by Michael | May 28, 2023 | Clinical Pastoral Education, Faith-Related, Spirituality, Work
The other night I was ending a pastoral education group. We had spent three hours doing quality work together but part of the discussion was tense with grief, unsettled surprise, and familiar but contested aching. Discussion took us from foundational theorists in...
by Michael | Dec 15, 2021 | Clinical Pastoral Education, Interior Life
My CPE unit is wrapping up with the residents and final evaluations always bring up some discussion around our relational or interpersonal dynamics. We talk about each other. They talk about me and what I do with them. I talk about them and what they do with me. We...
by Michael | Sep 6, 2021 | Clinical Pastoral Education, Work
I used to hear my training supervisor say to me how grounding chaplaincy was. I was new enough to the work and new enough to Peter to listen very closely. Sometimes I think I was a better listener when I was new to the ministry. I have always been nosey enough,...
by Michael | Aug 27, 2021 | Clinical Pastoral Education
The other day my summer intensive students finished their unit of CPE. We gathered at an Oak Park restaurant and had a great time. It was wonderful to see them together, around a table, laughing, and making fun of each other and of me, remembering their 11 weeks of...
by Michael | Jul 18, 2016 | Clinical Pastoral Education, Faith-Related
Walking into a room and meeting another person wherever they are. To show up and shut up and be present. To move through the human desire to say something to make it all okay and just be. To be a reflection of God-in-flesh to those who are suffering. Also, my patients...
by Michael | Apr 10, 2016 | Clinical Pastoral Education, Faith-Related, Quotes, Reading, Writing
A midwife teacher helps half-baked ideas and perceptions develop in dialogue to fuller maturity. What is important is not to begin with perfected thought, but to encourage creative thinking that is pushing the edges and discovering where novelty becomes possible. A...
