CPSP Little Rock Chapter

Reflections On John Edgerton’s National Clinical Training Seminar Presentation by Linda Walsh I was grateful to be at the NCTS. John Edgarton is a master storyteller - using visions of scary woods, dogs and loving relatives to lure us into the experiential and effective lesson of the Narrative as a vehicle for transformation and liberation. Each patient's story unlocks a subversive message of hope...a liberation process to transcend the sorrow. He urged his audience to search the patient's biography to discover the "Holy", like a muse, to reflect that God has been there all along. John's compelling personal disclosure woven through contextual references personalized, for me, the responsibility we carry in this spiritual role. In therapy we expose our own story and awareness - but in clinical practice we take that same story objectively and use it to assist and build strength in others. The good news is that each CPSP meeting is experiencing larger multi-cultural a...

I want to call attention to our name, to look at it still another time for perhaps a deeper meaning. This is a question of our identity. One of the earliest challenges you had in your clinical training was in response to that question “Who are you?” It became a maddening question asked by that supervisor, that committee, that fellow student. But we had to return to it again and again. And so I ask you still again. Our name: The College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy. Much is imbedded in those words. Today there is only time to focus on the first two words: College and Pastoral. Perhaps next year we might address the last two words regarding the science and art of pastoral practice. We will see. But first, this word College. Our founders were very wise to have chosen this name. Or perhaps divinely inspired, which is a bit of a stretch knowing them as we do today. Perhaps both. But is the right name at the right time and the right place. The College. You might pause and notice...