Interdisciplinary studies degree at Liberty University: Religion and Christian counseling

Introduction

The Interdisciplinary Studies degree offers a student the opportunity to integrate disciplines to develop a broader understanding of areas that can be meaningfully applied one’s career. For example, an Interdisciplinary Studies degree that focuses on Religion and Christian counseling provides a suitable foundation for a counselor seeking to specialize in a work area that incorporates aspects of religion into the fundamentals of counseling. It is similar to a chef who has an understanding of a variety of menus and meals and how to prepare them applying for job as a opposed to a chef who has only practiced preparing one menu item over a course of four years applying for the same job. The chef who shows greater breadth within the type of cuisine that he is expected to produce will be the one who is more attractive to the employer. As McKinney (1991) shows, interdisciplinary studies open more doors for job applicants. A counselor who seeks to provide Christian counseling services and has a background in Religious studies thanks to the Interdisciplinary Studies degree offered by Liberty University will have more appeal to an employer than a counselor who has simply a degree in counseling. In a world where specialized medicine and services are the new norm, a professional who has focused his or her studies by embracing the interdisciplinary vision is more marketable than a graduate whose degree-path has a narrower scope.

Integrated Studies Make One Well-Rounded

Religion and Christian counseling are two areas of study that naturally go together and can be integrated effectively to give students of Interdisciplinary Studies a well-rounded advantage over students of traditional degree paths (Van Deusen Hunsinger, 1995). It is a fact that disciplines tend to overlap: instead of teaching them in isolation of one another, students should be invited to study integrate them into a course that fits the student’s overall aim (Repko & Szostak, 2012). Likewise, as Repko, Szostak and Buchberger (2017) note, “interdisciplinary studies is now considered basic to education, problem solving, professional practice, and innovation” (p. 4). The more integrated one’s studies of disciplines are, the more that one will be likely to obtain “a time-tested practical way to address the inherent complexity of real-world problems, including those problems arising in the workplace” (Repko et al., 2017, p. 4). For an individual intent on combining theology with counseling, the obvious solution for how to study towards an appropriate acquisition of knowledge is to adopt the interdisciplinary approach (Van Deusen Hunsinger, 1995).

In the field of counseling, there are a number of different approaches that counselors in the field can offer to clients. Counseling is a highly personalized intervention, which is why there are so many different counselors specializing in so many different techniques. For example, there are marriage and family counselors, guidance counselors, rehabilitation counselors, mental health counselors, educational counselors, substance abuse counselors—and these are just general areas of counselor. It gets even more specific once counseling approaches are discussed. There are counselors who specialize in cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalysis, the humanistic approach, holistic therapy, and various others. Clients who are religious or who want a Christian approach to counseling provide a verifiable market for counselors who have specialized in religious studies—and even more so for counselors who have specialized in an interdisciplinary studies degree combining Religion with a Christian counseling focus. If one is going to provide Christian counseling, after all, it helps to understand the religion, the major themes, spiritual approaches, concepts, teachings, foundations, and history. The greater the depth of knowledge of a Christian counselor within the realm of religion, the better prepared that counselor will be to provide an adequate intervention for clients of various
Christian backgrounds.

How Individual Strengths and Education Increase One’s Professional Marketability

As Clifton, Anderson and Schreiner (2006) show, one’s inner strengths can help to boost one’s academic and business success—all that is required is the desire to recognize these strengths and tap into them. Strengths that can work to increase one’s professional marketability include: 1) communication, 2) competitiveness, 3) individualization, 4) input, and 5) intellection (Clifton et al., 2006). Communication can boost one’s professional marketability as it shows that one has the ability to speak, affirm, express, and explain; without these skills, one will have little value in the business world. The more that one’s education provides a broader and deeper understanding of a special area of study, the more information that person will have to draw upon in order to be a better communicator.

Thus, combining individual strengths with education—particularly an interdisciplinary approach to education—can increase one’s attractiveness to employers. One’s ability to compete is another strength that can help: knowing how to be better than one’s competitors—how to stand out among them—is an absolute strength and one facilitated by the interdisciplinary studies degree. A counselor who can boast a background in religion and in Christian counselor will appear as far more professional and knowledgeable than a counselor with no background in either, when it comes to marketing oneself to Christian or religious clients. Individualization is a key strength, too, as it is a person-centered quality that allows one to hone in on what makes every person unique and use this to make a connection and provide the right type of technique or intervention most suited to that individual’s needs. Input gives your mind a store of value—a collection of data that you gather along the way, most certainly enhanced by an education in which integrated disciplines are used to inform one’s study. And intellection is what helps to keep it all together: one’s mind at work is like a computer’s CPU—spinning the internal processes together so that the end result is flawless execution. These strengths when combined can increase one’s ability to market oneself—and they can also advance one’s drive to be more professional once the academic goals have been accomplished. For instance, an individual who has united personal strengths with education can, upon graduation, apply these tools to one’s industry by joining an association—a network or community of like-minded peers whose aim is to facilitate common pursuits. The Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (2018), founded in 1979, is one such professional organization that offers a platform for professionals with interdisciplinary backgrounds to come together, network, and support one another’s aims in their various fields.

Metaphor

To help explain the areas of study of Religion and Christian Counseling, an appropriate metaphor is bird making a nest for its eggs. The bird can make a great nest out of strong materials, using the twigs and grass and scraps that are available around it. The nest can be strong and supportive and will provide a warm, firm home for the eggs as the young inside grow and develop till they are ready to hatch. But if that nest is not situated or placed in an appropriate environment where it can be protected from the elements or from intruders, all that effort may come to naught. In this metaphor, the discipline of counseling is like the nest. One can specialize it with the scraps and twigs and grass to make it useful for the eggs—and in this way, one can understand the value of Christian Counseling as a specialized approach to counseling. The environment, the background, the elements surrounding the nest is like the discipline of religion. This discipline allows the study of counseling to be situated in an informative background that is supportive of the Christian Counseling approach. The background in religion helps to facilitate the approach and give it the degree of security and effective inputs it needs to be of use to the client—just like a nest that is built by bird on a high-up branch is better protected from predators on the ground than a nest that is built in a bush on the lawn. The more informed one’s approach in one area of study is by another area of study, the better situated one’s overall academic and professional appeal is going to be for clients and employers.

Biblical Worldview

The biblical worldview for supporting this approach can be found in Ephesians 4:11-16: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophet, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service….” Christ represents the essence of the holistic approach—the “whole body” of teaching and technique that is “joined and held together by every supporting ligament” so that society “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:16). As interdisciplinary studies help the student to become well-rounded, this Biblical Worldview helps to provide the right framework for applying one’s education to the career of Christian Counseling: Christ is always giving of Himself to those who seek His aid. The counselor is one who is in the service of supplying this aid, acting as a conduit for the client. The counselor possesses a fullness of learning that supports the aim of Christians. By being attentive and gathering as much input as possible, the student of interdisciplinary studies can help out in the world—so that “then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Conclusion

The Interdisciplinary Studies degree at Liberty University is a great way for an individual to become a better-rounded and better informed professional in the field of counseling. By combining Religion and Christian Counseling studies and integrating these two disciplines in an academic pursuit, a student can be especially prepared to enter the counseling profession. Marketing oneself as a student of interdisciplinary studies is also an effective way to catch the eye of employers and potential clients because it marks one as a person who has not limited his or her scope or depth of study: instead, it shows that one has seen how disciplines overlap, how they can be effectively united and combined to reinforce notions, concepts and themes; how they can be used to achieve greater insight into the practical application of these concepts in the real world. For a Christian Counselor, a background in Religious studies can be supportive and helpful—and an employer who appreciates having a well-rounded counselor on staff who can appeal to clients looking for a special type of therapy, this approach is perfect.

References

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies. (2018). Retrieved from https://oakland.edu/ais/

Clifton, D. O., Anderson, E. C., & Schreiner, L. A. (2006). StrengthsQuest: Discover and develop your strengths in academics, career, and beyond (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Gallup Press. 

McKinney, W. L. (1991). Graduates' satisfaction with bachelor of general studies degree. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 39(1), 16-18.

Repko, A. & Szostak, R. (2012). Interdisciplinary research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Repko, A., Szostak, R. & Buchberger, M. (2017). Introduction to interdisciplinary studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Van Deusen Hunsinger, D. (1995). Theology and pastoral counseling: A new interdisciplinary approach. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.