The Office of Contextual education oversees all aspects of practical training that are both degree    required and non-required at Garrett Seminary. This includes MDiv Field Education, MATM experiential Learning and the MAPCC Clinical Practicum and Internship and Clinical Pastoral Education, along with Story Circles and Curricular Practical Training for F1 Students. Below you will find information on all of these programs, including the necessary documents and forms (and links to the Canvas Course information hubs if you are a student).  The Contextual Education Policies and Procedures can be found at this link.

If you cannot find what you need or have further questions, please feel free to reach out to the Director of Contextual Education, Rev. Dr. Lisl Heymans Paul or Pat Wheeler, Administrator for Contextual Education (field.education@garrett.edu).

lisl.paul@garrett.edu  Main 212  847.866.3961   Use this link to make an appointment with Dr. Paul.

Field Education is a six-credit hour course required for the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Public Ministry degrees.  Field Education provides students opportunities for integration of course work through supervised ministry practice in partnership with a learning site. Students also engage in theological reflection on vocation, leadership and professional identity with their learning site, supervisor/mentor and peer groups.  

Please contact us if you have and questions or need assistance.

field.education@garrett.edu     Main 212    847.866.3961   

Documents and Forms:

• Contextual Education Policies and Procedures
• Student Placement Contract
• Student Pastor Contract (for appointed student pastors)
• Learning and Serving Covenant
• Supervisor/Mentor Resource Guide
• Supervisor Midpoint Assessment 
• Supervisor Final Assessment 

Canvas Courses (for students only):

• Introduction to Field Education for New Students
• Field Education FE600/610 SU 2026

The MATM degrees require one (1) semester of contextual education called Experiential Learning.  Experiential Learning is an opportunity for students to interact with and experience a learning context or explore a practice that will be the focus of their degree program. In tandem with the vocational discernment students walk through in their first year liberative learning and listening lab and culminating in the final year Capstone ministry porfolio project, Experiential Learning allows students to connect their classroom experience with possible vocational pathways and/or a practice that will be central to their ministry portfolio project and goals for their degree.

Students may engage in experiential learning through a variety of contextual education models including, but not limited to

a) Participant-observation in which the student participates in the activities or practices of a setting of learning and/or ministry, makes disciplined observation and analysis using skills gained in the Experiential Learning assignment, contributes to collaborative research or ministry activities, and reflects theologically on learnings gained,

b) Apprenticeship ministry practice in a context in which one engages in supervised ministry practice to learn and deepen skills, disciplined observation and analysis using skills gained in the Experiential Learning assignment, contribution to the mission of the context, and theological reflection on learnings gained, 

c) Practice centered learning in which one engages a practice (i.e. writing, liturgy, liberative spirituality, teaching) through both receiving training and engaging in the practice, making disciplined observation and analysis using skills gained in the Experiential Learning assignment, contributing to collective understanding of  the practice and theological reflection on learnings gained.

All three of these approaches are grounded within the context of the student’s MATM track and concentration, and orienting public concern for their MATM Capstone Portfolio Project.

The personal and spiritual formation, vocational discernment, professional training, and leadership development for the MATM Experiential Learning are designed to be open and exploratory, even as students are already drawn to a particular specialization/degree concentration.

This requirement occurs in the third (3^rd) semester of a full time student’s degree program. Regardless of whether the student is full or part time, the Experiential Learning requirement will occur in the Fall Semester of any given Academic Year.

Documents and Forms

(coming June 1, 2026)

Canvas Course (for students only)

(coming August 1, 2026)

Program Overview:

The Master of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling (MAPCC) Clinical Track and PhD in Pastoral Theology, Personality, and Culture (PTPC) Clinical Track at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary offers a distinctively interdisciplinary pastoral care and counseling training program designed to produce highly skilled, critical, reflective, compassionate, and socially engaged practitioners-scholars with a robust and evolving sense of pastoral identity. Students will be equipped to integrate theology with psychological theories to address human suffering and facilitate the healing and flourishing of persons and communities.

Practicum/Internship Overview:

The clinical practicum/internship aims at assisting Clinical Track students to obtain integrative knowledge, attitudes, and requisite skills related to professional, ethical, and supervised clinical training through Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary coursework and diverse clinical counseling agencies. Following one academic year of course work theory, the two (2) year practicum/internship is a critical opportunity for students to integrate theory and practice in a supervised clinical setting. Each student completes a 700-hour practicum/internship, a minimum of 240 hours of which involve direct individual or group counseling contact. Students negotiate with site supervisors regarding some combination of weeks/hours per week to fulfill the requisite hours over the course of two (2) years. These hours reflect the minimum required for licensure in the State of Illinois. Clinical Counseling Agencies located outside of Illinois must comply with these minimum requirements regardless of their home state requirements for licensure but can choose to offer students more hours if that is what their state requires for licensure. Concurrent with their clinical site experience, students participate in four semesters of weekly small group supervision with a Garrett faculty supervisor, beginning in late August and ending in late April. Students will continue to take courses during the practicum/internship experience.

Documents and Forms:

• Clinical Agreement AY 26-27

Canvas Course (for students only):

• Clinical Track Information

CPE Overview:

Clinical Pastoral Education is interfaith professional education for ministry. It brings theological students and ministers of all faiths (pastors, priests, rabbis, imams and others) into supervised encounter with persons in crisis. Out of an intense involvement with persons in need, and the feedback from peers and teachers, students develop new awareness of themselves as persons and of the needs of those to whom they minister. From theological reflection on specific human situations, they gain a new understanding of ministry. Within the interdisciplinary team process of helping persons, they develop skills in interpersonal and interprofessional relationships.  

The elements of CPE include:

• The actual practice of ministry to persons
• Detailed reporting and evaluation of that practice
• Pastoral supervision
• A process conception of learning
• A theoretical perspective on all elements of the program
• A small group of peers in a common learning experience
• A specific time period
• An individual contract for learning consistent with the objectives of CPE
• The CPE program must be conducted under the auspices of an ACPE Certified Educator (faculty) attached to an ACPE accredited CPE center.                (All information above from https://acpe.edu/education/cpe-students).  For Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Students, CPE units from the Academy of Public Theology's Connectional program will be accepted as well. 

Who can take CPE?:

CPE is received at Garrett Seminary as a transfer credit and is a required course (2 units) for the MAPCC Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy Degree Program.  Students may also complete 1 unit of CPE for partial fulfillment of the Field Education Course requirement (3 of 6 credits) and for 1 elective course (3 credits).  In the MAPCC: only those CPE programs accredited by the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education may be accepted as transfer credit.  In the MDiv, students may use only ACPE or, if CME, Association for Public Theology Connectional CPE units.

Students must obtain consent from the Director of Contextual Education before being registered for CPE (PCC 679).  This process is outlined in the CPE Canvas Course.

Documents and Forms:

• CPE Registration Form

Canvas Course (for students only):

• Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Information