Clinically trained Chaplains do not minister to patients in a hospital setting on the same terms or principles as do clergy in the parish setting. Chaplains are trained clinically in Freudian depth psychology in order to determine where the patient is at and adhere to strict codes of confidentiality in the same manner as a doctor or a lawyer does with their clients. Parish clergy do not have this intensive training.

Being clinically trained, Chaplains are competent in the behavioral sciences. They do not perform their duties solely as clergy. On the contrary, trained in Freudian depth psychology, Chaplains deal with the patient’s psyche. The Rev. Anton T. Boisen, a Presbyterian minister and Dr. Richard Cabot of Harvard’s Medical School, played a significant role in founding the Religion and Health Movement in 1925. Dr. Cabot was instrumental in Rev. Boisen being appointed the first Chaplain at Worcester State Hospital.

Anton Boisen felt a calling to “break down the dividing wall between religion and medicine.” He believed that certain types of illness could be understood as attempts to solve problems of the soul. He invited four students to spend the summer of 1925 with him at Worcester State Hospital. One of the four, Helen Flanders Dunbar, a subsequent pioneer in the field of psychosomatic medicine, came as a research assistant. Boisen shaped the modern day clinical pastoral movement in his called for clergy to be clinically trained to listen and to understand in-depth the human condition of the “living human document” as opposed to passing out easy answers and solutions by way of sermon-nets and prayers.

Dr. Helen Flanders Dunbar later became the Medical Director of the organization of clinical programs called the Council for the Clinical Training of Theological Students in New York City. After her studies in Psychiatry in Vienna, she was appointed to the Psychiatric Department at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. She later became Director of the Joint Committee on Religion and Medicine. Her work is well known. Between 1931 and 1932 Dr. Dunbar supervised a combined study by physicians and clergy at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Vanderbilt Clinic. Sixty-two patients, given the usual medical treatment, were contrasted with sixty-two patients treated “with the aid of a clinically trained Chaplain’s ministrations.” The results indicated that those patients that had received interventions by clinically trained Chaplains recovered sooner. From this point forward, the clinically trained Chaplain immediately became an integral part of the healthcare team. It was determined from the findings that the physician is not the only professional that has the ultimate responsibility for the patient’s care. The Chaplain today is an integral part of the interdisciplinary team. Hence, I would argue that the clinically trained Chaplain is indeed a healthcare professional.

You feel that your spiritual needs may be met by Mozart. The Chaplin’s or the patient’s spiritual needs may also be met by Mozart. After all, I would again argue that most Chaplains would agree that the artistry of Mozart is a gift from God. Freud, a self proclaimed atheist, declared that humankind, through its psyche, is a spiritual creature. God is not only in Mozart, but in Einstein, Erikson, Michelangelo, DaVinci, Reubens, Lautrec, Galileo, Goethe, Chopin, and even in the faces of our patients and our wives and our children.

When Chaplains enter into the sacred space of a patient’s room they are very careful not to be anything but compassionate, not that all Chaplains are compassionate. However, they are trained to avoid interventions if the patient does not desire an intervention. They are trained to simply leave the room if no intervention or visit is wanted. Chaplains follow psychotherapist’s Carl Rogers’ theory of being “patient centered.” Rogers, trained by John Dewey, is an integral part of the understanding and training of 21st Century Chaplains who undergo modern Clinical Pastoral Education or CPE. In CPE, Chaplains are trained in family system dynamics, as the work of the Chaplain is not isolated to only the patient. Ministering to the patient’s family is also an integral and important part of the Chaplains scope of ministry.

Clinical Pastoral Education as the training ground of clinical Chaplains is international today, with clergy and graduate students in theology coming to this country to be trained from a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, CPE has been established as indigenous and been successful in training locals in the axioms of CPE. CPE has grown in 82 years to include, in this country, the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy; the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, the National Association of Catholic Chaplains and the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. There are about 118 Theological Schools as members, and 21 Faith Groups and Agencies who are partners in the education of Chaplains. Today, the model of education that CPE represents is a vital part of theological and healthcare education.

Cordially,

Dan Mena

Rev. Dan Mena, MDiv, Ed.D, BCC
CPE Supervisor