School of Mental and Behavioral Health
Our Mission
The mission of the School of Mental and Behavioral Health is to involve students in a search for truth, values and a just existence within the framework of humanistic, depth and systemic/relational traditions.
Cultivating truth, values and a just existence in the fields of counseling and marriage and family therapy requires a holistic and humanistic perspective that recognizes the lived interplay of thought, feeling and action, as well as the deeper influences of soul and spirit, in the creation and transformation of human meaning and the relationships in which this meaning is enacted.
At the heart of the therapeutic relationship and the art of psychotherapy, disciplined thought encourages an openness to truth; an appreciation for the deep life of feeling fosters an understanding of the origins of one’s values and a sense of beauty; and a responsible, ethical willingness to act in the world and in one’s community opens one to a sense of a good and just existence. The healing and mysterious aspects of a therapeutic relationship are founded in its ability to reflect the greater whole which balances thinking, feeling and action as intimations of truth, beauty and goodness.
Service to community in the fields of counseling and family therapy necessitates a broad understanding of the social, political and cultural influences that shape our lives and frame the question of, “How we ought to live?” Counseling and Family Therapy students wrestle with how best to incorporate theories and techniques of change into the practice of creating therapeutic relationships. They will help to foster hope and courage in those we serve, who are striving to live more productive and just lives.