In times of crisis, the first place many people turn is their local church or faith community. Studies show that 25% of those seeking help for mental and emotional challenges seek out a clergyperson before attempting to access clinical care. This is higher than the percentage of people who first go to a psychiatrist or medical doctor.*

The Spiritual Care Specialist Training Program (SCS) is a 48-hour course supporting congregational clergy and lay pastoral caregivers, chaplains working in a variety of institutional settings, and allied caregivers of faith to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to help care-receivers effectively, ethically, and safely. Issues and topics covered include:

• · Images of Pastoral Care
• · Ethics of Spiritual Care
• · Marriage and Family Issues in Systemic Perspective
• · Spiritual Assessment and Diagnosis
• · Listening in the Service of Healing
• · Grief and Loss
• · Mental Health and the Role of the Faith Community
• · Understanding and Responding Effectively to Domestic Violence
• · Trauma-Informed Spiritual Care
• · Substance Abuse, Addiction, and the Role of the Faith Community
• · (Coming Soon) From PTSD to Moral Injury

The SCS training program was developed by working practitioners in collaboration with ACPE’s Psychotherapy Commission. It is neither a certification track nor does it count toward CPE credits/units, but it does reflect ACPE's mission to provide high quality education in the provision of spiritual care. The standard fee is $600.

For current course offerings: check here.

To receive information about future training opportunities and other developments in the program, please fill out the Specialist Training Program Interest Form.

*Health Services Research (2003): ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360908