The following fall and spring schedules are a good overview of the curriculum. The program is also a process of self discovery. It is this aspect of the program that cannot be easily reflected in a simple listing of classes.
The combination of learning new skills and of becoming more self aware help to create a clearer sense of pastoral and personal identity.
For those students who are receiving seminary credit for the AoPC program, an individual syllabus will be developed in order to meet your specific Individual Learning goals.
| Session 1 | Introductions; Fears, Expectations, Hopes, and Needs; Begin Listening Skills |
| Session 2 | Components of Visitation; Introduction to the Verbatim |
| Session 3 | Hospital Visitation, Simple Presence, and Prayer |
| Session 4 | Suffering/Spiritual Separation from God. |
| Session 5 | Living Death Situations/Crisis Caregiving |
| Session 6 | Stages of Death and Dying |
| Saturday Session | Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment |
| Session 8 | Reflections on Death; Grief; Complicated, Anticipatory, and Delayed Grief |
| Session 9 | Death of a Child |
| Session 10 | Suicide |
| Session 11 | Caring for a Dying Patient; Hospice, Advanced Directives, and Organ & Tissue Donation |
| Session 12 | Theology of Pastoral Care |
| Session 13 | No Class |
| Session 14 | Hospital Orientation: What to Expect in the Hospital; Spiritual Assessment, Crisis Intervention, Bioethics, & Religion. |
January and February: Students are assigned to the clinical setting of a local hospital. Classes and pastoral visitation are held for 5 hours on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Specific schedules are set by the clinical supervisor at each site.
| Session 1 | Debriefing about clinical experience and didactic on Transitions and Change. |
| Session 2 | Stress and Burnout (Identifying Stressors and how you cope) |
| Session 3 | Issues of Covenant Relationships (stress, communication, compromise, parenting, job changes, etc.) |
| Session 4 | Depression |
| Session 5 | Family Issues and Relationships (Identify own woundedness with special service of letting go of wounds.) |
| Session 6 | Adolescence - (Reflections due) |
| Session 7 | Spring Break, Easter, and Passover. |
| Session 8 | Issues of Divorce (Includes special issues of clergy in divorce) |
| Session 9 | Aging parents - What would you want your parent to say to you? Caring for elderly parents. |
| Session 10 | Abuse (Substance, Emotional, Spiritual, and Physical) |
| Session 11 | Issues of Prejudice |
| Session 12 | Care of Self and Contracting/Family Systems |
| Session 13 | Evaluation and Closure (Gifts you have developed during this class; how you see yourself and others) Have a reflection written that will identify 5 gifts of your self that you bring to pastoral care and be prepared to share them with your classmates. |
| Session 14 | Graduation at 6:00 pm in the sanctuary of Trinity United Methodist Church |