Counseling Psychology Department
Community Clinical Counseling
The Community Clinical Counseling program offers students a framework for understanding human experience and designing strategies for positive change in individuals, families, churches and communities.
Program Distinctives
→ Integration of psychology and Christianity - we train your mind and spirit through the integration of contemporary psychological theory with a Christian world view. Faith and practice come together.
→ Practitioner focus - our training model emphasizes what to do in clinical practice with a competency-based progression of skills. Our professors are practitioners who have hands-on experience in the field.
→ Diversity - our instructors come from many backgrounds and model the application of sound multicultural counseling principles to our diverse student body.
→ State approved - all our programs are PA State approved for those who seek training beyond the MA.
→ License ready - upon completion of the MA in Counseling degree all categories of academic study required by the PA Licensing Board are met.
→ Flexibility in choosing your internship location and focus.
Training Approach:The faculty of the Department of Counseling Psychology has been collaborating for a number of years to create a means of communicating the complex world of clinical work to beginning therapists. We have drawn together theories and skills from across the rich traditions of psychological practice and synthesized them into a training approach that is consistent with Christian understandings of personhood and transformation. It is an insight-oriented approach which is aimed at promoting characterological change while simultaneously attending to the current distress of the person.
Students are taught to take seriously presenting problems and the various symptoms suffering people describe while forming treatment strategies that include an exploration of how symptoms and problems may be connected to unconscious wishes, fears, and repetitive relational patterns.
We believe this approach is particularly appropriate for novice therapists, since it emphasizes following the client's lead in the session and carefully attuning responses to the unique needs of each person. We believe this approach reflects Biblical wisdom and grace as well as the professional psychological research on how people change.
- Community Clinical Program of Study
- Required course descriptions available here
- Community/Clinical Skills Training Sequence
For further information contact
Cristina Latella Admissions Advisor 484-654-2369 clatella@eastern.edu
