Upcoming Speaker

Edgar Cazares

Seminar Title: When Thoughts Become Verdicts: The WATCH Model for Interprofessional Spiritual Care & Chaplaincy Collaboration

Presentation Date: 12/4/2026

Presentation Time: 11:00 AM

Seminar Details: This presentation outlines the WATCH Model, an interprofessional pastoral framework bridging ancient contemplative practices and modern metacognition to address spiritual and existential distress in healthcare settings. It equips clinicians and chaplains with a five-step approach—Welcome, Attend, Trace, Choose, and Help—to address heavy, rigid thoughts before they become clinical verdicts or compulsively reinforced rumination loops.

Speaker Bio: Rev. Edgar Cazares-Diaz, BCC, is a Board-Certified Chaplain, pastor, educator, and PsyD candidate in Behavioral Sciences with extensive experience spanning Level I trauma care, hospice and palliative services, and congregational leadership. He currently serves as Staff Chaplain and Bereavement Coordinator at Assistive Hospice, Trauma Chaplain at Scripps Health, Pastor of Pastoral Care & Counseling at Citywide Mosaic Church, and Adjunct Professor at SoCal School of Ministry. Holding a M.Div. in Chaplaincy and Biblical Languages and a B.S. in Criminal Justice, Rev. Cazares-Diaz leverages a background in federal reentry programming and clinical pastoral education to advance research and practical interventions in posttraumatic growth, grief recovery, and spiritually integrated mental health care.

Seminar Objectives:

• Recognize statements of spiritual or existential “verdicts” (such as feelings of divine punishment, shame, or being a burden) in serious-illness care contexts.
• Distinguish between helpful supportive care and repetitive reassurance that can inadvertently reinforce compulsive checking, rumination, or scrupulosity cycles.
• Explain how the WATCH model bridges ancient theological concepts (logismoi, nepsis) with modern metacognitive theory to help patients alter how they relate to intrusive thoughts.
• Utilize the 5-step WATCH framework (Welcome, Attend, Trace, Choose, Help) to respond to patient distress without panic, moralism, or therapeutic overreach.
• Describe how chaplaincy care and the WATCH model align with the Age-Friendly 4Ms framework (specifically What Matters and Mentation) to support older adults experiencing losses or meaning distress.
• Identify key clinical referral triggers and clear pathways for partnering with board-certified chaplains, palliative care, and behavioral health while remaining within one’s professional scope.