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This course is part of the equipping for more advanced levels of Biblical counseling — whether individual, family, group, or church counseling is being done. The twelve lessons describe in detail the Biblical paradigm for healthy human sexuality and expression and address the most common deviations from that norm the students are likely to face, as well as others that are considered as outside the norm.

• Application for addressing sexual brokenness in the lives of those we encounter in most areas of pastoral ministry: from professional, to paraprofessional, to lay person.
• Underlying emphasis is on developing strategies and applying Scriptural principles to bring transformation change and bring sustained healing to the broken.

Course Objectives

• To equip the student to identify sexual brokenness in the lives of their counselees and to be able to discover the cause(s) of that brokenness.
• To equip the student to do the work of counseling those impacted by sexual brokenness from a scriptural standpoint and to do so effectively.
• To equip the student to train others to do the work of counseling in the arena.
• To introduce the student to differing theories about human sexuality within the helping community – both within and without the Church –and how to evaluate those theories from a Biblical paradigm.
• To equip the student to apply properly interpreted Scripture to whichever area(s) of sexual brokenness are encountered in the counseling relationship and to effect Biblical change.
• To provide the student with the opportunity during the course to identify their own need for Biblical change in this area.
• To provide the student information on and access to secondary resources that are available to help in the specific arena of sexual brokenness.
• To model a method of evaluating the progress of counselees and the effectiveness of the counseling relationship.
• To demonstrate how a Biblical paradigm and authentically Christ-centered approach to addressing sexual brokenness and how this impacts the individual, the family, the church, the community, and –eventually –the nation.

Quote from the professor: “I am going to take your ‘blush’ away so perhaps you can be the one person in the Church who will allow someone with the deepest kind of brokenness find the grace and truth of Christ.”

Course Outline
    Session One: Introduction; Human Sexuality: Biological & Social
    Session Two: Biblical Model of Human Sexuality and Counseling
    Session Three: Sexuality and Abuse
    Session Four: Promiscuity and Infidelity
    Session Five: Sexual Addiction & Unusual Practices
    Session Six: Pornography “Addiction”
    Session Seven: Same-Sex Attraction, Male / Same-Sex Attraction, Female
    Session Eight: Video Presentation: “Such Were Some of You”
    Session Nine: Transgenderism & Gender Disorientation
    Session Ten: Aberrant Sexual Interests & Practices
    Session Eleven: Issues in Counseling Sexual Matters / Personal After-Care
    Session Twelve: The Church’s Response & Responsibility

Download the syllabus here

​This 10-week module seeks to help students develop a foundation for assessing and treating ongoing- and post-trauma events as well as their effects in adults, plus recognize trauma responses in children. 

• Familiarization with a variety of crisis, loss, and trauma events experienced by counselees who seek help from pastors and Biblical counselors is provided.
• Outside speakers with expertise in some of the areas addressed may be utilized.
• Underlying emphasis is on developing strategies and applying Scriptural principles to identify the ongoing current problems that are present in the life of the traumatized counselee and affected family members, if possible, and guide the parties involved to effect Biblical healing and restoration. 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• To equip the student to understand the reality of trauma, its far-reaching negative effects, and to be able to understand both from a scriptural standpoint.
• To equip the student to be able to understand both acute and chronic traumatic stress reactions and the principles and basic strategies of crisis intervention
• To equip the students to properly identify and analyze ongoing destructive patterns in the life of the traumatized counselee and the problems that have arisen as a result, and to respond Biblically.
• To equip the student to be an agent of God’s healing grace and Biblical change through the counseling relationship.
• To equip the students to train others to minister to those impacted by trauma.
• To equip the student to provide a safe, effective, and healing counseling environment.
• To equip the student to recognize any post-traumatic distress of their own that may be present and encourage the student to seek help in effecting healing and Biblical change personally.
• To equip the student to understand, guard against, and recognize the risk factors of vicarious- and secondary-trauma experienced by counselors.
• To model a method of evaluating the progress of counselees and the effectiveness of the counseling relationship. 
• To demonstrate how Biblical change in this arena impacts the individual, the family, the church, the community, and the nation.
• To demonstrate the need for the Church (collective) to understand trauma from a Biblical perspective, to begin to speak about these matters well, and to become a safe place for people to come forward for help and for finding healing and wholeness with Christ at the center of the process.

Course Outline:
       Session One: Introduction – Understanding Crisis, Trauma, Loss, and Grief
Session Two: Grief
Session Three: Trauma & Traumatic Loss
Session Four: PTD (ASD), PTSD & CPTSD
Session Five: Crisis Pregnancy & Post-Abortion Counseling
 Session Six: Combat Trauma & Consequences of War
Session Seven: Suicide: Assessment & Prevention
Session Eight: Abuse Survivors as Trauma Survivors
Session Nine: Sexual Assault Survivors as Trauma Survivors
Session Ten: Counseling Children
The course syllabus can be viewed here

This 13-week module prepares students to utilize the Biblically solid, theologically sound curriculum “UNBOUND”. This curriculum has been through many transitions over the years, yet has been used quite effectively in all of its variations to help transform lives for almost 30 years.

When someone becomes a Christian, the core of who they are is “reborn” or “created anew.” However, this new life in Christ doesn’t immediately unbind us from the lies we have believed, the residue of the sins we have committed, or the effects of the evils we have suffered.

Very often, these relics of our “once dead” existence need to be peeled away: lies need to be replaced with the Truth, sins need to be replaced with forgiveness, and the evils we have suffered need to be replaced with new patterns of light and life.

Often, idolatrous “addictive” behaviors are the usual coping mechanism we develop in our attempt to escape the guilt and shame we struggle against; what we here call “relics of death and decay.”

Counseling those who struggle with “addictive” behavior patterns is not as simple as adopting a 12-Step program or becoming a Celebrate Recovery chapter.

Besetting sins – whether they involve chemicals, relationships, pornography, food, or any other “substance” –  overtake a person’s life based on the underlying belief system of the individual and their inability to break free and remain free.

Built on the precepts of two verses (John 8:36 and Romans 12:2), “Unbound” is a 1- to 1½-year intensive discipleship program with an exceptionally high success rate for those who complete the program.

Biblical counseling and psychology really do not go together. This 12-week module teaches students the roots of the psychological theories, practices, and systems that drive most of the counseling available to troubled people today and how those stand in contrast to much of what the Scriptures have to say about the same matters.

Knowing that most of the people who enter the doors of any church will have been impacted by sin is just the beginning – knowing how to help them discover and cooperate with God’s redemptive plan for the specific evils they have suffered and the sins they have committed is something else entirely.

This is the most reading-intensive of the modules, but the work is well worth the results. Students who take this course will be involved in studying matters such as:

• The history of psychology and the development of Modern Psychological Theory
• The foundations of biblical counseling
• Comparing secular psychology with biblical counseling
• Basic strategies and skill-sets necessary to do biblical counseling in a variety of contexts
• Evaluating methodologies used in counseling
• Hands-on study of practical materials for one-on-one and group counseling situations, including addictions and abuse-survivor dynamics
• Formulating a solid, Biblical approach to counseling in today’s world

   Course Outline
      Session One: Introduction; Basic Theories; Assumptions
      Session Two: Views on Integration; Basic Biblical Model
      Session Three: History of Psychology (Part 1)
      Session Four: History of Psychology (Part 2); Pioneers of Modern Psychology
      Session Five: Modern Modalities; The Biblical Model & Galatians 1-2
      Session Six: Interviewing and the Counseling Process (Part 1);  Processes of Change
      Session Seven: The Counseling Process (Part 2)
      Session Eight: Anger & Depression; Fear & Worry
      Session Nine: Sexuality, Abuse and Neglect
      Session Ten: Addiction, Reality Therapy, and 12-Step Programs
      Session Eleven: Biblical Counseling and Common Grace
      Session Twelve: 1 Thessalonians 5 and Counseling(View the Syllabus here)Book List to Purchase for this Module:
Destructive Trends in Mental Health: The Well Intentioned Path to Harm
Mental Illness: The Necessity for Faith and Authority (Volume 1)   
How to Counsel God’s Way
​Why Biblical Counseling?