PCS 604 - Introduction to Pastoral Care
This course is presented in a cohort model. The next cohort will begin in 2023.
This 12-week course will introduce you to the basic elements of pastoral care. You will explore and discern the use of both clinical and practical skills of a pastoral caregiver. Topics such as deep listening, grief and loss, empathic distress, and much more will be explored. At the end of this course, you will have an enhanced understanding of the field of pastoral care and some ideas about where, how, and with whom you can offer pastoral care.
Faculty from the Pacific Institute for Essential Conversations (PIEC) facilitate this course.
PIEC is an accredited learning center providing CPE and Clinical Supervisory Education. We offer multi-faith and inter-spiritual CPE learning programs which prepare individuals to offer informed, compassionate and client-centered spiritual care in a wide diversity of settings. Individuals who complete CPE programs with the Pacific Institute for Essential Conversations become seasoned professionals who foster deep and meaningful relationships with their clients. Relationships which heal and transform lives because they grow out of the shared 'heart to heart' experience of being human.
PIEC offers CPE programs in institutional locations as well as community-based settings. Our programs are conducted by our team of Supervisory Education Fellows (SEFs) and supervised by PIEC Clinical Supervisors.
John Jeffery, Th.D., M.Div.
BCCC, Clinical Supervisor
Director, Pacific Institute for Essential Conversations
For over 35 years, John Jeffery has been an Interfaith spiritual caregiver. He has worked in hospitals, trauma centers, hospices and palliative clinics and has accompanied hundreds of individuals and families through their dying journey and has served at the bedside of countless individuals in the midst of their trauma, uncertainty and despair. John began his journey as a Methodist minister and has served as a professional clinical chaplain, pastoral counselor, spiritual director and end of life care practitioner. He is a graduate of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and is a Board Certified Clinical Chaplain & Pastoral Counselor. John is a former Director of Spiritual Care Services for Kaiser Permanente where he established the first accredited Clinical Pastoral Education programs in Kaiser Permanent. He holds a doctoral degree in Ecological Theology.
For the past ten years John has been a clinical supervisor of chaplains, spiritual directors and pastor counselors and often provides training in end of life care for physicians, nurses, therapists and hospice staff. He is a graduate of the Metta Institute for End of Life Care, A Fellow with the Association for Death Education and Counseling and a Fellow in Palliative and Hospice Care. John has been a student of Zen for the past 25 years. John offers pastoral counseling and spiritual direction to individuals both locally and nationwide.
John is a fully credentialed CPE Supervisor with the Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation (CSCPF).
Susan Shannon, M. Div., BCC
Susan Shannon is a seeker, teacher, earth and animal steward, devotee of the heart. She has worked in the fields of Emotional Literacy and Restorative Justice for over 20 years, incorporating over 45 years of Buddhist practice and study from the Tibetan tradition. She’s worked with diverse populations all her life including inmates, Tibetan refugees, the homeless, the differently-abled, at-risk youth, and most recently, Buddhist Chaplain to the men in San Quentin State Prison and Death Row. She currently teaches about spiritual care and chaplaincy through the Pacific Institute, as well as classes on Tibetan Buddhism through Sukhasiddhi Foundation, The Chaplaincy Institute of Interfaith Studies and various other Dharma Centers. Susan is the founder of the Buddhist Prison Ministry, providing correspondence classes to prison populations across the US. She resides in the San Juan Islands where she writes, provides spiritual coaching and cares for the sacred ground she shares with many sentient beings!
Reverend Jacquie Robb, BCCC
Interfaith minister, Chaplain, grief counselor and hospice volunteer.
Rev. Jacquie began her study in religious traditions and practices over 40 years ago; she began a regular meditation practice shortly thereafter. In the early 1980s, she worked at one of the first NGOs that served people with HIV/AIDS in the Bay Area. Later, she owned and ran an independent bookstore before living and working on staff at an international meditation retreat site or ashram in upstate NY.Rev. Jacquie was ordained in 2012 by the Chaplaincy Institute and received her national Board Certification in 2016. She served as the chaplain for a northern California retirement community of 450 residents and 275 staff, leading weekly services and developing classes and workshops on a variety of spiritual practices within multiple faith traditions.
Rev. Jacquie returned to midcoast Maine in 2020 to pursue a life in a rural, co-housing community. She currently serves at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Belfast, leads a monthly conversation on matters of death/dying, volunteers at the local hospice, and sits on several committees in the co-housing community. She began training as a chaplain supervisor in February 2022.
Rev. Lily Godsoe, MTh, SEF, BCCC
Rev. Lily Godsoe is an Interfaith Minister, Board-Certified Chaplain, and Spiritual Director. She is also a Supervisory Education Fellow in the field of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). Rev. Lily is the President of CSCPF - The Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation, an International Community of spiritual care practitioners that educates chaplains and teaches CPE. She received the call to ministry through her encounters at the bedside as a Zen Hospice volunteer and other spiritually-based outreach work. Rev. Lily has worked as a chaplain in a variety of clinical settings, including hospices, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and skilled nursing facilities. Born and raised in NYC, she is a first-generation Croatian-American with deep roots in the Catholic faith. Nowadays, she self-identifies as a ‘spiritual eclectic’ - someone who holds a highly individualized spiritual belief system composed of selected elements drawn from various traditions and doctrines. Rev. Lily lives in Half Moon Bay, CA with her husband, James, and their dog, Tito.
