Division of Counseling Studies (CSL)

3 Credits

This course offers students a survey of the historical counseling theories and practices. Each theoretical model is evaluated through the lens of psychodynamic methodology and its efficacy in working with diverse populations and settings. Students will increase their awareness of the lineage that precedes the “birth” of Western psychology, and examine emerging spiritual, relational, and community practices that offer an alternative to Western psychology.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: CSL 544; CSL 553

Corequisite: CSL 543

This course provides an overview of professional ethics and Washington State law in the practice of counseling. Students will become familiar with professional ethical norms as well as common legal regulations. Additional topics include professionalism, licensure, moral responsibility in responding to the violation of human dignity, and issues of power and privilege. Students examine the impact of their cultural locatedness on the ethical decision-making processes in light of the difficult decisions facing the professional counselor.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: IDS 501; IDS 521

In this course, students will be introduced to theories and models of multicultural counseling, cultural identity development, and social justice and advocacy. By gaining a deeper understanding of power, privilege, and oppression, students will examine their own experiences and develop strategies for identifying and eliminating barriers, prejudices, and processes of intentional and unintentional oppression and discrimination in mental health counseling. Through deeply engaging a central theme related to counseling in diverse contexts, the course provides a framework for thinking about the effects of power and privilege for counselors and clients in ways that can be applied to topics such as aging, culture disability, ethnicity, race, religion/spirituality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status/partnership, language preference, and socioeconomic status.

3 Credits

Prerequisite: CSL 502 (recommended)

This course provides an overview of major developmental theories that include cognitive, moral/spiritual, psychological, interpersonal, and social perspectives across the lifespan from conception to death. It is understood that development does not take place in isolation. Human development is deeply embedded within and is inseparable from the context of family, social networks/traditions, race/ethnicity, and culture. Particular emphasis is placed upon the integrative and interactive functions of the self-in-relation. Formation of the self is dynamic as it is being formed, informed, and transformed within the complexities of personal and systemic influences.

3 Credits

The course will examine theories of career selection and development. The course is also a consideration of the necessary tension between vocation and occupation and introduces several assessment tools as it explores lifestyle and career decision-making issues. Career counseling models and techniques will also be examined as the student considers their career choice as a vocational call.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: IDS 520, IDS 521

This course is designed to provide an introduction to foundational theories of addictive processes, principles of prevention, diagnosis and assessment, and evidenced-based treatments. Attention will be given to the full continuum of care (including: prevention, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery), as well as how sociocultural context impacts the development and implementation of treatment for substance use disorders in diverse populations and communities.

3 Credits

This course provides a conceptual framework for understanding common psychological research methodologies, including various types of both quantitative and qualitative methods. Students will be equipped to formulate research questions as well as interpret and apply psychological research to their counseling practice.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: CSL 510 (recommended)

This course utilizes a didactic and experiential format in which to explore therapeutic work with family and other systems. Theoretical foundations and developments of systems theory will be explored to introduce the student to the field of couples and family therapy. Clinical work with couples and families will be considered from an ecological/systemic perspective with specific emphasis on the following family factors and dynamics: life cycle, development, attachment, and systemic issues as relevant to contemporary family cultures.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: CSL 544, CSL 553

The Group Counseling course is designed to provide students preparing to enter a helping profession with an understanding of the theory and practice of group counseling. In the course students will explore different theoretical approaches to counseling groups; basic principles of group dynamics, which include leadership tasks, group developmental stages, and member roles; and basic group counseling skills including establishing, leading, and evaluating various types of counseling groups. Consideration will be given to ethical, legal, and professional issues, and each student will have the experience of being a member in a peer-led practice group. 

2 Credits

Prerequisite: CSL 510 

This course is designed to engage students in exploring therapeutic work with children and adolescents. Through reading, research, class-time, and role play, this course will provide a foundation to facilitate growth and development in clinical work with children and adolescents. 

1 Credit

Students who wish to start seeing clients at their internship site prior to the start of Fall term may register for Early Start Internship. Note that internship credits beyond the required Internship I and II do not count toward the total credits required within the degree.

2 Credits

Prerequisites: CSL 502, CSL 503, CSL 510, CSL 517, IDS 521, CSL 553, CSL 543, CSL 545 (Recommended: CSL 509)

The purpose of the counseling Internship is to provide a professional setting for interns to gather experience and to receive supervision regarding their clinical work. This setting will provide the intern with supervised experiences in preparation for professional practice as a counselor. The Intern will have an opportunity to develop and practice these skills in a variety of clinical settings under the guidance of an on-site supervisor. 

Concurrent with a student’s Internship experience, the Internship I & II courses provides a setting for students to observe, explore and learn from their clinical experiences, specifically, what arises within the clinical hour, including pre-session and post-session. This setting allows each student the opportunity to discuss and learn from their Internship experiences. 

2 credits

Prerequisites: CSL 530, CSL 531

Students who wish to continue seeing clients at their internship site during Spring term (and are still enrolled as active students) OR have not completed their required hours of internship may register for Internship III. Note that internship credits beyond the required Internship I and II do not count toward the total credits required within the degree.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: CSL 502, CSL 544, CSL 553, IDS 520/521

This course is the first in a two-part series that builds on the competencies, deep listening skills, and self-reflection practices introduced in the common curriculum and Pre-Internship CSL 553. The course continues to cultivate students’ grasp of therapeutic processes, skills, and techniques crucial for effective psychotherapy treatments across the lifespan from a relational posture. The course helps students apply their clinical knowledge and theory as they begin to  inhabit the role of therapist. Students will engage course content through a combination of supervised role-play experiences, reflections, and didactic teaching methods as they prepare for their internship experience.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: CSL 502, CSL 544, CSL 545, CSL 553, IDS 520/521, CSL 542

This course is the second in a two-part series that builds on the competencies, deep listening skills, and self-reflection practices introduced in the common curriculum and Pre-Internship CSL 553. The course continues to cultivate students’ grasp of therapeutic processes, skills, and techniques crucial for effective psychotherapy treatments across the lifespan from a relational posture. The course helps students apply their clinical knowledge and theory as they begin to  inhabit the role of therapist. Students will engage course content through a combination of supervised role-play experiences, reflections, and didactic teaching methods as they prepare for their internship experience.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: CSL 510, IDS 520, IDS 521

This course provides a survey for theoretical foundation in understanding clinical psychopathology. The class addresses developmental and biological categories of mental disorders as well as theological underpinnings of development. Students will explore theoretical material regarding clinical disorders and disorders of the self. The class addresses diagnostic categories of psychopathology, assessment, treatment, understanding, and the use of the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-V.

3 Credits

Prerequisite: CSL 544

This course is part of a two-course sequence that covers Assessment, Appraisal, and Diagnosis and Psychopathology. The CSL 544 course focuses on an introductory overview of the process of assessment, appraisal, diagnosis, and treatment, while the CSL 545 course focuses on the application of assessment and diagnosis of personality disorders/disorders of self and co-occurring disorders with an emphasis on psychological development. The goal of the CSL 545 course is for the student to gain an understanding of the nomenclature and application of diagnosis of character disorders/personality disorders, assessment, evaluation, and treatment modalities. Both courses include the following, with different respective emphases. 

PART A: Assessment, Appraisal: This part continues to focus on the principles of assessment, appraisal, and diagnosis, specifically psychopathology, in a multicultural society as related to diagnosis of clinical syndromes and personality disorders. The course utilizes the most current DSM and various assessment instruments. 

Part B: Diagnosis: This part focuses on the clinical syndromes and personality disorders as defined by the current DSM: an introduction to the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, appropriate psychopharmacological interventions, biological bases of behavior, and spiritual dimensions of these disorders. Here students explore the impacts of culture and emerging technologies on the treatment of individuals and groups.

3 Credits

Prerequisites: IDS 520, IDS 521

Corequisite: CSL 544 

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to clinical training and prepare them for their upcoming internship experience. This lab course combines field experience and observation with competency-based instruction and small group learning. Students will complete a total of 25 hours of observation of mental health services. Students will deepen and apply the stance and skills developed in IDS 520 and IDS 521 in order to gain familiarity with mental health systems and the counseling profession. 

1 Credit

Prerequisite: CSL 544

This overview course in psychopharmacology includes the biological, psychological (intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts and anxieties), and the social model. This course covers the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacology of medications of abuse, pharmacology for special populations (child, adolescent, geriatric patients as well as suicidal, and violent patients), and a synthesis of psychopharmacology and psychological therapies in the care of the patient. From a biopsychosocial model, there is an emphasis on understanding of how the ethnic and cultural background of patients influence development, disease expression, the patient-therapist relationship, diagnosis and treatment variations across the globe. Each class of medication will be explored, specifically: the history, mechanism of action, pharmacology, indications with specific clinical syndromes, effects on symptoms, adverse effects, drug interactions, medication compliance and future directions of the particular classes of medications. Through a representative selection of clinical scenarios, cases will be used to illustrate how to apply the concepts in clinical practice settings.

2 Credits

Prerequisite: IDS 520, IDS 521

This course allows the student to further integrate theory and practice. The course will introduce and explore the expanding data from Neuroscience and Interpersonal Neurobiology and address how this information can be used to enhance the practice of psychotherapy and the movement toward wholeness and integration that can only take place within the context of relationship. The course will also provide experiential learning and practice opportunities in a pro-seminar format.

2 Credits

This course utilizes a didactic and experiential format in which to further explore the topic of shame. Shame is often kept hidden and leads us to experience the core human fear of being left and abandoned. This class attempts to discern the origins of shame, examine how shame permeates human relationships and provide insight into how shame can be addressed within a therapeutic context.

2 or 3 Credits

Prerequisites: CSL 544

The purpose of this class is to discuss topics related to the treatment of victims/survivors of interpersonal violence (e.g., childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, intimate partner/domestic violence). This class provides a foundation for understanding complex trauma, and trauma recovery, with a focus on trauma-informed treatment with various populations. Also included in this class, is the exploration of the professional’s response to trauma, vicarious traumatization, grief, and crisis intervention. Finally, students have the chance to review evidence-based practices in the trauma field.

2 Credits

Human Sexuality is designed to ask questions about the nature of biological sexuality, sexual preference, sexual identity, and desire. The course will seek to explore multiple perspectives to attempt to understand such questions from scientific research, developmental theory, cultural influences, and relational experience. Contemporary scholarship from psychoanalytic literature will be assigned to formulate the bases for class discussion. Students will consider several ways of understanding and working with sexuality in their personal lives and in clinical settings, equipping them to think critically and work effectively in various cultures and systems.

1 Credit

Course is limited to students enrolled in the Concentration in British Object Relations.

This course introduces the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind. Infant observation focuses on the primary relationships, primitive anxieties, defenses, which later inform clinical work with children, adolescents, and adult patients in psychotherapy. This in vivo learning experience takes place through a weekly observation of the infant with their mothering figure, primary caregiver in their home environment.

2 Credits

Course is limited to students enrolled in the Concentration in British Object Relations.

This course introduces the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind. Infant observation focuses on the primary relationships, primitive anxieties, defenses, which later inform clinical work with children, adolescents, and adult patients in psychotherapy. This in vivo learning experience takes place through a weekly observation of the infant with their mothering figure, primary caregiver in their home environment.

1 Credit

Course is limited to students enrolled in the Concentration in British Object Relations.

This course introduces the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind. Infant observation focuses on the primary relationships, primitive anxieties, defenses, which later inform clinical work with children, adolescents, and adult patients in psychotherapy. This in vivo learning experience takes place through a weekly observation of the infant with their mothering figure, primary caregiver in their home environment.

1 credit

Course is limited to students enrolled in the Concentration in British Object Relations.

This course introduces British Object Relations theory and fundamental concepts of British Object Relations. This course builds from the experiences in Infant Observation; i.e. the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind.

1 Credit

Course is limited to students enrolled in the Concentration in British Object Relations.

This course continues the examination of British Object Relations theory from BOR I with particular focus on the application of fundamental concepts to clinical practice.  This course builds as well from the experiences in Infant Observation; i.e. the experience of early formation, development in the infant, and the infant in relationship to their mothering figure, other primary caretakers, as well as ultimately to the birthing of the infant’s mind.

1 or 2 Credits

A full course description is available on individual course syllabi and is particular to each course.