The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is a theologically based covenant community, dedicated to "recovery of the soul" and promoting competency in the clinical pastoral field.
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In the CPSP we value persons and competence above institutions and complacency. In that spirit we speak of making spiritual room for each other and "midwifing" one another's journeys.
The CPSP should be proud that our membership is second to none in training and qualifications. Our Standards are directly analogous to, and share a common history with, all those of the cognate organizations that certify individuals for specialized pastoral care and accredit clinical programs of training and education.
We in the CPSP have chosen to be different by centering professional development and certification within the small groups we call Chapters. We are proud to proclaim the conviction that our organization by Chapters is a superior way to assure accountability and pastoral integrity, while eschewing bureaucracy and unwarranted complication and expense.
Responding to a Challenge to Professional Integrity
We now have the opportunity to evidence further that our decision to organize by Chapters – although requiring greater intensity and trust – bears within itself remarkable power for healing and renewal. In the course of our rapid growth, some Chapters have not applied the Standards in full accord with their content or intent, and there are now persons who have been certified and have professional skills but whose qualifications do not represent the CPSP Standards. This situation is not new or surprising in a growing professional body.
Our history of excellence motivates us to take whatever steps are necessary to address shortcomings in a way that is at once compassionate and rigorous, so that we can remain at the forefront of the field of specialized pastoral care. The good news is that the CPSP has solutions readily available that emphasize our values and demonstrate what makes our organization unique and enviable.
Consistent with our Covenant, we are an organization that includes members through "matriculation," not graduation. Our Chapters are by design intended to provide further personal encouragement, continuing education, and clinical supervision for those individuals requiring it. Our ethic does not stress ultimate and final achievement, or certification as a form of graduation, but an organic experience of ongoing training and maturity.
To assure our progress as professionals, we embrace a small group process that is intended to be lively and always ongoing, with specific certifications that are renewed every single year. This is equally true for everyone who is certified, including every Diplomate who is in leadership. Levels are differentiated not by a sense of calling but by our demonstrated and confirmed clinical abilities and our dedication to one another and our ministries.
Mutual Care, Responsibility and the Chapter
Our responsibilities to one another are continual. Every person who has been granted membership in the CPSP has become part of who we are as a movement.
The local Chapter, which embodies the essence of our CPSP ethic and defines our principal and unique position among cognate organizations, takes the prerogative of affirming the person and the character of each individual being considered for membership. It is the local Chapter members who take personal responsibility for the daily professional life and ministry of each individual they include in their Chapter membership and recommend for certification. This authority that resides in the Chapter is how we proclaim the quality of specialized pastoral care that each and every member of the CPSP is able to provide. This authority shapes and empowers the accountability and responsibility we have to one another.
If an eminently qualified member is in distress or at risk, we have the resources to address their difficulties immediately, beginning at the local Chapter level where care and attention will make the most difference. In cases of disability, we are even available to provide qualified interim services as may be requested by an institution.
If a person’s qualifications are in some way found to be lacking, we have both the local and national resources to assist members to attain needed skills or to achieve proper equivalence to our well-established high Standards. We assure competence through honest and accurate assessment from colleagues committed to addressing issues of quality in a strengthening and supportive environment.
"Recovery of Soul" includes the mutual up-building of our membership in ways that assure the broader clinical pastoral community and the recognized faith group organizations, as well those who may employ us, that our Standards are both rigorous and well maintained.
Limitations of Chapters and Committees
The Chapter is not, however, free to ignore or dismiss the common Standards we share with the CPSP community at large. A Chapter's authority does not extend to ignoring or waiving specific Standards or even determining equivalencies to the qualifications and credentials that are set out clearly in them. Every applicant for certification must fulfill all parts of the Standards pertaining to education, training, and endorsement prior to being able to formally interview before a certification committee. In individual cases requiring special circumstances for the intent of the Standards to be fulfilled, Chapters are expected to propose sensible and reasonable solutions for others to consider and approve.
It is never a solution, however, to suggest that parts of the Standards simply do not apply. No Chapter Convener, certification committee or the Chapter as a whole has the authority to waive our common Standards. If this were the case, our Standards would be mere guidelines or suggestions for a loose association of idiosyncratic groups, unrecognizable as belonging to the same CPSP. Therefore, in cases where a colleague is unable for any reason(s) to meet the Standards as they are written, these are opportunities to work together to find solutions that demonstrate equivalences in rational and documentable ways that are easily understandable by both an applicant and other certified members. The national certification committee exists in part to help guide local Chapters in identifying and working out equivalencies that represent the content and intent of the Standards and the will of the CPSP community.
Some Needed Corrections
Local Chapters are where this CPSP matriculation occurs. Beginning with the responsibility we take for one another within our own Chapters, we strive to nurture success in the professional development and advancement of each and every member. In our current situation where our growth has resulted in some inconsistent applications of the Standards, we do not set out to exclude or remove anyone who has already been accepted into membership.
Two practical steps, however, are essential for us to maintain the unity that is fitting and indeed essential to the CPSP as a community comprised of Chapters of equal and enduring quality.
First, we must endeavor to assist all persons who have already been granted membership to become fully qualified, through reasonable and accountable procedures to remedy identifiable deficits.
Second, we must temporarily accept no further applications for membership or advancement in certification from persons with credentials that do not fulfill, in established and traditional ways, the content and intent of the Standards.
Reasonable, Creative Solutions and Covenant Community
We have more than sufficient experience with reasonable and creative solutions to assure that diversity will be respected and no questions about credentials will remain unanswered. We can celebrate differences in personal backgrounds and spiritual traditions without compromising Standards.
Those who apply for certification by the CPSP want something that is a privilege to obtain, and they are seeking it from persons who deserve their trust. If anyone is not prepared to trust those to whom they are applying, then why are they applying? Certification is not a “right”, but a privilege that is granted within the context of our common Standards and covenanted relationships of mutual accountability.
Respect for certification includes respect for those who bear responsibility for granting it and respect for a process that may withhold it. Any other attitude will by definition disqualify an applicant. These matters are “givens” in defining our enterprise.
All of these processes are intended to value the member who will enhance the Chapter and with it the CPSP as a whole. Validation in the context of accountability nurtures balance and efficacy in our ministries.
No system for training and certification is without fault. Organizing in Chapters has been a blessing to our membership and our ministries, and Chapter life has demonstrated its superiority as a means to professional development and accountability without burdensome hierarchy and expense. Personal commitment and interpersonal encounter have made this possible.
We are first and foremost a mutually supportive covenant community. Our credentialing is intended to enhance and support that community and to exemplify at its best the meaning of our Covenant. In our obedience to that spirit, we are a genuine credentialing body when we empower and identify persons qualified to serve publicly in the ministries of specialized pastoral care.
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The Rev. Dr. William Scar, BCCC
Diplomate, CPSP
Diplomate, AAPC
Approved Supervisor, AAMFT
Program Director, Good Samaritan Counseling Center/SCIC
Posted by Perry Miller, Editor at November 10, 2011 3:06 AM
