CPSP Little Rock Chapter

First United Methodist Church a 1200 member downtown congregation in Little Rock, Arkansas is seeking a qualified applicant for the position of Director of Youth Ministries. The director is responsible for all aspects of youth ministry for a constituency of almost 100 youth between the ages of 12 to 18. A college degree in a related field is expected. A passion for Christian discipleship with young people and their families is vital. A competitive salary with benefits--contact Sr. Pastor, Rev. Michael L. Mattox. mmattox@fumclr.org Cover letter and complete resume with references should be sent to: Sr. Pastor, Rev. Michael L. Mattox. 723 Center Street,Little Rock, AR 72201 Posted by George Hankins

Sometime ago Don Berwick, MD spoke about 20 improvements that doctors could make in the end of life care of their patients that begins in a simple conversation. Berwick recommended the following considerations as his top three suggestions: 1.Ask yourself as you see patients, "Would I be surprised if this patient died in the next few months?" For those "sick enough to die," prioritize the patient's concerns - often symptom relief, family support, continuity, advance planning, or spirituality. 2.To eliminate anxiety and fear, chronically ill patients must understand what is likely to happen. When you see a patient who is "sick enough to die" - tell the patient, and start counseling and planning around that possibility. 3.To understand your patients, ask (1) "What do you hope for, as you live with this condition," (2) "What do you fear?," (3) It is usually hard to know when death is close. If you were to die soon, what would be left un...

Health care reform is a scary subject for ordinary Americans and this is not been helped by the tone of the current national debate on this issue which has turned terrible nasty. One of the most heated concerns to have emerged recently relates to end-of-life conversations. End-of-life conversations are difficult at the best of times and made all the more difficult in these uncertain days of economic upheaval when many Americans have lost their jobs, health care insurance and homes. Unfortunately, some public figures and national leaders have chosen to offer their critique of the proposed health care reforms using only the most inflammatory language possible. The tenor of this debate does not bode well for the American public in terms of any real substantial change to a health care system which is too costly to sustain and unequal in terms of access. These difficult days call for true leadership which does not fail for lack of nerve to embrace the courage of change in the best interests...

PARISH-BASED CPE RESIDENCY POSITION: Stipend $40,000. Rural Parish with Recreation Ministry; Contracted with the South Carolina Department of Corrections and the Midlands Area Pastoral Counseling Services, Inc. Program Accredited by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (January 4 – December 31, 2010). Inquire at Liberty Hill Presbyterian Church, Box 170, Liberty Hill, SC 29074 Telephone: 803-273-9191 Gene Rollins, Supervisor: lhpc@comporium.net For more information about CPSP visit the link below: http://www.cpsp.org/ .

Many meetings and conferences fail because they follow an agenda which places the conference speaker at the heart of the event and the attendee as observer. The structure of the CPSP plenary stands in sharp contrast to the linear model of many conferences which place an exclusive emphasis on an individual speaker. We avoid this in CPSP by placing the emphasis on the small group process in which the plenary presenters take part in the consultative process of the small group experience. CPSP is unique in our field in how we structure our gathering in a way that wisdom is shared, consultation is sought and community is fostered in terms of accountability.

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy TASK FORCE FOR THE FUTURE REPORT: Delivered at the 2009 CPSP Plenary By Luise Weinrich The late writer David Foster Wallace, a man of great soul who I believe would have loved a community like CPSP , told this story at Kenyon College's commencement: in 2005: There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and says "What is water?" (David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College commencement address, 2005). For over a year now, the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy's Task Force for the Future has been at work, talking with our members about your vision for CPSP . We've been seeking your views about where we are, and where we're headed in the future, finding out what the w...

The CPE program focuses on the development of self-awareness, formation of pastoral identity, professional functioning, and the ability to address issues from a competent clinical and pastoral perspective. The residency program is designed for the ordained person with a seminary degree and at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. On occasion, a lay person may qualify for admission. CPE residents and interns serve as ecumenical chaplains, under supervision, to assigned areas throughout the UAMS Medical Center and clinics. The setting provides a rich base for clinical experience and opportunities for continued personal, professional and pastoral development. The UAMS Clinical Pastoral Training programs follow the standards set by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP), the accrediting organization. A typical unit of CPE requires a minimum of 400 hours of supervised ministry in a clinical setting. Stipend: 25,000 plus medical benefits: This training opport...

Getting to Know Yourself by George Hankins Hull, Dip.Th., Th.M Self-awareness as a pastoral care giver is essential to good pastoral care. Issues of transference and counter-transference loom large in pastoral encounters. Therefore, it’s of vital importance for the pastoral care giver to understand the use of the Self in the pastoral role. In her book,  When Helping You is Hurting Me , Carmen Berry addresses the detrimental aspects of a lack of self-awareness in the person of the care giver in what she calls the “Messiah trap.” The “Messiah trap”, is defined as continued circumstances in which individuals are persistently putting their own needs aside in order to help others. Berry offers an important caution to all in the helping professions against becoming addicted to helping and then, like an addict, seeking out supplies for their fix. Further complicating the issue is what Berry calls the double-sided trap of helping: ‘If I don’t do it, it won’t get done’ and ‘Every one else’s nee...

Click on brochure to enlarge:

Jesus of Nazareth: The Peasant from Galilee as Model for Chaplaincy by James D. Hester Professor of Religion, Emeritus University of Redlands A Paper Presented to The Mid-South Fall Pastoral Care Institute Trinity Presbyterian Church Little Rock, AR October 30, 2008 Introduction: When George Hull called and asked if I would make a presentation to this group, I really had to consider just what I could say to you! I am, after all, a retired Bible teacher, with very little pastoral experience. The question I kept asking myself was, “Is there anything from my experience of 40 plus years of teaching, preaching, and publishing that I might use to provide food for thought for folks who deal with ill and frightened people facing the unknown?” I did come up with an answer, but I have to leave it to you to judge if it is a useful one. A couple of more comments before I move into the heart of the presentation: I carefully chose the terms used in the title of the talk. It seems to me that two ...

Invitation... Come join us in Virginia Beach, Virginia at the Gathering of the Community for the Nineteenth Plenary Meeting March 29th-April 1, 2009 Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel Virginia Beach, Virginia Hotel Registration... Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel, 36th Street and Atlantic Avenue, Virginia Beach, VA 23451 Tel: 800.521.5635 -or- 757.425.9000 Registrants must contact the hotel, at the telephone numbers listed above, to reserve sleeping rooms. Special Conference Rate: $109-$119 +tax. This rate is guaranteed only though February 26, 2009, and for a limited number of rooms, on a first-come basis. The price of the room will vary according to the view. The hotel rooms are quite spacious and will accommodate three or four persons comfortably. You are urged to register as early as possible if you intend to stay at the Sheraton. Please Note: Registration Rate after February 26, 2009: $245. Meals/Refreshments for Non-Registered Companion or Spouse: $75. For additional information please go to our...

The Spiritual Care Collaborative sounds all the right notes when it comes to promoting and advertising the SCC as new breakthrough in collaboration between pastoral care and counseling organizations. High ideals expressed on paper sound good and make a good sales pitch but unless accompanied by serious results on the ground amount to nothing more than lofty words blowing in the wind. Rather than creating harmony in the midst of the pastoral care and counseling movement the SCC sound a jarring note of discord tainted by an exclusive elitism. The SCC recently admitted(1) that it has no developed mechanism for including other participating organizations in the partnership of collaboration. So much then for lofty ideals and claims of Collaboration mere code words used as cover for darker motives of control and monopoly. Note (1) NOTICE TO MEMBERS OF THE CPSP COMMUNITY RE. RELATIONS TO THE SPIRITUAL CARE COLLABORATIVESeptember 3, 2008 Notice to Members of the College of Pastoral Supervisio...

Click on the announcement for full details.

Mid-South Fall Pastoral Care Institute October 30-31, 2008 Little Rock, Arkansas Gather this Fall in Little Rock with chaplains, pastoral counselors, pastoral psychotherapists, and pastoral care givers from across the South for this educational event, beginning at Noon Thursday October 30th with workshops followed by a dinner and speaker that evening. The Institute continues with a day of educational seminars on Friday. Mark your calendars. More information coming soon! Presenters: Thursday evening, October 30 James D. Hester, Ph. D. ,is the Crawford Professor of Religion, Emeritus, from the University of Redlands, Redlands, CA, where he taught for 31 years. He holds a doctorate in theology (DTheol) from the University of Basel (Switzerland), where he studied with Oscar Cullman, Bo Reicke, and Karl Barth. He is a member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and of the Society of Biblical Literature. He was a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and for 12 years directed the Rhetorical New Test...

The Spiritual Care Collaborative has recently had to acknowledge to the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy that the SCC has failed to develop a means of including other clinical pastoral training and certifying bodies as members of the SCC. Sadly the admission of the SCC to CPSP that the SCC does not know how to revise its founding documents or whether it should reveals that it is more of a political power block than a truly collaborative organization. George Hankins HullCPSP Diplomate in Clinical Pastoral Education FROM THE CPSP GENERAL SECRETARY : SCC Unable to Act On Question of Whether to Invite CPSPWe applaud the Board of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) that last month unanimously voted in the affirmative to invite CPSP to join the Spiritual Care Collaborative. We also applaud the National Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC) for taking the same action. However, neither CPSP nor any other organization should hold its breath waiting for an...

The CPE program focuses on the development of self-awareness, formation of pastoral identity, professional functioning, and the ability to address issues from a competent clinical and pastoral perspective. The residency program is designed for the ordained person with a seminary degree and at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. On occasion, a lay person may qualify for admission. CPE residents and interns serve as ecumenical chaplains, under supervision, to assigned areas throughout the UAMS Medical Center and clinics. The setting provides a rich base for clinical experience and opportunities for continued personal, professional and pastoral development. The UAMS Clinical Pastoral Training programs follow the standards set by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP), the accrediting organization. A typical unit of CPE requires a minimum of 400 hours of supervised ministry in a clinical setting. Stipend: 24,600 plus medical benefits: This training oppor...

We are pleased to announce that Professor Arthur W. Frank will be the Keynote speaker at the at the 2008 Plenary Gathering of The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy. Arthur W. Frank is professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Alberta Canada. Dr. Frank received his undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University (High Honours, 1968), his M.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University (1975). He has taught at the University of Calgary since 1975. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of The Hastings Center, the preeminent U.S. bioethics institute, and also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, which is the highest honor that Canadian academics can receive. He is the author of At the Will of the Body: Reflections on Illness (Houghton Mifflin, 1991), the story of his 1985 heart attack and subsequent testicular cancer. The book has been translated into four langua...

Two Great Reasons to Attend the CPSP 2008 Plenary 1 . The Pre-conference Workshops 2. Visit Little Rock's Places of Interest 1. Preconference Workshops: a. 9:00 a.m. Sunday – “Community Based C.P.E.” b. 10:45 a.m. Sunday – “There is No Suffering in the Hospital” c. 1:00 p.m. Sunday – “Chapter Life Workshop" 2. Visit these historic sites: a. The Clinton Presidential Library b. The Old Mill – site of the opening scene of “Gone with the Wind” c. Central High School – site of the “Little Rock Nine” historic school desegregation d. The Little Rock River Market e. Alltel Arena – site of 2008 NCAA regional men’s basketball tournament f. Villa Marre – the house on the sitcom “Designing Women” g. Heifer Project International Green Building h. MacArthur Museum of Military History i. Old State House Museum j. Arkansas Museum and Historical Restoration k. Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum/USS Razorback (WWII submarine) l. Arkansas Riverboat Queen m. River Rail Streetcars & Trolley Syst...