D.Min. Concentration in Pastoral Care and Counseling

Pastoral Care and Counseling

This concentration is offered in partnership with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Pastoral Care Department (RWJUH). Students in the D.Min. concentration in Pastoral Care & Counseling / Pastoral Theology will benefit from advanced theological study and professional work specifically designed for those who desire to serve as chaplains, pastoral care specialists, pastoral counselors or congregational pastors. The program emphasizes the helping relationship, theological understandings of pastoral care, the multicultural contexts of pastoral care, psychotherapeutic theories and strategies for change, and various forms of pastoral care and counseling. A race, class, and gender analysis will be appropriated to the practice of care and counseling.

Candidates who complete the program will not only broaden their knowledge-base with information on issues of religion and health, public health, public policy, and its pact on communities, but they will be able to demonstrate mastery of and proficiency in individual, family, and group short-term counseling; the mobilization of laity and volunteers in team ministry; and social witness.

Graduates of the pastoral care and counseling concentration will:

• Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to use theoretical models of counseling in the ministerial practice of pastoral care and counseling.
• Formulate a well-developed, collaborative ministry project bearing evidence of being informed by methodologies of analytic and ministerial research pertinent to their context of ministry.
• Demonstrate cultural competence and personal ethics exhibiting growth in their ministerial capacity and spiritual maturity.
• Utilize their ministry context as a unique learning environment to develop and cultivate their pastoral care and counseling skills.

Pastoral Care and Counseling – Curricular Framework

The curriculum consists in two years of regular course work that culminates in the preparation of a final project and thesis in the candidate’s third and final year.

Program Courses (6 credits)

• Power and Privilege: The Theology and Science of Change (3 credits)
• Research Methods Seminar (3 credits)

Core Courses (12 credits)

• Core 1: Foundations in Pastoral Care and Counseling (3 credits)
• Core 2: Theories of Counseling (3 credits)
• Core 3: Pastoral Care Integrative Seminar (3 credits)
• Core 4: Assessment and Diagnosis in Clinical Theology (3 credits)

Elective Courses (6 credits)

• Elective 1 (3 credits)
• Elective 2 (3 credits)

Ministry Project/Doctoral Thesis (6 credits)

• Project Proposal Workshop (0 credits)
• Doctoral Project Seminar (3 credits)
• Doctoral Thesis Seminar (3 credits)

Questions regarding any of our programs may be directed to our admissions team.