Courses

Fall 2023 Courses

BTI 507O Biblical Survey

Course Description

3 credits
MACP students only.
This course is a survey of biblical literature that focuses on its genres, literary forms, cultural contexts, and history of reception. Students will confront the risks and rewards of reading ancient texts, the role the reader’s social location plays in the act of reading, and wrestle with how these texts can remain in living conversation with contemporary questions and crises. Special attention will be paid throughout to the voices and experiences of marginal figures in the text.

BTI 525O Interpreting the Bible: Exegesis, Hermeneutics, and Community

Course Description

3 credits

This course guides learners to identify and employ interpretive methods for engaging the biblical text within local contexts. Learners will distinguish, locate, and critically assess the interpretive and meaning-making lenses undergirding readings of scripture and of the place/peoples they serve. The course will equip learners with exegetical tools to draw text and lived context into conversation.

BTI 570R Integrative Project: Exploring the Future

Course Description

2 credits
Prerequisite: Taken in last year of MDIV or MATC degree program
An individualized learning experience that creates space for students to draw from their entire Seattle School experience as they look to their post-graduation ministry and their unique embodiment of text, soul and culture. Blending research methodology with the personal supervision of their advisor (at The Seattle School), students complete the writing of their final integrative project for the MDIV & MATC during their final year. This course is taught consecutively over two trimesters, with one credit earned in each of those terms. MDIV students also add another credit in Spring term.

CSL 502R History & Systems

Course Description

3 credits
This course offers students a survey of the historical counseling theories and practices. Each theoretical model is evaluated through the lens of psychodynamic methodology and its efficacy in working with diverse populations and settings. Students will increase their awareness of the lineage that precedes the “birth” of Western psychology, and examine spiritual, relational, and community practices that offer an alternative to Western psychology.

This course is associated with the Fall term residency.

CSL 502S History & Systems

Course Description

3 credits
This course offers students a survey of the historical counseling theories and practices. Each theoretical model is evaluated through the lens of psychodynamic methodology and its efficacy in working with diverse populations and settings. Students will increase their awareness of the lineage that precedes the “birth” of Western psychology, and examine spiritual, relational, and community practices that offer an alternative to Western psychology.

CSL 524O Introduction to Counseling Children & Adolescents

Course Description

2 credits
Prerequisite: CSL 510

This course is designed to engage students in exploring therapeutic work with children and adolescents. Through reading, research, class-time, and role play, this course will provide a foundation to facilitate growth and development in clinical work with children and adolescents.

CSL 530O Internship I

Course Description

Prerequisites: CSL 502, CSL 503, CSL 510, CSL 517, IDS 521, CSL 553, CSL 543, CSL 545 (Recommended: CSL 509)

The purpose of the counseling Internship is to provide a professional setting for interns to gather experience and to receive supervision regarding their clinical work. This setting will provide the intern with supervised experiences in preparation for professional practice as a counselor. The Intern will have an opportunity to develop and practice these skills in a variety of clinical settings under the guidance of an on-site supervisor.

Concurrent with a student’s Internship experience, the Internship I & II courses provides a setting for students to observe, explore and learn from their clinical experiences, specifically, what arises within the clinical hour, including pre-session and post-session. This setting allows each student the opportunity to discuss and learn from their Internship experiences.

CSL 544O Assessment, Appraisal, and Diagnosis

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 510, IDS 520, IDS 521
Corequisite: CSL 553

This course is part of a two-course sequence that covers Assessment, Appraisal, and Diagnosis and Psychopathology. The CSL 544 course focuses on an introductory overview of the process of assessment, appraisal, diagnosis, and treatment, while the CSL 545 course focuses on the application of assessment, appraisal, diagnosis, and treatment of personality disorders/disorders of self and co-occurring disorders. Both courses include the following, with different respective emphases.

PART A: Assessment, Appraisal: This part focuses on the principles of assessment, appraisal, and diagnosis in a multicultural society as related to diagnosis and current DSM, various assessment instruments: achievement, aptitude, intelligence, interest, and personality will be addressed as well as supervision in administering, scoring, and interpreting assessment tools. Here students examine the principles of educational, psychological, and vocational assessment in a counseling context, including concepts necessary for the selection, administration, scoring and interpretation of individual and group tests.

Part B: Diagnosis: This part focuses on the major mental disorders as defined by the current DSM including an introduction to the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, appropriate psychopharmacological interventions, biological bases of behavior, and spiritual dimensions of these disorders. Here students explore the impact of culture and emerging technologies on the treatment of individuals and groups.

CSL 544S Assessment, Appraisal, and Diagnosis

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 510, IDS 520, IDS 521
Corequisite: CSL 553

This course is part of a two-course sequence that covers Assessment, Appraisal, and Diagnosis and Psychopathology. The CSL 544 course focuses on an introductory overview of the process of assessment, appraisal, diagnosis, and treatment, while the CSL 545 course focuses on the application of assessment, appraisal, diagnosis, and treatment of personality disorders/disorders of self and co-occurring disorders. Both courses include the following, with different respective emphases.

PART A: Assessment, Appraisal: This part focuses on the principles of assessment, appraisal, and diagnosis in a multicultural society as related to diagnosis and current DSM, various assessment instruments: achievement, aptitude, intelligence, interest, and personality will be addressed as well as supervision in administering, scoring, and interpreting assessment tools. Here students examine the principles of educational, psychological, and vocational assessment in a counseling context, including concepts necessary for the selection, administration, scoring and interpretation of individual and group tests.

Part B: Diagnosis: This part focuses on the major mental disorders as defined by the current DSM including an introduction to the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, appropriate psychopharmacological interventions, biological bases of behavior, and spiritual dimensions of these disorders. Here students explore the impact of culture and emerging technologies on the treatment of individuals and groups.

CSL 553R Pre-Internship: Counseling Practicum

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: IDS 520, IDS 521, CSL 510
Corequisite: CSL 544

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to clinical training and prepare them for their upcoming internship experience. This lab course combines field experience and observation with competency-based instruction and small group learning. Students will complete a total of 25 hours of observation of mental health services. Students will deepen and apply the stance and skills developed in IDS 520 and IDS 521 in order to gain familiarity with mental health systems and the counseling profession.

CSL 553S Pre-Internship: Counseling Practicum

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: IDS 520, IDS 521, CSL 510
Corequisite: CSL 544

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to clinical training and prepare them for their upcoming internship experience. This lab course combines field experience and observation with competency-based instruction and small group learning. Students will complete a total of 25 hours of observation of mental health services. Students will deepen and apply the stance and skills developed in IDS 520 and IDS 521 in order to gain familiarity with mental health systems and the counseling profession.

CSL 557 CTA Practicum C Part I: Narrative Focused Trauma Care Level II training

Course Description

1 credit
Prerequisites: CSL 503, CSL 543, CSL 556
Course is limited to students enrolled in the Concentration in Trauma & Abuse.
This course is the final training in advanced trauma-informed counseling. It builds upon the previous material and experiences gained in CTA Practicum A. It utilizes narrative engagement as the primary avenue to bring integration and healing to trauma and abuse memory/story. In this course students will hone their ability to use previously demonstrated methods to engage sexual harm/abuse. In this course students will progress in their ability to interact with issues of race, sexual and gender identity and other aspects of underrepresentation/marginalization/oppression. The course involves supervised practice counseling with fellow students, and personal understanding as it relates to the impacts of trauma and abuse.

NFTC Level II meets on the following dates in the Fall: October 12 (orientation meeting), October 19-22; November 30-December 3.

CSL 565O Human Sexuality

Course Description

2 credits
Human Sexuality is designed to ask questions about the nature of biological sexuality, sexual preference, sexual identity, and desire. The course will seek to explore multiple perspectives to attempt to understand such questions from scientific research, developmental theory, cultural influences, and relational experience. Contemporary scholarship from psychoanalytic literature will be assigned to formulate the bases for class discussion. Students will consider several ways of understanding and working with sexuality in their personal lives and in clinical settings, equipping them to think critically and work effectively in various cultures and systems.

CSL 570S Infant Observation I

Course Description

1 credit

This course introduces the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind. Infant observation focuses on the primary relationships, primitive anxieties, defenses, which later inform clinical work with children, adolescents, and adult patients in psychotherapy. This in vivo learning experience takes place through a weekly observation of the infant with their mothering figure, primary caregiver in their home environment.

TUESDAY:
Kris Wheeler, MA, 206-269-0160, kris@kriswheeler.co
Trevor Slocum, MA, 206-388-6123, trevor@slocumcounseling.co
Location of Class: 5809 43rd Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105. This is Kris Wheeler’s home office.

FRIDAY:
Josh Sandoz, MA, 206-914-7115, Josh@joshsandoz.com
Location of Class: ONLINE.

CSL 573S Elements of British Object Relations I

Course Description

1 credits
This course meets at the Center for Object Relations.

COR's address is:
2915 East Madison St
Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98112

To access the building there is a key code which would be given to you by the administrator, course instructor, or moderator prior to the class, or there will be someone at the door to let you in. Our office is located on the 3rd Floor in Suite 300. There is an elevator as well as stairs. Once in suite 300, you will walk into a waiting room, where you can proceed up the stairs into the COR meeting room.

This course introduces British Object Relations theory and fundamental concepts of British Object Relations. This course builds from the experiences in Infant Observation; i.e. the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind.

CSL 580A Individualized Research: A Relational Psychoanalytic Approach to Couples Psychotherapy

Course Description

FI Frameworks and Intersections

Course Description

This course is intended to provide incoming students with context for learning methods employed at The Seattle School, academic resources and other information to help them be successful in the classroom.

IDS 501O Intersections: Interdisciplinary Inquiry & Psychological Frameworks

Course Description

2 credits
Corequisite: IDS 504
This course will explore interdisciplinary perspectives on complex problems that affect and reveal the human condition, as well as contexts that impact learning, including epistemological frameworks, personal worldviews and hermeneutics, and one’s internal world and development of the mind. Issues pertaining to diversities of one’s locatedness, experience, oppressive systems and institutionalized marginalization and social fragmentation will all be engaged from an interdisciplinary framework of theology, psychology and biblical studies.

IDS 504O Critical Reading Lab

Course Description

1 credit
Corequisite: IDS 501
Critical Reading Lab is a companion class to the first term Common Curriculum classes. In this course, students explore what it means to know and to learn within the graduate curriculum, particularly as it relates to interdisciplinary and integrative work. Students will explore various ways of knowing as part of a journey of discovery in a smaller group format with other students.

IDS 504S Critical Reading Lab

Course Description

1 credit
Corequisite: IDS 501
Critical Reading Lab is a companion class to the first term Common Curriculum classes. In this course, students explore what it means to know and to learn within the graduate curriculum, particularly as it relates to interdisciplinary and integrative work. Students will explore various ways of knowing as part of a journey of discovery in a smaller group format with other students.

IDS 520R Listening Lab: Part I

Course Description

2 credits total ; taught over 2 terms
This lab provides opportunities for students to engage with interdisciplinary theory and praxis related to deep listening. By tending to the data of experience at three levels (intrapsychic, interpersonal, and group as a whole), students will cultivate a relational stance marked by observation, openness, and curiosity. The frame of Listening Lab is designed to foster a getting-to-know posture rather than a knowing posture, working within the frame of the lab to explore and express one’s own realities, internal and external, past and present, personal and collective.

IDS 520S Listening Lab: Part I

Course Description

2 credits total ; taught over 2 terms
This lab provides opportunities for students to engage with interdisciplinary theory and praxis related to deep listening. By tending to the data of experience at three levels (intrapsychic, interpersonal, and group as a whole), students will cultivate a relational stance marked by observation, openness, and curiosity. The frame of Listening Lab is designed to foster a getting-to-know posture rather than a knowing posture, working within the frame of the lab to explore and express one’s own realities, internal and external, past and present, personal and collective.

RES Residency

Course Description

This course will house materials related to the residency for the current term.

SFD 517R Service & Sustainability: Action, Reflection, and Resilience

Course Description

3 credits

This course invites students to integrate spiritual care, sustainability, theology, in their work for service and change in God's world. Service & Sustainability means illuminating how action and contemplation work together to inform the health and sustainability of one’s vocational call in order to imagine a lifelong commitment to beauty and justice in community. The question explored in this course is how the Christ call of self-denial does not become a self-deprecating denial of self in this sacred service in the world.

SFD 518O Way of Life

Course Description

As we grow, learn and change, it is important to pay attention to how we want to be formed. The rhythms, relationships and practices of our lives can contribute to the ways that we are formed, integrated and sustained. We will experiment with practices of body, mind, soul to craft unique Ways of Life for each person at this moment of their live and moments beyond.

TCE 501O Critical Social Theory

Course Description

2 credits
Prerequisites: IDS 520, IDS 521
The class is designed for mid-year to advanced students who are in need of a solid and deeper background in the theoretical understandings of professional critical social theorists. We will examine critical theory, postmodern philosophies, feminist theory, multiculturalism, queer theory, masculinity studies, cultural studies, critical race social theories, and religion. We will compare critical theories, critical social theories, and their responses in the context of the current religious nationalism occurring in the United States. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the discussed approaches in respect to textual interpretation, social analysis, and the development of social movements? What are (or should be) the community church's response to questions raised in these conversations?

TCE 503IS Our Religious Impulse - Independent Study

Course Description

2 Credits
In this course we will explore the religious impulse. We will look into how religious ideologies fill the void for power, control, security, peace and give voice to joy and pain. We will create a working definition for faith and be introduced to the process of faith development. Students will become familiar with the primary world religions and how they connect to our Christian narrative. We will also analyze the six basic streams of Christian spirituality. We will wrestle with what it means to be Christian in the world and what is Good News in pluralistic society.

TCE 534O Practices of Change: Apprenticeship in the Arts

Course Description

3 credits

The MATC Apprenticeship is a faculty supervised community-based learning opportunity that forms the foundation of the capstone Integrative Project. Students will self-select a community development, ministry, or artistic organization that can help them fine tune their creative, entrepreneurial, and service skills. Based on the mission of the selected community service organizations, students will establish an applicable learning contract with an on-site supervisor.

*Draft course description pending faculty approval*

TCE 534O Practices of Change: Apprenticeship in the Arts

Course Description

3 credits

The MATC Apprenticeship is a faculty supervised community-based learning opportunity that forms the foundation of the capstone Integrative Project. Students will self-select a community development, ministry, or artistic organization that can help them fine tune their creative, entrepreneurial, and service skills. Based on the mission of the selected community service organizations, students will establish an applicable learning contract with an on-site supervisor.

*Draft course description pending faculty approval*

TCE 534O Practices of Change: Apprenticeship in the Arts

Course Description

3 credits

The MATC Apprenticeship is a faculty supervised community-based learning opportunity that forms the foundation of the capstone Integrative Project. Students will self-select a community development, ministry, or artistic organization that can help them fine tune their creative, entrepreneurial, and service skills. Based on the mission of the selected community service organizations, students will establish an applicable learning contract with an on-site supervisor.

*Draft course description pending faculty approval*

TCE 543O God, Gender, and Sexuality

Course Description

2 credits
This course explores the interaction between the theological concepts of God, Gender, and Sexuality. The goal of this class is to survey, compare and contrast, and evaluate various perspectives on God, gender, and sexuality from the depth and breadth of the Christian tradition, with special reference to critical social theory around gender and sexual identity. This class will examine the doctrine of God and Theological Anthropology, while engaging with how to critically examine doctrine through such lenses as feminist theology, queer theology, and liberation theology. This is a contextually oriented class that seeks to articulate and re-contextualize the various loci of theology such as prolegomena, the Triune God, sin, human persons, sexuality, and gender.

TCE 580B Individualized Research

Course Description

WWO Writing Workshop

Course Description

The Writing Workshop provides a foundational understanding of the writing process and of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology’s academic writing standards. This seminar-style class is an opportunity to become familiar with different types of writing required at The Seattle School, learn the appropriate use of academic sources, and receive feedback about your writing. In addition, you’ll review the basics of thesis statements, evidence, paper organization, revision, library research, citation style, and sentence style and grammar. Peer review and small- and large-group discussion will be used extensively in this workshop; thus, the Writing Workshop is appropriate both for the novice academic writer as well as the experienced one.

There are 2 sections of Writing Workshop:

Section 1 (this section) meets prior to the start of the Fall term from 9am-12pm PT on 8/22, 24, 29, & 31.

Section 2 meets weekly during the Fall term on Tuesdays from 12-1:30pm.

Winter 2024 Courses

BTI 571O Integrative Project Continuation

Course Description

1 credit
Prerequisite: Taken in last year of MDIV degree program
An individualized learning experience that creates space for students to draw from their entire Seattle School experience as they look to their post-graduation ministry and their unique embodiment of text, soul and culture. Blending research methodology with the personal supervision of their advisor (at The Seattle School), students complete the writing of their final integrative project for the MDIV during their final year. This course is taught consecutively over two trimesters, with two credits earned in the fall and one credit earned in the spring term. M. Div students also add another credit in Spring term.

CSL 509R Social & Cultural Diversities

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: IDS 501, IDS 521
In this course, students will be introduced to theories and models of multicultural counseling, cultural identity development, and social justice and advocacy. By gaining a deeper understanding of power, privilege, and oppression, students will examine their own experiences and develop strategies for identifying and eliminating barriers, prejudices, and processes of intentional and unintentional oppression and discrimination in mental health counseling. Through deeply engaging a central theme related to counseling in diverse contexts, the course provides a framework for thinking about the effects of power and privilege for counselors and clients in ways that can be applied to topics such as aging, culture disability, ethnicity, race, religion/spirituality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status/partnership, language preference, and socioeconomic status.

CSL 509S Social & Cultural Diversities

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: IDS 501, IDS 521
In this course, students will be introduced to theories and models of multicultural counseling, cultural identity development, and social justice and advocacy. By gaining a deeper understanding of power, privilege, and oppression, students will examine their own experiences and develop strategies for identifying and eliminating barriers, prejudices, and processes of intentional and unintentional oppression and discrimination in mental health counseling. Through deeply engaging a central theme related to counseling in diverse contexts, the course provides a framework for thinking about the effects of power and privilege for counselors and clients in ways that can be applied to topics such as aging, culture disability, ethnicity, race, religion/spirituality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status/partnership, language preference, and socioeconomic status.

CSL 510R Human Growth and Development

Course Description

3 credits
Recommended Prerequisite: CSL 502
This course provides an overview of major developmental theories that include cognitive, moral/spiritual, psychological, interpersonal, and social perspectives across the lifespan from conception to death. It is understood that development does not take place in isolation. Human development is deeply embedded within and is inseparable from the context of family, social networks/traditions, race/ethnicity, and culture. Particular emphasis is placed upon the integrative and interactive functions of the self-in-relation. Formation of the self is dynamic as it is being formed, informed, and transformed within the complexities of personal and systemic influences.

CSL 510S Human Growth and Development

Course Description

3 credits
Recommended Prerequisite: CSL 502
This course provides an overview of major developmental theories that include cognitive, moral/spiritual, psychological, interpersonal, and social perspectives across the lifespan from conception to death. It is understood that development does not take place in isolation. Human development is deeply embedded within and is inseparable from the context of family, social networks/traditions, race/ethnicity, and culture. Particular emphasis is placed upon the integrative and interactive functions of the self-in-relation. Formation of the self is dynamic as it is being formed, informed, and transformed within the complexities of personal and systemic influences.

CSL 511O Vocational & Occupational Direction

Course Description

3 credits
The course will examine theories of career selection and development. The course is also a consideration of the necessary tension between vocation and occupation and introduces several assessment tools as it explores lifestyle and career decision-making issues. Career counseling models and techniques will also be examined as the student considers their career choice as a vocational call.

CSL 518O Group Therapy: The Healing Context of Community

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 544; CSL 553
This course considers group psychotherapy from relationally based theoretical and theological perspectives and is informed by theological paradigms. The course covers group development and common group dynamics as well as techniques of intervention and leadership principles appropriate to various group stages.

CSL 518S Group Therapy: The Healing Context of Community

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 544; CSL 553
This course considers group psychotherapy from relationally based theoretical and theological perspectives and is informed by theological paradigms. The course covers group development and common group dynamics as well as techniques of intervention and leadership principles appropriate to various group stages.

CSL 531O Internship II

Course Description

Prerequisites: CSL 530

The purpose of the counseling Internship is to provide a professional setting for interns to gather experience and to receive supervision regarding their clinical work. This setting will provide the intern with supervised experiences in preparation for professional practice as a counselor. The Intern will have an opportunity to develop and practice these skills in a variety of clinical settings under the guidance of an on-site supervisor.

Concurrent with a student’s Internship experience, the Internship I & II courses provides a setting for students to observe, explore and learn from their clinical experiences, specifically, what arises within the clinical hour, including pre-session and post-session. This setting allows each student the opportunity to discuss and learn from their Internship experiences.

CSL 542O Helping Relationships I

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 502, CSL 544, CSL 553, IDS 520/521

This course is the first in a two-part series that builds on the competencies, deep listening skills, and self-reflection practices introduced in the common curriculum and Pre-Internship CSL 553. The course continues to cultivate students’ grasp of therapeutic processes, skills, and techniques crucial for effective psychotherapy treatments across the lifespan from a relational posture. The course helps students apply their clinical knowledge and theory as they begin to inhabit the role of therapist. Students will engage course content through a combination of supervised role-play experiences, reflections, and didactic teaching methods as they prepare for their internship experience.

CSL 542S Helping Relationships I

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 502, CSL 544, CSL 553, IDS 520/521

This course is the first in a two-part series that builds on the competencies, deep listening skills, and self-reflection practices introduced in the common curriculum and Pre-Internship CSL 553. The course continues to cultivate students’ grasp of therapeutic processes, skills, and techniques crucial for effective psychotherapy treatments across the lifespan from a relational posture. The course helps students apply their clinical knowledge and theory as they begin to inhabit the role of therapist. Students will engage course content through a combination of supervised role-play experiences, reflections, and didactic teaching methods as they prepare for their internship experience.

CSL 545O Psychopathology

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisite: CSL 544
This second course in Psychopathology builds upon the nosology and theoretical foundation in Psychopathology I. A multidisciplinary approach, specifically the bio-psycho-social model of disease are presented. This course covers the use of the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as related to assessment, evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment modalities of personality disorders. Developmental and intrapsychic perspectives are discussed with an emphasis on the treatment of the particular mental spaces and disorders of the self. The course addresses diagnostic categories of psychopathology of personality through mental status examinations and assessment instruments, as well as objective, achievement, neuropsychological, and projective instruments. An overview of the purposes and functions of testing, assessment, screening, problem-solving, counseling, rehabilitation and progress evaluation is covered.

CSL 545S Psychopathology

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisite: CSL 544
This second course in Psychopathology builds upon the nosology and theoretical foundation in Psychopathology I. A multidisciplinary approach, specifically the bio-psycho-social model of disease are presented. This course covers the use of the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as related to assessment, evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment modalities of personality disorders. Developmental and intrapsychic perspectives are discussed with an emphasis on the treatment of the particular mental spaces and disorders of the self. The course addresses diagnostic categories of psychopathology of personality through mental status examinations and assessment instruments, as well as objective, achievement, neuropsychological, and projective instruments. An overview of the purposes and functions of testing, assessment, screening, problem-solving, counseling, rehabilitation and progress evaluation is covered.

CSL 558 CTA Practicum C Part II: Narrative Focused Trauma Care Level II training

Course Description

2 credits
Prerequisite: CSL 557
Course is limited to students enrolled in the Concentration in Trauma & Abuse.
This course is the final training in advanced trauma-informed counseling. It builds upon the previous material and experiences gained in CTA Practicum A. It utilizes narrative engagement as the primary avenue to bring integration and healing to trauma and abuse memory/story. In this course students will hone their ability to use previously demonstrated methods to engage sexual harm/abuse. In this course students will progress in their ability to interact with issues of race, sexual and gender identity and other aspects of underrepresentation/marginalization/oppression. The course involves supervised practice counseling with fellow students, and personal understanding as it relates to the impacts of trauma and abuse.

The Winter term NFTC Level II weekends are: February 11-18; April 25-28.

CSL 561S Interpersonal Neurobiology

Course Description

2 Credits
Prerequisite: IDS 521 (previously CSL 552)
This course allows the student to further integrate theory and practice. The course will introduce and explore the expanding data from Neuroscience and Interpersonal Neurobiology and address how this information can be used to enhance the practice of psychotherapy and the movement toward wholeness and integration that can only take place within the context of relationship. The course will also provide experiential learning and practice opportunities in a pro-seminar format.

This class will meet as an intensive on the following dates: Jan 19-20; March 1-2.

CSL 563O The Battle of Shame

Course Description

2 Credits
This course utilizes a didactic and experiential format in which to further explore the topic of shame. Shame is often kept hidden and leads us to experience the core human fear of being left and abandoned. This class attempts to discern the origins of shame, examine how shame permeates human relationships and provide insight into how shame can be addressed within a therapeutic context.

CSL 571S Infant Observation II

Course Description

1 credit

This course introduces the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind. Infant observation focuses on the primary relationships, primitive anxieties, defenses, which later inform clinical work with children, adolescents, and adult patients in psychotherapy. This in vivo learning experience takes place through a weekly observation of the infant with their mothering figure, primary caregiver in their home environment.

CSL 574S Elements of British Object Relations II

Course Description

TBD

IDS 502O Intersections: Biblical Traditions & Theological Formations

Course Description

2 credits
Prerequisites: IDS 501
Corequisite: IDS 505
This course will explore interdisciplinary perspectives on complex problems that affect biblical interpretive traditions and theological formations. Real-world implications of the doctrine of God, the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit will be engaged from an interdisciplinary framework of theology, psychology, and biblical studies.

IDS 505O Contextual Learning Lab

Course Description

1 credit
Prerequisite: IDS 501, IDS 504
Corequisite: IDS 502
This course grounds interdisciplinary inquiry within the reality of students’ everyday lives. It equips students to listen as storied, located, and bodied creatures, providing skills for ways of loving God and neighbor within their place’s ecosystem unto the common good.

IDS 505S Contextual Learning Lab

Course Description

1 credit
Prerequisite: IDS 501, IDS 504
Corequisite: IDS 502
This course grounds interdisciplinary inquiry within the reality of students’ everyday lives. It equips students to listen as storied, located, and bodied creatures, providing skills for ways of loving God and neighbor within their place’s ecosystem unto the common good.

IDS 521R Listening Lab: Part II

Course Description

2 credits total ; taught over 2 terms
This lab provides opportunities for students to engage with interdisciplinary theory and praxis related to deep listening. By tending to the data of experience at three levels (intrapsychic, interpersonal, and group as a whole), students will cultivate a relational stance marked by observation, openness, and curiosity. The frame of Listening Lab is designed to foster a getting-to-know posture rather than a knowing posture, working within the frame of the lab to explore and express one’s own realities, internal and external, past and present, personal and collective.

IDS 521S Listening Lab: Part II

Course Description

2 credits total ; taught over 2 terms
This lab provides opportunities for students to engage with interdisciplinary theory and praxis related to deep listening. By tending to the data of experience at three levels (intrapsychic, interpersonal, and group as a whole), students will cultivate a relational stance marked by observation, openness, and curiosity. The frame of Listening Lab is designed to foster a getting-to-know posture rather than a knowing posture, working within the frame of the lab to explore and express one’s own realities, internal and external, past and present, personal and collective.

RES Residency

Course Description

This course will house materials related to the residency for the current term.

SFD 518O Pilgrimage as Way of Life

Course Description

Pilgrimage has historically been understood as sacred travel that integrates body, mind, soul and spirit. How might pilgrimage also provide a formative model for our everyday lives and the lives of those whom we serve? The practice of pilgrimage invites us as seekers to become agents of change on our journeys of transformation. In this course, students will learn about pilgrimage through study, reflection, local practice, and shared experience and develop an understanding of how the archetypes of pilgrimage - whether to distant lands or right outside the student's door - can be also applied in everyday life.

TCE 537O Christology in Historical Context

Course Description

3 credits

This course will explore the implications of particular Christologies on the global church, mission, and culture, with special reference to Church history. This course will cover the early development of trinitarian theology, the debates about the identity of Jesus Christ, and creeds. This course will also include explorations of more contemporary critiques about how Christology is formed and practiced in the church and world, engaging diverse theological perspectives. The goal of this class is to understand the historical formations and critiques of Christology, Soteriology, and Ecclesiology, so that the student might be able to design and construct life-giving theologies within the context of their vocational call and the communities in which they will serve.

*Draft course description pending faculty approval*

TCE 541S Spirit & Trauma

Course Description

2 credits
This course explores the intersection of theology trauma studies/traumatology. In this class, we will read and compare theologies of the cross and theologies of the Holy Spirit to investigate how different theological approaches impact one's view on trauma, suffering, healing, redemption, witness, resilience, community, etc. This class is primarily focused on theological questions, but will purposefully seek out ways to bring together and find various modes of integrating theology and psychology (i.e., traumatology) throughout the class. Though the disciplines of theology and psychology utilize different vocabularies and methodologies, both seek out the wholeness and well-being of the human person, particularly in the wake of suffering, abuse, and trauma. Theology in this frame, should lead persons toward liberation and shalom, especially when life and death are closely experienced and related.

TCE 551R Special Topics in Social Engagement & the Arts

Course Description

This course explores the intersection of Christian theologies and artistic practice by asking how theological thinking informs acts of creation and the life of the artist. Students will explore the capacities of art as revelatory, transformational, and liberative. The course guides students in the articulation of their theological understanding of aesthetics in the practice of their vocation with art, while attending to the multifaceted ways art functions in the world.

Open to MATC students only.

Draft course description pending faculty approval

TCE 553O Collaborative Community Development

Course Description

This course prepares students to engage in the practices of community development, and helps them to define theological and ethical foundations for the promotion of well-being in the communities they are called to love. Through practices of deep listening, participants will gain the skills and character qualities necessary to work in partnership with community members to foster organic, contextualized community change.

Open to MATC students only.

Draft course description pending faculty approval

TCE 555R Gathering & Becoming: The Gathering of Christian Communities

Course Description

This course considers missional leadership for church and worship by surveying the Church's past and continuing story through lenses of both struggle and strength. The interanimation of text, church, and culture in the ongoing process of God's people incarnating Christ is highlighted. Praxis-focused field experience (i.e. preaching, pastoral care, worship, chaplaincy, etc.), and classroom instruction are integrated with an intentional community setting. Students will develop a practical ecclesiology.

Open to MATC students only.

Draft course description pending faculty approval

TCE 575BO Special Topics: Narrative, Identity & Asian American Experiences

Course Description

2 credits

This interdisciplinary course, designed for both Asian Americans and non-Asian Americans, will explore and utilize the Asian American Quadrilateral—the intersection of 4 themes salient to understanding, identifying and organizing Asian American-ness (Asian heritage, migration experiences, American culture, and racialization). From this contextual framework, students will explore the ways in which these themes impact any person’s individual story, identity, theology and spirituality (Asian American or non-Asian American). This course will equip students to have a broader understanding of major historical, political, religious, and socio-cultural movements which have—and continue to—impact race, faith, and identity in America, with particular attention to Asian American experiences. This course will also help students employ new language and tools in embodying their own stories/nuanced identities (the particularities of who they are) in relating to God, as well as relating to individuals with different lived experiences so that greater depths of empathy, trust, and connection are made possible, especially in their future healing and helping professions.

Spring 2024 Courses

CSL 503O Professional Ethics & Law

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: CSL 544; CSL 553
Corequisite: CSL 543

This course provides an overview of professional ethics and Washington State law in the practice of counseling. Students will become familiar with professional ethical norms as well as common legal regulations. Additional topics include professionalism, licensure, moral responsibility in responding to the violation of human dignity, and issues of power and privilege. Students examine the impact of their cultural locatedness on the ethical decision-making processes in light of the difficult decisions facing the professional counselor.

CSL 503S Professional Ethics & Law

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: CSL 544; CSL 553
Corequisite: CSL 543

This course provides an overview of professional ethics and Washington State law in the practice of counseling. Students will become familiar with professional ethical norms as well as common legal regulations. Additional topics include professionalism, licensure, moral responsibility in responding to the violation of human dignity, and issues of power and privilege. Students examine the impact of their cultural locatedness on the ethical decision-making processes in light of the difficult decisions facing the professional counselor.

CSL 512O Substance Abuse: The Nature of Addiction

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: IDS 520, IDS 521
This course is designed to provide foundational concepts to understand addictive processes and provide appropriate therapy. The course explores existential, theological, and biological foundations and provides instruction in assessment and treatment of those who are drug or alcohol addicted. Individual, family, and community issues surrounding addictions and abuse are covered.

CSL 516O Research & Statistics

Course Description

3 credits
This course provides a conceptual framework for understanding common psychological research methodologies, including various types of both quantitative and qualitative methods. Students will be equipped to formulate research questions and interpret and apply psychological research to their counseling practice.

CSL 516S Research & Statistics

Course Description

This course provides a conceptual framework for understanding common psychological research methodologies, including various types of both quantitative and qualitative methods. Students will be equipped to formulate research questions and interpret and apply psychological research to their counseling practice.

CSL 517R Family Systems

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: CSL 502; IDS 501

This course utilizes a didactic and experiential format in which to explore therapeutic work with family and other systems. Theoretical foundations and developments of systems theory will be explored to introduce the student to the field of couples and family therapy. Clinical work with couples and families will be considered from an ecological/systemic perspective with specific emphasis on the following family factors and dynamics: life cycle, development, attachment, and systemic issues as relevant to contemporary family cultures.

CSL 517S Family Systems

Course Description

3 credits
Prerequisites: CSL 502; IDS 501

This course utilizes a didactic and experiential format in which to explore therapeutic work with family and other systems. Theoretical foundations and developments of systems theory will be explored to introduce the student to the field of couples and family therapy. Clinical work with couples and families will be considered from an ecological/systemic perspective with specific emphasis on the following family factors and dynamics: life cycle, development, attachment, and systemic issues as relevant to contemporary family cultures.

CSL 532A Internship III

Course Description

1 credit
Prerequisites: CSL 530, CSL 531
Students who have not completed their required hours of internship may register for internship until the hours are completed. Note that internship credits beyond the required Internship I and II do not count toward the total credits required within the degree.

CSL 543R Helping Relationships II

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 502, CSL 544, CSL 545, CSL 553, IDS 520/521, CSL 542

This course is the second in a two-part series that builds on the competencies, deep listening skills, and self-reflection practices introduced in the common curriculum and Pre-Internship CSL 553. The course continues to cultivate students’ grasp of therapeutic processes, skills, and techniques crucial for effective psychotherapy treatments across the lifespan from a relational posture. The course helps students apply their clinical knowledge and theory as they begin to inhabit the role of therapist. Students will engage course content through a combination of supervised role-play experiences, reflections, and didactic teaching methods as they prepare for their internship experience.

CSL 543S Helping Relationships II

Course Description

3 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 502, CSL 544, CSL 545, CSL 553, IDS 520/521, CSL 542

This course is the second in a two-part series that builds on the competencies, deep listening skills, and self-reflection practices introduced in the common curriculum and Pre-Internship CSL 553. The course continues to cultivate students’ grasp of therapeutic processes, skills, and techniques crucial for effective psychotherapy treatments across the lifespan from a relational posture. The course helps students apply their clinical knowledge and theory as they begin to inhabit the role of therapist. Students will engage course content through a combination of supervised role-play experiences, reflections, and didactic teaching methods as they prepare for their internship experience.

CSL 560O Psychopharmacology

Course Description

1 Credit
Prerequisite: CSL 544
This overview course in psychopharmacology includes the biological, psychological (intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts and anxieties), and the social model. This course covers the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacology of medications of abuse, pharmacology for special populations (child, adolescent, geriatric patients as well as suicidal, and violent patients), and a synthesis of psychopharmacology and psychological therapies in the care of the patient. From a biopsychosocial model, there is an emphasis on understanding of how the ethnic and cultural background of patients influence development, disease expression, the patient-therapist relationship, diagnosis and treatment variations across the globe. Each class of medication will be explored, specifically: the history, mechanism of action, pharmacology, indications with specific clinical syndromes, effects on symptoms, adverse effects, drug interactions, medication compliance and future directions of the particular classes of medications. Through a representative selection of clinical scenarios, cases will be used to illustrate how to apply the concepts in clinical practice settings.

CSL 564O Assessment & Treatment of Trauma & Abuse

Course Description

2 Credits
Prerequisites: CSL 544

The purpose of this class is to discuss topics related to the treatment of victims/survivors of interpersonal violence (e.g., childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, intimate partner/domestic violence). This class provides a foundation for understanding complex trauma, and trauma recovery, with a focus on trauma-informed treatment with various populations. Also included in this class, is the exploration of the professional’s response to trauma, vicarious traumatization, grief, and crisis intervention. Finally, students have the chance to review evidence-based practices in the trauma field.

CSL 572S Infant Observation III

Course Description

1 credit

This course introduces the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind. Infant observation focuses on the primary relationships, primitive anxieties, defenses, which later inform clinical work with children, adolescents, and adult patients in psychotherapy. This in vivo learning experience takes place through a weekly observation of the infant with their mothering figure, primary caregiver in their home environment.

IDS 503O Intersections: Textual Integrations

Course Description

1 credit
Prerequisites: IDS 501, IDS 502, IDS 504, IDS 505
This third Intersections course guides students in the synthesis of the first two Intersections courses. With faculty advising, students will develop a working draft of a theological and psychological anthropology (spanning issues such as economics, politics, culture, etc.) that will serve as an important contribution to the portfolio particular to the student’s program of study and as a basis for their vocation.

IDS 503S Intersections: Textual Integrations

Course Description

1 credit
Prerequisites: IDS 501, IDS 502, IDS 504, IDS 505
This third Intersections course guides students in the synthesis of the first two Intersections courses. With faculty advising, students will develop a working draft of a theological and psychological anthropology (spanning issues such as economics, politics, culture, etc.) that will serve as an important contribution to the portfolio particular to the student’s program of study and as a basis for their vocation.

RES Residency

Course Description

This course will house materials related to the residency for the current term.

SFD 520T Engaging Local Partnerships: Creating Conversations with Grassroots Leaders in their Context

Course Description

2 credits
This course is part of the Engaging Global Partnership series (Engaging Global Partnerships: Creating Conversations with Grassroots’ Leaders in their Context). It will focus on the spiritual formation and leadership development of Mending Wings, a Native American Youth Organization in Toppenish Washington. Students will participate in pre-trip readings focused on Native American, spirituality, theology, history and culture and a one weekend intensive hosted by Corey Greaves and the Mending Wings staff on the Yakama Reservation.

SFD 521T The Artist's Way

Course Description

2 credits
This course is about discovering and recovering your creative self. It is for anyone interested in practicing the art of creative living. It is about both being creative and putting that creativity into practice. We will explore what it means to BE an artist and a Christian and how the arts can inspire and transform humanity's relationship to God, community and scripture. We will also discover how creativity can enliven our understanding and communication of Counseling, Theology and Scripture.

TCE 533O Theories of Change: Community Leadership

Course Description

3 credits

This course will explore how business for the common good and innovation are used in creative ways of service to communities in a variety of contexts. Students will examine how innovative practices, philanthropy, and entrepreneurial leadership can be used to heal the heart of a community. A field research component will allow the student to begin to identify and construct the competencies and dimensions of their MATC apprenticeship.

TCE 538O Mission & Faithful Presence

Course Description

3 credits

This course surveys the ongoing evolution of the theology and practice of mission. The course explores the history of theologies, frameworks, social constructs, and critiques of Christian mission, better enabling students to engage in mission without colonizing or harming. This course equips learners to personally participate, and guide others into joining the Triune God in God’s liberative mission within the particularity of their context. Students are invited to explore the implications of Emmanuel (God is with us), as the heart of missional presence and practice.

*Draft course description pending faculty approval*

TCE 545O Beauty, Brokenness, & the Cross

Course Description

2 credits
This class will explore the concept of beauty. This exploration will be shaped by a theology of the cross (which encompasses the whole of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus) that not only leads us to a Christian understanding of beauty but to an understanding that beauty, to be true beauty, must have the power to identify, confront, and redeem that which is most ugly – even death itself. It is in this redemptive motion that we are brought to worship, which emerges from our acknowledgment of God’s redemptive power within our lives.

TCE 552O Studio & Seminar: The Arts

Course Description

TBD

TCE 554O Contextual Conversations for Community Transformation

Course Description

TBD

TCE 556R Listening & Leading: The Spiritual Care of Christian Communities

Course Description

How does a leader, through their presence, convene groups serving the common good as a faithful expression of personal and collective love of God? Listening & Leading equips spiritual leaders with tools for attending deeply to the invitation of God’s Shalom, to the particularity of their groups, to the complexity of their places, to their personal journeys, and to the systems of oppression warring against liberation and flourishing for all and everything. This course prepares leaders with the practical knowledge, skills, and tools necessary for convening followers of The Way to serve the common good as a faithful expression of their love of God, love of neighbor, love of creation, and love of self.

Open to MATC students only.

Draft course description pending faculty approval