The Christ-Centered Therapy (CCT) Certification is a one-of-a-kind training and certification program designed to augment the clinical and relational skills of licensed mental health professionals and pastoral counselors.
A Unique Training for
Christian Therapists, Biblical Counselors, and Ministers
who want to bring the presence of Christ into the therapy process in a clinically responsible, biblically grounded, and experientially rich way.
Rooted in Scripture and the historic traditions of Christian soul care – especially the Reformation, classical spiritual direction, and inner healing prayer – CCT translates the best of contemporary psychology and evidence-based methods with Christian theological and spiritual resources. Its ultimate aim is to equip therapists to skillfully and ethically engage the presence of Christ in the therapeutic process—when desired by the client—for deep healing and redemptive transformation. Christ-Centered Therapy (CCT) is a holistic therapy model that works with the embodied, psychosocial, ethical, and spiritual dimensions to promote the healing of psychospiritual problems related to human fallenness, such as attachment disturbances, complex trauma, relational conflict, emotional distress, and sin.
The Training Journey
The CCT Certification consists of two primary components:
- Four Online Courses (each lasts from 10-12 hours and has assigned readings)
Foundational training in Christian worldview, theology, and soul care, designed to frame therapy within the redemptive story of Scripture and Christian tradition. - Three In-Person or Online Intensives (five (5) 8-hour days each)
Experiential training that deepens personal transformation and clinical skills, focusing on therapeutic practices that embody the presence and story of Christ.
Eligibility
This program is designed for masters-level counselors (e.g. licensed mental health professionals, pastoral counselors, biblical counselors, or spiritual directors). However, spiritually mature lay leaders may apply with relevant training and experience in counseling or soul care. Applicants should have a working knowledge of therapy or ministry practice and a desire to develop a distinctly Christian approach to healing work.
Disclaimer: CPI reserves the right to determine the readiness or suitability for the Christ-Centered Therapy certification of participants involved in our training at any point.
Prerequisites
Courses may be taken in any order as they are available, though foundational coursework is recommended. Intensives must be taken consecutively.
Online Courses
For Mental Health Professionals
Current courses.
1. Worldview, Ethics, and Distinctly Christian Therapy
Examines how secular and Christian worldviews shape counseling models, ethics, and goals for therapy. Topics include worldviews, the history and ethics of therapy, diverse forms of knowledge, and Christ-centered wellbeing.
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. Topics include human nature, Christian psychopathology, inwardness and self-examination, and therapy models and modalities.
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. Topics include the Trinity, Christ-centered wellbeing, Christianity’s healing story, creation, sin, suffering, and human fallenness.
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. Topics include Christ’s life and work, the church’s role in therapy, and redemptive differentiation and integration.
For Pastoral & Biblical Counselors
Beginning in 2027.
1. Christian Human Development
An overview of lifespan development according to the Bible and the Christian tradition(s) and the most important, relevant empirical research (including emotional, cognitive, social, self, and religious development and the main features of each age period), the emergence of personhood and virtue formation, and adult stages of spiritual development.
2. Christian Interpersonal Neurobiology and the Soul
A summary of research on the soul’s embodied, neurological development and the lifelong impact of attachment, examined in light of the Bible and the Christian tradition(s), differences in the two hemispheres, and polyvagal theory.
3. Christian & Secular Therapy Models
An overview and critique of the major secular schools of therapy, highlighting Attachment Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, EMDR, and Internal Family Systems, concluding with a discussion of the unique value of distinctly Christian models of therapy.
4. Christian Psychopathology and Body-Soul Relations
An overview of various psychological disorders, with a consideration of the role of the body, trauma, medication, agency, sin, and spiritual abuse.
Training Intensives
The heart of the CCT certification is three progressive intensives, composed of 50% prerecorded video and 50% livestreamed video or in-person instruction from Thursday to Saturday afternoon. The intensives are focused on cultivating the personal, spiritual, and clinical capacities necessary for Christ-centered therapy. Each intensive combines lecture, small group processing, experiential exercises, and hands-on practice of core interventions.
Intensive 1 Training
Introduction to CCT: CCT Basics, Establishing a Safe Haven and Becoming Oneself in Christ
Focus: Therapist formation and renewal, foundational CCT practices, establishing internal refuge, and developing secure attachment with Christ.
Intensive 2 Training
Redemptive Transformation and the Power of Story – Increasing Competence in CCT
Focus: Healing personal and client narratives, based on a Christian’s union with Christ and his story, and advanced emotional processing skills.
Intensive 3 Training
Deepening Communion with God in the Therapy Process
Focus: The therapeutic value of worship and communion with God, Contemplative prayer as a means to experience intimacy with God, promotion of earned secure attachment to Jesus in order to address psychological problems due to insecure attachment, chronic trauma, personal sin, and spiritual struggles, Counseling of “parts” within a Christian worldview. Supervision will also be included.
Outcome
By completing this program, participants will:
- Gain a holistic, biblically grounded model for Christian therapy
- Grow in their own spiritual and emotional formation
- Acquire skills to incorporate distinctly Christian resources—prayer, Scripture, spiritual imagery—into the clinical setting
- Develop and articulate their own model of Christ-Centered Therapy
Theological and Clinical Foundations
CCT draws from Scripture and classical sources (Reformation theology, spiritual direction, inner healing prayer) while also integrating insights from:
- Emotion-focused therapy
- Attachment theory
- Interpersonal neurobiology
- Internal Family Systems
- Accelerated experiential psychodynamic methods
- Narrative therapy and memory reconsolidation