Classes

I thought I'd share to those outside of the school the new classes of the semester.

Practicum II - where we counsel one another and have the rest of our group watch. The best word to describe the experience was spoken by a classmate during our orientation: nauseating. It is intense enough to counsel someone, let alone having an entire group analyze you as you do it. We also meet outside of class to counsel each other on our own, and meet with a staff person to be counseled. That's a lot of counseling...(i think about 6 hours a week)

Marriage and Family Therapy - We get Dan Allender again, and the first set of intensives last week were good, though didn't quite have the punch that Faith, hope and love did for me. Still very good though. The first paper this week is on gender, God's design on this, specifically applying it to marriage. Definitely a difficult topic today, as we saw last semester with the people against fundamentalism attempting to protest against some of Mark Driscoll's comments on women.

Impact of Abuse - I'm pretty interested in this class, where for the first time I will really start to get a picture and engage in the harsh realities of domestic violence in the world, its affects and how to care for so many who have experienced the devastating consequences. Sexual violence, oppression, racism; all topics that cry out for one of the key themes of the Gospel, which is justice.

History of Therapeutic Perspectives - I don't know much about this yet, it just looks like it covers the major counseling theories and the men and women who formed them. Lots of psychology.

Celtic Spirituality - a one credit 'spiritual formation' elective that I needed to take that meets just one weekend. Interesting but probably least excited about this one.