“Students, Please Submit Your Worst Work”—The Role of Verbatims

Did the title of this post shock you?  What you may be feeling is a glimpse into the experience of seminary students and experienced clergy who have enrolled in clinical pastoral education (CPE) at the Center for Pastoral Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary.  They have just heard my directions for writing verbatims.

Allow me to explain what a verbatim in clinical pastoral education entails and clarify what I mean by “worst work.”

Anatomy of a Verbatim

Verbatims are like case presentations.  CPE students write about an incident, usually from their fieldwork with a patient or congregant, depending on where they minister. They bring the verbatim to fellow students and their clinical pastoral educator for discussion and critique.  Here’s a sample verbatim I found on the web. And another.

Verbatims usually include three main sections:

• Demographic, cultural and religious background about the patient/congregant, including the student’s pastoral plan.
• A “verbatim” account of the dialogue that occurred between the CPE student and the patient/congregant.  The dialogue represents the students’ best memory of what occurred. I ask student to capture their inner thoughts and feelings in parenthesis throughout the dialogue.
• Analysis including the student’s self-evaluation of strengths and weaknesses in their work, theological and spiritual reflection and assessment of patients’/congregants’ spiritual, emotional and other resources.

Verbatims are a unique pedagogical tool because they emphasize capturing real-life material and then analyzing it in a classroom.  They are one of the oldest and most universal aspects of clinical pastoral education.  No matter where you find CPE, you are almost guaranteed to find verbatims.

Worst Work

When it comes to verbatims, I want students to submit their worst work.  Of course I expect students to submit a document that is of graduate level writing and quality.  To be more precise, my intent is for students to write and analyze case material about which they feel insecure, where they have made a mistake and/or have discovered an area where they need and want to grow.

I have always lived in cities and have never owned a car, but I have often heard the truism about being unable to replicate a problem with one’s car when you’re at the mechanic. Verbatims are kind of like a perfect world where you can actually demonstrate the problem you are having with your pastoral care, diagnose and address it with other CPE students and an experienced pastoral educator.

Perhaps a student found herself in a situation that triggered anxiety or took an emotional toll. Verbatims are great tools for untangling complicated interpersonal dynamics, whether they be in an academic or in a congregational setting.  One of my students wrote a verbatim about a sermon he delivered, including his recollection of remarks he received from congregants after.

Students sometimes write verbatims about wrestling with some aspect of themselves.  Here’s a personal example.

Early in my training as a chaplain, I felt pressure to spend as much time as possible with staff from other disciplines in the hospital.  I feared that if I did not they would forget about me and stop making referrals. I knew this fear was less than rational so at the suggestion of my clinical pastoral educator, I wrote a verbatim where I ministered to my 15-year-old self.  I had recently moved with my family and was feeling sad and concerned that all of my friends from the old neighborhood would forget me forever.  I received feedback that helped me realize my 15-year-old self could use some healing and was driving my pastoral care.  My adult self was able to take over.

Student Self-evaluation—a Balancing Act

Bringing work that highlights weaknesses and blindspots that need the most growth and development helps students learn how to engage in the professional skill of consultation.  No one is perfect nor omniscient so it is important for students to learn to assess what they don’t know and to develop a habit to reach out for help.

Vebatims also teach seminary students to develop more balanced assessments of their strengths and weaknesses.  I have encountered many seminary students who are achievement-junkies who seek to master every academic task put before them.  One of my students, an experienced Lutheran pastor and D.Min. candidate, told me that, “I am taking a leap of faith with writing verbatims about encounters I feel least secure about.  This is a completely new pursuit for me; I have not encountered this directive anywhere in my schooling so far.”

A rabbinical CPE student who was required to do CPE with no intention of becoming a chaplain told me that verbatims “have helped me not be so scared of my mistakes” and to learn from them.  For those going into a ministerial—really any—profession, the ability to have a nuanced perception of one’s strengths and weaknesses can help prevent burnout.

Budding Theologians

Verbatims challenge and invite students to be more attuned to what they think and feel so they can better understand who they are as ministers, spiritual caregivers, educators, etc.  We can use this attunement to connect more deeply with others.  It turns out we can’t really leave all our emotional and intellectual baggage at the door. And if we could, we’d start to look an awful lot like robots.

Furthermore, seminary students work tirelessly to understand important theology and theories from the wise theologians and thinkers that came before them.  Verbatims offer a low-stakes environment where students can practice explaining, applying and critiquing these theories, and integrating them with theories from other disciplines such as those from psychology, sociology, gender studies, etc.

When students are asked to state their theological reflection in verbatims, they are being challenged to become critical thinkers and theologians.  They move beyond imitation and regurgitation to innovation.

Wave of the Future

With the increase in popularity of service learning and required clinical pastoral education in seminaries, pedagogical tools like verbatims are likely to become more prevalent.  I hope that these reflections will provide you with some helpful material to experiment with verbatims or some form of them in your teaching.

Photo Credit: “Moaning Clay Pot Guys” by A____ R__– CC by 2.0

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