Contemplative Clinical Practice Certificate

... to one's inner wisdom. Practices originating in religious traditions and those being created in secular contexts can deepen the reflective experience for both the clinician and the client.

Traditions will be explored using didactic and experiential methods. Using case material and sacred texts, participants will examine the strengths, limitations and possibilities of theories and practices for clinical work with clients from different backgrounds and with a range of psychological and spiritual concerns.

Participants in this advanced certificate program will:

• develop knowledge, skills and a language in accessing religious and spiritual development in treatment interventions
• acquire knowledge and skills in understanding religious and spiritual practices across issues of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and cultural diversity
• develop a capacity to build a sustainable contemplative practice for self and others.

Credits

The Certificate in Contemplative Clinical Practice carries 31.5 continuing education credits.

Between the two academic weekends, students will participate in monthly facilitated chat conference call discussions. The conference calls will allow participants the opportunity to discuss issues related to attending to the contemplative dimensions in their lives and the enhancement of a contemplative practice in their clinical work with clients. In addition, students are given the option of individual spiritual direction by phone during the practicum period.

Credit

The Certificate Program in Contemplative Clinical Practice carries 31.5 continuing education credits.

The Smith College School for Social Work reserves the right to modify content as appropriate.

Exploring Contemplative Practices

The contemplative practice sessions will introduce, and invite, participants to an exploration of what defines a "contemplative practice." Together, students will experience selected practices, chronicle the effects of the practices in their daily life and discuss the impact of the experience in both our personal and professional worlds.

Eastern and Western Religious and Spiritual Traditions

Religious and spiritual traditions provide critical insights both personally and professionally for social work practitioners. By exploring the beliefs and values of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism and traditions that include those influenced by African, Asian, Latino/Latina and Native American worldviews, participants will gain knowledge of and perspective on the importance of religious values, beliefs and practices in their work with clients. Nonsectarian spiritual perspectives based in humanism such as existentialism and transpersonal theory will be explored in the certificate program. It is the goal of the program that gaining familiarity with the basic beliefs and practices of all traditions will increase clinicians' competencies in practice with those struggling to find meaning, purpose and effective responses to individual and collective suffering.

Trauma and Spirituality

Spirituality is often a well of hope for those suffering the effects of trauma. This session explores religious and spiritual practices as resources for making meaning out of the ashes of traumatic events that occur from individual experiences, historical oppression, community events, natural disasters and war. The usefulness of both psychodynamic and transpersonal theoretical orientations will be examined. Particular attention will be given to faith development and process-oriented frameworks for understanding the personal meaning attached to symbols, rituals, beliefs and divine figures and to learning about internal relationships to religious and spiritual resources. While the focus of this session is on a strengths perspective, this does not preclude an examination of those religious or spiritual experiences that have had a negative impact on the individual and group experience of coping with trauma.

Assessment & Diagnosis: Integrating a Spiritual History

This session will assist clients in identifying ways to assess clients' religious histories, existential concerns and spiritual beliefs and will suggest some ways of opening these conversations in psychotherapy. Particular attention will be paid to the therapist's own spiritual beliefs/religious history as a lens through which they view their client's stories as well as to the issues of transference and countertransference raised in the process of doing a spiritual assessment. This workshop will involve some didactic teaching and experiential work.

Psychological Theories and Their Relationship to Spirituality

This session will explore the ways in which a client's spiritual beliefs and religious history can provide a therapist with important information about a client's inner life. Particular attention will be paid to Object Relations Theory and the development of an individual's internalized object representation of their God. Using the novel Letter to Sister Benedicta as a common case, participants will apply this material to clinical work.

Cross Cultural Issues and the Significance of Difference

Some spiritual paths invite us to relinquish the concerns of "self" and to see the confines of "identity" as a source of suffering. And yet, even as we aspire to dissolve our separations from all beings, there are ways we need to persist in exploring and claiming our distinct roles and experiences within systems of social injustice and privilege. How can we utilize our complex "identities" to inform our engagement in transformational work, both personally and professionally? This session will reflect on the significance of social location as a platform for socially engaged practices and will guide participants in adopting accountability strategies at personal, interpersonal and community levels.

Compassion, Justice and Suffering

This session will focus on the "bigger picture," suffering in the context of oppression and social injustice. Students will use the clinical/pastoral encounter as an entry point into a discussion of the social conditions that create suffering on the individual and communal levels. Christian and Jewish notions of lament and repairing the world will inform our discussion.

Hope, Despair, Depression, Hope

This session will use Martha Manning's, Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface as a jumping off point. From this personal account of depression we will examine the phenomena of depression, despair and the dark night. Students will also explore paths to healing, hope and transcendence.

Spiritual Issues in Death and Dying

The intersection of spiritual and psychodynamic issues at the end of life is addressed in this session. How multicultural and ethnic groups view death, dying and grieving will be included along with their implications for practice are discussed. This course will expand practitioner's knowledge and skills in integrating psychological and spiritual ways of making meaning. Special attention will be given to applying knowledge from a variety of religious traditions and spiritual disciplines to a range of end-of-life settings. The course is designed to enrich the practitioner's own comfort with diverse religious and spiritual practices.

Carolyn Jacobs, Ph.D.

Dr. Jacobs is the Dean, Elizabeth Marting Treuhaft Professor of the Smith College School for Social Work, and the Director of the Contemplative Clinical Practice Certificate Program. She has taught primarily within the research and practice sequences of the School. Her areas of professional interest include religion and spirituality in social work practice and organizational behavior. She has written and presented extensively on the topic of spirituality in social work. In 2001 she was elected to the National Academies of Practice as a distinguished social work practitioner. Recent publications include Jacobs, C. (2007) “Spiritual Development” in Lesser, J. G. and Pope, D. S. (Eds.) Human Behavior in the Social Environment. Chapter 8, 188-203. VT: Allyn and Bacon, Jacobs, C. (2006) “Transformation and Kaleidoscope Memories” Smith College Studies in Social Work, 76 (4) and Jacobs, C. (2004) “Spirituality and end-of-life care practice for social workers” in Berzoff, J. & Silverman, P. R. (Eds.) Living with dying: A handbook for end-of-life healthcare practitioners. (pp. 188-205) NY: Columbia University Press. Dr. Jacobs received her B.A. from Sacramento State University, her M.S.W. from San Diego State University, her doctorate from the Heller School of Brandeis University and her training as a spiritual director from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. She maintains a spiritual direction practice.

Mirabai Bush

Mirabai is Senior Fellow and the founding Director of the Center on Contemplative Mind in Society, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage contemplative awareness in American life in order to create a more just, compassionate, and reflective society.  She has designed and led contemplative trainings for lawyers and judges, social justice activists, and corporations including Google, where she co-developed Search Inside Yourself: Mindfulness Based Emotional Intelligence. She is a director of the Center’s Program in Higher Education, including the Contemplative Practice Fellowship awards and the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education.  She is co-author, with Ram Dass, of Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service, and co-author, with Dan Barbezat, of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning. She is editor of Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices are Changing the Way We Live.  

Her spiritual studies include meditation at the Burmese Vihara in Bodh Gaya, India, with Shri S.N. Goenka and Anagarika Munindra; bhakti yoga with Hindu teacher Neemkaroli Baba; and studies with Tibetan lamas Kalu Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Kyabje Gehlek Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and others. She was a student of aikido master Kanai Sensei for five years. She has a special interest in the uncovering and recovery of women's wisdom to inform work for social change.

Christopher O'Rourke, M.S.W., M.Div.

Chris earned his MSW from the Smith College School for Social Work in 1995 and a Master of Divinity degree from The Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University in 1986.  Having worked for many years in community mental health, he is currently Director of Social Work and Practicum Training and Continuing Education at The Danielsen Institute of Boston University.  Chris is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Smith College School of Social Work and a Lecturer at Simmons College School of Social Work.  Chris practices out of the Roman Catholic tradition.

His Doctoral Thesis title was: Listening for the Sacred: Addressing Spiritual Issues in the Group Treatment of Adults with Mental Illness (SC Studies in Social Work, 67(2), March 1997).

Application fee: $40 (due with application materials)

Tuition deposit: $300 (due with acceptance to confirm enrollment; the deposit is credited to the full tuition bill)

2013-14 tuition: $2,100*

*Tuition can be paid in full or in two payments of $1,050 (the first payment is due October 1 and the second payment due by April 1).

Agency discount

Agencies sponsoring three or more students will receive a five percent tuition discount per applicant.

Refund Policy

The $40 application fee is nonrefundable. Because program decisions are based on class size, tuition refund deposits cannot be considered.

Cancellation

The Smith College School for Social Work reserves the right to cancel any program which is undersubscribed. In the case of cancellation, all tuition fees paid will be reimbursed in full. The School also reserves the right to modify certificate content as appropriate.

Your application packet must include the following:

• Application form (available online only)
• $40 nonrefundable application fee*
• Current résumé*
• Personal statement (two to three pages) responding to the following:*

1. What is it about you that would be important for us to know?
2. How would you describe your own personal spiritual journey and how does it inform your clinical work?
3. If you have a contemplative practice, how would you describe it?
4. What are you hoping to take away from this program?

• Two letters of reference supporting the candidate's participation

*Submit by mail or email to sswced@smith.edu

Deadline

All application materials and the application fee must be received by June 24, 2013
Limited spaces have opened up! Apply by August 31, 2013.

Apply Online

Online application must be paid by credit card (MasterCard or Visa only). All online applications will receive confirmation of receipt by email; if you do not receive confirmation that your application was received (within 48 hours), please contact us.
Please be sure to mail or email the resume, personal statement and letters of recommendation.

Application (online form)

Mail Your Application Form and/or Supporting Documents

Return your completed application packet to:

Smith College School for Social Work
Contemplative Clinical Practice/Irene Rodriguez Martin
Lilly Hall
Northampton, MA 01063.

Fax Your Materials

Applications may be faxed to the school at (413) 585-7990. Faxed applications must be paid by credit card (MasterCard or Visa only). All faxed applications will receive confirmation of receipt by return fax; if you do not receive confirmation that your application was received (within 48 hours), please re-fax your application or contact us.