Earn a Master of Science in Counseling with a concentration in Catholic Anthropology through our online/blended program: to nurture authentic human flourishing and the healing of minds, hearts, and souls.
To enhance the Master’s in Counseling, this in-depth curriculum will train you to counsel people effectively in accord with the truths of the Catholic Faith regarding the human person: the pathway to genuine human flourishing and happiness; the complementarity of man and woman; the integrated unity of body, mind, and spirit; the human person’s destiny and ultimate meaning.
With a unique focus on the Church’s traditional practices of cura animarum (the healing of souls), you will not only learn about the truths of Catholic anthropology but also how to employ them within a counseling setting for the great benefit of your clients.
What You’ll Learn
Focused on the best strategies for helping those in need of healing, our Master of Science in Counseling with a concentration in Catholic Anthropology gives you the skills and hands-on field experience you need to become a professional counselor and/or provide integrative mental health services. This concentration can be completed in addition to a specialization in Clinical Mental Health or School Counseling.
If you reside in or would like to be licensed in a particular state, please contact our admission representatives to discuss how our program can meet licensure requirements in your state.
You will also be prepared to:
- Offer a care environment in accord with the Church's magisterial teaching.
- Integrate Christian, Catholic, and Benedictine values with professional ethics.
- Communicate effectively and build relationships with patients.
- Apply critical thinking, analysis, and strong decision making to a variety of challenges.
- Demonstrate leadership in your profession and community.
- Exhibit the ability for self-understanding, growth, and personal enrichment.
- Demonstrate competent skill in screening, assessment, and treatment planning.
Courses
The Human Person: Created, Fallen, and Redeemed
Explore the classical, Christian vision of full human flourishing. This course proceeds from the perspective of natural law and thus sees human persons as a unity of body, soul, rational intellect, will, and passions who are created to find happiness in freedom through virtue and called by God to particular vocations. It also examines related dimensions of emotions and experience. Students will learn the dynamics of this integrative, holistic, and transformative vision in its biblical, theological, and philosophical grounding, as well as its embedding in biological, psychological, and socio-cultural contexts.
Holistic Flourishing and Integration
Engage in the Christian vision of the human flourishing in terms of its conviction that the human person is an integrated unity designed to live in mutually enriching relationships with God and other persons in true freedom and happiness. Particular diagnoses, such as depression and anxiety, are considered from psychological, theological, and philosophical perspectives with a view towards the proper understanding of Catholic anthropology and its successful integration into clinical practice for the sake of client growth, healing, and flourishing.
Vocation and Virtue as Man and Woman
Reflect upon the nature and discernment of particular vocational states in life, asking what it means to receive and thrive in a call to be single, married, ordained, or consecrated. This course makes note of the comprehensive union of male and female in marriage as a natural and sacramental institution divinely ordained for the good of children, adults, families, and societies from the perspective of Catholic teaching as shaped by classical, legal, philosophical, biblical, and theological sources. The course involves the analysis of issues pertinent to clinical practice such as disorders and difficulties related to singleness, romance, marriage, and family.
Human Flourishing in Life and Implications for Clinical Practice
Encounter models for the integration of the Christian vision of the human person into life in general and counseling praxis in particular. Drawing on the theological, philosophical, and psychological foundations of Catholic anthropology, the course examines the human, religious, and spiritual resources necessary for the mature discernment of vocation, the free exercise of virtue, the operation of reason, the cultivation of healthy relationships, the process of personal growth, the avenues of healing, and, ultimately, growth in faith, hope, and love.
Caring for the Human Person: Towards an Integrated Practice
Examine the emotional, passional, rational, sensory-perceptual, and cognitive dimensions of the human person. This course involves deep exploration of the integration of the theological, philosophical, and psychological grounding of the Catholic vision of the human person into aspects of clinical practice such as psychological evaluations and assessments, case conceptualization, and ongoing counseling of clients.