The Regional Certification Committee has recently observed that some applicants, their supervisors, and/or members of the certification committee have lost sight of the intended focus of certification at the level of Supervisory Candidate. In some cases, because students may have supervised one or more units prior to meeting the Certification Committee for Candidacy, there has been a tendency on the part of the student, their supervisor, or the committee, to emphasize supervisory practice and minimize pastoral competence.

One implication of this is that students preparing to meet the committee for candidacy should pay careful attention to the preparation of the clinical case included in their materials. Guidelines for this case are included in Appendix A in the Certification Manual. The committee will rely on this case, and the discussion of it with the student, to determine the student’s pastoral competence. The student’s written analysis and discussion of their case in their materials, as well as discussion of this with the committee, forms the foundation for the committee to assess the student’s conceptual competence. As can be seen, the pastoral care case and the student’s analysis of it play an important role in demonstrating key competencies required of Supervisory Candidates. It will be extremely rare, if not impossible, for students to be able to demonstrate these competencies using a case that is only an initial pastoral visit with a patient in which there was no prior pastoral relationship.

The third area that is assessed at this level is "personal maturity." The committee relies heavily on the student’s self-understanding as demonstrated in their autobiography and their appearance with the committee to assess this.

At the October 14, 2001 meeting of the North Central Region’s Certification Committee, there was a discussion of the materials submitted for certification as a Supervisory Candidate. The following note from the minutes reflects the committee’s consensus.

It was determined that if the presenter determines that the clinical materials submitted for candidacy committee are inadequate, he or she is to contact the chair of the committee who will, in turn, contact the student and the training supervisor to inform them that their materials are inadequate and to allow them to make a choice about whether to resubmit other materials or delay the committee appearance.

We hope this memo and the new process described above will alert student’s and their training supervisors to key issues associated with successfully meeting the certification committee for Supervisory Candidate status. If you have questions about this please contact the Regional Certification Committee Chairperson or sub-regional committee conveners.

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