Help Those Suffering from Crisis and Trauma with Liberty’s Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling
Imagine a career that gives you opportunities to minister to those suffering from the deepest pain. See yourself using biblical truths and tested psychological methods to bring healing in the middle of life’s hardest situations. Liberty’s M.A. in Pastoral Counseling with a focus on crisis response and trauma can prepare you to make a lasting impact on people’s lives.
Our degree in counseling will help you assess and respond to people experiencing stress, grief, and trauma. Get ready for ministry in churches, counseling centers, community programs, and even hospitals. In all of these settings, there are people desperately looking for ways to cope with their grief and pain. Whether your work involves believers, nonbelievers, or both, you will be making an impact on countless lives. Our degree is designed to give you the tools you’ll need to provide one-on-one attention to spiritually and ethically treat these needs.
Accreditation
Your seminary degree is approved by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and has met rigorous accreditation standards. You can feel confident that your degree is both academically excellent and well-respected among churches, ministries, and nonprofit organizations.
Award-Winning Campus
At Liberty, you’ll find an affordable, high-quality education that equips students like you for the real world. Our commitment to excellence helped us rank as the #4 Best College Campus in America by Niche.com. Earning your degree from a nonprofit university with state-of-the-art resources like ours can help set you apart from your peers.
Why Choose Liberty’s Pastoral Counseling Master’s Degree in Crisis Response and Trauma?
You want to be fully equipped for the career God has called you to enter. We want to help! Our professors are excited about sharing their wealth of knowledge with you as they lead the next generation of Christians in the field of behavioral sciences. With over 140 years of pastoral counseling experience between them, our faculty knows the ins and outs of providing exceptional care to those working through grief and trauma.
You will have the opportunity to take your education outside the classroom. Our M.A. in Pastoral Counseling students complete a 225-hour internship in an approved, related setting. You will gain invaluable hands-on, face-to-face counseling experience in individual, relationship, and group therapy. Not only that, but you will also have our faculty by your side, monitoring your completed assignments related to the internship.
Choosing a pastoral counseling degree is a great way to serve in non-clinical counseling roles. This environment allows opportunities to spread the truth to those who need it most. As a counselor, you will have the unique opportunity to help people analyze their situation, prevent avoidable hardship, and even cultivate healing from suffering.
What Will You Learn in Our Pastoral Counseling Master’s Degree?
Our graduate students studying pastoral counseling will explore the multicultural, family, and spiritual issues most often faced in a pastoral setting. You will receive training in solution-based models so you can apply various behavioral approaches and appropriate biblical teaching in your work. You will also examine best practices in promoting spiritual growth during crises, as well as in premarital and marriage circumstances.
By specializing in crisis response and trauma, you will gain a deeper understanding of working with those who are suffering from stress, grief, and traumatic situations. Your courses will highlight ways to treat the human stress response, providing effective counseling strategies for those suffering from anxiety, depression, abuse, PTSD, and much more.
View the Degree Completion Plan, and check out our featured courses below to learn more about what you’ll be studying!
Featured Courses
CRIS 606 – Acute Stress, Grief, and Trauma
CRIS 607 – PTSD and Combat-Related Trauma
PACO 500 – Introduction to Pastoral Counseling
PACO 617 – Theories and Techniques in Pastoral Counseling
Highlights of Our Master’s in Pastoral Counseling Degree
- Complete your entire master’s in as little as 1 year!
- Opportunities to earn several certificates from the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC). These certificates include Crisis Response, Life Coaching, and Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts (SYMBIS).
- Our student-to-professor ratio for residential graduate students is 6:1.
- Our faculty care deeply for their students, praying for and with them throughout their academic journey.
Pastoral Counseling – Crisis Response and Trauma Degree Information
- Residential
- 36 total credit hours
- Transfer in up to 50% of your credits
- This program falls under Liberty Theological Seminary
- View the Degree Completion Plan
- View our course catalog
Career Opportunities for Crisis Response and Trauma Pastoral Counseling Graduates
- Associate pastor
- Chaplain
- Church counselor
- Non-licensed counselor
- Outpatient care counselor
- Trauma counselor
Admission Requirements for the MA in Pastoral Counseling
Every application is reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and all applicants must submit the following documents and meet the minimum requirements for admission:
- Admission application
- Official bachelor’s degree transcripts with a 2.0 GPA or higher
- Self-certification form (for students who are in the final term of their bachelor’s degree)
- John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Questionnaire
- Contact information for 1 pastoral recommender
- Current Liberty undergraduate students seeking preliminary acceptance into a graduate program must complete a degree completion application through their ASIST account
