Grief and Bereavement Counseling

Program Overview

The Doctor of Christian Counseling in Grief and Bereavement Counseling prepares counselors and ministers to accompany people through the losses that come to everyone: the death of a parent, spouse, or child, the slow losses of dementia and illness, miscarriage and stillbirth, suicide, and the many losses others do not recognize as grief at all. Christians grieve, Paul wrote, but not as those who have no hope, and this program holds both halves of that sentence together. Students trace the development of grief theory — Freud and Erich Lindemann, John Bowlby's phases of mourning, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the critique of stage models — and master the frameworks that now guide practice: William Worden's tasks of mourning, the dual process model of Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut, continuing bonds, meaning reconstruction, Kenneth Doka's disenfranchised grief, and Pauline Boss's ambiguous loss. Research on resilience shows that most bereaved people recover without professional help, and the program teaches counselors to respect that while identifying the minority who develop prolonged grief and need specialized treatment. Practice courses cover grief counseling with adults and children, bereavement after suicide and traumatic death, perinatal loss, anticipatory grief, grief groups, and funeral and memorial ministry. Christian hope does not hurry grief; it gives the mourner company in it. The doctoral project develops and evaluates a bereavement ministry, grief group program, or hospice bereavement service. Graduates lead bereavement programs in churches, hospices, and funeral homes, train grief group facilitators, and counsel the bereaved. The degree is formation for ministry and counseling and does not confer a professional license.

Core Courses

• GBC 801 — Grief and Mourning: Theory and Research (6 credits)
• GBC 812 — Grief Counseling Practice (6 credits)
• GBC 824 — Complicated, Prolonged, and Traumatic Grief (6 credits)
• GBC 836 — Grief Across the Lifespan (6 credits)
• GBC 848 — Christian Hope, Lament, and Funeral Ministry (5 credits)
• GBC 860 — Research Methods in Bereavement Care (4 credits)
• GBC 899 — Doctoral Project in Grief and Bereavement Counseling (24 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in counseling, pastoral care, ministry, psychology, or a related field
• Experience in counseling, pastoral care, chaplaincy, or lay care ministry
• Statement of purpose describing the people you care for and the question you want to pursue
• Current resume or ministry profile
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available
• Signed acknowledgment that the degree does not by itself confer a license to practise counseling in any jurisdiction