Welcome to this Personal Message about the
Psychology Program at Columbia International University
The Psychology faculty of Columbia International University have developed this web page as a personal response to you prospective students who have directly expressed interest in our Program. It comes to you as a person-to-person message (return correspondence), designed to help you decide whether or not CIU is the best place for you to study the discipline of Psychology. For official and more complete information, request a catalog from CIU, at the address below. But first, take a few moments to enjoy the images on this page, which represent the kind of material which we routinely study and use in the Psychology Program. And, by the way, Columbia International University is exactly that -- an international university. The country flags above all represent nations where members of our program have lived and served.
Through their course of study at CIU, our students become aware of serious psychiatric disorders, like substance addiction, clinical depression, life threatening eating disorders, and other disorders which affect brain chemistry and behavior. Our students are made aware of the most effective known treatments for the disorders which they study. Our students also become familiar with well known psychometric tests, learn about measures of reliability and validity, and learn about the ethics and the methods of accurate testing. All our students are taught research techniques and strategies, so they can understand empirical outcome studies, and are prepared to conduct their own research.
X 2 = S(o-e)2 / e
~ Chi Square Analysis ~
All of our majors learn to counsel people who are struggling with life issues, normal and clinical, and learn to use the Bible as an effective guide to long term mental health. This is facilitated by our students getting to know their Bibles very well, through the full Bible major which they take, while they concurrently study in their Psychology Program. We select and build our methods of treatment around the biblical understanding of human beings. We want all of our graduates to view their life's work as a ministry, a calling from God, a true vocation.
We have well qualified, full-time faculty members to teach our Psychology courses, and to actively mentor our students. Our faculty members have served in a variety of roles, including serving as counseling psychologists in private agencies and medical centers, serving as pastors in local churches, and serving as cross-cultural discipleship counselors for internationally known parachurch organizations for many years. We advocate a model of spiritual and professional growth across a lifetime. We gladly apply this model to both our students and ourselves.
 Stephen Farra, PhDDr. Farra received both his BA and MA from Wheaton College, before receiving his PhD at the University of Minnesota. He taught undergraduate courses in a variety of settings, pastored a small church, and directed two mental health clinics, one of them in a medical center, before joining the faculty of CIU. He returned to teaching for the love of the students and the process. Dr. Farra directs the Psychology Program. |
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 Larry Wagner, PhDDr. Wagner received his BA in Christian Education from Wheaton College, and served as an assistant pastor, before sensing his call to professional Christian counseling. He received his PhD from Texas A&M University, joined a large Christian counseling practice in the Atlanta area, and helped to train graduate students, before joining the faculty of CIU. Dr. Wagner maintains a small private practice as a licensed psychologist while serving on our faculty. |
Career Paths and Potentials:
Immediately upon graduation, our students have found work as Psych Techs for psychiatric hospitals, as Counselors for group homes, and some have gone into business to become Personnel / Human Resource Officers for large corporations. Some of our students have been employed by local churches to assist with their counseling and teaching ministries, and others have used what they have learned about people to facilitate missionary work overseas. We encourage most of our graduates to at least consider getting a graduate degree, so they can minister as a Christian professional in a variety of settings. We teach our courses rigorously, so that conscientious students in our program can score well enough on the GRE-Psych, and other standardized measures of performance, to be able to enter and succeed in graduate school.
If our program sounds like it might be a good option for you, we would be more than happy to try to answer any questions you might have. You can e-mail us directly by clicking here.