Chaplain

Rev. Dr. Christy J. Wood, DMin, BCC

**** ***** ****** 281-***-****

Haltom City, TX 76117 ******@*****.***

Board Certified Chaplain with 20+ years of pastoral care experience, with a commitment to integrating mental health with spirituality and spiritual practice:

● Able to assess the spiritual, emotional, and psychological needs of patients, loved ones, and staff.

● Create and implement appropriate intervention based on researched based theory and practice.

● Prepare, lead, and perform sacraments, rituals, and worship.

● Collaborate with community clergy across faith traditions, diverse cultures, and socioeconomic groups.

● Train and supervise volunteers, residents, and interns.

● Effective communication and interpersonal skills developing and maintaining productive working relationships with interdisciplinary teams.

● Doctortoral-level researcher promoting the interconnection of mental health and spirituality. Employment

Oct 2023 -

present

Chaplain

Suncrest

Hospice

(Austin, TX)

June 2023 -

present

Facilitator

Pathways

Theological

Education

(online)

April-Dec 2022

Chaplain

Texas

NeuroRehab

Center l

(Austin, TX)

2019 - 2022

Chaplain

Ascension Seton

Austin

(Austin, TX)

2016 - 2019

Chaplain

CHRISTUS

Spohn Health

(Corpus Christi,

TX)

2015 - 2016

Chaplain

Baptist Health

(San Antonio,

TX)

Professional Experience and Accomplishments in Healthcare Chaplaincy Pastoral Care & Counseling

● Daily routine includes triaging referrals, daily census, needs of loved ones, facilitating groups, engaging in meetings, and caring for staff.

● Maintain records of patient encounters and group participation.

● Prepare and offer worship experiences for a broad spectrum of faith traditions, including daily reflections and spirituality groups.

● Collaborate with the team to ensure coverage and personal needs are met.

● Ensuring continuity of care as clients transition to different levels of care (e.g. Trauma ED, ICU, Step down, Rehab; Antepartum through NICU graduation).

● Innovated new ways to care for patients, loved ones, and staff during COVID pandemic with consideration of mental health needs.

Patient Care Teams

● Care Conferences: prior to high risk pregnancy delivery, palliative care planning, end of life planning, long-term care planning, discharge planning, etc.

● Ongoing Care of patients with weekly meetings concerning the care of patient and family. Ongoing reevaluation of plan of care.

● Ethics Committee - Comprehending multifaceted problems and framing effective, strategic solutions using available resources. Addressing issues concerning patient care, decision making, and religious guidelines.

● Worked in tandem with Social Workers addressing mental health issues including postpartum depression, pre-existing conditions, and post traumatic stress.

● Part of the NICU Family and Associate Committee which tended to ongoing needs and support of families after discharge.

Compliance and Quality

● Daily review of market and department goals for performance improvement including data analysis to address patient satisfaction, quality of care, and effective time management.

● Assist in developing department policies and procedures as well as departmental goals, objectives, and strategies.

● Orienting new groups of volunteers, residents, and interns to Policies and Procedures.

● Engaging in Continuing Education to benefit both personal and departmental growth. Staff Care

● Developing rituals that attend to the spiritual needs of staff, including Tea for the Soul, reflection cards, grounding items, and mindfulness activities.

● Nourishing pastoral relationships with staff and leveraging technology to advance staff care strategy, including pastoral support to night shift.

● Referring staff to PACT (Peer Assistance Care Team) per departmental protocol, and facilitating regular unit debriefs for units upon request. Further Pastoral Care Experience

Committee on Ministry (Chair) - Oversee the

pastoral care and oversight for ministers in the United Church of Christ, Heart of Texas Association.

Member in Discernment Mentor - Mentoring a

seminarian through the ordination process.

Trained Educator with the working knowledge of the variety of developmental stages from birth to adulthood which informs assessment, intervention, and outcomes. 27+ years experience working with children, 25+ years with adolescents, 20+ adults.

Cross Cultural Experience - 20+ years working with international students, immigrants, and street

dependent population and a wide spectrum of other

socioeconomic levels.

Baptist Mission Center Volunteer - Inner-city

Children & Youth Ministry, ESL Teacher, Social

Services.

Social Service Director Intern (Southwest Area

Ministries, Houston, TX) - Performing intake and

needs assessment while maintaining records and

collecting data to identify trends and improve service. International Student Ministry - Throughout

undergraduate and graduate school coordinated

pastoral care for International Students through various programs such as: Welcome Friends, Adopted

Families, Field Trips, ESL/TOEFL Support, Spirituality Groups, Cultural Night.

Resident Assistant (Houston Baptist University,

Houston, TX) - Fostering relationships and offering pastoral care to residents while overseeing the

management of residential life.

Pastoral Associate (DaySpring Baptist Church

Waco, TX) - Led teams in offering spiritual care to the congregation and our community partners. Designed

curriculum for and facilitated Sunday School for children and adults. Prepared and delivered sermons for

Sunday Worship.

International Experience - Over a period of 8 years in Mexico, Honduras, and Haiti with teams offering medical clinics, construction, and educational

projects. Personally offered pastoral care, created curriculum, trained teachers (adults & youth),

implemented curriculum.

Study Abroad - (Hong Kong, Macau, & India) Focus:

What does pastoral care look like in Christianty and other religions in these regions?

MDiv Internship - (India) Study Focus: Interfaith

Dialogue & Spiritual Direction/Pastoral Care for all faiths.

Experience in Mental Health

Mental Health Grace Alliance

● Trained to facilitate peer to peer, trauma/ PTSD, and family support groups, as well as being a

one-on-one life coach.

● Advocate and educator to local faith communities.

● Held peer to peer groups in local church.

● Trained others to be peer support leaders.

Baptist Health System - Spirituality Group twice a week, created a curriculum based on CBT concepts:

Emotions, Actions, Thoughts.

Perinatal/Pediatric - Supported patients

experiencing:

● Post traumatic stress from childbirth and/or loss.

● Postpartum depression.

● Inpatient behavioral health clients experiencing medical health issues/medical patients

experiencing mental health issues.

● Pediatric patients surviving suicide attempts and their loved ones.

Acute/Emergency Behavioral Health - Responded

to:

● Referrals to ED patients on psych holds.

● Referrals to Inpatient Unit.

● Adult patients who attempted suicide and their

loved ones.

● Inpatient behavioral health clients experiencing medical health issues/medical patients

experiencing mental health issues.

● Birth and NICU trauma.

COVID Care Initiatives - addressing needs of:

● Parents separated from their baby due to parent

having COVID and baby in NICU.

● Parents in various levels of mental health

treatment.

● Parents whose partners were needing mental

health treatment.

● Antepartum parents including those detoxing or

experiencing a mental health crisis while pregnant with possible complications or high risk.

● Patients and families by working in tandem with

LSW and Case Managers.

● Patients, loved ones, and staff by making referrals to mental health professionals.

CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) -

Addressing needs of staff who have experienced a

trauma or stressful experience:

● Immediate defusing, assessment, triaging, and

acute symptom management.

● Follow up debriefing session.

● One-on-one Intervention and referrals.

● CISM team included chaplain, mental health expert, and trained peers

Education

Doctorate of Ministry in Formational Counseling Ashland Theological Seminary Spiritual Companionship with People with Bipolar Disorder Ashland, OH: Dec 2019 Purpose of the project was to create a resource for spiritual caregivers to become better spiritual companions with people with bipolar disorder. Resource was peer-reviewed by a group of 12 psychologists, psychiatrists, licensed social workers, and other mental health professionals. Research supporting resource included neuroplasticity, scientific studies of impact of spirituality/prayer on the brain, basic understanding of DSM-V major categories and in depth look at bipolar disorder, awareness of basic principles of CBT, ACT, DBT, and Attachment Therapy, developing appropriate spiritual experientials taking into consideration what might dysregulate care receivers,focusing on art integration and mindfulness, outlining scope of practice for spiritual caregivers and when to refer to mental health professionals. (http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=atssem1573490368840156) Master of Divinity Truett Seminary at Baylor University Global Christianity and World Religions Waco, TX: Dec 2005 Bachelor of Arts Houston Baptist University

Interdisciplinary Studies & Reading/ESL Houston, TX: Feb 2002 Clinical Pastoral Education Baptist Health System

Completed 5 Units of Level 1 & 2 San Antonio, TX: 2015-2016 Certifications

Authorized Ordained Minister of the United Church of Christ Heart of Texas Association of the South Central Conference, June 9, 2019 Endorsement June 12, 2020

Board Certified Chaplain

Association of Professional Chaplains, December 3, 2020 CISM Facilitator

International Critical Incident Stress Management, Inc. Clinical Ethics Intensive Certificate

CHRISTUS Health

Certified Peer Group Leader, Mental Health Support Groups Mental Health Grace Alliance, Waco, TX

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