What is Unique to the
Counseling Psychology
Concentration?

Here and Now Focus

This concentration is designed for individuals who want an overall orientation to the field of counseling from a transpersonal and humanistic orientation. The program emphasizes experiential learning with a strong focus on presence in the here and now. This focal point of study is grounded in the counseling relationship, meditation practice, and Gestalt principles. Theory is integrated in classes that emphasize direct learning through personal growth and the guided development of interpersonal skills. A nonviolent approach to communication is part of our fundamental approach.

Developing Personal and Professional Identity

Students are encouraged to develop a therapeutic approach which matches each individual’s interests, abilities and talents. Learning to “know thyself” is a tenet of the field of transpersonal psychology. Students are encouraged to listen within to discover the unique gift each has to offer others. Feedback from faculty and peers in the program enhances the growth and personal discovery that students experience in the program.

Understanding the Roots of Suffering

A strong understanding of the root causes of human suffering is explored through multiple lenses that include meditation, human development, family systems, body awareness and the interactive field of healing relationships. Students learn to sit with whatever arises as they are exposed to a broad spectrum of problems, emotions and situations that may be encountered in actual counseling settings. Learning to trust the process of compassionate healing develops from receiving and giving compassionate presence in practice throughout the program.

Diverse and Intimate Learning Environment

A selective admissions process admits up to forty-eight students into the Counseling Psychology concentration every year. Students weave in and out of classes with each other and also with individuals from the Art Therapy and Wilderness Therapy concentrations. The mix provides contact with a diverse array of students and a healthy environment for developing friendship and collegiality. Each semester of study involves concentrated learning experiences with small groups. These classes, of no more than ten to twelve students, provide yearlong experiences of working intimately with peers.

Mindfulness in Psychotherapy

Students in this concentration take Psychology of Meditation II: Applications to Counseling as one of the required courses. This course integrates the contemplative qualities developed through meditation with the practice of counseling. Focus is on the development of the therapist and the compassionate field created with the client. An understanding of the essential principles of meditation and how meditation supports the counseling relationship is explored in depth.

Gestalt Awareness Practice

An understanding of Gestalt therapy is developed and practiced in two consecutive courses during the second year of the clinical sequence. Gestalt emphasizes the principles of awareness, contact and responsibility. It is rooted in the disciplines of existential and eastern philosophy and psychodynamic, perceptual and body psychologies. Balancing the inward focus of meditation, Gestalt offers an interpersonal awareness practice that emphasizes personal presence within the I-Thou relationship. Gestalt works directly with the emotions of fear, grief, anger and joy and is applicable in diverse settings and with other methodologies.

Elective Offerings and Specialized Studies

The program offers a broad range of electives to meet a variety of interests in counseling and transpersonal studies. Emphases in several areas allow the student to go in depth with one area of study or choose from a diverse array to complement required studies. The faculty members who teach these courses are practitioners and specialists in these domains. Course work is designed to enhance personal and professional awareness and knowledge. Please note that offerings of electives may change due to changes in student interest and varying enrollment trends.

Transpersonal Approaches

These courses reflect various approaches to transpersonal psychotherapy and the evolution of the field.

• The Diamond Approach
• Holotropic Breathwork
• Hakomi Therapy
• Integral Psychology
• Psychology of Wilderness (including rites of passage)
• Ecopsychology: Transpersonal Perspectives
• Level 1 Training in GIM: Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music
  (Students may also take courses in the Religious Studies department.)

Contemplative Approaches

These courses are designed for self-study and increasing mindfulness and awareness of the practitioner.

• Touching the Moment: Mindfulness Retreat
• Taming the Wild Horse (retreat on working with emotions)
• Maitri Space Awareness and Art
• Process Painting and Meditation
• Research and Consciousness Studies
  (Students may also take courses in the Religious Studies department.)

Marriage and Family Therapy

Many of the courses in Marriage and Family are designed to assist students who need to meet requirements in states that offer Marriage and Family licensure for master’s level practitioners. These courses include theoretical and experiential learning components.

• Grief Counseling
• Transforming Addictions
• Human Sexuality
• Incest and Sexual Abuse
• Couples Counseling: Imago Therapy
• Marriage and Couples Therapy
• Advanced Child and Adolescent Therapy

Gestalt Therapy

These courses are designed for students who want advanced experiential training beyond the required two semester course work in Gestalt Awareness.

• Gestalt Group Training
• Gestalt Dreamwork
• Gestalt Community Intensive (yearly themes include family, transpersonal, body awareness, creative process)

Jungian Studies

The work of Carl Jung is a major field of study in the field of Transpersonal Psychology. These courses offer an introduction to the application of Jungian psychology to the field of counseling.

• Introduction to Jungian Psychology
• Jungian Dreamwork
• Storytelling and Mythology
• Gold in the Shadow

Body Awareness

All students in the Counseling Psychology concentration are required to take a body awareness class of their choosing. Listed below are courses offered by the Transpersonal faculty.

• Authentic Movement
• Sound and Healing
• Yoga and the Chakras: The Transpersonal Embodied
• Qi Training: The Qigong method of Bai Mei Kung Fu
• Journey to the Source (contemplative orientation to canoeing and camping)

(Students may choose general university courses including T’ai Chi Ch’uan, Aikido or Yoga.)