Courses

The CCT Credential consists of four online courses:

This foundational training in Christian worldview, theology, and soul care is designed to frame therapy within the redemptive story of Scripture and Christian tradition. These four courses provide the theological and philosophical foundation for Christ-centered therapy.

Online Courses (Prerequisite Coursework)

Each course includes six weekly 2-hour sessions and assigned readings (1–2 chapters per week).

1. Worldview, Ethics, and Distinctly Christian Therapy

Examines how secular and Christian worldviews shape counseling models, ethics, and goals for therapy.

Week 1 – Worldviews as Eyeglasses, Loves, & Possibilities

Week 2 – Worldviews & Therapies: Christian, Secular, or Mixed

Week 3 – Revolutions that Shaped Modern Therapy

Week 4 – Therapy Needs All Kinds of Knowledge – Not Just Empirical

Week 5 – The Ethics of Therapy: Being a WV Minority in a Secular Therapy World

Week 6 – Christ-Centered Ethics and the Very-Good Life

REGISTER FOR COURSE 1

2. Human Nature and Christian Healing and Formation

Explores a Christian framework for understanding human complexity, psychopathology, and healing, based on Foundations for Soul Care.

Week 1 – Four Dimensions of Human Beings, Part 1

Week 2 – Four Dimensions of Human Beings, Part 2

Week 3 – Christian Psychopathology and the Four Dimensions

Week 4 – The Origins of Christian Inwardness & Self-Examination

Week 5 – Christian Inwardness, Internalization, & Manifestation

Week 6 – Therapy Models vs. Modalities

REGISTER FOR COURSE 2

3. A Theology for Counseling – Part 1

Presents a theological foundation for therapy rooted in the Trinity, the Christian story, Created Goodness and the realities of sin and suffering, based on God and Soul Care.

Week 1 – The Glory of the Trinity and Christian Therapy

Week 2 – Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Goal and Ultimate Means of Wellbeing

Week 3 – The Healing Story of Christianity

Week 4 – Created Good

Week 5 – Sin, Suffering, & a Christian Psychopathology

Week 6 – Weakness, Fault, and Fallenness & a Christian Psychopathology

REGISTER FOR COURSE 3

4. A Theology for Counseling – Part 2

Explores themes of union with Christ and his story, redemptive living, and transformation through Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension, based on God and Soul Care.

Week 1 – Christ, the Center of Christian Therapy and Christ’s Life

Week 2 – Christ’s Death & Resurrection & Christian Therapy

Week 3 – Christ’s Ascension & the Church & Christian Therapy

Week 4 – The Old and the New

Week 5 – Redemptive Differentiation

Week 6 – Redemptive Integration

REGISTER FOR COURSE 4

References

Allender, D. (2006). To be told. Waterbrook.

Brown, D., & Elliott, D. S. (2016). Attachment disturbances in adults: Treatment for comprehensive repair. W. W. Norton.

Charry, E. T. (1997). By the renewing of your minds: The pastoral function of Christian doctrine. Oxford University Press.

Chrysostomos, A. (2007). A guide to Orthodox psychotherapy: The science, theology, and spiritual practice behind it and its clinical application. University Press of America.

Cloitre, M., Cohen, L. R., Ortigo, K. M., Jackson, C., & Koenen, K. C. (2020). Treating survivors of childhood abuse and interpersonal trauma: STAIR narrative therapy (2nd ed.). Guilford.

Coe, J., & Hall, T. (2007). Psychology in the Spirit. InterVarsity.

DeYoung, P. (2003). Relational psychotherapy: A primer. Brunner-Routledge.

Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the emotional brain. Routledge.

Fosha, D. (Ed.). (2021). Undoing aloneness and the transformation of suffering into flourishing. AEDP 2.0. American Psychological Association.

Greenberg, L., & Paivio, S. (1997). Working with emotions in psychotherapy. Guilford.

Hermans, H. J. M., & Dimaggio, G. (Eds.). (2003). The dialogical self in psychotherapy. Brunner-Routledge.

Johnson, E. L. (2007). Foundations for soul care: A Christian psychology proposal. InterVarsity.

Johnson, E. L. (2017). God and soul care: The therapeutic resources of the Christian faith. InterVarsity.

Johnson, E. L. (2024). Counseling and worldviews: Negotiating conflict ethically in a pluralistic world. [Unpublished manuscript]. Christian Psychology Institute.

Lopez, A. (2016). Gift and the unity of being. Cascade Books.

McCullough, L., et al. (2003). Treating affect phobia: A manual for short-term dynamic psychotherapy. Guilford.

Moreland, J. P., & Craig, W. L. (2003). Philosophical foundations for a Christian worldview. InterVarsity.

Knabb, J. J., Johnson, E. L., Sisemore, T., & Bates, T. (2018). Psychotherapy in Christian context. Routledge.

Paivio, S. C., & Angus, L. (2017). Narrative processes in emotion-focused therapy for trauma. American Psychological Association.

Payne, L. (1995). The healing presence. Baker.

Porges, S. W. (2009). The polyvagal theory: New insights into adaptive reactions of the autonomic nervous system. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. 76(Supplement 2): 86–90. doi:10.3949/ccjm.76.s2.17

Schwartz, R., & Sweezy, M. (2019). Internal family systems therapy (2nd ed.). Guilford.

Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy (3rd ed.). Guilford.

Siegel, D. (2020). The developing mind (3rd ed.). Guilford.

Tanquery, A. (1930). The spiritual life. Society of St. John the Evangelist, Desclee & Co.

Vitz, P. C., Nordling, W. J., & Titus, C. S. (Eds.). (2020). A Catholic, Christian meta-model of the person. Divine Mercy University Press.