Christian Counseling Concentration

Become a minister of grace and reconciliation

by leading hurting people into the Presence of the Wonderful Counselor. When they hear His words of life and see Him actively working to fulfill His purposes for them, they will be healed and their lives will be transformed.

Your heart is moved by the brokenness and suffering you see all around you, both in the world and in the Church, and you want to help

Because you are a good listener, people are already coming to you with their problems and you have been able to offer some help.

But you want to do more.
You don’t want to just put on Band-Aids that cover the symptoms but don’t heal the infection. You want to see changes that last because root issues have been dealt with.

There is only one Wonderful Counselor, and our purpose as human counselors is to bring people into His Presence where He will heal their hearts. All of the counseling courses at CLU are focused to training you how to more effectively help others hear what God is saying to them and see what He is doing in their lives.

Our desire is to equip biblically-based, Spirit-anointed, compassionate counselors who can discern the needs of the heart and usher in the grace of God to meet those needs.

You will experience the joy of teaching your counselees how to connect with the Wonderful Counselor through two-way journaling so they can hear His voice every single day and soak in His unconditional love and acceptance of them.

You will be equipped in Christian dream interpretation so that you can help your counselee understand how the Lord is counseling them and what their own hearts are teaching them every night (Ps. 16:7).

You will become a minister of grace who can impart a revelation of their identity in Christ that overcomes the lies of the enemy that hold them in bondage. You will pour the healing oil of the Holy Spirit into the festering memories of traumatic experiences through the ministry of inner healing. You will be by their side as the Spirit reveals the lies they have believed and help them embrace the Truth He declares over them.

Together you will destroy demonic strongholds and oppressions that have led them to destruction.

As a Spirit- anointed counselor, you will minister heart to heart and see lifetime bondages quickly broken and lives radically changed. You will have the great joy of participating in Christ’s work of setting the captives free!

The Counseling Curriculum at CLU has been absolutely priceless… Instead of getting caught in endless talks about ‘the problem’ you learn to minister to people on a heart-to-heart level and not a head-to-head level.

Salvatore Cerniglia MS, CRC

Psychiatric Social Worker

I just completed my Doctorate of Christian Counseling through Christian Leadership University. I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing this experience was for me in terms of healing, personal growth, and growing as close to God as I have ever been.

I’ve learned to discern the voice of God through dialoguing and dreams. To think, all of these years He may have been trying to speak to me and I didn’t know how to listen to Him. Hearing God and allowing Him to be the Wonderful Counselor He truly is has totally changed my life. Thank you to the Virklers and to Christian Leadership University for your amazing ministry. May God richly bless you.

Cheryl McKay

Regent University Graduate and Published Author

Online Christian Counseling Degrees

The courses listed below may be taken as a Christian Counseling Certificate or applied as a major concentration toward any of the following online Bible Degrees:

Associate of Christian Counseling
Bachelor of Christian Counseling
Master of Christian Counseling
Doctor of Christian Counseling

Additional work is required when an undergraduate-level course is taken on the graduate level. Course substitutions and combining major concentrations are possible when working toward your Christian Counseling Degree online. Discuss these options with the Dean. The key is to follow God’s passion within your heart. Students in the Master’s and Doctoral programs earn approximately 30 credits for each degree from specific courses, and the remaining 10 credits by doing practical ministry work and earning “practica” credits.

Courses

Communion With God - REN103/503

Have you ever wished you could sit down and have a long talk with the Lord? When you’re worried or confused, wouldn’t you love to see the situation from His perspective and hear how He wants you to respond? When things don’t seem to be going your way and your prayers aren’t answered the way you had hoped, wouldn’t it be great to hear Him tell you where He is in the midst of it, and what He is working out in your life?

Jesus promised that “My sheep hear My voice” (Jn. 10:27). If you are one of His sheep, then He is speaking to you and you are hearing His voice! The problem is that we have not learned how to recognize His voice and differentiate it from all of the other voices that bombard our hearts and minds. This course will help you discern the voice of the Lord within your heart, clearly and consistently, leading to a deeper intimacy with Him as well as greater faith, hope and joy. Your life will be transformed! (3 credits for REN103; 4 credits for REN503) (Course syllabus: REN103; REN503)

“I’m taking Communion With God. I am so blessed so far. My life is already completely transformed. I went from hearing God speak to me once in a while to hearing Him not just in my journaling times but even throughout the rest of the day. What a difference this has made.” — Andrew Steck

“We have been using Communion With God for some months now in all our home groups and one after another people whose prayer lives were dry difficult affairs have blossomed as they have heard the Heavenly Father commune with them, His children.” — Rev. Bill A. VanZutphen, Baptist Church, Wollongong, Australia

“Oh my, I am speechless…I have completed only the first several lessons in Communion With God and my life has been totally, totally transformed. He is such a wonderful, wonderful God. A few months ago I told Him I was desperate for more of Him…I had no idea His answer to my prayer would be so exceedingly abundantly above anything I could ever have imagined. My days and nights are now filled with His presence. Thank you for your service to Him, Mr. Virkler. I will be in touch as I progress through the course….” — Amy

Counseled by God - COU202

We will let God speak to our hearts and counsel us about the basic emotional pressures of life. These include anger, doubt, depression, condemnation and inferiority. We will learn to let God replace these with His opposites, as His voice releases His grace within our hearts. Those whom the Son sets free are free indeed. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

Cornerstones of Communication - COU203

Communication is the center of all relationships, yet most of us are untrained in the dynamics of great communication skills. With practice, every relationship you have can be more effective and fulfilling. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

“I think I can safely say that effective communication skills are one of the most, if not the most, important set of skills one can have in day-to-day living. Without the ability to properly communicate, we cannot get through life properly, as relationships are a central aspect of our lives. As a result of this course, I have learned skills that I will be using every day of my life. I have always been faced with situations that have required excellent communication and negotiation skills. Many situations were changed because I was able to implement some of the things I had learned about negotiation from this course. This stuff works!” — Student taking Cornerstones of Communication

Prayers That Heal the Heart - COU301

This course teaches a series of seven specific prayers that will break bondages within your heart caused by spiritual forces. These prayers include breaking generational sins and curses; severing ungodly soul ties; removing negative beliefs and inner vows; healing traumatic scenes; and casting out demonic energy that has connected itself to these inner wounds of the heart and soul. The entire healing process is sealed by doing an intensive meditation on biblical passages that bear on the issues being healed so God can grant you illumined insights from His Word. (4 credits) Course Syllabus

“Who needs prayers that heal the heart? Just about everyone! God has really done a work in me through the studying and revelation of this ministry. He has given me a burden and a heart to see all people set free from all kinds of oppression. After all, He did command us to do so and minister to people’s needs. Prayers That Heal the Heart is going to be a major part of what I do vocationally for the rest of my life. I have a burden and a desire to see people walk in the liberty purchased for them on Calvary, and for them to experience the ZOE life God has come to give us. Thank You, Lord, for Your anointing to do what You did and see people come into all that You have for them.” — Student taking Prayers That Heal the Heart

I heartily recommend Prayers That Heal the Heart. It is the most biblical book I have read on counseling and spiritual warfare, in terms of emotional healing. While there are other good books out there that God has used, red flags have always gone up in my mind by their use of methods borrowed by modern psychology. This book isn’t like that, and it is thoroughly practical with its exercises and worksheets. It can definitely be used by the Lord to change your life and break the enemy’s power in your life. — Brian Shilhavy

Dr. Mark, thank you for your obedience and dedication to God’s will to bring this powerful and life-changing message of freedom, healing and a genuine relationship with God to us. Through the books in the course Prayers That Heal the Heart, God, our loving and caring Father, found a way in starting His healing ministry to me. I wanted a Ph.D. and now I get what I really needed: A life united with Christ! — Hermanus, South Africa

Naturally Supernatural - REN204

Through the working of Almighty God, He has joined His Spirit to our spirits. We will study and experience the glory of Christ living within us, as well as ways of approaching Him and releasing His indwelling presence. We abide in Christ to the extent that we know that Christ abides in us. We will also learn how to allow the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit within us to flow out through us. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

Prerequisite: REN103 Communion With God.

“This course radically changed my life in every way possible. When once the Christian life was somewhat of a duty and chore, it is now a lifestyle of rest. What was once my trying to be good for the Lord is now having Him be good out through me. What was striving to serve Him in every aspect of my life is now simply loving Him and yielding to His Spirit to live out of me. By understanding, experiencing, and living out the seven revelation truths of abiding, my life in every way and dimension has been radically changed.” — Student taking Naturally Supernatural

Every Christian should read Naturally Supernatural at least once a week! You write so clearly it would be pleasant to sit under your teaching! It really would be a life changing experience! — Isaac E. Rerri

Wisdom Through Dream Interpretation - REN310/REN510

Psalms declares that God counsels us at night through our dreams (Ps. 16:7). The dreams in the Bible illustrate this principle, and all of us can learn to hear from God during the two hours of dream life we have each night. In this course, we will examine all 50 dreams of the Bible seeing how God interprets the symbolism and speaks to His children through their dreams (Num. 12:6; Acts 2:17). (3 credits for REN310; 4 credits for REN510) Course syllabus: REN310; REN510

Prerequisite: REN103 Communion With God.

“This course has truly made a significant impact on my life and laid the foundation for ongoing change and revelation. It is as if a whole new door has been opened in my life leading to a whole new world of never-before-found treasures and truths. I feel as though I am walking towards a new journey that will impact my life in a great way. I feel that more tools have been added to my spiritual toolbox to help myself and help others. When I fully grasp this practice of interpreting dreams, I will be walking in a greater dimension of wholeness, authority, counsel, wisdom and so much more. If it’s true that we spend one third of our lives sleeping and part of that dreaming, then it feels as though I have resurrected one third of my life and I can live more fully. The revelation of the importance of dreams and what God wants to do with us through dreams has been resounding in my spirit ever since I started this course.” — Student taking Wisdom Through Dream Interpretation

Pneumatology and Life in the Spirit - REN210

It is only as we minister in the anointing of the Holy Spirit that we can effectively touch the hearts of others. This practical course trains you how to sense the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, how to get to know Him as a Person, and how to release His power to heal a hurting people. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

“Throughout the duration of this course, I have been provoked to go after God like never before: to receive a greater measure of His anointing to bring liberty to captives, and God’s presence to all I encounter. I am challenged to fast and pray more on a regular basis, learn more about the anointing and start living out, through simple daily obedience, what God has called me to. I am also learning not to rely on my strength to get the job done, but to solely rely on the power of the Holy Spirit, and this too will increase the anointing on my life, which in tern will affect everything I do.” — Student taking Pneumatology and Life in the Spirit

Fulfill Your Financial Destiny - BUS102/BUS502

This course will give you Scriptural support for the belief that God delights in the prosperity of His children (Ps. 35:27). It is His desire that we lend and not borrow. We are to be the head and not the tail, above and not underneath (Deut. 28:12,13). God Himself teaches us to profit (Is. 48:17) and has given us the power to make wealth (Deut. 8:18). Several hundred verses on silver and gold will be examined, showing that we are to create and release wealth into the kingdom of God. (3 credits for BUS102; 4 credits for BUS502) (Course syllabus: BUS102; BUS502)

Take Charge of Your Health - HEA102

We have a covenant of health with our God, which is based on four prerequisites (Ex. 15:26). One of these is to keep all His statutes. In this course, we will learn the statutes of God which will keep us from cancer and the other “Black Plagues” of our century. We need not die prematurely if we become responsible by keeping God’s simple health commands. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

“Take Charge of Your Health” taught me that sickness may strike a variety of places in our lives, which affects the whole person. We must heal the spirit’s illness caused by sin. We must experience “inner healing,” which is the healing of hurtful memories and damaged emotions. The effects from harmful memories may consist of guilt, shame, and depression. This is why we need to repent, ask God for forgiveness, and go through deliverance of demonic strongholds. I believe that most mental illness is frequently misdiagnosed; and is, in many cases, demonization, the influence of demonic activity. Some people become so saturated with sin and invading spirits, that they no longer have control over who and what they are. We all must remember that the body houses the spirit and soul within us and we must properly maintain all three. Don’t you think you should be responsible for your health? The CLU course “Take Charge of Your Health” will help you do that. —Mark Huddleston

Gifted to Succeed - LEA103

“To each of us grace has been given according to the measure of Christ’s gift…And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints.” Do you know which of these heart motivations God has given to you? Is God asking you to express this heart motivation within or outside the structured church, or both? Which ministry or vocation is He asking you to express yourself through? What kinds of people do you need next to you to make you most effective? These questions and many others will be answered. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

“These last 12 weeks have been like looking into a mirror and seeing things in me that I have never seen before. Then taking those things, learning more about them and pruning them to work most effectively for and in myself, my life and my ministry.” — Student taking Gifted to Succeed

Father Heart of God - REN105

This highly experiential course is designed to draw you into a closer relationship with your heavenly Father, in which you have not only a theological understanding of His deep love and affection for you, but you also know it because you have personally felt it. You will also learn how to help others overcome any hindrances in their lives that prevent them from experiencing the love of the Father for themselves. (3 credits) Course Syllabus
Prerequisite: REN103 Communion With God.

“I not only realized that the love of Father is so widely needed and missed in the Church, but it is needed in the entire world. The message of Father’s love is not only for the saved, but the unsaved as well. It is what will get them saved. It is what the world needs to hear; your heavenly Father loves you. He loves you so much that He sent His only Son to die for you that you might live.” — Student taking Father Heart of God

I’m currently doing your Father Heart of God class and feel this revelation should be required for every human being on the planet! — Yvette Cort

Marriage in the Kingdom Age - COU204/504

This course will develop your skills and bring out your greater understanding the covenantal significance and power of a marriage in today’s Kingdom Age. You will learn how to apply grace as was modeled by the Savior. You will learn to allow God to lead you and your spouse in your decisions in marriage. Working as a team, you and your spouse can use greater Kingdom authority to stand against the enemy. In unity, God moves mightily on the earth through married couples. You will understand more fully the freedom and ignite passion within marriage in accordance with God’s way. Overcome any hurts and resentments in your marriage by working through grace-filled processes. This course will motivate and develop your heart for building a Christ-centered marriage. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

Parenting for Success - COU305

Great relationships with your children don’t just happen. They must be cultivated. Become the kind of parent that makes your children proud to be your children. Learn how to bring out the best in each of your children. Parent them for success. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

The Power of Kingdom Emotions - HEA302

The central principle of this course is that our heart (emotions) must be in alignment with our mind (beliefs) in order to experience a miracle of divine healing. If our mind says, “I believe,” and our heart feels, “This is not going to happen,” the power of God is short-circuited. Visionary meditations are included to lead people into their own personal encounters with Jesus, allowing them to feel His emotions of love, joy and peace for themselves, thereby turning on healthy genes and unleashing healing power throughout their body. (3 credits) Course Syllabus

Secrets of the Spirit - PRO101

In this course you will learn how to flow in the full manifestation of the Holy Spirit, just like Jesus and Paul. This course trains you through the example of powerful testimonies, a study of the teaching of other leaders, and extensive biblical research to arrive at a theological summary of what is required for you to not only experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but to release all of His gifts as well. This class will teach you how every believer can flow in every spiritual gift and you will be equipped to more easily and daily live and walk by the Spirit! (3 credits) Course Syllabus

Testimonies

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Specialized training opportunities which transfer easily into CLU:

The Net Institute – Addiction recovery
Christian Healing Certification Program