CPE Information
Clinical Pastoral Education
Clinical pastoral education (CPE) is a combination of professional education and hands-on experience, providing spiritual care to patients, families, and staff members in often multi-faith clinical settings. Those training as professional chaplains—as well as those seeking ordination, clergy, religious leaders, seminary students, and pastoral counselors—serve as students in a variety of settings: hospitals, geriatric care facilities, community care providers, and more.
On this page you can find information about Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). There are accredited CPE sites throughout the BTI member schools' geographic areas, and approved CPE sites nationwide. Please email the Field/Contextual Education Office at your school to learn more about scheduling, requirements, and degree-specific policies and procedures.
In 2021, the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab published their "Boston Chaplaincy Guide" specifically for students interested in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE):
Click here to view and download the guide.
Contact your home school's Contextual/Field Education office if you are interested in one of these programs.
CPE Frequently Asked Questions
You can also explore the ACPE: Spiritual Care and Education.
ACPE’s Hemenway scholarship supports summer CPE interns. Application can be found here.
ACPE also has some sites that provide remote units and supervision, click here for a non-exhaustive list to look at potential for this modality if you are interested.
Details for the What-When-Why-Where-How of CPE
CPE through the BTI
Panel Discussion, March 2023
Please watch the video below for a panel discussion with the BTI, the HDS Field Education office, 3 BTI CPE site coordinators, and 3 students who have recently completed CPE about the joys and challenges of the CPE experience.
CPE Sites
Introductory Videos
The following videos offer a basic introduction to some of the possible sites for CPE through the BTI.