Course Description

We are living in a threshold moment — not a transition from one stable world to another, but a dissolution of the foundational assumptions that have shaped Western civilization for centuries. The Cartesian split between mind and body, self and world, human and more-than-human is giving way, and the worldviews that will support life in the future are not fully formed. This liminal, urgent time is calling for practitioners with the depth of formation, the cosmological rootedness, and the ethical sophistication to imagine a new way of being human.

This course is the capstone of the Relational Ethics Certificate — a graduate-level seminar for those ready to do more than understand ethics intellectually. Building on the philosophical survey of ETHC 601, this course dives into the phenomenological and non-dual dimensions of ethical life, drawing on integral systems theory, process philosophy, and eco-depth psychology to ask: what does it mean to live and practice ethics in a way that create a world that is life enhancing, amid a rapidly changing world and technologies with uncertain impacts.

The ethical compass is not a fixed document of rules and principles but a dynamic, living orientation — a way of navigating the waters of transformation by the constellations of one's deepest values. The course culminates in the creation and presentation of each student's Ethical Compass — a capstone document and creative work that integrates the full arc of their certificate learning into a personalized, sophisticated, and practitioner-ready framework for ethical life and ministerial work. This is not merely an academic exercise; it is an act of world-building. Students are invited to step into the moral imagination required by this moment — to become the kind of practitioners whose ethical depth is itself a form of healing for a fractured world.

We will meet over the course of 15-weeks, in an 8-module online seminar combining live synchronous sessions with independent study and small group consultation, creating a learning community of practice that models the worldbuilding intent of the capstone.

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Synthesize phenomenological and non-dual philosophical frameworks with integral systems theory to articulate a coherent and personally grounded ethical worldview.
  2. Evaluate and apply ethical frameworks found in phenomenology, process philosophy, integral theory, and contemplative epistemology to navigate unprecedented ethical dilemmas arising in non-ordinary states of consciousness and transformational work.
  3. Integrate the full arc of certificate learning — including relational ethics, embodied knowing, power, and shadow — into a unified and dynamic personal ethical compass.
  4. Demonstrate the capacity to hold and communicate ethical complexity in brave space, engaging difficult, complex, and cosmologically significant questions with grounded authority and care.
  5. Analyze global ethical frameworks and the moral dimensions of participating in a worldwide shift in consciousness, articulating the practitioner's responsibility within that larger arc.
  6. Design and present a comprehensive Ethical Compass as a capstone document and creative work, articulating a personal ethical framework, core values, navigational tools, and commitment to ongoing formation.
  7. Articulate the moral imperative of ethical entheogenic and transformational ministry in the context of a world in active need of creative, grounded, and cosmologically-rooted practitioners.

Format
15-week, 8-module online course with eight live synchronous class sessions and six small group discussion meetings.

Fall 2027 Schedule  

Every other Monday from 1:30-4:00 PM PT/4:30 - 7:00 PM ET, starting August 16, 2027

Tuition

The 3-unit Fall Semester is $1800, with a $50 discount for payment in full.

Earn the full Relational Ethics Certificate (10 units: both intensives + both full-semester courses) for a bundled rate of $6000.

Application

This course requires a brief application, with the exception of CSP ministers and students. Expect a response within two weeks of applying.

CSP Ministry Students and Ministers: Select a Pricing Option to Enroll

Meet Your Instructor

Andi Chatburn, DO, MA, HEC-C (they/she) is a Hospice and Palliative Care physician, bioethicist, and ordained ceremonialist. With over 25 years of experience facilitating spiritual ritual and ceremony, Dr. Chatburn accompanies people at the threshold of life's most profound transitions. An apprentice to death since childhood, Andi brings an intimate understanding of the relational nature of being human within an animate ecosystem of life. Through their own surrender to mystery, they know spiritual transformation affects entire ecosystems of relationships with both human and more than human relations.

Throughout a decade-long career at Providence Health and Services, Chatburn served as Senior Director for Ethics at Providence Health in Washington and Montana, where they chaired and led over a dozen ethics committees and taught ethics to interdisciplinary groups of healthcare professionals, spanning topics from pediatric ethics to end-of-life care. Their academic experience includes Clinical Instructor positions in Biomedical Ethics at Washington State University's Elson S. Floyd School of Medicine, Pacific Northwest University School of Osteopathic Medicine, and the University of Washington/Gonzaga School of Medicine. Andi also served as a spiritual director for fellow healthcare executives through Leadership Formation, and as a board member and instructor for Providence's Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Program for healthcare chaplains.

Dr. Chatburn completed a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and Master of Arts in Bioethics from Kansas City University (2010), holds a certificate in Spiritual Direction from the Companioning Center (2022), and holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy with an emphasis in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion from California Institute for Integral Studies (2026). This unique combination brings unprecedented interdisciplinary depth to bioethics education and practice.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Andi finds restoration through dancing, swimming in wild waters, and wandering in nature's fierce embrace.