PSY 3304 - Introduction to Biblical Counseling

Arlington Baptist College

Syllabus PSY 3304 - Introduction to Biblical Counseling Professor: Cathy Wiseman Course: Introduction to Biblical Counseling Class 3 Credit Hours Information: Classroom: Online Contact [email protected] Information:

Mission Statement

Arlington Baptist College endeavors to prepare men and women for Christian life and ministries, both lay and professional, through studies in the Bible, general education, church vocations, and practical service, integrating faith and learning in the context of a Christian worldview.

Course Description

Students will be presented with a thorough understanding of the distinctiveness of Biblical counseling. Topics discussed will include the history of Biblical counseling, the role of the counselor, the place of counseling in the ministry of the church, and how Biblical counseling, theory, and practice relate to and differ from some of the more common secular models and theories. Part of the course will involve a personal improvement project in which the student will become aware of his/her own counseling qualifications, design a plan for improving some area of his/her life, put that plan into action and then evaluate his/her progress at the end of the course.

Course Goals

 To reinforce the confidence of God’s people in the sufficiency, superiority, and practicality of Scripture for dealing with all of the issues of life as biblical counselors understand people and their problems through the lens of Scripture.  To give Christians specific biblical principles for discerning the difference between counseling that purports to be biblical and counseling that actually is biblical; biblical counseling requires that its methods be consistent with its theological convictions.  To present a brief historical perspective on the ministry of counseling, noting secular psychology’s influence in the church in the twentieth century, to respond to some of that influence, and to encourage the church to accept once again its God-given responsibility for counseling the Body of Christ.  To understand the necessity of the Holy Spirit in biblical counseling.

Instructional Goals

Upon completion of this course, the student will:

1. Have an understanding of some of the key differences in secular psychological theory and theology. 2. Identify why biblical counseling’s theology, goals, and counseling methods must be aligned. 3. Understand that the fruit of biblical counseling is true heart change rather than cognitive, behavioral, or emotional change only which does not affect the heart of the counselee; that the counselor’s heart must also be open to change. 4. Be convinced of the superiority of biblical counseling.

Instructional Objectives

 The student will be involved in a personal growth project for the purpose of learning a) that biblical heart change leads to Christ-likeness, b) learning how to have his or her own heart changed, and c) learning to teach, and be an example of, the same Christ-likeness to his or her counselees.  The student will be exposed to and learn to critically evaluate other theories of counseling.  The student will participate in reading assignments and online discussions that will enable him/her to see the necessity of heart change, noting that behavioral, cognitive, or emotional change only falls short of pleasing God.

Course Text

Required:

Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically, John MacArthur and Wayne Mack, Eds.

Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp

Assignments and Grading

All work must be neat, grammatically correct, and spell-checked. Document any references in APA format. All assignments are due on the last day the lesson is online. Late work will not be accepted.

 Lesson Assignments  Reading Assignments To receive credit for the reading assignment, you must send an email to the instructor by the end of the course stating you have done all the assigned reading.  Mid-Term (tests include personal growth project)  Final  Extra credit with book reports is possible; contact instructor

Evaluation Criteria

Criteria Points Possible Total Quizzes 8 @ 100 800 Homework Assignments 8 @ 100 800 Reading Assignments 8 @ 100 800 Midterm (1/2 Semester Proj*)100 100 Final (1/2 Semester Project*) 200 200 TOTAL Average of all grades

* Directions for Semester Project given in Lesson One under “Graded Assignment”

A 93 - 100 B 80 - 89 C 70 - 79 D 60 - 69

Course Calendar

*All work is due by Midnight (EST) on the Closing Date for that lesson. Late work will NOT be graded.

Date due Lesson 1 Introduction to BC; Read Ch.1, 2 in Counseling text; The Historical Ch. 1,2,3 in Instruments text; 10/31/11 Background to BC; Att’d Puritan article; “Life Worth Living” See Assignment #1 under icon 11/7/11 Lesson 2 Historical Bkgrnd., Read Ch. 3, 4 in Counseling text; con’td. & Theological Ch. 4, 5, in Instruments; Foundations of BC Att’d art. by Coe (Heart theology) See Assignment #2 11/14/11 Lesson 3 Theological Read Ch. 5, 6,7 in Counseling text; Foundations of BC, Ch. 6 Instruments; cont’d. See Assignment #3 11/21/11 Lesson 4 The Practice of BC Read Ch.8, 9 in Counseling text; Ch. 7, 8 Instruments; See Assignment #4

11/28/11 Lesson 5 The Practice of BC, Read Ch. 10, 11 in Counseling plus cont’d. Appendices 1,2,3; Ch. 9, 10 in Instruments; Att’d article-Bettler; See Assignment #5 Mid-Term 12/5/11 Lesson 6 The Practice of BC, Read Ch. 12, 13, 14 cont’d. Counseling; Ch. 11, 12 in Instruments. See Assignment #6 12/12/11 Lesson 7 The Ministry of BC Read Ch. 15, 16, & 17 in Counseling; Ch. 13, 14 in Instruments; Read Attached articles: Lane&Tripp chapter 9 Marks web article; See Assignment #7

12/16/11 Lesson 8 The Ministry of BC Read Ch. 18, 19 in Counseling; Ch. 13, 14 in Instruments; 2 attached articles; see assignment #8 Final Exam

Discussion Board: Note Instructions Carefully Part of the evaluation criteria includes discussion board participation. You will post your original response and a reply to a teammate's response. You MUST respond to a classmate's post when that is assigned in order to receive full credit for the discussion board assignment.

Original Post Your original post will be evaluated on the following:

1. complete response 2. application of your own knowledge or professional/personal experience 3. support for your opinion Response to classmate(s) Your response should be thoughtful and serve to support, respectfully refute, extend, or probe your teammate’s post. Please go beyond the “me too” or “I agree” responses, as these do not reflect critical thinking.

Recommended Reading List or List for Book Report for Extra Credit

Bibliography

Course Webliography