| HOLISTIC
COUNSELING MASTER OF ARTS
Course Descriptions
Required Courses
HLC504: Introduction to the Foundations of Counseling Theory from a Holistic Perspective
This course provides an introduction and historical overview of the philosophic and scientific
foundations of the Holistic Counseling Program. It focuses on the emergence of psychology
and counseling as distinct disciplines in the context of the development of western science and
philosophy. The vision and fundamental concepts of the Program, which will be elaborated and
expanded upon in subsequent courses, are presented. It examines how attitudes, beliefs, and
epistemological assumptions of scientific researchers have influenced the practice of psychotherapy
and traces how recent changes in science's epistemological assumptions have effected a shift
in how both researchers and practitioners approach their work. It considers the implications of
this shift in thinking as we begin the new millennium. This course should be taken in the first
year.
HLC507: Toward Synthesis: The Body/Mind Connection
The starting point of this course is the influence of the body on mental states, and vice versa.
This course reviews the latest research findings in neurology and the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology.
These biological sciences may provide the objective correlates for the
subjective experience of self, which is central to understanding the human psyche. The course
traces modern western thinking's historic split of mind from body, beginning with Descartes and
later reinforced by the Enlightenment conception of the body as a machine driven either by a
ghost-in-the-machine or by neurological reflexes. It reviews the rejoining of the body with the
realm of psychotherapy through biofeedback, guided imagery, relaxation techniques and other
somatic disciplines.
HLC508: Developmental Issues in Counseling
Students study developmental psychology especially as it relates to making therapeutic interventions.
Stages of development - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - are outlined. In learning
how to make counseling interventions from a developmental perspective, students explore gender
and cultural influences on development, the effect of a person's developmental stage on the
counseling process, and the critical distinction between pathology and developmental crisis. To
understand better their clients and themselves, students are encouraged to explore their own
growth process and critical developmental moments, through journal-keeping and classroom
dialogue.
HLC509: Toward Synthesis: On the Level of Mind/Emotions
This course begins with an explanation of the theoretical underpinnings of current principal
psychotherapeutic approaches. It surveys the theories of Freud, Jung and Adler, extending to
behaviorism, person-centered therapy, existential therapy, transactional analysis, rational
emotive, Gestalt, reality and cognitive-behavioral therapies. The course explores the psychology
of imagination and creativity, and challenges students to deepen their awareness of their own
cognitive-emotional lives as related to their physical existence, creativity, and sense of meaning
and purpose.
HLC511: Toward Synthesis: Psychological Health, the Search for Meaning, and the
Wisdom Traditions
Victor Frankel first emphasized the central importance of meaningfulness when he said, "man
can bear any what if he can understand why." This course explores research that indicates there
is a direct correlation between both physical and mental health, and one's sense of personal
meaning as well as connectedness to a larger purpose - commonly called spiritual meaning. In
order to understand various cultural backgrounds, students survey several of the main wisdom
traditions of the world, discovering commonalities and differences, and ways to respectfully support
and follow clients in their own quest for meaning and purpose in life.
HLC513: Systems Theory and Family Therapy
This course traces the history of systems theory as it evolved in several disciplines, then was
applied to the treatment of couples and families. The recent evolution of family therapy is
considered, as it moved from simple cybernetics to cybernetics of cybernetics and the influence
of postmodernist thinking. Through videos and role-plays, the course introduces students to
the practice of couple and family therapy, including how to diagnose and treat various family
problems from a systems perspective.
HLC515: Assessment and Treatment Planning
This course familiarizes students with the assessment process-how
to interview and use assessment tools in conjunction with the
DSM-IV to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment plan and compares
standard assessment techniques and process-oriented interviewing.
It considers when to make appropriate referrals to ancillary treatment
modalities or for medical evaluations. It also weighs both the
potential benefits and risks of assigning diagnostic labels to
people.
HLC530: Practicum in Counseling I
Practicum I provides students with the opportunity to practice basic counseling skills. Using
triads of counselor, client and observer, students role-play under supervision, discovering how to assist clients in defining an issue, clarifying goals, and mobilizing energy and resources to achieve
them. Students practice evaluating progress, and assessing client's level of resistance/degree of
commitment toward resolving a problem. They learn how to identify transference and countertransference,
as they are manifested in the session itself. Basic ethical problems (competence,
confidentiality, duty to warn, dual relationships) are also considered. Practicum is taken the year
or summer before Internship.
HLC531: Practicum in Counseling II
Practicum II continues to provide supervision while students refine their counseling skills.
Students are videotaped while using a three-stage developmental counseling model: Stage 1)
presence, respect and accurate empathic listening; Stage 2) client-dynamic self-understanding,
modeled by the effective counselor; and, Stage 3) the action stage where counselor and client
collaborate in achieving the client's process goals. Students work on articulating their personal
synthesis of counseling, in addition to having their first counseling experiences outside of the
classroom. Additional ethical issues are considered.
HLC532: The Psychology of Group Process
This course teaches both the theory and practice of group interventions in the context of therapy
and personal growth. Students will learn how group norms are established, the evolution of
the group process, and ethical standards for groups. They will also be afforded the opportunity
to practice leading groups under supervision in the classroom.
HLC553: Evaluation
This course is designed to familiarize students with ways to evaluate theories, hypotheses and
methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative, pertinent to understanding human behavior
and development. Emphasis is placed on developing critical thinking skills, and applying them
to specific areas of student research interests. Students may take HUM500 in place of HLC553.
HLC570: Internship and Seminar I
Student interns practice in placements approved by the Internship Coordinator. There they
begin to develop and apply their cumulative holistic counseling skills and abilities to guide
others. The two-semester supervised experience totals 150 hours per semester and is complemented
by a weekly two-hour on campus seminar. Students are required to obtain professional
liability insurance coverage.
HLC571: Internship and Seminar II
Continuation of HLC570.
HLC573: Human Relations Laboratory: Dynamics of Human Behavior
This laboratory experience provides the opportunity to explore one's style of interacting with
others. Through practice in this group, students learn how to use basic interpersonal skills such
as primary accurate empathy, immediacy and appropriate self-disclosure - the foundations of
effective counseling. It is recommended that students take this course early in their program.
Because of class-size limitations, early registration is suggested.
HLC608/609 Advanced Internship Seminars
Advanced Internship Seminar is a two-hour per week seminar over two semesters conducted in
conjunction with the 1,000 hour advanced internship for students pursuing the Certificate of
Advanced Graduate Studies in Mental Health with a Holistic Concentration. Students work in a
variety of clinical settings off campus to gain experience with a range of mental/emotional problems.
There they conduct one-to-one therapy with on-site supervision as well as work with
groups and families as the situation permits. The seminars focus on overseeing the students'
work at their placements, to help them deal with relational and countertransference issues, and
to provide support as they seek to integrate their personal and professional growth.
Elective Courses
HLC500: Research Methods
Students explore various research techniques and then apply that knowledge to an analysis of
existing research and to designing and implementing their own research projects. The course
includes preparation of a literature review, qualitative and quantitative approaches, triangulation
methods, research designs, threats to internal and external validity, sampling techniques, data
collection methods, and ethical considerations. Note: This course must be taken in the first year
of graduate studies.
HLC575: Healing
This theoretical and practical course emphasizes personal health, assessment, the tradition of
healing, and the capacity of every person to encourage and guide the healing process.
HLC579: Grief Counseling
In this course, students identify and explore their own resolved or unresolved issues around loss
and grief. This personal work provides a foundation for facilitating the grief process in others.
HLC580: Massage Therapy
Students look at research pertaining to the human need for contact and touch, gain understanding
of massage skills, and examine their own touch comfort levels. Healthy attitudes for personal
living and respectful therapeutic contact are formed. This course does not produce massage therapists;
rather, it develops an academic base for massage as a means to maintain health.
**HLC 581 Special Topics
Introduction to Expressive Sound
This course serves as an introduction to the uses of sound as a creative and transformative force for individuals and groups. Through experiential exercises and discussion, the course will explore how expressive sound can be utilized to help release tensions, express emotions, and calm the nervous system. The in-class experiences will draw upon various sound-based modalities, including: vocal toning, deep listening, and breathing practices.
**HLC582: Transformation through the Expressive and Creative Arts
This course explores the use of the expressive and creative arts as a therapeutic and educational tool for transformation, self-discovery, physical healing, and the evolution of consciousness. Using the body-mind’s inner language of imagery, students will learn how to access, release and transform non-verbal sensate impressions of feelings and emotions through drawing, painting and collage. As students experience the energetic shifts that occur in the body-mind when imagery is used to express inner states of awareness, they will begin to understand how thoughts, feelings and emotions can affect the body, mind and spirit. Through hands-on exercises, students will begin to recognize the difference between verbal and imagistic expression, and how that recognition can help resolve conflicts between thoughts and feelings that can impact body function and emotional response. The primary focus of this course will be to teach students how to utilize this transformative process with others in psychotherapy, education, medical caregiving and the corporate environment.
HLC583: Practical Applications of the Holistic Counseling Degree
Students address the question, "What can I do with this degree?" They look at concrete details
of establishing themselves in public practice, doing business, and cultivating their creative
resources to further personal visions of holistic counseling.
**HLC584: Movement, Creativity and Consciousness: An Introduction
This two-credit course will introduce a variety of movement experiences to help students to develop a clearer understanding of the body/mind/spirit connection; to increase awareness of the creative, psychological and spiritual potential as revealed through the body; and to begin to develop an understanding of each student’s unique tools and responsiveness through movement. Movement as an expression of and path toward increased consciousness will be explored. Students will also explore ways of working with others in education, psychotherapy, and mindfulness work to access experiences, often not accessible through words, which can then be processed and integrated for a more expressive and more fully embodied life.
HLC585: Crisis Intervention
A crisis is a turning point that provides opportunities for change and growth. Students explore a
therapeutic approach to crisis intervention by assisting others through crisis, and facilitating
growth. Various developmental and situational emergencies are examined as they relate to understanding
crises. Students learn and practice accurate evaluation, assessment, treatment, and how
to communicate or refer to other human services professionals.
HLC586: Consulting with Systems
Working with any client requires skill and artistry. The client
in this course is a complex system, such as a large organization.
This course is designed to help students understand how to examine
complex organizations as client systems; how to consult with large
systems; and how to assume a variety of consultant roles and responsibilities.
Students practice intervention skills, and apply learning to actual
systems.
HLC588: Working with Young People
This course provides an overview of historical and current approaches
in children's counseling. Students explore developmental methods
and a variety of media for expression, exploration and therapeutic
process. The class includes role-play and hands-on experience.
When children are available, an instructor-supervised playgroup
facilitates interactive and communication skills, self-assessment
and peer support.
HLC589: Practicum in Group Therapy
In this course, students apply therapy to groups while the instructor models skills and provides
support. Prerequisite: HLC/RHB532 and instructor permission.
HLC600: Career Counseling
This course challenges the popular conception that what one does to earn money must remain
separate from one's personal goals and values. It proposes that one's career can be, instead, the
implementation of one's self-chosen values. Students are first encouraged to examine their own
presuppositions about life and career goals. They are then taught a methodology that allows
them to assess their true lifestyle and work values. Finally, they learn how to integrate life and
career. Career assessment tools and methods for teaching this to others are presented and evaluated.
This is a required course for the CAGS in Mental Health.
HLC601: Cross Cultural Issues in Counseling
This course explores a rich variety of ethnic and gender-based cultures and subcultures.
Consonant with the overall orientation of the Program, students are challenged to explore both
the diversity among cultures, and common elements that unite all peoples. Assumptions of the
dominant culture about healthy functioning individuals and families are examined in the light
of the great cultural variety found throughout the world. This course invites students to examine
their own cultural lenses through which they see others, especially when they are working in a
therapeutic environment. This is a required course for the CAGS in Mental Health.
HLC 603: Psychopharmacology for Mental Health Professionals
This course will examine the fundamentals of drug pharmacology and drug-drug interactions.
Lectures will review current psychotropic medication protocols as well as herbal and nutraceutical
complements to psychotherapy (permission required for M.A. students to take this course as
an elective).
Expressive Arts CAGS
HLC604: Self-Discovery through the Expressive and Creative Arts
This course is designed to provide students with experiential opportunities for creative self-discovery using various expressive arts modalities, primarily image-making. In addition, it offers discussion segments that explore the importance for our time and culture of engaging/heightening our connection to our own individual creativity and inner wisdom, and the effect doing this can have on the growth of personal as well as collective consciousness. One key premise of the course is that each of us is born creative and that being creative is the nature of being alive. Our creativity forms the essence of our enduring soul. Another key premise is that, in order to be effective in integrating the use of art, creativity and image-making in any educational, therapeutic, business or other professional setting, it is critical to explore one’s own personal creative process, development, and style. Accordingly, the principal emphasis of the course is on individual work using personal process, in-class discussions, outside assignments and an independently designed project to develop a self-discovery creative/visual journal.
HLC610: An Intermodal Approach to the Expressive and Creative Arts as Transformation
In this course, students have an opportunity to do hands on experiential work in the expressive and creative arts as applied to a variety of professions, including psychotherapy, medical caregiving, education and the corporate environment. It will focus on introducing the student to fundamentals of deep ecology as used in the expressive and creative arts, along with mindfulness and awareness techniques to facilitate the evolution of consciousness. The emphasis in this course will be on integrating the visual arts with movement, sound, and expressive writing.
This course is open only to students who have been accepted into the CAGS/CGS program in the Expressive and Creative Arts. Any student who would like to register for this course prior to acceptance into the CAGS/CGS expressive and creative arts program can only do so with permission of the Program Coordinator.
HLC611: Group Applications of the Expressive and Creative Arts
This course will introduce central concepts and approaches to using the expressive and creative arts with groups. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the application of group experiences with the expressive and creative arts in various settings, and will consider applications for a variety of group and community levels. Students will learn how to design and implement a group program with appropriate uses of various arts modalities, including movement, sound, writing and the visual arts. In a specific area of professional interest, students will develop a proposal for a group program demonstrating the benefits to a specific group or community.
This course is open only to students who have been accepted into the Expressive Arts CAGS/CGS program. This is the final course in the CAGS program and cannot be taken until all the other four courses have been completed.
HLC613: Introduction to Expressive Writing
This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the principles and applications of expressive writing as a transformational tool that can facilitate emotional, physical and spiritual healing as well as self-discovery, personal growth and conflict resolution. The course will focus on how expressive writing can be used with others in psychotherapy, medical caregiving, education, and the corporate environment. In this course, students will learn how to adapt and integrate expressive writing into their own professional areas of specialization through class discussions and in-class writing exercises that emphasize an intermodal expressive and creative arts approach to writing.
This course is open only to students who have been accepted into the CAGS/CGS program in the Expressive and Creative Arts. Any student who would like to register for this course prior to acceptance into the CAGS/CGS expressive and creative arts program can only do so with permission of the Program Coordinator.
HLC615: Utilizing Expressive Sound/Music and Theater Arts
This expressive arts course will deepen one’s understanding of the realms of expressive sound, music and theater arts as a means of personal growth, community-building, and healing. The specific focal points for the course will include: vocal explorations and toning, elements of music for self-discovery and community-building, and theater exercises for personal and group expression. The course combines theory with practical exercises that demonstrate how to integrate them into programs for healing and education, as utilized in a variety of settings.
**Please Note: Courses indicated with a ** are prerequisites for the CAGS/CGS in the Professional Applications of the Expressive and Creative Arts. To register for any expressive and creative arts elective course requires permission of the Program Coordinator, since they are all prerequisites for the CAGS/CGS program in the Expressive and Creative Arts. You may contact the program coordinator at: 401 341-2157.
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