 Part of Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries’ Office of Church Relation, the Clinical Pastoral Education program was designed and is being led by the Rev. Rhoda M. Toperzer.
A United Church of Christ pastor, Toperzer spent a year developing a program she sees as deeply expanding the richness and overall integration of pastoral care within a wide range of health care and social service settings.
“A chaplain needs to be very, very skillful at helping people draw on their faith, as well as be aware of and respect different religious traditions,” she explains. “If a chaplain is well-skilled, he or she is going to meet you where you are, listen to your soul, and help you find strength to cope through the burden, grieve deeply, and find peace, joy, and hope.”
The Rev. Toperzer obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wittenberg University and was graduated from the Yale Divinity School with a master of divinity degree in 1987. She has been ordained for 20 years, first in the United Methodist Church and, since 1997, in the United Church of Christ. She has served as a chaplain in Level 1 trauma centers, private and state psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitative medicine centers, and hospice programs. She came to Diakon from the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, where she earned her CPE supervisory education. She was granted status in 2007 as an “Associate Supervisor” by the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education
(opens a new browser window).
|
|
