February 2026 Updates

The Orientation for the Febrary (Feb 3 – Mar 24) batch at Bukal Life Care. Photo includes trainees and supervisors. The next batch will be starting at the end of March— our Summer Intensive.

2. Chaplain Ninkarb Seth Joejoe has returned to his country of Ghana after training with us and is now establishing a training center for CPE. His video presenting the program is available by clicking below.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1562790658335942

3. Below is a report on the Respite House— a ministry of Kabsat, that we are also assisting.

4. Article by SIT Chaplain Bing Maximo

𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓲𝓼 𝓟𝓼𝔂𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓵𝓸𝓰𝔂

ʜᴏʟᴅɪɴɢ ꜱᴜꜰꜰᴇʀɪɴɢ: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴘꜱʏᴄʜᴏʟᴏɢʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇᴏʟᴏɢʏ ᴍᴇᴇᴛ ɪɴ ᴘᴀꜱᴛᴏʀᴀʟ ᴄᴀʀᴇ | 𝘑𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 2026 𝘝𝘰𝘭 𝘐. 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘐𝘐𝘐

— Sally I. Maximo, PhD, RPsy, RGC

Clinical Psychologist

Board Certified Clinical Chaplain (Faculty)

As a clinical chaplain, I have become a witness to the beautiful weaving of Psychology with Theology in the care of persons who suffer. Through my experience as a lay chaplain and clinician engaged in pastoral visits and psychotherapy, I have learned that before meaning and faith can be fully grasped, suffering must first be felt, held, and listened to with careful attentiveness. Presence, rather than fixing, often becomes the first act of care.

The theory and practice of psychology have deepened my appreciation of the human person as an integrated whole—thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and the body—each joined into personal and sacred stories. I understand suffering as a shared human condition, and that healing often begins not in answers, but in the telling of one’s story and in being received without judgment. In such spaces, difficult emotions are named and processed, and individuals slowly reconnect with their deepest selves.

Rather than competing with theology, psychology creates the inner conditions through which theological meaning can be received. It prepares the ground where God’s mystery, grace, and Presence can be encountered, rather than imposed. As I listen to fellow human beings share their grief, fear, disappointment and confusion, I am repeatedly humbled. I am often moved by moments when, even amid suffering, God’s work becomes visible—in small acts of kindness, unexpected provisions, or quiet moments of grace that gently ease distress.

These encounters continually remind me that healing is not something I bestow, but something I witness. Psychology has equipped me with the competencies of listening and clinical discernment. On the other hand, theology continually re-orients me to humility, reminding me that I am merely a vessel of God’s Presence in the sacred work of accompaniment. I now recognize that whatever knowledge and skill I carry from psychology is itself a gift from God, entrusted to me not for expertise alone, but for service. In this integration with theology, psychology has become for me not simply a profession, but a vocation—received with gratitude, offered in humility, and lived in the SLU-CICM missionary spirit.

#daytoyketsikolohiya

#keepthehopealive

Article by Sally Maximo |

Post made by SLU Psychology Department Social Media Committee (Herald Semsem, Elbert Templo, Joevelle Marcos and Asher Bayot)

January 2026 Update

Our December 2025 updates show some of our upcoming trainings.

However, since then we had another item  to share… CPSP-Philippines Updates December 2025 – CPSP-Philippines. See… https://share.google/oHQPTUCJbRkJzK1e6


—At Adventist Medical Center Manila, we have a CPE group that will start on Jan 12, c/o  Chaplain Wanee— Adventist Med CPE Center. Chaplain Jay will also be handling a group to start late January or on Feb 2.

CPSP-Philippines Updates December 2025

Several of our members were able to attend the CPECFI Convention on November 27, 2025. CPECFI is associated with the Asia Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, a sibling organization as far as certification and accreditation of the clinical pastoral movement in the Philippines. Members of CPSP-Philippines have received training through AACPE, and we also have members who are dual-certified. We appreciate the invite to participate in this conference.

Diplomates Larry and Renato at the Conference
Several participants from CPSP-PH and AACPE

Upcoming Activities

Jethro Guidance Center

Bukal Life Care

Bukal Life Care has a new batch starting Feb 3 (through April 24). This would be an Intensive unit, and Summer Intensive starting in early or mid-April.

The Chaplains Office

TCO will start an extended CPE in Bucaue in July 2026, with orientation in June. Let us know if you need more information.

October 2025 Updates

As we are a network of training centers, we are not always the best in updating what is going on around CPSP-Philippines. Here are few items worthy of note:

  1. Chaplain Elvin Salarda has been hold a CPE course in Thailand. One trainee from the Thailand Course will be coming up for a certification board in the next few days.

2. Bukal Life Care now has a satellite group at Saint Louis University. This group is led by Chaplains Bing Maximo and Wendy Eustaquio. Both of them also serve as SLU faculty. At a future time it is expected/hoped that the program at SLU would be an independent accredited training center.

Meeting with Chaplain Enjang of Sacred Heart Medical Center at Saint Louis University when the local program was still in the planning. (The first batch officially started on September 16)

3. CPSP-Philippines in Africa?

Ninkarb Seth Joejoe, a certified clinical chaplain with CPSP-Philippines, and part of the Supervisor-in-Training program under Supervisor Lyn Montecastro, has set up a counseling and CPE center in his home country of Ghana. We are working with him to establish this work. We wish him well in this endeavor.

4. We have updated our webpage for training centers based on recent changes. Feel free to check it out.

New Clinical Chaplains

Congratulations to those who passed the Clinical Chaplaincy board on August 15, 2025. They are:

Chaplain Sallie “Bing” Maximo, BCCC

Chaplain Wendy Eustaquio, BCCC

Chaplain Solomon Aggrey, BCCC

Chaplain Jeno Bautista, BCCC

All four trained at Bukal Life Care and Counseling Center. Their board members were:

Diplomate Paul Tabon

Diplomate Larry Gusto

Diplomate Vic Navarro

Chaplains, Wendy, Bing, Jeno, and Solomon

With Supervisors Vo and Crista, and Board Members Paul, Larry, and Vic (the later two online).

Book Review: “Cave Walker: A Psychodynamic Approach to Pastoral Care” by Francine L. Hernandez

This Book is Reviewed by Celia P. Munson, M.Div., DPS

“Cave Walker” may seem a strange title for a book on pastoral care. The title draws from the analogy of Plato regarding the man who is chained in a cave facing a wall who only sees shadows that play on the surface in front of him. Plato suggests that person (the “cave dweller”) would assume these shadows are reality. Hernandez takes this illustration to show a pastoral care provider as one who walks unfettered in the cave with the one chained to help not only to be liberated, but also to see the world as it is— not merely a shadow of itself. While this was her main reason for using the term, she also noted that many pastors she knew were also drawn to the term through the story of Elijah in the cave on Mount Horeb (II Kings 19). In that story, it is God who is in the cave with Elijah providing comfort and hopeful counsel as the “cave walker” to the prophet who was reduced through fear to being the cave dweller. Perhaps the link of the term to both philosophy and religion itself informs us that this book embraces a form of ministry that integrates ministering to the spirit and the mind.

For Hernandez, the ideal “cave walker” does not identify as a curer, or as an expert, but as an informed companion. This companion does not walk ahead of the care receiver, or behind, but alongside. Such a person is a diligent reader of the “cave dweller.” The “cave walker” must listen intently to the stories, the hurts, the hopes, the fears of the other. She must use herself as part of the healing process understanding the importance of the ministries of presence and relationship in the healing journey.

Hernandez follows the pattern established by Anton T. Boisen, the fonder of the Clinical Pastoral Movement. Boisen intentionally sought to integrate the psychodynamic work of people such as Sigmund Freud and Harry Stack Sullivan, with theology. Boisen saw religious faith as a potential source of strength or healing, as well a a potential source of personal or relational harm.

Robert Dykstra in his book “Images of Pastoral Care” gives several metaphors to describe the complex role of a pastoral care provider. Among these are “Wounded Healer,” “Hopeful Gardner,” “Intimate Stranger,” “Circus Clown,” and “Wise Fool.” This reviewer believes that “Cave Walker” could join some of these other metaphors for informing this calling.

This reviewer strongly recommends that CPE trainees and pastoral care providers read this book. The book itself is short— approximately 70 pages— and much of it includes stories of the “cave dwellers” Francine Hernandez have encountered through her ministry. In these stories, she has shown herself as the “cave walker” reflecting on her own personal experiences to walk with them with empathy. As such, the book could be described as an “easy read.” Easy, however, does not suggest simplistic or trivial. It is in the stories where some of the most challenging aspects of pastoral care are illustrated.

The book describes a dynamic process that mirrors St. Paul’s word to the Church of Corinth where he speaks of

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all Comfort, who comforts in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we orselves are comforted by God.” -II Corinthians 1:3b-4.

<Francine Hernandez is a Diplomate Supervisor with the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP) and former Baptist pastor. This review was originally published in the 2025 edition of the Bukal Life Journal. The journal may be found by CLICKING HERE.>

Our First Plenary Gathering

CPSP-Philippines gathered for its First Plenary on June 8-9, 2025. It was a wonderful event— held at Sitio Lucia Garden Resort Hotel in Santa Maria, Bulacan.

We had 33 participants, drawn from six (6) different training centers. We had two guest speakers. Dr. Paul Javines spoke on two topics— struggles, such as loneliness and burnout, in chaplaincy, and a comparison of chaplaincy as it is commonly practiced in the US versus the Philippines. Dr. Doug Dickens spoke on the use of self in pastoral care. Additionally, Dr. Bob Munson spoke of key events in the history of the Clinical Pastoral Movement— most notably, this year marking the 100th year of CPE worldwide, as well as the 60th year of CPE in the Philippines.

Additionally, we had question and answer time with our guest speakers, case presentations, chapter formation, and time to socialize and join together with good food.

We are grateful to the Sitio Lucia Resort Hotel and its staff for taking good care of us, as well as Chaplain Renato Eustaquio and members of The Chaplains Office for hosting us. We are, also of course, thankful to Doc Doug and Doc Paul (with wife Helen) in joining us for this important event. They were key in making it a valuable event.

Also congratulations to members who recently passed certification boards.

-Fhey Kindipan-Coyoy Board Certified Clinical Chaplain

-Ninkarb Seth Joejoe Board Certified Clinical Chaplain

-Wanee Salayon Diplomate in Pastoral Supervision

-Carmel Villar Diplomate in Pastoral Supervision

Schedule For CPSP-PH Plenary

The following is the semi-finalized schedule for the Plenary gathering on June 8-9, 2024. There may be some further changes between now and then, but the changes will be updated in this post.

June 8 Sunday

9am On site Registration/ Giving out of name tags/ Room assignments

10:00am Snack/Gathering (Snack Provided)

12 noon Check in to Rooms

12:30pm Lunch (Lunch Provided)

2:45pm Break

5pm Dinner (Dinner Provided)

10pm End of Day

———————–

June 9 Monday-

7:30am Breakfast (Breakfast Provided)

10:30am Break

12:00pm Clear out Rooms (Luggage can go to the Function Hall)

12:30pm Lunch (Lunch Provided)

3:00pm End of Plenary Gathering

Our Newest Diplomate

Congratulations to Diplomate in Pastoral Supervision Carmel Villar. She had her board today (May 14, 2025). The boardmembers were Diplomates Vic Navarro, Paul Tabon, and Celia Munson. Diplomate Larry Gusto, her sponsoring supervisor was also able to join.

Diplmoate Carmel will continue in serving as a CPE Supervisor at Union Theological Seminary (Cavite) in partnership with Jethro Gudance Center.

She will be formally recognized at the CPSP-Philippines Plenary this June.