Purpose:

Counseling Programs at Grand Canyon University are unified in their effort to educate and train students to become Professional Counselors and Counselor Educators. The endeavor, spearheaded by The College for Doctoral Studies and The College of Humanities and Social Sciences are concerned with: the continued development and evolution of counseling programs housed in the various colleges; for students in their admission, matriculation and graduation from those varied programs; and those faculty in their development as counselor educators, research presenters and advanced clinical practitioners.   

CHSS Academic Unit:

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) counseling academic unit consists of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) and School Counseling (SC) programs and articulates its purpose through mission statements, program objectives, and goals that focus on best practices to equip counselors in training as change agents in a global society. 

Counseling Academic Unit Mission Statement (CMHC & SC):

The mission of the counseling academic unit is to prepare counselors-in-training with the knowledge, skills, and dispositional values to become competent global counselors and leaders.

Academic Unit Leadership:

Dr. Anna Edgeston

Academic Unit Leader and Director of CMHC and SC. 

Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Program

Dr. Kimberly Grigg 

SC Program Chair

School Counseling Degree Program

Brent Bailey

Program Manager, Practicum/Internship Coordinator

Michael Coplan

Faculty Chair

The College of Doctoral Studies (CDS) counseling academic unit currently consists of the Counselor Education and Supervision program. It is our desire that you leave this program and become global citizens, critical thinkers, effective communicators and responsible leaders fully equipped to make a profound difference in the lives and communities in which you work.

Dr. Mustafa Moyenda
CES Academic Leader  

 PhD-CES Qualitative degree program

PhD-CES Quantitative degree program

Faith Integration:

GCU is committed to integrating faith across all aspects of the GCU community, including work, learning and service. This initiative stems from GCU’s mission to educate students from a Christian perspective and to prepare them for careers that honor God while serving others. Faculty and staff are committed to honoring GCU’s Christian beliefs, values and practices in accord with our mission and vision, while students receive an education from the context and heritage of our distinctively Christian worldview.

One way we integrate faith and learning is by weaving our Christian worldview across curriculum in all of our degree programs. Each program’s curriculum is collaboratively developed and centrally managed in a manner that integrates the Christian worldview and incorporates biblical principles. From the first course to the last, it is the university’s goal that all of our graduates be able to express aspects of the Christian worldview which affect human value and dignity, ethical decision-making, academic disciplines and vocation.

By incorporating the Christian worldview into our curriculum, our graduates have the opportunity to gain the skills, knowledge and values-based foundation to carry out GCU's mission of preparing learners to become global citizens, critical thinkers, effective communicators and responsible leaders. It is through values-oriented learning experiences that our students develop into empowered graduates who are prepared to lead and serve in the local and global community.

For more information about our Christian identity and mission, please visit the GCU webpage located here.