CSL 607 Catholic Foundations for a Vocation in Professional Counseling
This course introduces students to a Catholic-Christian understanding of the person as a foundation for mental health counseling that is committed to a holistic, developmental, relational, and valuing perspective on the person. Students will explore theological/scriptural texts; philosophical ideas, including virtues; and psychological concepts that shape a Christian view of the person and influence approaches to treating human problems. The course explores how these wisdom traditions serve as a foundation for understanding the professional counselor vocation and identity and inform dispositions appropriate to the counselor role. The course is designed to help students describe how psychological theories and mental health principles reflect a partial reality that is both useful and necessary to clinical practice but also limited in light of a Christian anthropology. Finally, the course will provide students with an opportunity to apply a Catholic-Christian understanding of the person to the clinical counseling context and tasks.