COUC 506 Integration of Spirituality and Counseling

Students critically examine how a Christian worldview and a client’s spirituality impact the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning process in counseling. Ethical, diagnostic, and assessment issues relevant to the use of Christian spiritual interventions with appropriately religious individuals, couples, and families are considered, along with current research related to spirituality and counseling.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Integration of psychology, theology, and spirituality provides the student with an overview of integration models as a theoretical and practical foundation for faith-based counseling. In order to practice Christian counseling, the professional counselor must be able to articulate a Christian worldview and understand the way in which his or her worldview informs counseling theory and practice.

Method of Instruction: This 8-week course is delivered in a digital asynchronous format, with Canvas as the primary instructional delivery method. The student will complete one module per week over the duration of the course.

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

No details available.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussion: The Meaning of Integration

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will provide a thread in response to the provided prompt, considering what it means to “integrate.” Chapter 1 in King and Ford’s (2024) and Chapter 1 in Neff and McMinn’s (2020) textbooks discuss the concept of integration and how we counsel clients who desire a faith-based approach to counseling. Therefore, the student is required to submit a post in response to the prompt provided for this assignment. The thread must be between 300 – 400 words, demonstrate course-related knowledge, and incorporate a minimum of 3 scholarly sources in the current APA format. The thread should include biblical references in the form of Scripture citations. The Bible does not count as one of the 3 scholarly sources cited in the current APA format. Replies are not required for this post. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E).

Discussions (2)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to provide a thread in response to the prompt provided for each Discussion. Each thread must be 300–400 words, demonstrate course-related knowledge, and incorporate a minimum of 3 scholarly sources in the current APA format. The thread should include a biblical reference in the form of a Scripture citation. The Bible does not count as one of the 3 scholarly sources. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be a minimum of 200 words and include a minimum of 1 scholarly source in the current APA format. The thread and replies should include biblical references in the form of Scripture citations. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E) 

Paper: Chapter Review Assignments (2)

The student will write reviews of the designated chapters in the King & Ford (2024) textbook. Each paper will contain a title page and reference page. An abstract is not required. Each paper will be divided into 3 sections: a 2 – 3 page summary, 2 – 3 page interaction, and 1 – 2 page application. Each paper must be double-spaced and adhere to the word counts provided for each of the sections. The total length of each paper must be between 5 – 8 pages. The interaction section of the paper should provide at least 3 insightful observations gained from the chapter and should include citations for at least 3 academic sources. Each paper must also be completed in the current APA format and will be submitted via Turnitin (a plagiarism and AI detection tool) for grading. Please refer to the instructions in the assigned Module: Weeks for these assignments. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E) 

Benchmark Spiritual Integration Chapter Review Assignment

The student will write a review of the assigned chapter in the King and Ford (2024) textbook that will include describing approaches for ethically integrating Christian-based interventions within evidence-based clinical frameworks when working with appropriately religious individuals, couples, and families. The benchmark paper must be double-spaced and adhere to the word counts provided for each of the sections. The paper will consist of 3 sections: a 2 – 3 page summary, a 2 – 3 page interaction, and a 2 – 3 page application. The total length of the paper must be between 6-9 pages, completed in the current APA format, and submitted via Turnitin (a plagiarism detection tool) and CORE (CompMS) for grading. The interaction section should include 3 insightful observations gained from reading the chapter and citations from at least 3 academic sources. Please refer to the instructions in the assigned Module: Week for this assignment. (CLO: A, B, C, D) 

Quiz: Understanding APA Format

The Understanding APA Format quiz covers the APA Formatting Quiz material from Module 1: Week 1.  The 25-point quiz contains multiple-choice questions and is limited to 1 hour.  

Quizzes (4)

Each quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned Modules: Weeks. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 25 multiple-choice and true/false questions, allow for 1 attempt, and have a 1-hour and 30-minute time limit. (CLO: A, C, E)

Quiz: Dispositions Reflection

The student will rate him/herself on the nine dispositions required for this program. The quiz will contain 9 multiple-choice questions and 1 essay question and is limited to 60 minutes. The student is allowed 1 attempt to complete the quiz.