If you are considering CPE, my encouragement is simple: be willing to let it transform you. I entered CPE expecting to grow as a chaplain, but I was surprised to discover that the curriculum seemed to meet me exactly where I was in my growth and experience. Each unit built upon the one before it, and what began as pastoral education became a much deeper journey of self-discovery and clinical formation. CPE creates an environment where vulnerability, honesty, and self-exploration are essential parts of the learning process. Students are invited to examine their own grief, wounds, family experiences, and trauma within a safe and supportive cohort. As we learn to recognize our own stories, patterns, and emotional responses, we become better prepared to sit with others in their suffering without allowing our own experiences to overshadow theirs. CPE gave me the language and awareness to recognize those patterns and the clinical wisdom to begin making different choices. It isn’t magic; it is transformation. CPE changed the way I understand myself, my ministry, and the sacred privilege of sitting with people in their most vulnerable moments.

Being selected to serve as a Chaplain Resident is not for the faint of heart.  At its core it is designed to be a formative experience: shaping and preparing you to provide chaplaincy services for many who are experiencing life-altering health events.  It requires vulnerability, truth-telling, self-examination and self-care.  However, if you enter the residency open to the chaplaincy educational process, it has the power to transform your life: it did mine.  Following a brain injury, I had been cleared to go back to work.  But there were still many ministry skills that I needed to relearn.  BRG’s Chaplain Residency program not only provided me with that opportunity, it also provided a safe space for me to better understand how that injury had changed me: my personality, my new superpowers, my ongoing challenges.  Yes, the residency changed my life.  Now serving as a Sr Pastor in a Florida church, I can easily say that I would not be where I am today without the opportunity provided by BRG’s Chaplaincy program.

I went into CPE looking right past it. I just wanted the residency to show me how to do the job. Give me an outline/template/checklist and let me do the work. Looking back, I am grateful to have been so woefully shortsighted. It may sound cliche (only because it’s true), but I had a transformative experience. The resounding truth (which I was told beforehand) is that CPE is much more about you (the potential chaplain) than it is about the patients or anyone else. Wanting a script to read is like expecting to be told what to think. The residency doesn’t teach you what to think, but more so how to think. It will not be easy; you will be stretched. Persevere and you will leave with many tools in your toolbelt. You will be “well-equipped for the work of the ministry.” (Eph. 4:12) 

I would highly recommend the CPE Residency program at Baton Rouge General Medical Center. The program has an appropriate level of rigor for a graduate level program. The rigor is balanced by a genuine level of support given by the Training Supervisor-Educator. While personal accountability is necessary for proper growth, this program creates an environment where one feels safe to grow, learn, challenge, and be challenged by fellow members of one’s cohort. The Hospital organization is welcoming, and CPE students and spiritual care providers are embraced as equal partners of the interdisciplinary team. I grew as a spiritual care provider because of my experiences as a CPE resident at Baton Rouge General. I would highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to not only gain CPE but grow as a chaplain.

I found myself at an impasse. What was my next going to look like? In seeking God, I stumbled upon chaplaincy. Clinical Pastoral Education presented tools to perform an extensive self-examination. What contributed to my thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and actions? What makes me tick? The action-reflection model, along with insightful feedback from my peers and supervisor, supported me as I cultivated a fresh perspective. The process reintroduced how I can embody God’s image and purpose. As a chaplain, I am equipped to serve and attend to the needs of a diverse, ecumenical population. What I learned was invaluable and applicable in the work I do in a clinical setting. The hands-on education helped me to be competent and effective. CPE is exploratory, transformative, and healing inducing. I am grateful for my journey through the program at Baton Rouge General. It was not what I expected, but it was exactly what God knew I needed.