Clinical Pastoral Education grew out of the work of Henry Cabbot and Anton Boisen to meet the need of training ministers to competently work in a clinical environment. The essence of CPE is learning the action-reflection-action model of learning in real-time. CPE is emotionally, spiritually, and, often, physically rigorous. During the unit of learning you will complete 400 hours of educational and clinical practice.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, READ THIS BRIEF HISTORY OF CPE FROM ACPE
A unit of AES CPE is generally 15 weeks. Groups meet once a week for 3-4 hours.
A unit of CPE through AES costs $4,000. This includes all fees related to accreditation, student unit fees, and the costs associated with remote learning.
Most CPE is done through an institution that sponsors it, for example, a hospital. These units of CPE are subsidized by the institution through paying all the accreditation fees, hosting the program, and, most significantly, paying the Certified Educator’s salary. The student “pays” for this education through providing hundreds of hours of direct patient spiritual care. In the case of AES, the tuition is the sole source of income to pay for fees, costs, and the CE’s salary.
Yes! AES is willing to work with the student to find ways to pay for their CPE. It is a value of AES that cost not be the barrier to accredited CPE. Students may ask for a scholarship from AES based on needs. Students may also request to do a payment plan. AES recommends that students approach the clinical placement site and ask for support to do CPE. Many organizations and churches have funding for continuing education.
Yes! AES offers fully accredited CPE through ACPE. These units are recognized as the standard for spiritual care education. When in doubt, reach out to your denominational leadership.
Yes! If you are in the DC, Maryland, or Northern Virginia (DMV) area, there are opportunities for in person or hybrid units of CPE.
Chaplain board certification, specifically the Board Certified Chaplain (BCC) designation, is the highest standard of professional recognition in the field of chaplaincy. It demonstrates that a chaplain has completed rigorous training, meets specific competency requirements, and is committed to ongoing professional development. This certification is often a requirement for chaplaincy positions in hospitals, military settings, and other organizations.
AES CE’s are also BCC and will train to that standard. Completing AES CPE units will prepare you to become a competent spiritual care provider, reflective writer, and teaches excellent committee presentation skills.
Yes! ACPE accreditation is the recognized standard in spiritual care education and with this accreditation, your CPE units will count towards the educational requirement for board certification.
Yes! Both Jonathan and Mark have decades of experience in military chaplaincy and are happy to assist you in that process. For more information, visit:
No. Professional Chaplaincy takes place in the multicultural, multifaith, and pluralistic world we share. Our interfaith approach seeks to help the student become clear about their beliefs, practices, and philosophy of spiritual care. AES proudly seeks to teach all students to provide spiritual care for every person in the way the care receiver needs and is congruent with the care provider’s deeply held beliefs and practices.
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+1 (227) 245-5349
Mark is an ordained priest of The Episcopal Church (TEC), a Certified Educator/National Faculty (CE/NF) with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), and an Army Chaplain, currently serving at the rank of Colonel. Most significantly and importantly, he is the spouse of Kyo Young Park and father to Nicole and Jimin.
Currently, he is the Dean of the Graduate School of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps, with over 23 years of military chaplaincy experience (19 years on active duty with two deployments to Iraq). In addition to undergraduate university courses, Mark has taught Combat/Emergency Medical Ministry and Moral Injury for the Army, and has given numerous presentations on Moral Injury, PTSD, and Posttraumatic Growth to churches and other civilian and academic organizations. His combat deployments heavily influence his academic interests.
Mark’s previous assignments include: Director, CPE Program at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, TX; Chief of Theater Spiritual Resilience at the U.S. Army Europe-Africa Headquarters, Wiesbaden, Germany; Curriculum Developer and Instructor at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence, San Antonio, TX; Deputy Garrison Chaplain and Resource Manager, USAG-Yongsan, Seoul, Korea; Brigade Chaplain, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Hovey, Dongducheon, Korea; 98th Medical Detachment (Combat Stress Control), Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA; Operations Chaplain, I Corps, JBLM, WA; Battalion Chaplain, 14th Engineer Battalion, JBLM, WA.
Prior to the Army, Mark served as senior pastor of Community Church of Honolulu and concurrently as a chaplain in the Hawaii Air National Guard. He also taught at universities and colleges as an Adjunct Professor. Prior to ministry and the Army, he worked in banking and finance for over six years in Honolulu and Los Angeles.
Mark’s PhD (University of Aberdeen, Scotland) and Doctor of Ministry (Erskine Theological Seminary) focused on post-combat trauma, the role of faith and the chaplain in promoting healing and growth. He received his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Southern California.
As a Certified Educator, he leans on Vanier and Tillich (theology of community and becoming fully human), Horney and Rogers (relating with others in conflict and unconditional positive regard), and Jarvis and Yalom (disjuncture and group process in education). He is an academically oriented and emotionally aware person who strives to live well integrated with all aspects of life. He wants to help chaplains grow into the fullness of their being as a chaplain and a person, as created in the imago Dei (according to my theology), which ultimately will aid their spiritual care of others.
Jonathan Fisher is a Certified Educator and National Faculty with the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education and currently serves as the Director of Clinical Pastoral Education at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD.
With over 20 years of professional chaplaincy experience, Jonathan has served in a wide range of operational and training units, including three combat tours. He completed his CPE residency at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA, and later his CEC fellowship at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX, where he also served as Director.
Jonathan knows ACPE Accreditation. He is the ACPE Accreditation Commissioner for all the VA and DoD CPE programs. He has personally set up 3 CPE Programs from the ground up including the US Army Center for Extended CPE with serves as a model of providing CPE through remote learning.
Beyond his military roles, Jonathan has served as an associate pastor and a high school educator. He is endorsed by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which formally recognized his ordination in 2010 after a period of deep personal growth, discernment, and spiritual direction. His journey through traumatic experiences in both fundamentalist education and combat has shaped a faith and set of values he now finds most fully expressed within the Disciples tradition.
Jonathan holds a Doctor of Ministry from Erskine Theological Seminary, where his work focused on ministry within a military prison context. While serving as staff chaplain at the Military Correctional Complex in Fort Leavenworth, KS, he co-developed a program that led to a significant reduction in violence and recidivism at the facility, which includes the Joint Regional Correctional Facility and the United States Disciplinary Barracks—the Department of Defense’s only maximum-security prison.
Jonathan is married to Sara, who is also an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Together, they are raising three teenagers and a spirited Schnauzer named Schuyler in Rockville, MD. In his free time, Jonathan enjoys woodworking and spending time on the water.
