Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)

Curriculum

     HUSD offers a consortium model for its online CPE program and draws upon the rich particularity of the School’s posture in the Washington, DC area. A consortium model allows HUSD to curate a CPE program enables participants to participate in a variety of clinical site offerings. Including students in designing the curriculum is a pillar in our educational approach to adult learners. We invite students to consider topics they feel will help them meet the objectives, standards and outcomes, as well as their goals.  

     CPE is an action-reflection approach to learning, i.e., we engage in ministry or another program activity; we take time to reflect on what we learned through this experience; we engage in new action and seek to implement or practice the awareness of insight(s) we gained. Students often feel challenged to step out of their comfort zone and experience sides to themselves and/or others they haven’t quite felt or experienced before.

Written Requirements

     The written requirements for our programs at HUSD will ground students in their own hopes and goals for CPE. As a student-centered approach to learning, particularly within our School itself, our program acknowledges that the learning goals are different for different persons, and each unit of CPE adjusts to meet the different goals and needs of the current group of students. CPE is not a static field, but it is continually growing and developing. Educators and students learn more about ourselves as we learn in service with the people with whom we offer ministry. CPE students can expect to be called to a regular combination of action and reflection, service and consideration of that service and toward the aim of integrating what they know with who they are and who they are becoming as ministers.

     The specific writing requirements for the unit of CPE is discussed during the orientation week for the program. Students are invited to make full possible use of these writing opportunities. If the student feels like what they are doing is not productive, it is important for them to talk to their educator regarding such.

Level I & Level II CPE Unit Requirements

• 100 Classroom Hours (Online)
• 300 Clinical Hours (Your local area) 

Upcoming Level I & Level II CPE Units 

• Spring Extended Unit (February - May)
• Summer Intensive (May - August)
• Fall Extended Unit (October - February)

Level I & Level II Application and Fee Deadlines 

• Spring Extended Unit (Application Deadline January 27)
• Summer Intensive (Application Deadline March 1)
• Fall Extended Unit (Application Deadline August 1)

Level I & Level II Costs (Check or Money Order only)

• Application Fee $100.00 (CPE Application Fee is Non-refundable)
• Tuition $3000.00 (Due by first day of class)

Level I & Level II CPE Application 
https://acpe.edu/education/cpe-students/cpe-application

Application and Tuition fees must be mailed before the first day of class to
Howard University School of Divinity 
2900 Van Ness Street NW,  
Holy Cross Hall, Office #309
Washington, DC 20008 
202-806-0744
HUSDCPE@howard.edu 

If you have further questions, please email the HUSD CPE program administrator at HUSDCPE@howard.edu 

            Clinical Pastoral Education was conceived in the 1920’s by Dr. Richard C. Cabot as a method of learning pastoral practice in a clinical setting under supervision.  It was a time of ferment in many fields of professional education, including medical, social work and ministry. The approach was expanded by the Rev. Anton T. Boisen, a congregational minister who, among other places, studied at Chicago Theological Seminary and was a chaplain at Elgin State Hospital in Illinois. He began to include the case study method of theological inquiry: a study of “the living human documents.”

            As clinical pastoral education has developed over the years, other leaders have opened the doors to the integration into pastoral practice of knowledge from medicine, psychology and other behavioral sciences.  Helen Flanders Dunbar, Carl Rogers, Wayne Oates, Seward Hiltner, Carroll Wise, George Polk, Howard Clinebell, John Patton and Teresa Snorton, to name a very few, have been instrumental in the evolution of the practice. That early background is documented by Protestant men primarily, and Protestant male expression was predominated in early CPE. It was not until after decades of experience, development and practice of clinical pastoral education within several organized but uncoordinated groups that the ACPE, Inc. (ACPE) was formed in 1967.  The ACPE resulted from the merger of The Institute of Pastoral Care, Inc., The Council for Clinical Training, Inc., and the Association of Clinical Pastoral Educators, and it drew upon the functions of certification and accreditation from the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A.

            ACPE today is the standard-setting, accrediting, certifying, resource agency in the field of clinical pastoral education to centers and supervisors who offer training programs and certify men and women as supervisors to conduce these programs.  The organization conducts periodic reviews of both the hospital as an educational center and the performance of the supervisors in order to ensure observation of and compliance with the Standards of ACPE.  ACPE is in compliance with the standards of the U.S. Department of Education. Further, ACPE is the only agency recognized by the United States Department of Education (USDE) to accredit programs of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) in the United States. ACPE currently accredits over 300 CPE programs offered in hospitals, prisons, churches, seminaries, community-based organizations, and other settings across the United States.

During the last 10-20 years, ACPE has become increasingly more diverse in membership and leadership. ACPE as an education and service organization has a multi-cultural and international membership of persons and programs.

https://acpe.edu

Rev. Barbara A. Fears, MDiv, MTS, PhD
Howard University School of Divinity
Associate Professor of Religious Education
Director of Clinical Pastoral Education

Contact Information
HUSDCPE@howard.edu
202-806-0744