Christian Marriage and Family Counseling

Program Overview

The Doctor of Christian Counseling in Christian Marriage and Family Counseling serves the counselors and pastors to whom couples and families turn first. Most people who are struggling at home do not begin with a clinic; they begin with someone they trust in their church or community. This program equips that person to counsel well, to strengthen marriages before they break, and to know when a family needs more than counseling can offer. The curriculum moves from a Christian theology of marriage and family — covenant, faithful love, the gift of children, and grace for failure — to the practice of counseling across the family life cycle. Students learn the hope-focused couples approach that Everett Worthington built around faith working through love, structured premarital assessment and education, counseling for communication and conflict, forgiveness using process models such as Worthington's REACH and Robert Enright's, parenting guidance, and the particular challenges of blended families. Brief, solution-focused methods suit the time-limited counseling most churches can offer. Throughout, students learn the limits of their role: screening for abuse, addiction, and serious mental illness, and making referrals that hold. The doctoral project builds or evaluates a marriage and family counseling ministry — a premarital program, a mentor couples network, a congregational counseling service — in the student's own context. Graduates direct marriage and family ministries, lead church counseling centers, and train lay counselors.

Core Courses

• CMC 801 — Covenant, Family, and Grace (6 credits)
• CMC 812 — Counseling Across the Family Life Cycle (6 credits)
• CMC 824 — Couples Counseling: Hope, Communication, and Conflict (6 credits)
• CMC 836 — Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Repair (6 credits)
• CMC 848 — Premarital, Parenting, and Stepfamily Counseling (5 credits)
• CMC 860 — Ministry Research and Program Evaluation (4 credits)
• CMC 899 — Doctoral Project in Christian Marriage and Family Counseling (24 credits)
• CMC 870 — Integrative Family Case Consultation (3 credits)

Credit requirements

• Core courses: 60 credits
• Required elective credits: 9 credits

Total required: 69 credits

Elective Courses

Complete 9 credits from the options below (18 credits offered).

• CMC 910 — Brief and Solution-Focused Counseling (3 credits)
• CMC 920 — Abuse, Addiction, and Referral (3 credits)
• CMC 930 — Mentoring Couples and Lay Ministry (3 credits)
• CMC 940 — Marriage Enrichment and Retreat Ministry (3 credits)
• CMC 950 — Family Communication and Everyday Reconciliation (3 credits)
• CMC 951 — Intergenerational Faith and Family Narratives (3 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in counseling, pastoral care, ministry, psychology, or a related field
• Experience in counseling, pastoral care, chaplaincy, or lay care ministry
• Statement of purpose describing the people you care for and the question you want to pursue
• Current resume or ministry profile
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available