We have long been asked, “Can mental health professionals receive continuing education units (CEU’s) for attending the counseling seminars at The Summit Church?” After exploring the possibility, we will begin to offer a letter of completion (generic sample) that can be submitted to your respective state licensing board for continuing education hours. The acceptance of these seminar hours as continuing education credits is a determination to be made by each licensing board.
The letter is on joint Summit Church and Southeastern letterhead to indicate both the ecclesiastical (church) and academic (masters level seminary instructor) standing of the person providing the instruction.
Mental health professionals who attend will gain:
- Awareness about how to serve Christian counselees experiencing various life struggles from within their faith tradition. Often Christians are reticent to engage with secular counseling because they are unsure whether their therapist understands their world-view and values. We hope that both Christian and non-Christian mental health providers will attend so that when a Christian is seeing a non-Christian therapist, that counselor will have a better understanding of how to work within the Christian’s value system and world-view.
- Knowledge about church-based, after-care resources for counselees who lack a healthy social network necessary to maintain progress made in counseling. Often the benefits of counseling are lost shortly after counseling if that individual returns to an isolated or unsupportive social context. We want the counselors in RDU to be aware of the resources we have available as a church that can support their clients during or after counseling.
- Networking opportunities with Christian counselors for mutual encouragement and sharing best practices as people of faith in the mental health field. We want these events to become another setting in which Christian counselors can build relationships with one another as they invest in the emotionally taxing work of caring for others is various crises and major life transitions.
Out of our desire to see a growing continuity of care between Christian counselors and local churches, we offer these letters of completion free of charge.
To register for a letter of completion, email us at: counseling@summitrdu.com with the following information so that we can have your personalized letter of completion ready to pick up immediately following the event:
- Your Name
- Your Credential
- Your License Number
- The Event(s) You Plan to Attend
- An up-to-date listing of counseling seminars can always be found here: bradhambrick.com/events/
On the day of the event, we ask that you please do the following:
- Arrive on time and let the greeters at the entry of the seminar know you are mental health professional here for CEU credit. They will escort you to a seating area in the front reserved for mental health professionals.
- Pick up the seminar listening guide for note taking as your enter the auditorium.
- Stay for a 15 minute post-event debrief with mental health professionals that briefly discusses and answers questions about the utilization of that day’s subject in a professional context.
- Receive your letter of completion to submit to your respective licensing board for credit.
We are excited about this possibility and are prayerful that God will use this initiative to: (a) deepen the walk of Christian mental health providers as they grow in understanding the intersection of their faith and practice, (2) help both Christian and non-Christian mental health professionals care well for their Christian clients, and (c) assist in furthering the church’s ability to be a place of support for those going through various crises and major life transitions.
Favor: If you know an LPC, LMFT, LCSW, or other mental health professional in the RDU area, please send them this link.