Bukal Life Care Updates Dec 2025

A. Several of our members traveled to Manila to join the CPECFI-AACPE conference. As part of CPSP-PH, we are a sibling organization to AACPE. The event on November 27 was valuable and a great opportunity to learn and connect.

At CPECFI Conference

B. CPO. As CPE winds down for the end of 2025, CPO is just starting. Clinical Pastoral Orientation is a pre-CPE that is set up to work with a school’s semestral schedule. Chaplain Bhab Dicang is supervising a group of 4 and this will continue to March.

C. Seminars. Chaplains Mike and Icel held a couple’s seminar in Baguio this last weekend. Chaplains Israel and Fhey held training sessions on pastoral counseling in their trip to Thailand this last weekend. We hope to continue these various seminars throughout the Philippines and Southeast Asia in 2026.

D. Our next CPE batch is tentatively planned for Feb 3 – April 24. Contact us if you are interested or have any questions.

F. Boards are coming up this coming March or April for some of our trainees. More info when it becomes available.

Clinical Pastoral Orientation at PBTS

Clinical Pastoral Orientation is being held at Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary. It will be held on Mondays 8 am to noon. It will align with second semester if PBTS. The first day will be Nov 24 with the course expected to finish the first week of March. (We expect to follow the PBTS schedule with a break for the holidays.)

CPO is a preparation for CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education. It follows the principles of CPE but in a format that fits a 3 unit semestral course. Chaplain Bhab Dicang will be the facilitator/SIT for the course.

It can be taken for seminary credit, or not. If taken for seminary credit, enrollment with PBTS is November 5-14. Costs follow the policies of the seminary.

If taken through Bukal without seminary credit, the course is P7000.

Contact us at bukallife@gmail.com if you have questions or want to enroll with us. (Remember, if taking it for seminary credit, contact PBTS during the enrollment period.)

Ministry to the Police

Because Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is easily our biggest program (over 200,000 trainee-hours in the last 12 months) we sometimes don’t talk much about our other work. Other work includes pastoral counseling (individual and couples), remote training seminars, missionary member care, training materials production, and more.

One of the “And More” is our ministry to police and police trainees. This is a major ministry of one of our team, Chaplain Paul Tabon. He has been doing this for years. Sometimes it has been as a solo effort, and sometimes as part of a training activity for ministers. He is recognized as a life coach for the police.

We are looking into the possibility of expanding this work for CPE trainees. Possibly, this could be a part of a “fellowship”— a subspecialty in certified clinical chaplaincy. You will know more when we know more.

Below are a couple of pictures of Chaplain Paul working with criminology interns.

Training in Guingin

Our team, Chaplains Celia, Bhab, Fhey and Doc Bob, along with our ministry driver Luis, traveled to Guingin, Nueva Viscaya to hold a two day seminar at Guingin Christian Fellowship. It is situated in a beautiful valley in the Caraballo Mountains. The training was in Christian Caregiving and Counseling.

Our hosts treated us so well. Afterwards we spoke with the leader of the churches in the region to do this again at another church in the region… hopefully next year. Our focus is on developing skills of pastors and pastors’s wives.

We were also able to visit with our friends, the Sokokens, for a great meal, and discussion about holding a training with their group of churches next year.

We are improving our materials each time we do this and are now in the process of improving the Tagalog version of our materials.

Guingin Christian Fellowship, and rainbow
The
At the Sokokens with Doc Benjie

A Few Pictures at Bukal Life Care This Week

We don’t take a lot of photos. We don’t take pictures of our counseling or our counselees. We take relatively few pictures of our CPE training, and no pictures of them while doing ministry. But we had a couple of activities this week where a bunch of pictures were taken, so we are sharing a few here.

The two activities are (1) 6th Triennial Missions Congress of One Sending Body (four of us attended because of our partnership in Missionary Member Care), and (2) Certification Board for four of our trainees in Clinical Chaplaincy.

Team members, Bhab, Celia, and Fhey, with friend and Bukal CPE trainee, Frida
Our team with former classmates Ptr. Lino (left) and Ptr. Marvin (second from the right) joining
Newly minted Clinical Chaplains: Wendy, Sally(Bing), Jeno, and Solomon
Newly Certified Chaplains with Supervisors Vo and Crista, as well as board members Dr. Paul, Larry, and Vic (the latter two on screen)

Fall Batches and More

This September we will be starting multiple batches of CPE. These may vary based on need. We are still working out what ones will be Intensive (approximately 11 weeks) and what would be Extended (16+ weeks). Additionally, we are working out which ones will be community-based (hospital and church/community) and ones that would be hospital-based.

Tuition cost remains Php22,000. If interested, please email us at bukallife@gmail.com, or go to our Contact Us page. We hope to have our groups finalized by the end of August.

Additionally, we are hoping to start a CPO-100 course in the second week of November. It will follow the 2nd semester schedule of Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary. It can be taken as a course under PBTS, or not. To take it under PBTS, go to the PBTS website for the application process. Otherwise, contact us at bukallife@gmail.com, as noted before.

A few other things to note.

In August we will have several trainees having their certification boards with CPSP-PH. We wish them success.

Also in August we will join the Triennial National Missions Conference of One Sending Body. We are partners of them in terms of Missionary Member Care.

In the first week of September, we will be holding Basic Pastoral Counseling Training in Quirino Province. More info as it comes up.

July 2025 Updates

Our two CPE Summer Intensive Groups are finishing up as well as our Summer CPO-200 group. CPE will restart this September.

Planning meeting with Father Enjang and the Chaplaincy/CPE team at SLU, preparing for expanded hospital-based CPE. Meeting was held on July 8.

Between now and September will be somewhat of a break for us but there are a few things in the near-term.

July 10. Diplomate online chapter meeting.

July 19. Counseling seminar in Mabalacat Pampanga.

Early August. Online publication of the Bukal Life Journal, 2025 edition.

August 13-15. Attending National Missions Conference in Cavite. (Also, at least 3 will have there certification board during this time.)

A couple of updated pictures

Basic Pastoral Counseling Training in Mabalacat at MGHCF (July 19)
Spiritual Assessment Training. Online. With “The Chaplain’s Office” (July 21)

Courses and Schedules for Bukal Life Care

The following describes a snapshot of our courses and schedules for 2026. With changes to the calendar being made by the Philippine Department of Education, even our very flexible schedule as shown may still change in the coming months.

Bukal Life Care and Counseling Center

Courses

Foundations of Christian Counseling: 1-2 days in duration.

The course is done by request for a group. It covers basics such as counseling ethics, empathy, active listening, proper (and improper) use of Scripture in counseilng, boardaries and referral, and so forth. Actual topics may vary depending on the specific needs of the group, and the time available.

Clinical Pastoral Orientation 100 hours (CPO-100). 3-4 weeks intentive

(or may be done as a semestral course).

The course utilizes the learning modules or regular Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE): practical ministry, case presentation, didactics, individual supervision, and group work relations. It has been set up to equate to a 3 credit hour course in a seminary (3 hours per week for 15 weeks). Alternatively, it can be done in an intensive format in 3-4 weeks. It provides a “taste” of CPE for those considering to take CPE or for those who are unable to take it.

Clinical Pastoral Orientation 200 hours (CPO-200). 5-6 weeks Intensive

This course expands on CPO-100 and equates to a ½ unit of CPE. In fact, some programs call this “Half Unit CPE.”

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). 10-12 weeks Intensive or 16-20 weeks Extended

This course follows the standards of CPSP-Philippines and its parent organization CPSP (College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy). One full unit is 400 hours, consisting of 90 hours of group time consisting of Didactics, Case Presentation, and Group Work Relations, 10 hours of Individual Supervision, and 300 hours of practical ministry and personal reflection.

For certification as a Board Certified Clinical Chaplain or Board Certified Pastoral Counselor, one has to take at least 4 full units (1600 total hours). Units 1 and 2 are often described as “basic units” and Units 3 and 4 are often described as “advanced units.” While each trainee has their own learning goals and works with the supervisor to tailor training to those goals, generally, the following is where the focus is meant to be:

Unit 1: Basics of Clinical Pastoral Care

Unit 2: Pastoral/Ministerial Identity and Assessment

Unit 3: Pastoral Theology and Theological Reflection

Unit 4: Introduction to Pastoral Supervision

Supervisor-In-Training (SIT) Program

This is available to those who have passed their certification for Board Certified Clinical Chaplain. Acertified Diplomate in Pastoral Supervision will oversee training. The SIT will oversee a CPE group (one group at a time). Normally, SITs will be limited to overseeing trainees for CPE Units 1-3. Normally, Unit 4 CPE will be overseen directly by a diplomate. To complete fully the SIT program to be eligible for the certification board for Diplomate in Pasotral Supervision, the SIT must oversee a minimum of five (5) units of CPE, while being supervised by a Diplomate.

Schedule (for 2026)

Foundations of Christian Counseling and CPO-100 are done on request by groups and so it is not on the schedule. The SIT program is done concurrently with CPE and CPO-200.

Jan-Apr CPE (Units 1, 2, 3, and 4)** May have Intensive and/or Extended groups

Apr-Jun CPE (Units 1, 2, 3, and 4)** Summer Intensive

Jun-Jul CPO-200**

Aug-Dec CPE (Units 1, 2, 3, and 4)** May have Intensive and/or Extended groups

** Actual schedule depends somewhat on partnering schools and availability of trainees.

Tuition Costs

CPE 22,000 Philippine Pesos per unit

CPO-200 13,000 Philipine Pesos

CPO-100 7,000 Philippine Pesos (or may vary if done as a semestral course)

Foundations Cost is negotiated based on location, duration, and size of group.

SIT SITs receive a stipend from supervising CPE groups and so there is no direction tuition per se.

For More information, contact us at bukallife@gmail.com

www.bukallifecare.org

2025