Category Archives: Seminar

William & Viola Farrell Symposium 2011 Completed

It was a great day. After months of preparation, the first William & Viola Farrell Symposium of Pastoral Care & Counseling was completed.

We had 105 attend coming from churches, NGOs, schools, hospitals and other organizations. The goal of this series is to provide training that bridges the gap between secular and religious counseling. The goal is to provide people from different fields involved with helping people, to empower them to deal with the psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs of their patients/clients.

Dr. Cesar Espineda was the main speaker. He is a Diplomate with the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy. He has graciously taken on a role of mentor for both CPSP-Philippines and Bukal Life Care & Counseling Center. Both of his topics centered on the importance of self-awareness and self-understanding of the counselor.

The first topic was “The Person as a Benchmark for Counseling.” The second was “Transference– Our Un/Conscious Reaction in the Human-Patient Encounter.”

The lectures were also tied to discussions as a whole group, as well as small-group discussion afterwards. Additionally, a cultural performance was provided by Batang, a Cordilleran dance troupe. They did dances from Kalinga, Mountain Province, and Ifugao. Additionally, we had a presentation of artwork by local artist, Rommel Pidaso. The work showed creation of culturally relevant “basura art”, or artwork constructed from garbage. Creation of meaning and beauty from what has been rejected certainly seems to be a relevant counseling metaphor.

We thank all those who attended. Of course we also thank our guest lecturer, our cultural presenters, volunteers, and sponsors.

Special Needs Ministry Training at PBTS

We had a great time with a half day training in incorporating Special Needs children, adults (and their families) into the church and ministry. 70 people attended the training. These included the Bukal Life CPE trainees, teachers from Calvary Baptist Elementary School, and church education leaders. The training was led by Bob and Celia Munson of Bukal Life, and Julie Sibucao, the principal at Calvary Baptist Elementary School.

Special Needs Ministry Training At CBES

Special Needs Ministry Training

Individual Education Training Plan

Counseling Symposium

“The William & Viola Farrell Pastoral Care and Counseling Symposium” of Bukal Life Care & Counseling Center.

May 14, 8am – 4:30pm

Our keynote speaker is CESAR G. ESPINEDA, MPhil, PhD, APD, MA, STM, BA. He is a Diplomate of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, and oversees CPSP-Philippines. Please see his full resume’ below

    .

    Two major topics. “Counseling Guidelines with Patients and Families” and “Transference: Our Un/Conscious Reactions in the Human-Patient Encounter”

    Cost: P250 by reservation (contact us at 0933-302-0373) or P300 at the door.

    The symposium is open for counselors, educators, clergy, social workers, and for those in the helping profession.

    Full Resume’ of Dr. Espineda

    Dr. Espineda is a pastoral theologian, clinical pastoral supervisor, and educator, whose extensive pastoral-missionary and cultural-immersion experiences in New York City, Australia, New Zealand, Western and American Samoa, Japan, and the Philippines serve as the foundation for his work in mentoring lay persons, ordained professionals, and students of ministry of all faiths in multicultural and interfaith counseling and clinical pastoral supervision, education, and training. He is the Director of the CPSP Philippines and a member of the Board of Trustees of Bukal Life and Counseling Center in Baguio City.

    Dr. Espineda is a faculty member of the dual doctoral programs (DMin and PsyD), a collaborative endeavor between the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (cpsp.org), and the Graduate Theological Foundation (gtf.org). He is a board certified Clinical Fellow in Hospice and Palliative Care, Diplomate-Training Supervisor in CPET, Clinical Chaplain, Pastoral Counselor, and Chair for the CPSP Accreditation of Training Centers in the United States and abroad. He is also a board certified Diplomate in Traumatic Stress with the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. He is an associate member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and a member of the Asia-Pacific Palliative Care Network, the New York Citizens’ Committee on Health Care Decisions, and the Kappa and Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education.

    Dr. Espineda is Director of Tactics New York, an information-mapping technology company headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand. It was in Wellington where he began his hospice work in 1989 as a volunteer pastoral counselor at Te Omaga (“The Refuge”). He ministered to the youth and served as pastor of a multi-cultural church comprising 400 families of New Zealanders, Polynesians, and Asians. He left Wellington in 1994, found his way to New York, and has been there ever since.

    Dr. Espineda has founded numerous clinical pastoral education and supervisory training programs on both the east and west coasts of the U.S. Currently, he is an independent contractor and provides supervisory education and training programs at the Harlem Hospital Center in New York, and the Good Shepherd Clinical Pastoral Training Center in Long Beach, California. He is also conducting Clinical Pastoral Education & Training (CPET) programs at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York with Orthodox Jews, and with interfaith lay professionals at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut. Most recently, the American Institute of Holistic Theology in Alabama contracted with him to be their CPE training supervisor. In his former role as Vice President for Counseling Services and Ethics at Jacob Perlow Hospice/Continuum Hospice Care in New York City, he founded a hospice and palliative-based CPE program committed to training non/denominational lay and ordained professionals and students of ministry in end-of-life care, ethics, and interfaith and cross-cultural counseling. When the program was launched in 2003, it was the only one of its kind in New York City, if not in the country.

    As a volunteer at Ronald McDonald House, Dr. Espineda provides didactics on grief and bereavement to its leadership team, staff, and volunteers. He also spends time feeding New York City’s homeless on 33rd Street with lay volunteers from the Greek Orthodox Church in New Rochelle, New York.

    Fordham University is where Dr. Espineda received much of his graduate education. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Administration and Supervision-Organizational Leadership, an Advance Professional Diploma in Religion and Religious Education, and a Master of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling. He also attended Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York City, where he earned a Master of Philosophy in Ecumenical Studies, a post-doctoral degree. UTS also awarded Dr. Espineda a Master in Sacred Theology, recognizing his theological studies at the Divine Word Seminary in the Philippines.

    At New York University and the A.K. Rice Institute in Washington, DC, Dr. Espineda completed his clinical training in the Tavistock method of group relations work. For his group work in supervision and psychotherapy, he attended the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies in New York City.

    He is a published author of articles, reviews, and essays in the field of pastoral leadership and ministry. His doctoral research on the emerging paradigms of pastoral leadership in health care facilities was published in 2001.

    Dr. Espineda enjoys films, theatre, museums, parks, travel, fishing, historical novels, and biographies. Most of all, he enjoys life and says: Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving (A. Einstein). Dr. Espineda may be contacted at

      cespineda0157@gmail.com

    .

First Aid for Short-term Missionaries

Celia Munson, the training coordinator for Bukal Life Care & Counseling Center led Basic First Aid and Health for Short-term Missionaries. This was done with STMers tied to “Asia Vision Short-Term Missions”. Typically, we help with AVSTM in a couple of training seminars. These are Basic first aid, and member care issues in missions.

One-Day Family Counseling Training

On the 23rd of February, our training team went to Naguilian, La Union. There were worked with Bang-Ar, a faith-based social ministry. We provided training in some topics of family counseling. Approximately 25 attended.

Rev. Joel Aguirre did an overview of the Psychology of the Family, followed by group work on Dysfunctional Families in the Bible. After this, Mrs. Tess Leones spoke on Responsible Parenting and Parenting Styles. In the afternoon, Dr. Sim Dang-Awan spoke on Understanding Alcoholism and the Alcoholic/Family.

It is our hope to broaden this in a two-day program with group counseling principles and practical workshop.

Parenting Seminar Completed

We had a great time doing a half-day seminar at Immaculate Heart of Mary School (IHMS) in La Trinidad. We spoke to approximately 100 parents and guardians of children at the school. Bob Munson provided a review of IQ testing and interpreting and utilizing the results. Mrs. Tess Leones provided a training seminar on Responsible Parenting and Parenting Styles. Ptr. Ricky, Celia, Jehny, and Alicia assisted with logistics, question and answer, and other aspects of the seminar.

We thank Sister Tomasa for inviting us and for the staff at IHMS for taking care of us and sharing a wonderful lunch with us.

The Powerpoint for the seminar on Responsible Parenting and Parenting Styles is available at http://www.bukallife.org/training_aids.php.