MA in Pastoral Counseling – Marriage & Family Studies Nurture Stronger Bonds

36

Credit Hours

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100% online,* 8-week courses

Transfer in up to 50% of the degree total

Liberty University’s 100% online Master of Arts (MA) in Pastoral Counseling – Marriage and Family Studies is designed to equip ministry professionals and church leaders with the skills they need to become biblical counselors in Christian ministries and agency-based, non-licensure settings.

Students in the online Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling degree will study psychology, the Christian understanding of human nature, and how God’s creation informs biblical counseling. This degree program provides a balanced treatment of spiritual and mental health studies — which can help equip ministry professionals already in the field or students who want to move into a Christian counseling role.

The marriage and family specialization section of this degree in biblical counseling is designed to broaden your understanding of challenges commonly posed to married couples and their families. Our pastoral counseling degree in marriage and family studies was created in conjunction with Dr. James C. Dobson — a world-renowned Christian psychologist, author, radio host, and family expert who has been providing faith-based counseling to families for decades. By choosing Liberty’s Christian counseling program in marriage and family studies, you are choosing a degree that was created with your success in mind.

*Some exclusions apply. Please refer to our exclusions page for more information.

Accreditation

Liberty Theological Seminary, as part of Liberty University’s John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). Your seminary degree is approved by ATS and has met rigorous accreditation standards, so you can feel confident that your degree is both academically excellent and well-respected among churches, ministries, and nonprofit organizations.

ATS Accreditation

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What Sets Us Apart?

  • Private Nonprofit University
  • 600+ Online Degrees
  • No Standardized Testing for Admission
  • Transfer in up to 75% of an Undergrad Degree
  • Transfer in up to 50% of a Grad/Doctoral Degree

If you are already a ministry professional and would like to help people struggling with spiritual and mental health crises, completing an online Christian marriage counseling degree program like the Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling will help you get there. This non-licensure program is designed to build on your ministry experience to support your Christian counseling and pastoral care role.

If you want to branch out into a Christian counseling role, the field-specific training and biblical counseling techniques in the online Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling can help provide much-needed support for biblical counseling in a variety of settings.

The marriage and family studies area of focus for the online Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling offers you marital counseling and family studies training to help you start a new ministry or expand your current ministry scope. Liberty’s James C. Dobson Center for Child Development, Marriage, and Family Studies can help ensure that your ministry training is recognized and field-tested.


The core content of the online master of arts in pastoral counseling – marriage and family counseling degree provides a broad set of foundational Christian counseling skills and knowledge along with field-specialized topic courses and hands-on skill areas. If you choose to earn a Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling, you can learn how the science of psychology reflects biblical principles of personhood and human nature. You will also study how mental health treatment benefits from spiritual health.

In the online Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling, you will also have the opportunity to pursue hands-on training on campus during 2 optional intensives. In addition, all pastoral counseling students will gain experience in their own communities through the pastoral counseling internship.

The marriage and family studies track features lectures and material from world-renowned psychologist, author, radio host, and family expert Dr. James C. Dobson. Courses in the marriage and family studies track will guide you through exploring issues and strategies for counseling children and adolescents, healthy and biblical models for families and marriages, and discipline strategies for raising healthy kids that can be shared with parents.

Our MA in Pastoral Counseling – Marriage and Family Studies is divided into 2 sections: core pastoral counseling courses and family-focused courses. The core pastoral counseling courses feature subjects such as foundational doctrines of pastoral counseling, multicultural issues, spiritual formation, and crisis intervention. This section of the degree program also covers marriage and family counseling techniques, theories of pastoral counseling, and a pastoral counseling internship that allows you to gain valuable, real-world experience in an approved setting near you.

The marriage and family studies specialization offers an overview of issues and strategies for counseling and disciplining children, effective disciplinary strategies for families, and foundations of marriage and family systems. In this section of our Christian counseling degree online, you will also study the Biblical factors that inform healthy sexuality.

Degree Completion Plan


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Your success is our success, which is why we are committed to providing quality academics at an affordable tuition rate. While other colleges are increasing their tuition, we have frozen tuition rates for the majority of our undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs for the past 9 years – and counting.

Grad & Postgrad Divinity Block Rate (9-15 credit hours) $2,750
Grad & Postgrad Divinity Part Time (0-8.99 or over 15 credit hours) $395/Credit
Military Grad & Postgrad Divinity Block Rate (9-15 credit hours) $2,475
Military Grad & Postgrad Divinity Part Time (0-8.99 or over 15 credit hours) $275/Credit

All Tuition & Fees


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Military

Liberty University is dedicated to providing world-class educational experiences to military students across the globe.

Who May Qualify?

  • Active Duty
  • Reserve/National Guard
  • Veterans/Retirees
  • Spouses of Service Members and Veterans/Retirees
  • Current Department of Defense Employees

Available Benefits:

  • Tuition discounts – $275 per credit hour for part-time graduate and postgraduate divinity courses
  • Discounted divinity block rate – $2,475 per semester*
  • Additional discount for veterans who service in a civilian capacity as a First Responder (less than $625 per course)**
  • 8-week courses, 8 different start dates each year, and no set login times (may exclude certain courses such as practicums, internships, or field experiences)

*Credits taken below 9 and above 15 credit hours per semester are charged at the part-time rate.

**Not applicable to certificates.