Why Choose Davis College for Counseling?

This article was written by Professor Sheila Flipse and published in the December 2008 edition of the College catalog news piece.

I consider it an honor to be able to teach our students how to counsel biblically. It is thrilling to observe the personal and professional growth of both our present students and alumni as they are serving God in the area of counseling.

All of the counseling and psychology courses are taught from a biblical framework and the students are challenged to study secular psychology and counseling theories through a biblical lens. In doings so, the counseling student realizes they are more equipped to help people because they know the life changing Savior and have His word as their best counseling resource. The big debate in biblical counseling is: will I use only the Bible to counsel, or will I use the Bible and secular sources as long as they don't contradict the Bible? This debate often makes for passionate and sometime spirited dialogue in the classroom.

Emphasized in each counseling class is the need to examine one's cultural sensitivity to people groups different than their own. We cannot simply assess people's needs in light of our own cultural vantage point. Students are exhorted to think biblically, think critically, and to be compassionate with those they counsel.

The culminating experience for the senior is the service learning aspect called the counseling internship. The student, under the supervision of a professional practitioner, has the opportunity to both serve and learn at a church or counseling agency. Many students land employment as a result of their internship experience. Part of the internship credit requires a philosophy of counseling document that the student produces addressing the issues of Bibliology, Anthropology, Theology, Pneumatology, Harmartiology, Soteriology, Ecclesiology, their position on integration and their counseling methodology.

As I think over some of our graduates; Cheryl, Stephanie, Nikki, and Emily received master's degrees and work at Davis College, Will is in his second year of law school at Temple University, Hannah is in grad school at Berkeley; Bethany is pursuing a graduate degree at Liberty, Heather is completing graduate work at Columbia International University, Luda and James are working on their graduate social work degree at Binghamton University, Tim is a social worker at Wyoming Children's Home, Mick is teaching at a Christian school in Ohio; Steve is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Elmira... and the list goes on.

It is always a delight to hear from our graduates and to pray for them and encourage them. Many times they encourage and pray for me.

Graduation day is always bittersweet. I get overwhelmed with emotion as the graduates go forth with their degree in hand. These students whom we taught, coached, mentored, laughed with and cried with and sometimes disciplined finished the course and are heading on to serve the Lord and impact the world. I cannot think of a better place to be than to serve the Lord at Davis College.