Mission & Objectives

Faculty & Staff Will:

• Promote and develop the students’ academic excellence, their integration of evidence-based research, their fair-mindedness toward differing views and evidence, and their critical thinking skills.
• Educate and train students in theoretical conceptualization and enactment of evidence-based practice where available.
• Develop student’s awareness of social, racial, multinational and ethnic diversity of persons in all its definitions and to develop the capacity for critical evaluation of current trends within the discipline of counseling.
• Prepare students to become professional counselors who will practice in various settings and adhere to the professional standards of the ACA Code of Ethics (2014) or the AACC Code of Ethics (2023).
• Encourage and guide students in the integration of their Christian faith with counseling theories, models and practices.
• Support and mentor students and graduates across their professional development.

Program Degree Goals

Graduates Will Demonstrate:

• A Professional Counselor orientation that adopts the roles, functions and identity of a competent member of the counseling profession (Professional Counselor Orientation).
• Ethical decision-making in matters related to client welfare and interagency collaboration and consultation (Ethical Practice).
• Competent, culturally relevant counseling and advocacy skills to eliminate social injustices (Social and Cultural Identities and Experiences).
• Skills in implementing developmentally relevant and strengths-based approaches in counseling (Lifespan Development).
• Skills in equipping clients for career decision-making and life planning across the lifespan (Career Development).
• Evidence-based counseling practice, informed by theories and best-practice models (Counseling Practice and Relationships).
• Evidence-based group counseling and group process skills, informed by theories and best-practice models (Group Counseling and Group Work).
• Skills in conducting assessments of clients’ cognitive, affective, behavioral and social functioning by means of reliable and valid measures and approaches and accurately apply to diagnosis and treatment planning (Assessment and Diagnostic Processes).
• Skills in critically reflecting on research to evaluate counseling practices and programs (Research and Program Evaluation).
• Integration of counseling theory and practice with the historical and theological dimensions of the Christian faith as consistent with the Gordon-Conwell Statement of Faith.