“The Best Thing I’ve Done in 30 Years as a Counselor and Center Director”: Reflections from a SIP Training
I am Executive Director of Tidewater Pastoral Counseling Services, which serves the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Suffolk, Virginia.
I came here 15 years, to work as Associate Executive Director with our Founding Director, Rev. Dr. Bill Hedrick. I stepped into the Executive Director role 10 years ago. I’ve been a Licensed Professional Counselor since 1990, working 15 years in the community mental health system, and I am an ordained minister in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ.
Tidewater Pastoral Counseling is a staff of 10 therapists, some who trained in AAPC training centers, others who learned therapy in graduate school and contexts outside AAPC. We were an approved AAPC approved service and training center for years, but more recently I have recognized a need to support our staff in growing their skills for integrating spirituality and religion into their work as therapists. I have also wanted TPCS to make a greater impact on the larger community of therapists in this part of Virginia.
So when I learned about the ACPE SIP program early in 2020, I applied to become a SIP Trainer. I wanted to offer it as a resource to the staff at our center first, then use it as an outreach tool to serve other therapists in our area. I took the Trainer training in May and am now half-way through leading our staff through the 30-hour workshop series.
The material in the SIP curriculum has helped me and our staff. It has helped me identify a framework to understand the work I was already doing, while also creating new avenues of practice. Teaching the SIP material to our staff has helped solidify and inform the work we do as an agency. The training enables us to identify the common issues and themes we encounter in the work we do. It also gives us practical tools and skills to address these.
Doing this training together also has given us the opportunity to bond in a way that we had not previously, both personally and professionally. Several staff have commented how useful and affirming the SIP material has been for them, and how much closer we feel. As we have moved through each of the three-hour courses (we are halfway through the material as a group), we are experiencing a renewed energy of spirit and purpose about the work we do--at a time that this is most needed. It feels as if our brains are waking up and being infused with a hopefulness that is carried out into day to day experiences.
As a SIP Trainer, I have also been introduced to a rich network of other practitioners and wonderfully supportive colleagues, along with an amazingly impressive group of ACPE support team members.
I am grateful to ACPE and to all those who helped develop this SIP Program. This program reflects tremendous generosity of spirit. I would strongly encourage all therapists to take this training or consider becoming a trainer. The SIP Program is already a benefit to me, the agency I work with, and the clients we serve. It is the best thing I have done in my 30-year career and absolutely the best thing I have done during my tenure as an Executive Director of a pastoral counseling agency.ACPE Psychotherapist Marty Phillips is an ACPE SIP Trainer and can be reached at mphillips@tidewaterpastoral.org