M.S. in Counseling Ministries
48 credit hours
Overview | Course Schedule | Required Courses and Electives | Counseling Center
Love-Life Marriage and Family Center
You will apply principles from your classroom experiences to real counseling sessions at the Love-Life Marriage and Family Center. The Center is a fully functionally clinic on the campus of BBGS. You will gain extensive experience through dealing with the variety of issues and concerns that people bring to the Center, while state-of-the art technology allows supervisors to coach you each step of the way. The Center is an innovative concept in the realm of biblical counseling programs, and it serves two key purposes.
"It's a training facility for our students, but it's also intentionally designed to reach and minister to our local community," says Dr. Dow Pursley, Clinical Director of Counseling Programs at BBGS. "Students who are at least half-way through the program have an opportunity to, under supervision, counsel real people with real needs. At the same time, hurting people have access to biblical solutions for their problems without the burden of financial pressure. They pay if they can, as they are able, but we don't make money an obstacle to getting help."
"Our graduate students need to be exposed to the real issues. It's one thing to learn from books and listen to lectures, but there's no replacement for putting what you learn into practice."
If the goals are inventive, so are the methods. Counselees agree to be counseled by an in-training counselor under the supervision of a professional, usually Dr. Pursley. The counseling room is equipped with one-way glass and in-ear communication technology allowing the supervisor to observe, giving advice and input to the student as the session progresses.
The response from students and the community has been overwhelming, and even Dr. Pursley was a little staggered by the immediate impact.
"The day we opened the doors, we had 25 people wanting to come in for counseling,” says Dr. Pursley. “We hadn't even really advertised or promoted the Center, and the people were pouring in. The most exciting part of that is our students are counseling from the Word and sharing the Gospel every day. That's why we're here."
For more information on the Love-Life Marriage and Family Center, call 570.585.9415 or email dpursley@bbc.edu.
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