I Was Wrong about the ACPE SIP Training

Written by William Thiele

I Was Wrong about the ACPE SIP Training

I signed up for ACPE’s Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy training as a long-time pastoral psychotherapist who thought: “I will likely know whatever they share, but I could use the CE hours and it won’t tax my brain too much.”

Then I took the training with Russell Siler Jones and my response changed to this: “I was dang arrogant, and I was wrong about the SIP training.” In fact, I was really helped by exposure to Russell’s open-hearted personality and ability to share a ton of research-based material and still invite the group’s input.

The training and case consultation was a very spiritual experience. It caused me to realize how much of our pastoral psychotherapy case consultation is psychologically based and only occasionally connected to spirituality, whereas this approach is all about attending to the spirituality of ourselves and our clients as they interface.

My original arrogance is embarrassing, and it was time to outgrow that old way and awaken again to how much I must keep learning at age 66!

I spend much of my practice doing spiritual direction. This training also helps me pay more attention to the inherent gifts and biases of my own contemplative spirituality as it impacts directly.


William Thiele, PhD, LPC, Founding Director, The School for Contemplative Living

Author: Monks in the World: Seeking God in a Frantic Culture

"A Contemplative Path" is my podcast on iTunes and blog on Wordpress.com