Offering Campuses  Program Overview Admission Requirements Graduation Requirements Dissertation Requirements Program Requirements

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Offering Campuses

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Argosy University, Atlanta; Argosy University, Dallas; Argosy University, Denver;  Argosy University, Nashville; Argosy University, Phoenix; Argosy University, Sarasota

Program Overview

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The Doctor of Education (EdD) in Pastoral Community Counseling degree program is based on the fundamental belief that religious/spiritual communities provide a unique opportunity for human growth and development. The program is designed to prepare leaders within religious communities with an opportunity for personal and professional development,  directed toward making a significant contribution to their community and to society. With this in mind, the program integrates the engagement of knowledge, the development of skills, reflective practice, and research in a manner that prepares the pastoral counselor to address individual and communal development in an ethically responsible fashion.

The Pastoral Community Counseling program is committed to the concept of community. In this regard, the learners participate with one another and with faculty in a virtual community. This is designed to provide a means of support and interaction that exceeds the boundaries imposed by geographical definition, and utilizes technology for the purposes of individual, community, and societal development.

The program is designed to afford working professionals the opportunity to pursue doctoral study while maintaining active participation in their professional endeavors. Also, in concert with its emphasis on the religious/spiritual community, the program is offered in a modified cohort format. Courses in this program may be taken as electives by students in other EdD degree programs, and course substitutions may be approved by the program coordinator.

Program Learning Outcomes

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• Students articulate and clearly describe their professional identities as Pastoral Counselors.
• Students critically analyze their own and others’ culturally and religiously formative, teachings, assumptions, experiences, world-views, and metaphors and evaluate their impact on clients and themselves as Pastoral Counselors.
• Students critically analyze the cultural context of relationships, issues, and trends in a multicultural and diverse society.
• Students demonstrate appropriate assessment, consultation, and referral skills
• Students describe the processes of community formation and differentiate between individual, family, group, and community counseling methods and skills.
• Students accurately identify and analyze various ethical issues from a variety of ethical points of view and clinical case studies.
• Students evaluate and adapt various counseling techniques to build and maintain rapport as well as facilitate assessment and intervention.
• Students evaluate and apply various research methods such as qualitative, quantitative, single-case designs, action research, and outcome-based research, statistical analysis, needs assessment, and program evaluation. Students will demonstrate facility with research methods, statistical analysis, needs assessment, and program evaluation.

Admission Requirements

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• A master’s degree from a regionally accredited institution, a nationally accredited institution approved and documented by the faculty and dean of the College of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, or an appropriately certified foreign institution.
• A grade point average of at least 3.0 (on a scale of 4.0) in work leading to the master’s degree and in any subsequent graduate study.
• A minimum score on an Argosy University pre-approved English language proficiency test is required for all applicants whose native language is not English or who have not graduated from an institution at which English is the language of instruction as specified in Section Five, Admission Policies, “English Language Proficiency Policy .”
• Completion of an interview with a member of the program Admissions Committee.

All applications for admission must be submitted to the Admissions Department. An admissions representative is available to help interested applicants complete the following required documentation:

• Completed Application for Admission Form
• Application fee (Non-refundable, except in California and Arizona. In the state of Arizona, the application fee is refundable if the application is canceled within three business days of the applicant signing the Enrollment Agreement.)
• Personal/professional goal statement with a self-appraisal of qualifications for the profession
• Current résumé (or career summary)
• The names and contact information of three professional and/or academic references
• Official transcripts from the institution that conferred the master’s degree and any institutions where graduate coursework was subsequently taken. Bachelor’s level transcripts are not required.

Graduation Requirements

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A student is eligible for graduation from the EdD Pastoral Community Counseling degree program when the following requirements have been met:

• Satisfactory completion of all requirements in the program of study developed in consultation with the faculty members and program coordinator of Pastoral Community Counseling
• Satisfactory completion of 60 semester credit hours beyond the master’s degree
• Successful completion of the Comprehensive Examination
• A grade point average of 3.0 or higher
• The completion of all dissertation seminars
• The completion of the dissertation
• Completion of these requirements within seven years of matriculation into the program
• A completed Petition to Graduate submitted to campus administration

Dissertation Requirements

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Upon successful completion of required coursework and comprehensive examinations, students enroll in dissertation courses. To progress through each dissertation course, students must complete specified course objectives. If progress is made and all objectives met, students enroll in the next dissertation block. If progress is made and objectives are substantively but not fully met by the end of each course (as determined by the dissertation chair in discussion with the dissertation committee) students must enroll in a zero credit extension course (tuition based on a credit hour equivalent as defined in Appendix IV, Schedule of Tuition and Fees ).  If it is determined that no progress has been made, students will be required to retake the block in which no progress was made. If the student is required to retake a block due to no progress, the dissertation chair will assign a grade of No Credit (NC).  Students are required to enroll in a Dissertation course or Dissertation Extension course every session from the
beginning of the dissertation until passing the final defense earning 12 semester credit hours for dissertation. A student may only receive any combination of two NC, W, or WF grades during the dissertation sequence. Upon receiving the third NC, W, or WF within the dissertation sequence, the student will be dismissed from the program.  Published course objectives for each dissertation course apply unless the student and dissertation committee/chair agree to and confirm in writing alternative specified objectives more appropriate for a particular dissertation topic.

Program Requirements

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The EdD in Pastoral Community Counseling degree program requires the satisfactory completion of 60 semester credit hours, distributed as follows: research requirements, 12 credit hours; core requirements, 18 credit hours; elective requirements, 18 credit hours; and dissertation requirements, 12 credit hours.