Who Holds the Chaplain? Self-Comfort vs. Self-Care for Caregivers Who Carry Everyone Else
Chaplains spend their days holding other people’s crises, and many of us were formed to believe that being depleted is a sign of devotion. This session names where that belief comes from, including its roots in the history of Black labor and faith, and offers three practical permissions: to rest without guilt, to receive care, and to experience a calling as an invitation. Participants will learn the difference between self-comfort, which soothes for a moment, and self-care, which sustains a career. We’ll close with a short restoration ritual chaplaincy teams can use with one another.
Participants will be able to:
- Recognize the signs of over-functioning in themselves and their teams
- Tell the difference between self-comfort and self-care
- Leave with a simple ritual of restoration they can lead with colleagues
Learning Outcomes
We have indexed this webinar to the following ACPE and BCCI outcomes and competencies. Our proposed learning outcomes should not be construed as endorsement of this webinar by either ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care and Education or BCCI, Inc.
ACPE — B1: Self-Care
ACPE — A2: Socio-Cultural Identity
BCCI — PIC3: Attend to one’s own physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.
BCCI — PIC2: Articulate ways in which one’s feelings, values, assumptions, culture, and social location affect professional practice.
Our Presenter
The Reverend Dr. Ebony D. Only, BCC, AMFT, is the Director for Community Engagement for Bishop Anderson House in Chicago. She was its inaugural Community Chaplain and was instrumental in establishing the Committee on Social Equity and Racial Justice. A Board Certified Chaplain with five units of Clinical Pastoral Education and a background in hospice chaplaincy, she serves Sankofa CPE as Faculty Instructor, Clinical Preceptor and member of the Professional Advisory Group. She received the ABCMC James B. Ashbrook Award in Pastoral Care & Pastoral Theology for her work in community care.
Dr. Only holds a Doctor of Ministry from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. She is also the first African American woman ordained as clergy and serving as Executive Pastor at First Baptist Church of University Park.