The Transpersonal Counseling Psychology Department supports Naropa University’s mission by training students 1) to become master’s level graduates of Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and licensed professional counselors, art therapists, wilderness therapists, and music therapists or 2) to become master’s level graduates of Transpersonal Psychology. The second of these options is a nonclinical option and is provided through low-residency programs in Ecopsychology or Transpersonal Psychology. Each of these nonclinical programs has a comprehensive set of goals, objectives and assessments related to those studies that is published elsewhere.
In the Counseling orientation, students are educated and trained to become licensed in the state of Colorado to practice psychotherapy within the transpersonal framework and also to become specialists in wilderness therapies or certified as art therapists.
Transpersonal psychology recognizes and integrates the insights, attitudes and practices of world wisdom traditions with modern psychological approaches. This integration provides the context for training students within the program, and it offers a context and a variety of techniques for the practice of professional counseling following the program. The program seeks to provide training that is grounded in rigorous academic work, a blend of critical thinking and contemplation, and skillful application of effective clinical skills, and it seeks to integrate this training with the practice of moment-to-moment awareness and present-centeredness.
The purpose of this document is to outline in detail the goals, objectives and competencies that students must master during their studies in the counseling programs in order to become a graduate of our programs.
Goals, Objectives and Assessment for Counseling Students:
The department has three primary goals for all students in the counseling training programs:
Goal 1: Students will demonstrate understanding of both traditional and transpersonal theories of counseling psychology.
Goal 2: Students will demonstrate an integration of training and practice in moment to moment awareness with counseling skills and knowledge.
Goal 3: Students will demonstrate the ability to work effectively as beginning counselors.
Within each of these broad goals are many related objectives and methods for assessing them. In addition, the Wilderness Therapy and Art Therapy concentrations have individual sets of goals specifically related to the practice of those specialties.
