Brief History of APCCSP
In November 1999, six Korean chaplains traveled to St. John Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, Long Island, New York, one of the health care facilities of the Episcopal Health Services (EHS). They were to be trained under Rev. Dr. Richard Liew, who was the Director for the Pastoral Care Department, in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). It was the beginning of the indigenous CPE program.
Indigenous CPE program provides pastoral care clinical training within a specific cultural context. The program was developed by Rev. Dr. Liew with the collaboration of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy New York – New Jersey Chapter (CPSP NY-NJ Chapter). The Chapter was under the leadership of Rev. Dr. John DeVelder and Rev. Dr. Steven Voytovich at that time. Since then, indigenous CPE has been expanded to other countries in the world. One of those countries is Malaysia.
With the advent of the indigenous program, Rev. Dr. Liew, together with Rev. Dr. Steven Voytovich and Rev. Dr. John DeVelder, wanted to establish a culturally and contextually relevant credentialing organization for the program outside the United States. In 2007, Rev. Dr. Cecily Broderic became the Vice President for the Pastoral Care Department in EHS (a social outreach arm owned and operated by the Diocese of Long Island, New York). She supported this noble vision and successfully obtained a grant from EHS in 2009 to develop this credentialing organization.
In April 2010, Rev. Dr. Liew, Rev. Dr. Steven Voytovich and Rev. Dr. Cecily held a protem meeting with CPE practitioners from Australia, India, and Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thus began the process to develop a credentialing organization outside the USA. The meeting concluded that the Malaysian delegates, led by Annie Wong, would spearhead the project and Malaysia would operate as the center to establish the credentialing organization.
From April 2010 to July 2012, numerous deliberations were conducted to name the credentialing organization. Finally in September 2012, after seventeen months of preparation and deliberation, the Malaysian team had realized the vision and a credentialing organization outside the United States was established. It was quite a journey.
It has taken twelve years, from the conceptualization of the vision in 2000 to its formation in September 2012, for the American team and the Malaysian team to materialize this regional credentialing organization. This is the first regional credentialing organization of its kind and it is called the Asia Pacific Council for Clinical Supervision and Psychotherapy (APCCSP).
Founding Fathers
- Rev Dr Richard Liew
- Rev Dr Steven Voytovich
- Rev Dr John DeVelder
- Sow Chin Wong - President
- Steven Abbarow - Vice President
- Eddy Lee Kok Leong - Secretary
- Angela Yeo - Treasurer
