COP Spotlight: About ACPE’s Friday Psychotherapists Community of Practice

Early in the COVID pandemic, ACPE staff member Katherine Higgins sent out a general invitation to interested persons to join a weekly gathering of like-minded persons for a one-hour weekly ZOOM gathering on Fridays at 12 noon ET.

Several of the current active members of the Friday Psychotherapist Community of Practice were part of that initial gathering and more have joined us since. The formal definition of who we are is: “persons who are members of ACPE (active or retired) who are, or were, practicing Psychotherapists or Counsellors and are, or were (pre-retirement), accountable to a Code of Ethics specifying the responsibility for safeguarding clinical case information.”

Most of us received our training in AAPC accredited centers and/or with AAPC certified Diplomates and Fellows. Some of us are retired from professional practice. Others are at various stages in their professional career - practicing in congregational, private practice, hospital, and educational contexts. I am in Canada (Edmonton, Alberta) and one of our members is in Singapore. The rest of us are spread across the United States (“from sea to shining sea”).

Our meetings are unstructured with some of us participating every week and others dropping in occasionally. For some, the gathering provides a supportive environment for personal struggles. For others, it is a context in which to raise clinical and theological (also clinical-theological) case-related issues. Often, some of our members let us know about opportunities for learning and growth.

There have also been times when our conversations have emerged out of our struggle to name how we follow our calling in the ACPE context – conversations that recognize we are able to have the conversation because ACPE has made this opportunity available to us.