If your chosen profession is about helping others, The Ecumenical Center wants to help you. In fact, we have a long history of training healthcare professionals and students, and enhancing the skills of clergy in ministries of counseling and pastoral care. We also reach out to our greater community through specialized workshops on various life issues, designed to be of help and interest to professionals, business owners, individuals, families and couples.

Our approach to education

We want everyone with potential impact on care to have the right kind of impact: clinically competent, theologically informed and spiritually sensitive. Education, formal training and licensing are the most reliable ways of assuring this understanding in medical professionals, therapists, clergy and others. After all, these are the people whose careers bring them into direct contact with those needing counseling, mental or emotional evaluation, and therapy.

Our expanding commitment to education and training

While The Center has maintained this philosophy of education since our founding nearly half a century ago, our commitment has expanded in several different and substantial ways, especially in the past several years:

• More educational programs – including formal certification and licensing courses.
• More geographic outreach – expanding from our San Antonio medical center hub to outlying neighborhoods and even to Laredo, Harlingen, McAllen and elsewhere. LINK TO SERVICE MAP

Our range of courses and training services

While educational specialties at The Center continue to expand, these make up the core of our ongoing program.

• Clinical Pastoral Education and Pastoral Care Specialist training.
• Chaplaincy training.
• Specialty Studies – single or multiple semester in-depth programs on topics that integrate formal learning, self-knowledge and spiritual formation.
• Licensure courses and clinical supervision for those studying to be professional counselors and/or marriage and family therapists.
• National speakers, seminars and workshops on specialized topics (medical, business, spiritual and more). Funding for our National Speaker Series is graciously provided by Methodist Healthcare Ministries.

We provide professional continuing education and CEU/CPEs for the following:

• Licensed Professional Counselors
• Social Workers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Registered Play Therapists
• School counselors and educators
• Chaplains
• Nurses (CNE in collaboration with partner credentialing agencies)
• Physicians (CME in collaboration with partner credentialing agencies)

Learn more now

With a plethora of training activities going on at The Center, daily, we encourage you to explore deeper into the opportunities that are of most interest to you. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact The Center at 210-616-0885.

• Counselors
  • National Speaker Series
  • Child Therapy
  • Art Therapy
  • Play Therapy Supervision
  • Internships
• Clergy/Laity
  • National Speaker Series
  • Clergy Speaker Series
  • Chaplaincy
  • Laredo & Rio Grande Valley Courses
  • Life After Loss Facilitator Training
  • Faith/Spirituality & Medicine
• Parents
  • Child Parent Relationship Training
• Ethics
  • Conversations About Ethics
  • Ethics in Business San Antonio
    • Sponsorships
    • Ethics in Business Annual Luncheon
    • Academic Corporate Partners
    • Steering Committee
  • Medical/Bio Ethics (funded by Methodist Healthcare Ministries)
• Medical Professionals
  • Programs
  • Faith/Spirituality in Medicine
• Community
  • Art Heals Hearts Exhibition
  • Art Heals Hearts Open Studio
  • Conversations About Ethics

Stay current on educational events

Whether you’re a healthcare professional, a member of the clergy, a student, an educator at a local school or university, a business owner – or just a curious citizen of San Antonio – we invite you to stay current on programs and events we offer. You can subscribe to our email newsletter, which will update you on upcoming events. Or you can check back here and link to additional information and schedules for the following:

• Speaker Series. At The Center, we collaborate with many organizations to provide quality educational workshops designed to strengthen our community’s care providers. Our Speaker Series is generously underwritten by Methodist Healthcare Ministries.
• Community Collaborations. From time to time, we offer workshops for various groups within our community. To register for any of our seminars, workshops or programs, click on the “REGISTER” link to access the registration form. Fill out the details and hit the send button. If you do not get an email response within 24 hours, please contact us by calling 210.616.0885, ext 0. Check back often for upcoming classes.
• Rio Grande Valley Courses. The Center offers the Specialty in Pastoral Counseling course and community-based workshops for clergy and lay leaders in the Rio Grande Valley. These programs were created especially with and for Latino and Latina pastors of South Texas.
• Testing and Assessment. At The Center, we provide psychological assessment for both children and adults through a program called MindwiseNow. Our staff of psychologists and counselors administers standard, ethical tests for academic placement or specialty programs, employment skills and readiness, or a variety of other purposes – or we can tailor a series of tests to an individual for a full psychological assessment.