AAPC Southeast Regional Meeting

Annual Regional Meeting

The Southeast Region of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors hosts an annual regional conference each October at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, NC. During this meeting, attendees enjoy fellowship, conduct the business of the Region, and gain access to excellent plenary and workshop presenters – earning valuable CEUs in the process!

2010 Plenary Program Materials

The 2010 Plenary Program was entitled “This Is Your Brain on Therapy”, presented by Pat Malone, M.D. Many attendees have requested access to the supplementary materials discussed by Dr. Malone.

Click here to go to the Materials Download page. These materials are available to the public and not restricted to attendees only.

2011 Annual Regional Meeting

Kanuga Conference Center Porch When: Friday, October 21st – Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

Where: The Kanuga Conference Center, Hendersonville, NC

Title: “Yearning for Home”: Clinical,Theological and Spiritual Reflection: An Integrative Conference for 21st Century Therapists

Cost: All costs associated with registration for the conference and lodging are variable and are shown when you click on the link below to register.

Scholarships: Click here to download information about limited scholarships to cover the cost of conference registration. Please note that the deadline for scholarship applications is 5:00 PM on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Conference Quick Links to .pdf files for your convenience:

Conference Speakers, Summary, and Workshop Descriptions:

Through three weekend plenary sessions that will conclude with a collaborative, ecumenical worship service on Sunday morning, conference participants will reflect together on the clinical, spiritual, and theological dimensions of our work in a twenty-first century world of diverse cultures, ideas, and perspectives. The plenary sessions will be led by the Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling faculty of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

An Opening Plenary by Dr. Pamela Cooper-White will lay the groundwork for considering the relationality of God and persons as the “home base” of spiritually integrative psychotherapy and the crucible in which healing and wholeness come to be known.

The Saturday Morning Plenary Session, led by Dr. Bill Harkins, will focus on a central case study that will serve as a template for clinical application and theological reflection throughout the weekend. Through the use of videotaped clinical vignettes, and a panel discussion with clinicians who collaborated on the case—Louis McLeod (Pine River Psychotherapy Associates), Miriam Needham, and Liz Strauss (both of St. Luke’s Training and Counseling Center), we will address understandings of the socio-cultural and religious contexts of those with whom we work. The case will offer illustrations of spiritual longing familiar to clinicians in today’s context—a “holy longing” for mutuality and intimacy often acted out in ways resulting in brokenness and estrangement. This plenary will demonstrate and explore the importance of collaborative models of practice and care between practitioners and agencies, and within the client-therapist relationship itself.

Saturday evening’s plenary, led by Dr. Skip Johnson, will feature the reflections of doctoral student panelists representing a variety of religious and cultural contexts, and will include theological reflection upon and socio-cultural analysis of the case and the current milieu.

Sunday Morning Worship will conclude our time together embodying the collaborative spirit of the conference, and affirming the longing for relationality, amidst multiplicity—and the search for meaning, hope, and healing.

The organizing metaphor of “homecoming” as a psychological and spiritual symbol will provide a bridge between theoretical, theological, and cultural perspectives. Tools for theological, psychological, and spiritual reflection will be offered. The risks and missteps of interpretation will be explored. Workshops will further enable participants to explore related topics around practice and reflection. The goal is for rich and “meaning-full” conversations amidst the mystery of relationships between God, self, and one another—that mystery wherein lies our true home. Come back “home” to Kanuga this fall, and perhaps know that place—and yourself in it—for the first time! “Home,” as the poet said, “is where we start from.”

Workshop Descriptions

Finding A Home on the Internet: Marketing Your Practice Using Social Media Tools

Chris O’Rear, M.Div., M.M.F.T., Licensed Clinical Pastoral Therapist

Having a website for your center or practice is the bare minimum for marketing if you want to reach today’s media-savvy generation. New social outlets like blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube seem to be arriving daily. This workshop will provide an overview of the most popular social media tools and how to use them to maximize your presence on the web.

Wonder and Enchantment in Pastoral Counseling

Earl Nichols, D.Min., AAMFT

The presenter will use slight of hand magic and group interaction to illustrate the virtues of wonder and enchantment. Then the group will explore how to use wonder and enchantment as theological resources in pastoral counseling.

Re-membering Ourselves in Christ: The d??-????? of Pastoral Dialogue With Persons Suffering Moral Injury and Traumatic Stress

Stephen Muse, PhD

This workshop will focus on the reciprocal nature of the healing encounter with returning veterans (and civilians) who bear moral injuries or “spiritual shrapnel” at the heart of their traumatic stress. Case histories and a movie video clip will be used to invite discussion and reflection about how pastoral counselors are affected by the relationship in which we, “listen, witness and weep” with our clients. What is the reciprocal nature of healing pastoral dialogue? How are we changed by our encounters? What can the church offer veterans and their families psychologically, emotionally and spiritually and what do we have to learn from those have gone to hell for us, and returned?

Shared Wisdom: Intersubjectivity and Use of the Self in Pastoral Counseling

Pamela Cooper-White, Ph.D. and Kathy Kelly, M.Div., LPC

Based on the presenter’s book Shared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling, this workshop will address how the pastoral counselor’s subjectivity (his or her “countertransference”) can be not only a hindrance or unresolved neurotic “baggage” or projection on the part of the therapist, as we were traditionally taught, but also as a positive tool for empathy in the therapeutic relationship. The concepts of intersubjectivity and “Totalist countertransference” will be explored in depth, with case material presented by Kathy Kelly, as well as case material shared by workshop participants.

Certification

John S. Eddinger, DMin, Chair, SE Region Certification Committee

Why would anyone want to be certified by AAPC? Because it helps you become an excellent therapist and even helps you make a better living. Certification by AAPC has always been a sign of confidence in a clinician’s skills, but the development of state licensing laws seems to have called into question the value of our certification for the economics of practicing pastoral counseling. Now regional certification chairs hear the question from potential candidates, “What do you have to offer me if I train with AAPC and get certified?” The point of this workshop is to offer answers to that question. Those answers are rooted in the presenter’s experience earning a living because of his certification by AAPC.

Story Telling

Bob Prim, M.Div.

This workshop will explore the value, therapeutic and otherwise, of storytelling. The material presented will be personal stories of Robert Warden Prim and how the stories were born in grief and vocational demands and how the stories continue to shape the teller and the communities in which the stories are told. The presenter will invite the participants to explore ways in which a narrative approach to pastoral care has potential to nurture well-being in individuals and communities.

Spiritual Direction – Exploring the Interface with Pastoral Counseling

Mary R. Jacob, Ed.D, MSN, ARNP

Participants are invited to explore the origin and practice of spiritual direction in faith communities. This interactive presentation is aimed at increasing awareness of the nature and function of a spiritual direction relationship, sought out by persons who have an intention of deepening their self-understanding from a spiritual perspective and their relationship to God as they know God. The workshop will provide an opportunity (1) to share participants’ personal and professional experiences with spiritual direction, and (2) to compare and contrast the spiritual direction process with pastoral counseling, considering how each may affect the other.

The Assurance of God’s Love: A Pastoral Theology for the Twenty-First Century

Edward P. Wimberly, Ph.D.

This workshop focuses on how the experience of shame in the twenty-first century is impacting how we reflect theologically on God’s presence in our relationships and how grace is experienced. In previous centuries grace was experienced in terms of guilt and forgiveness, and the focus was on the assurance of condemnation, judgment, and punishment of God. It is clear that the understanding of shame as the experience of being unloved and unlovable is dominant today, and pastoral theology must address how grace can be experienced when being unlovable is the center of human experience. This workshop will attempt to speak to how grace addresses twenty-first century shame in light of Wesleyan theology. The workshop resource for will be on the my new book entitled, No Shame in Wesley’s Gospel: A Twenty-First Century Pastoral Theology.

Intro to Internal Family Systems (part 1)

Russell Siler-Jones, Th.D.

The Internal Family Systems Model brings together aspects of psychodynamic theory and family systems theory, along with an assumption that each us has access to an inward spiritual presence that helps guide us with wisdom and love. Theoretically, it recognizes the multiplicity of selves that comprise each self. With respect to therapeutic technique, it helps therapist and patient engage each of those inner selves with respect and compassion. Part 1 of this workshop will introduce major concepts and techniques. Part 2 will be more experiential, employing several exercises and either a live demonstration or role play.

Ethics (part 1)

Sarah Rieth, D.Min.

“Best practices” teach us as pastoral counselors to avoid dual relationships in our practice. Yet dual relationships are not uncommon in our work. The explosion of social media has added new layers to the issues of dual relationships and ethical boundaries. How do we maintain an ethical practice and be modern enough to employ social media? Using case studies in this two-part workshop, we will explore ethical issues presented in dual relationships and in the use of social media. Participants are invited to send a paragraph describing a case and ethical question to the presenter in advance at: sarahrieth [at] bellsouth [dot] net

Intro to Internal Family Systems (part 2)

Russell Siler-Jones, Th.D.

Ethics (part 2)

Sarah Rieth, D.Min.

2011 Conference Schedule

Friday

12:00-5:00 pm Registration
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3:00 Friday Workshops (Gooch) 1.5
3:15-4:45 First Business Meeting/Professional Development (Gooch) 1.5
5:00 Reception
6:00 Dinner
7:00-9:00 First Plenary (Gooch) 2.0
9:00 Music/Social (Acoustic)

Saturday

7:30 Morning Prayer (Chapel of the Transfiguration)
8:00 Breakfast
9:00-11:00 Second Plenary 2.0
11:00-12;30 Second Business/Leadership Development Meeting 1.5
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:45-3:15 Case Conferences: Heart of AAPC (state meeting groups)(Gooch) 1.5
3:30-5:00 First Saturday Workshops 1.5
5:00 FREE TIME
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Third Plenary (Gooch) 2.0
8:45 Toast and Jam (Gooch)

Sunday

8:00 Breakfast
9:00-10:30 Fourth Plenary/Worship (Chapel of the Transfiguration) 1.5
10:30-12:00 Third Workshop Time for Ethics (part 2)
12 noon Lunch
=15 CEUs

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