preferred.