Word of Life Training Institute Courses

On this website we provide the courses previously provided at Word of Life Counseling Training Institute in our residence program by category on the links at the right.

The Essential Courses cover the basic material you need to know to begin to do  counseling in the church and are required before beginning an individual practicum.  The Additional Certification Courses are required in addition to the basic courses for a counseling certification and all of these are mandatory courses for a degree.  The Group Therapy and Addictions Courses are grouped together since addictions and codependency are best ministered to in a group setting.  The Relations Courses are those focused on relationships including counseling center management and are elective courses when obtaining a degree.  The advanced courses deal with in-depth spiritual issues and the complex problems of mental disorders and are also electives.  Courses Not Available Online are the syllabuses for Theophostic Prayer Ministry which is only available online at that  organizations website and the Individual and Group Practicum.

Each course may be selected on the right side of this page and it consists of 10 classes of approximately 45 minutes each of video training. Although these courses may be watched by anyone free of charge on this websites, they also may be  taken for credit by fulfilling the course requirements listed on the syllabus or as part of one of our low-cost certifications or degree programs.  A certification should be obtained to verify you are a trained counselor when providing free counseling in a church and a degree is needed in most cases in order to obtain counseling liability insurance so that you are protected from malpractice litigation when charging fees for your counseling services. To learn more about these programs select the Certifications or Degree links above. 

Faith Therapy--Understanding salvation by faith and resolving deeply-rooted problems. This book and course provide a psychological understanding of the process of salvation by faith, winning the trial of your faith, how to increase faith, how to assess faith, and how to apply it to meet our deepest needs for self-worth, significance, security, and love. It includes models for conquering the common problems of low self-image, pride, selfish desires, strife, fear, spiritual oppression, lust, and for developing healthy attachment. It is easily taught and applied in churches because it is completely based on the Bible.

Effective Counseling and Life Coaching Skills--Learn the basic skills necessary to counsel and coach. This course teaches the essential communication skills, analysis methods, and ethics necessary to help people. It uses the Basis Attending Skills book and the AACC Ethical Code as its primary text books. Quite a number of in-class exercises and take home assignments are used to give you actual experience attending, asking powerful questions, reflecting feelings, confronting, connecting, analyzing problems, and resolving ethical dilemmas.

Transformation!--Biblical Models for counseling some of Life's most difficult and complex problems in the church. This book and course contains many new insights including a comprehensive plan for Christian counseling derived directly from the Bible, in-depth biblical answers for complex psychological problems based on the types and shadows interpretation of biblical stories, models and quick reference guides for counseling 20 of the most difficult problems in the church today.

Revelations That Will Set You Free--An eight step roadmap for spiritual growth. This book and course material includes a summary of biblical growth models and Old and New Testament revelations of the character of God, a comprehensive explanation of each of the eight steps of spiritual growth found in 2 Peter Chapter 1, and a biblical character model demonstrating how each is to be achieved so that you and others can grow spiritually and psychologically toward maturity.

Principles for Life--Using biblical principles to resolve problems not directly addressed in the Bible. This book and course explains 44 of the most important principles in the Bible from a psychological perspective and provides an in-depth method for developing counseling plans using biblical principles for common psychological problems based on Proverbs Chapter 3. This material includes a discussion of 13 classical methods of biblical change, a new model for understanding the human heart called "The Train of Psychological Wholeness," and techniques for applying biblical principles in counseling. It includes counseling plans and methods for treating anxiety, panic attacks, obsessions, compulsions, sexual abuse, domestic violence, marital problems, and Borderline Personality Disorder.

Mentoring/Life Coaching--This course provides an overview of Bible-based coaching methods and techniques. Models for coaching are derived directly from the Bible. The text book Christian Coaching gives an overview of the field of coaching and Leadership Coaching discusses the methods and skills.

Group Counseling/Facilitating Support Groups--Small groups are one of the most effective ways to attract people from the community into a church that would otherwise not be reached for Christ, help the largest number of people in the church with a minimum expenditure of resources, and provide a forum for one-on-one evangelism. Many persons coming to small groups in churches even expect a spiritual approach because they are familiar with the format of Alcoholics Anonymous groups. Leading a small group can be very rewarding but it can also have its challenges. This course will provide for the group facilitator all that is needed to start and maintain a support group ministry in a church.

Counseling Addictions--This course provides the tools necessary for counseling addictions including the basic Christian models of addictions, the Christian 12 Steps, Freedom from addictions, assessment, and record keeping for drugs, alcohol, sex, relationships, and eating addictions.

Counseling Codependency--This is an in-depth course dealing with the overall topic of codependency. It covers the origin of the problem, description of codependency, types of codependency, differential diagnosis of codependency, and methods of treating each type.

Marriage and Family Counseling--This course is designed to help each student understand marriage and family issues from a Biblical and counseling perspective. You will learn the Biblical principles of marriage and receive an overview of how to deal with common, marital, marriage and family problems.

Domestic Violence, Anger management, and Abuse--This course presents a broad overview of anger management, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. It includes etiology, methods, and techniques for treatment

Practice Management--This course provides all the basic information necessary for beginning and managing a church-based counseling center including defining a mission statement, developing a business plan, determining the structure, administration, automation, advertising, technical and legal issues. 

Evangelism and Spiritual Issues--This course studies the practical application of spiritual principles in evangelism, walking according to the Spirit, and manifesting Christ in our lives as pastors, counselors, or life coaches.

New Covenant Counseling--In this course will develop an advanced form of Faith Therapy based on the covenants of God as they relate to the New Covenant concealed in the Old Covenant--the laws, the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the feasts, the priest’s garments--and the New Covenant revealed in Jesus Christ as they relate to and are applied in counseling.

Advanced Counseling Skills--This course provides additional topics on advanced counseling areas not covered in other courses but still essential to a broader counseling education.  Some of these classes include The Power of Right Believing, Myers-Briggs Temperament Theory, Suicide Prevention, and Cross-cultural counseling.

Psychopathology--This course discusses abnormal behavior as described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5) from a Christian perspective. It is by far the most difficult type of counseling and the most controversial because it many time includes both physical, psychological, experiential and spiritual aspects involved in the same problem. It is also the basis for mental health diagnosis.   

Practice Management--This course provides all the basic information necessary for beginning and managing a church-based counseling center including defining a mission statement, developing a business plan, determining the structure, administration, automation, advertising, technical and legal issues.

Theophostic Prayer Ministry--Is one of the most effective Christian methods for healing past hurts and trauma. It functions by identifying what the person originally thought about the past event (the lie) and asking the Holy Spirit to show them the truth. It is currently being republished and reorganized by its author as Transformational Prayer and has been moved to a new website www.transformationprayer.org.

Individual Practicum--Provides actual supervised lay counseling experience. 30 contact hours is required for counseling certification and degrees and 15 contact hours for a life coaching certification.

Group Practicum--Provides actual supervised experience attending, facilitating, and leading a support group.