Counseling Degree Adapts to Meet New Cultural Needs and State Requirements

The state of Texas recently revised its standards for counseling 
licensure, and this has given DTS’s Biblical Counseling Department an opportunity to modify the curriculum in a way that both complies with the new state requirements and prepares students to meet changing cultural needs while remaining gospel-centered.

Beginning fall 2017, the Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling (MABC) will remain a ninety-hour program, but will add four new courses: Addictions and Compulsive Behaviors, Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience, Family Systems, and a fourth Counseling practicum. 

“Our churches need counselors and therapists who understand the depravity of humanity and the damaging effects of sin as well as the grace and hope we have in Christ,” said Dr. Gary Barnes, interim chair of the Department of Biblical Counseling. “These new courses will help our graduates address some of the key issues of our day, including addictions, family issues, and medication use.”

To offset the hours of the new courses added, MABC students will take the traditional Bible and theology courses with other MA and ThM students, but with a reduced workload outside of the classroom. This will enable the program to retain its distinctive integration of biblical principles with modern psychology while also preparing men and women to engage in church, institutional, or licensed private counseling practices. 

The new MABC curriculum will be available in Dallas, Houston, and Washington, DC. Students can also start the program online and finish at one of the three campuses.