Chaplaincy Program
A path of presence, care, and meaning-making
If you feel drawn to accompany others through moments of change, loss, questioning, and growth, without needing to have all the answers, this program may be a good fit for you. The Interfaith Chaplaincy Program welcomes people from many spiritual, religious, and non-religious backgrounds. Some arrive with a clear sense of calling; others come with curiosity and a desire to live more intentionally and compassionately. What matters most is a willingness to listen deeply to yourself, to others, and to the larger questions of meaning that shape our lives.
Learning in a spacious, supportive community
This program brings together the study of diverse wisdom traditions, contemplative and reflective practices, and practical skills for offering spiritual care. You’ll learn in a creative, nurturing environment that honors many ways of understanding spirituality, including humanist, earth-centered, secular, and interfaith perspectives. You are not asked to adopt a particular belief system. Instead, you are encouraged to clarify what gives your own life meaning, while growing your capacity to support people whose worldviews, cultures, and identities may differ from your own.
Where this path can lead
Graduates serve in a wide range of settings, including hospitals and hospice, spiritual communities, nonprofits, education, community organizations, and emerging spiritual spaces. Some choose to pursue ordination as an Interfaith Minister within the Chaplaincy Institute’s Interfaith Community, while others integrate what they learn into existing professional or volunteer roles. Our intention is to equip you with presence, skill, and ethical grounding so you can meet people where they are, with care, compassion, and integrity.
Core Areas of Learning
Our curriculum is interfaith, applied, and grounded in lived experience. Practices that support sustainability and self-care are woven throughout, recognizing the emotional realities of caregiving work.
Interfaith Wisdom
Explore global religious and philosophical traditions, cultural contexts, and sacred texts as sources of insight while cultivating respect, curiosity, and interreligious understanding.
- World Religions & Perspectives: Understanding world traditions, exploring culture and practices, cultivating mystical awareness.
- Contextual Education & Immersion: Personally engaging spiritual and cultural traditions, inter-religious dialogue and hospitality.
- Theological Literacy: Understanding faith and the Interfaith movement, engaging sacred texts, exploring personal and Interfaith theology.
Spiritual Psychology
Develop greater self-awareness through psycho-spiritual reflection, dreamwork, and practices that support resilience, boundaries, and healthy presence. Deepen understanding of self and psyche by exploring:
- Psycho-spiritual development
- Strengthening the container of self for health in ministry
- Dreamwork
Leadership & Development
Strengthen your ability to communicate, facilitate groups, and lead with authenticity through reflective practice, creative expression, and community engagement.
- Embodied Care & Leadership: Deepening one’s spiritual practice(s) for self-care, personal transformation, and responsive ministry with others
- Public Speaking & Community Ministry: Developing inspired teaching, public speaking and facilitation skills for myriad settings
- Arts for Awakening: Engaging creative practices of visual arts, sound, language or movement as tools of ministry and pathways to the Divine
Spiritual Care & Community Service
Learn inclusive approaches to spiritual care, ritual-making, and accompaniment, alongside exploration of ethics, social responsibility, and compassionate action.
- Spiritual Care: Developing practical, inclusive spiritual care and ministry skills, prayer, spiritual care theology, and personal competence in deep listening, presence and compassion
- Ceremonial Ministry & Ritual-Making: Understanding ceremonial rites, elements of interfaith worship and tools for effective ritual creation
- Sacred Justice Ministry: Exploring pathways to applied ministry, cultural advocacy and social activism
Vocational Discernment
Clarify how your values, experiences, and gifts come together through supervised practicum, reflection, and real-world application.
- Supervised Practicum:Â Integration and application of core competencies
- Calling & Discernment: Exploring how your gifts, growing edges, vocational experiences, and inner guidance interweave to form your way of ministering to the world
Program Rhythm
Students complete ten foundational courses, three electives, and one on-site residential retreat over approximately 18 months to 24 months, allowing time for integration, relationship-building, and meaningful engagement with the ChI community.
The program requirements also include:
- Engaging in ongoing spiritual direction or reflective accompaniment (religious or non-religious)
- A personally meaningful contemplative or reflective practice
- Engagement with multiple spiritual, cultural, or philosophical communities
- A supervised practicum in a setting aligned with your interests
- A reflective competencies assessment
Program Options
Consider a Dual Certificate Program with Spiritual Direction, which requires just three additional courses to complete both programs. Please reach out to Admissions for more information. Or, consider a Specialization in Sacred Justice Ministry, requiring just two additional courses. Please reach out to Admissions for more information.
Certificates & Recognition
Graduates receive a Certificate of Completion and an official transcript from The Chaplaincy Institute. Those who pursue ordination receive Interfaith Ordination and Clergy in Good Standing through the ChI Interfaith Community.
Admissions & Support
A bachelor’s degree or equivalent life experience is required. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed promptly.
We recognize that choosing a program like this is a meaningful commitment. Our Admissions team is available to listen, answer questions, and support your discernment, without pressure.
admissions@chaplaincyinstitute.org
510-843-1422
You don’t need certainty to begin only curiosity, care, and a readiness to explore what it means to accompany others well.