Clinical Pastoral Education Program

Education for Professional Ministry

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Programs allow ministers, seminarians, and other religiously-oriented persons to develop counseling skills, familiarity with a particular pastoral setting (usually within a hospital, parish, hospice, retirement home, etc.), and self-awareness as pastoral care-givers. Attention is given to enhancing the dignity of patients, family members, parishioners, staff and CPE students within this context.

The educational approach may be described as "action-reflection-action," with students providing pastoral care on assigned areas and using their experiences for reflection and learning.

While seminary courses often provide an academic basis for the theology of pastoral care, CPE emphasizes learning by doing. Seminary field education experiences do not provide the same level of intensity of direct supervision, peer interaction, or accountability for one's professional functioning as does CPE.

For more details, please take a look at our Clinical Pastoral Education Program at FMH (PDF) brochure.

Clinical Pastoral Education Intern Program information is available: please review the Intern Program and Schedule.

You may apply for admission to the program electronically, or by printing out a hard copy of the application and mailing it to:

The Reverend Dr. Kay Myers
Director, Pastoral Care Services
Frederick Memorial Hospital
400 West Seventh Street
Frederick, Maryland 21701

Frederick Memorial Hospital is accredited by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, Inc. to provide the Clinical Pastoral Education Program. Accreditation standards, including requirements for faculty, curriculum, educational environment, and admission into CPE programs can be found by on the CPSP website.