Paul Schenck should not be confused with Paul Schenk.
| Paul Schenck | |
| Birth Name: | Paul Chaim Schenck |
| Birth Place: | Glen Ridge, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Education: | Luther Rice University, Holy Apostles College and Seminary, St. Thomas University, Gratz College |
| Occupation: | Certified clinical chaplain |
| Spouse: | Rebecca Wald |
| Known For: | Pastoral counseling, lectures, publications, anti-abortion activism |
Paul Chaim Schenck (born 1958) is an ordained clergyman, author, and lecturer.[1]
Schenck was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to Henry P. Schenck and Marjorie M. Apgar. He has two sisters and an identical twin brother with whom he was raised in Grand Island, New York. His father was born Jewish and his mother converted to Judaism from the Catholic and Anglican (Episcopal) churches. He and his brother attended Hebrew School in nearby Niagara Falls until the sixth grade. He was married in 1977 in an interfaith ceremony in Niagara Falls, New York, presided by Paul Fodor, the Hungarian Holocaust survivor and author. At the time, Schenck was a student in the Institute of Jewish Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Schenck became director of the Empire State Teen Challenge center, a faith-based residential treatment program for persons with "life-controlling problems" such as substance use and abuse, antisocial behaviors, criminal conduct, and relational conflicts. He has been active as a religious professional for more than 40 years as a religious educator, counselor, and executive.
Schenck graduated from the Luther Rice University in 1984 with a B.A. in biblical studies with a focus on the Hebrew Old Testament. He stood his canonical examinations at the Philadelphia Theological Seminary in 1995. In 2005, he received a Master Certificate in executive leadership from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. He received a master's degree in health care ethics from the Bioethics Institute at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, and received certification in health care ethics. He completed coursework with the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Arlington, Virginia, where he received a Master of Science degree in psychology, and holds doctorates in educational leadership and pastoral practice from the School of Arts and Education of St. Thomas University and the Graduate Theological Foundation. He received the Master of Jewish Professional Studies and was granted a certificate of Interfaith Leadership by the faculty of Gratz College Philadelphia and completed the seminar in Jewish philosophy at the yeshiva Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem. He studied Hebrew at Baltimore Hebrew University. He completed the Master Course in bioethics at the Kennedy Institute at Georgetown University. Schenck also holds a graduate degree in religion from the Catholic International University. He is board certified in clinical chaplaincy and pastoral counseling.
Since 2020, Schenck has been a spiritual integration counselor in private practice with clients in telehealth, clinical, and office practice. He is a Board Certified Clinical Chaplain with special competency in mental health.
In his pastoral counseling practice, he uses an eclectic approach, with the main focus on spiritually interpreted logotherapy developed by the neuro-psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl. Logotherapy aims to discover and apply a sense of meaning and purpose in overcoming problems in life such as substance use and abuse, relational conflicts, self-esteem, and self-care, anxiety and depression, and spiritual needs such as love, companionship, enjoyment, optimism, and religious fulfillment.
Schenck has taught at the Elim Bible College, Lima, New York; the Reformed Episcopal Seminary, Philadelphia; and Thomas More College in Manchester, New Hampshire, and was a guest lecturer at Messiah University, Grantham, Pennsylvania, the State University of New York, Georgetown University, and American University. He is a frequent lecturer on religious, moral, and ethical topics, as well as the bible, Jewish-Christian, and interfaith studies. In 2019 ProQuest published his research in the experience and operation of sensual and emotional empathy using the seminal theoretical work of the pioneer phenomenologist, Edith Stein.
Since December, 2021, Schenck has been a clinical chaplain in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.