The Pastoral Care Specialist Program is a certificate program designed for pastors and lay pastoral caregivers who are responsible to meet the pastoral care needs of congregations.  The program seeks to strengthen the personal pastoral identity and spirituality of caregivers and to enable them to provide pastoral care in a way that integrates the spiritual dimension and resources of one’s faith tradition with current theoretical understandings and practical skills.  The program also provides the training needed for admission to the American Association of Pastoral Counselors as a Pastoral Care Specialist which is a general membership category for people who have received special training in the area of brief, supportive pastoral care.

Additional Program Site: The Program will be offered this year in Holland, MI in collaboration with Western Theological Seminary as well as in Farmington Hills at the Samaritan Counseling Center.

Program Components:

The program consists of 60 hours of training. Each session includes three components:

· Didactic Seminars:  focus on the theoretical foundations and practical aspects of pastoral care and supportive counseling with multi-contexts.

· Clinical Consultation: conducted within a group context where participants can share and reflect upon counseling experiences.

· Peer Support Group:  a confidential setting in which personal growth is encouraged through sharing and reflection on the issues and challenges encountered in one’s personal journey.

Didactic Seminar Topics:

· Pastoral Care & Counseling: An Introduction

· Human Development as the Context for Pastoral Care

· Professional & Pastoral Identity

· Basic Counseling Skills

· Integrating the Spiritual Dimension

· The Dynamics of Grief and Loss

· Anger Management

· Crisis Intervention

· Referral Counseling

· Suicide

· Addictions: Understanding & Treatment Intervention

· Pastoral Counseling of the Aging

· Pastoral Care of Couples:  Building & Maintaining Healthy Relationships

· Pastoral Care of the Family:  A Systems Approach

· Pastoral Care of the Faith Community

Avoiding Burnout: Care of the Caregiver

             *Other topics may be suggested by the group 

 

Program Format & Schedule:

The program consists of 10 sessions functioning from 9:00a.m.- 4:00p.m. providing a total of 60 hours of training. The 2008-2009 program to be offered in Farmington Hills, MI is scheduled for the third Wednesday of each month beginning, September 17, 2008 through June, 2009. The program in Holland is scheduled for the first Tuesday of each month (October—June) with the initial session on September 9. Registrations are now being accepted for either program. All registrations are to be sent to the Samaritan Counseling Center as stated on the application form.

The program costs $1060 which includes a $60 application fee.

Deadlines:
Holland site: August 6, 2008
Farmington Hills site: August 31, 2008
Contact: Associate Executive Director/Director of Training, Patricia A. McCluskey, Ph.D., D.Min., LP

TRAINING PROGRAMS

Contact Person:  Patricia A. McCluskey, Ph.D., D.Min., LP

Associate Executive Director/Director of Training

248-474-4701