Yangti Yoga Retreat Center is very excited to announce our CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) Discernment Seminar. This seminar serves as a way for people who are interested in joining our first cohort in the fully accredited CPE program that we will be launching during the first quarter of 2026. Clinical Pastoral Education is the basis for work as a professional chaplain. Our CPE program is groundbreaking in that Yangti Yoga Retreat Center is one of the only Vajrayana Buddhist dharma centers that offers a Vajrayana-oriented professional chaplaincy training. Clinical Pastoral Education positioned alongside our 2-year Vajrayana Spiritual Foundations program, makes for a rigorous training in the arts of Vajrayana-oriented spiritual care.

This seminar, led by Amelia Catone, who will serve as our CPE educator has been designed to help people learn more about CPE and to explore the process of formally training to become a chaplain. Chaplaincy can be an incredible way of developing ‘right livelihood’ – that is a means of making a living in the world that is also an expression of dharma practice. It’s also an incredible way to deepen one’s spiritual practice through learning how to be of service to others.

We invite you to join us in this 6-week seminar to explore the work and process of Clinical pastoral Education.

As always in an effort to keep our programs accessible we accept scholarship applications if the fee structure is beyond one's means. Submit an application HERE


The Details

The CPE Discernment Seminar is to help demystify the format, process, and content of Clinical Pastoral Education, which is the professional training for spiritual caregivers. This seminar will focus on training units accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). Held over six weeks in 90-minute sessions, the seminar is open to anyone interested in CPE to help them understand what it is, clarify their "why," learn more about what is entailed in becoming a professional chaplain, and prepare to complete the application. Registration and attendance with participation at all six sessions is required. Weekly reflective exercises help to clarify the discernment process. Sessions will not be recorded.


AT A GLANCE


Monday's October 13th - November 17th 6:00 - 7:30pm EST


Week 1: Introductions

  • Guidelines for the seminar
  • Group member and facilitator introductions
  • Locating your “why”


Week 2: Deeper into “why”

  • Selective share of reflective exercise
  • Initial exploration of various clinical placement settings for CPE
  • The importance (or not) of selecting an educator/program


Week 3: What is CPE, actually?

  • Brief history of CPE in the United States
  • Sharing and dispelling (or confirming) myths and rumors
  • Ways of learning, knowing, and integrating reflective practice


Week 4: The Application

  • Reviewing the standard ACPE Application
  • How to approach the application process and content
  • The Interview


Week 5: Pathways to Professional Chaplaincy

  • To M.Div or not to M.Div
  • Considerations of identity 
  • Various professional contexts
  • Board Certification


Week 6: Conclusion

  • Application section share
  • Discernment process check-in
  • Learnings/takeaways



Payment Options

register according to your economic capacity

OUR INSTRUCTOR

Amelia Catone

ACPE Certified Educator and Board Certified Chaplai

Amelia Catone is an ACPE Certified Educator and Board Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains. She is a student of Vajrayana Buddhism in the Longchen Nyingtik lineage under Dzigar Köngtrul Rinpoche, and also holds a Master of Divinity degree from St. Thomas University. Her foundational training and service as an interfaith chaplain began in 2015 at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, and continued at Level I Trauma hospitals Albany Medical Center (Albany, New York) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. With experience in many different urban health care settings, including hospice, oncology, trauma and burns, pediatrics, transplant, and mental health, Amelia is dedicated to training spiritual caregivers who are versatile, compassionate, and committed to their own and others’ well-being. She lives outside Boston with her partner and two children.