Ph.D. Program

Designed for students who wish to further their prior graduate level counseling education, Loyola’s Ph.D. program in Pastoral Counseling is the only CACREP approved counselor education and supervision program specifically designed to study the integration of spiritual, ethical, and religious values into counseling. Students embark on a journey to interrelate theory and techniques of the helping professions with the insights of theology, spirituality, and faith while working to develop their own holistic paradigms of professional and personal integration for the purpose of helping others and furthering the counselor education profession.
 
The doctoral program, with its unique emphasis on supervisory training, prepares candidates for teaching and supervisory positions in the counselor education field as well as, developing clinical expertise, theological/spiritual/religious understanding, and research acumen. Candidates should posses a Master’s degree in counseling or closely related field, e.g. Psychology or Social Work that included clinical training, prior to admission into the Ph.D. program.

The program seeks to prepare graduates to make quantitative and qualitative research contributions to the helping professions through the integration of psycho-theological issues with counselor education's interdisciplinary models which embrace subjects like ethics, prevention, diversity, education, efficacy, and treatment of psychopathology. Graduates of the program have served as advanced level clinicians, supervisors, educators, and researchers in a variety of professional settings and have produced pioneering scholarly articles into the fields of psychology and counseling.
 
The Pastoral Counseling Ph.D. program accepts the following primary obligations:

• extending the knowledge base of the counseling profession in a climate of scholarly inquiry;
• supporting faculty and students in publishing and/or presenting the results of scholarly inquiry;
• preparing students to contribute to the conversations that inform professional practice by generating new knowledge for the profession through dissertation research focusing on areas relevant to counseling practice, counselor education, and/or supervision; and
• preparing students to assume positions of leadership in the profession, their area(s) of specialization, or both.

For students who wish to pursue the Ph.D. program without having first obtained a Master’s degree in counseling, a program combining the Master’s of Science in Pastoral Counseling with the Ph.D. in Pastoral Counseling was created. Highly motivated individuals willing to commit at least two days per week (including summers) may complete the combined MS/PhD program in as little as five-six years of full time study.

Ph.D. Curriculum of Study

The Ph.D. in Pastoral Counseling is a program of study intended to prepare students to work as counselor educators, supervisors, and advanced practitioners in academic and clinical settings.  At times, additional coursework may be necesary in order to be admitted into the program or meet the required body of knowledge needed to begin a course listed. Students may find that they have already met some requirements if their Master's degree in Counseling was approved by The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).

The Ph.D. program consists of a minimum of four academic years of graduate level preparation (including entry level preparation). The structure of the program consists of a core curriculum of at least 45 credit hours and combines academic courses with supervised clinical training. In addition to the core curriculum, students choose one advanced concentration of at least 12 credits that is individualized to their professional or research orientation. The advanced concentrations are within the Research/Academic field or the Counselor, Education, Supervision (CES) field.

For detailed information, click on the following links:

• The Core Curriculum  (45 Credits plus dissertation)
• Advanced Individual Concentration Options (12 Credits)

View the Doctoral Program Learning Goals.