MF798 Syllabus Steven J. Sandage, Ph.D.Bethel Seminary 651-638-6170 Spring Quarter 2013 s-sandage@bethel.eduTuesday, 1:00-5:00 p.m.

INTEGRATION SEMINAR:THEORY, PRACTICE, AND WORLDVIEW

Course Description

This course is designed to encourage students to integrate theoretical, theological, and clinical elements into a coherent worldview that will facilitate congruence in professional therapy and ministry practice. Attention will be given to epistemological theories in shaping integrative knowledge; the moral nature of clinical practice, research, and theory; wholeness and holiness in the self of the therapist; intercultural implications of their theological, theoretical, and clinical commitments; and the value of paradigms such as virtue and wisdom for effective ministry to individuals and families. This course will be taught as a seminar, with students taking primary responsibility for directing discussion and dialogue based on extensive reading.

Course Objectives – Students should be able to:

1. Articulate a coherent definition of integration.

2. Demonstrate a professional approach to discussion and dialogue, characterized by critical thinking, respectful assertiveness, and the capacity for integration.

3. Demonstrate an integrative understanding of the theological, moral, intercultural, and spiritual dimensions of marriage and family therapy.

4. Demonstrate an awareness of the importance of wholeness and holiness in the self of the therapist, both theoretically and experientially.

5. Analyze their personal “integration story” and identify goals for continuing integrative work including growth in intercultural competence.

Required Reading

Abbott, C. (2008). The blood of recognition – Atonement and transference in psychoanalytically-based pastoral psychotherapy. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 10, 265-307.

Beck, R. (2006a). Defensive versus existential religion: Is religious defensiveness predictive of worldview defense? Journal of Psychology and Theology, 37, 143-153.

Beck, R. (2006b). God as secure base: Attachment to God and theological exploration. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 34, 125-132.

Beck, R. (2009). Profanity: The Gnostic affront of the seven words you can never say on television. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 37, 294-303.

Brown, J. K., Dahl, C. M., & Corbin Reuschling, W. (2011). Becoming whole and holy: An integrative conversation about Christian formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Dueck, A., & Reimer, K. (2009). A peaceable psychology: Christian therapy in a world of many cultures. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.

Hiebert, D. (2008). Can we talk? Achieving dialogue between sociology and theology. Christian Scholar's Review 37(2), 199-214.

Jones, J.W. (2002). Terror and transformation: The ambiguity of religion in psychoanalytic perspective. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

Sandage, S.J., & Brown, J.K. (2012). Converging horizons for relational integration: Differentiation-based collaboration. Journal of Psychology & Theology, 40, 72-76.

Shults, F. L., & Sandage, S. J. (2006). Transforming spirituality: Integrating theology and psychology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Course Requirements

This is a four-credit course, and therefore we assume that you will be spending approximately 100 hours outside of class on readings and assignments. Since the first draft of your major project is already completed, much of these 100 hours will be spent on reading and preparing for discussion.

1. Readings: Complete all readings as assigned. Come prepared with written questions, application examples, theoretical and theological critique, integrative thinking (using the form attached).

Note: You are just a few weeks away from holding a master’s degree and assuming the role of a new professional. We understand how powerful “senioritis” can be, and we also assume that you will all finish strong. Balancing the personal, professional, and academic responsibilities that you have will be a challenge—one that you will face in some way for the rest of your career. This course has the potential to be provocative and exciting, as it offers the opportunity to pull together a number of threads that you’ve been holding for at least a couple of years and to find a new “jumping-off place” for your continuing growth and development. It also demands a great deal of reading, which is usually the first thing to go when we are stressed. We cannot over-emphasize the importance of scheduling into your already busy lives your reading for this course so that you do not fall behind and so that you are able to interact in meaningful ways with the material and with your peers.

2. Participation: Each student must take responsibility for engaging the rest of the class in discussion with regard to the readings. In addition, participation includes engaging your peers as part of their presentations.

3. Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Interpretation Session – Dr. Mary Jensen will send you a link to take the IDI during the first week of spring quarter. The department will cover the expense. For most of you, this will be the second time you have taken the IDI and will allow you to assess your current intercultural development and next steps toward

intercultural competence. Please schedule an interpretation session with Dr. Jensen prior to our April 16 class session, and this will factor into your overall participation points.

4. Integrative Project: This will involve two parts.

a. You will revise your Integrative Project to reflect relevant course concepts and new understandings you come to during this course. This will be turned in as a paper on May 28 (no more than 40 pages—approximately 10,000 words).

b. You will present a summary of your Integrative Project (considering it a work in progress) to your peers. This will take the format of a paper presentation at a professional conference. Your presentation must not be more than 12 minutes long, in order to give the audience time for questions. All faculty and staff of the MFT program will be invited to attend the presentations.

In your presentation, you will not be able to cover your entire project, and you should not read from it. Rather, read a brief description of your clinical case (and include this as a handout) in the early part of your presentation, and then present some aspects of your integrative work involving your motif. Please include (a) a primary social science or therapy theory, (b) theological perspectives, and (c) diversity or social justice considerations. Feel free to be creative in your presentation, but do not sacrifice content and professionalism for the sake of creativity. Plan your time carefully.

As an audience member, your role is not to agree or disagree with the project (in fact, do not use the words, “I really liked how you….”). You will need to reflect on your colleague’s presentation from the perspective of your own commitments and assumptions. Remember that respect for another’s work is demonstrated by engaging with it. Listen carefully and develop integrative questions to ask during the follow-up time. Don’t attempt to do your colleagues a “favor” by not requiring them to support or explain their perspectives.

5. Integration Journey: Write a paper about your own journey of integration (2000 words maximum for the paper; due May 28). Use course concepts explicitly as you identify:

your current definition of integration and your preferred model(s); critical incidents and/or turning points in your integration journey; challenges and/or obstacles, both overcome and yet to overcome; your goals for personal, theological, theoretical, intercultural and clinical integration.

At the MFT Senior Lunch on May 31, we will ask each of you to offer a word or phrase that captures an important element of your integration journey and share a bit about why that has emerged as an important theme for you.

CLASS SCHEDULE

DATE TOPIC ASSIGNMENTMarch 26 Overview; guidelines for seminar

model; models of integration; epistemological understandings

April 2 Relational Integration READ: Hiebert (2008); Sandage & Brown (2012)

April 9 Relational Spirituality & Transformation

Guest Conversation – Dr. Mark McCloskey on Transformational Leadership

2 Presentations

READ: Shults & Sandage (chs. 1,6-10)

April 16 Intercultural Integration

3 Presentations

READ: Dueck & Reimer (2009)

April 23 Reading and research week –NO CLASS

April 30 Reading and research week –NO CLASS

May 7 Spiritual and Personal Formation, Ethics, & Integration

4 Presentations

READ: Brown, Dahl, & Corbin Reuschling

May 14 Existential vs. Defensive Religion

4 Presentations

READ Beck (2006a, 2006b, 2009)

May 21 Psychotherapy & Integration

4 Presentations

READ: Jones (2002); Abbott (2008)

May 28 MFT Senior Lunch (note time: 12:30-2:30 p.m.)

DUE: Final Integrative ProjectsDUE: Integration Journey Paper

Grading The assignments in this course will be weighted with points as follows:

Reading 60(Explicit reference to readings in discussions and projects)

Participation 140(Discussion leadership/participation; active, respectful engagement with peer presentations)

Integrative Project 250Paper 200Presentation 50

Integration Journey 50

Because of the seminar nature of this course, attendance at all sessions is essential. Missed sessions cannot be made up and will affect your grade. Since the course is required for graduation, no late work will be accepted, and no Incompletes will be given.

Academic Course Policies: Please familiarize yourself with the catalog requirements as specified in the Academic Course Policies document found on the Registrar's website at: https://bethelnet.bethel.edu/ureg/bssp/acp/. You are responsible for this information, and any violations of these policies, such as plagiarism, will not be tolerated.

General Course Expectations

1. Tutorial assistance and editorial help may be hired through the Office of Student Life. Please take advantage of these kinds of services if you do not have the time or inclination to make sure your written work meets graduate-level expectations. We will not edit your papers but will include style criteria (grammar, spelling, organization, clarity, proper APA style) in grading. Use a cover page for all work except weekly discussion preparation summaries, and make sure that your P.O. number is on all assignments. Be diligent about APA style; at this point in your graduate career, you should be experts!

2. Use of laptops and smartphones in this course is restricted to breaks. A seminar requires full engagement with one's peers and with the process, and our experience as well as the reports of students is that laptops are a distraction from that level of engagement. The newest brain research has made it clear that, contrary to our past beliefs and perhaps our current wishes, our brains were actually not created with the ability to multitask.

3. In addition, we rely on information gathered in classes to identify students' potential clinical effectiveness and use that information for our developmental work with you. In other words, we assume that you will be with clients in much the same way that you are with peers in class. Until the AAMFT Code of Ethics endorses checking one's email in the middle of a session, we will not be considering that a desirable skill.

Any course that requires us to examine our previous experience and understandings of couples and families and integrate those with our clinical approach and our sense of self has the potential to be unsettling. Our ability to learn in such a course depends on several things: our ability to tolerate ambiguity; our willingness to dialogue honestly and respectfully with fellow students; our willingness to consider alternative interpretations; our acceptance of truth, no matter where it is found; our ability to take responsibility for both our beliefs and

our anxiety about different beliefs; and our ongoing struggle to integrate new information with present beliefs. If you find that you are having personal difficulty in this course, please feel free to check with either of us or with Mary Sanders (635-2361) or Mary Jensen 9635-8661) regarding a referral for consultation or counseling.

4. We expect that in this course, we will all work to create a spirit of respect, curiosity, and dialogue, partly by following these guidelines. Your presence in this class is taken to represent your commitment to the following guidelines and your willingness to be held accountable to them.

Keep breathing and stay in the room.

• Presume welcome and extend welcome. Make a place for yourself and others in the conversation—in informal interaction, in small group discussion, and in large group interaction.

Refrain from fixing, saving, or setting straight others in the class.

Avoid making your experience normative for others.

When the interaction gets tricky, turn to inquiry rather than advocacy (wonder about something instead of defending something). Pay attention to the distinction between dialogue (which begins with a question) and debate (which begins with an answer).

Make sure your questions are real questions, not ones intended to make a point, demonstrate prior knowledge, or communicate a hidden agenda.

Observe confidentiality, especially regarding material shared by other students.

MF798 Weekly Seminar Preparation

Name

Date

Percentage of assigned reading that was:

Read thoroughly Skimmed Not engaged

Each student must take responsibility for engaging the class in discussion with regard to the week’s readings. Bring two copies of this completed form (typed; single-spaced; bullet points) to each class session: one for you to refer to during discussion and one to turn in at the beginning of class.

Integrative questions

Application examples

Integrative critique