Center for Continuing Education

The Skills and Community You Need

Two Easy Options To Get Equipped

Distance Consultation Groups

Providing counseling to fellow believers is often hard, even lonely. Often, we are worried we will make a mistake or give the wrong advice. It doesn’t have to be this way. BRCC’s Distance Consultation Groups provide support and encouragement so you can grow as a counselor.

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Internships

Our internships are provided to counselors, pastors, and missionaries, both to fulfill degree program requirements and also simply to provide opportunities for gaining further experience and training.

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The Center for Continuing Education Supports Leaders Like You

Counselors

Church Leaders/Pastors

Missionaries

FAQ

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Distance Consultation Groups

Great question!

We offer groups 3-4 times per year to discuss counseling cases, questions, and more generally to provide continuing education and support, especially for church-based pastoral and lay counselors nearing the end of their training, or who are presently active in ministry. We find that some biblical counselors experience isolation in their context of service, and benefit from continuing education or support.

Participants have the opportunity to present cases roughly every other meeting, and the group leader and members offer questions, feedback, and input toward the goals of strengthening conceptualization, process, and care planning. Group members also grow in these skills by discussing the cases that others present. Since there is no substitute for what is gained by a wide range of case knowledge, it’s our belief that this kind of context provides an important way to grow as a counselor.

Our Distance Consultation Groups are most certainly able to be attended virtually. However, they can also be attended locally.

The cost is $30 per meeting, or on a donation basis upon request, and we ask that participants commit to attending at least 50% of the 10 sessions offered each term. We seek to operate as a ministry, so we retain some flexibility with regard to fee. Payment can be made at brccva.org/payments.

Consultation groups are led by senior staff: Rev. Michael Gembola (MAR, MAC, LPC) and Ms. Dale Kuiken, (MAC, RN), and Mrs. Kathie Donaldson, MA, MAC) all with the same number of years of counseling experience, and all with teaching experience. We currently offer three groups:

Wednesdays 12pm EST
Thursdays 1pm EST
Mondays at 4pm EST.
Tuesdays 9am EST

The next round of groups will start by March 15, 2023.

There are 10 meetings each cohort, every other week. Be sure that you can commit to attending at least 50% of the meetings. BRCC will email you with the particular schedule of your cohort.

Yes.

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How To Get Started with a Consultation Group

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FAQ

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Internships

$100/mo fee, waived if you see any clients for a fee.
Attend monthly individual supervision meetings with a senior staff member.
Begin attending a biweekly consultation group at BRCC.
Attend semi-monthly staff training events (10x per year), usually held 9:30-11:30am on a Thursday.
Begin intern counseling at BRCC and/or lay counseling at your local church or extern site, with the goal of averaging 3-5 hours weekly.
You must provide pastoral or lay counseling at BRCC and/or via other venues; we expect all internship-related work is 8-10 hours per week maximum, but may be fewer.
You must keep regular documentation of counseling.
You are required to maintain HIPAA confidentiality compliance for any care provided at BRCC, and for lay counseling in the church, and maintain appropriate privacy that is subordinate to the discipline of the church.

Our internships are currently only in-person at one of our offices. However, pending state guidelines, we do offer supervision virtually for those seeking the LPC credential in PA, or the LCP or LMFT in VA. We also offer services online such as consultation and mentoring, especially for church-based counselors, and we have helped counseling students fulfill mentored ministry or seminary practicum requirements online. We serve many church-based counselors and missionaries through biweekly consultation groups and individual consultation. Depending on the school you attend, our consultation services may fulfill the internship criteria.

Clients will certainly appreciate you serving in the evening hours! That said, you will need to keep some time available for individual (monthly) and group supervision (weekly), and this is usually within business hours. Some of our supervisors have hours available after 5pm EST; our consultation group options are Mondays 4:30-5:30, Tuesdays, 1-2pm, and Tuesdays 4-5pm. Also, our monthly training events are 9:30-11:30am on Thursdays, and although they are recorded, we strongly encourage interns to attend live.

Intern counseling is not remunerated. However, if you have multiple paying clients, we will revisit this arrangement and offer a counseling fellowship, which contains a fee sharing agreement where you receive pay for counseling hours.

Internships costs $100/mo.

The $100/mo. fee helps to cover the staff time given in supervision and in leading consultation groups. However, if the intern provides counseling for any paying clients, we waive the internship fee.

No we don’t do certifications or official CEUs currently.

Although internships typically last 10-12 months, shorter term options are
available. Interns may start at any time in the year, pending supervisor availability.

We give preference to interns as candidates for counseling positions, and have frequently retained interns as part-time staff counselors after their internship. Counselors are more likely to sustain regular referrals if they relocate to an area near one of our offices.

We are always happy to encourage people interested in BRCC to inquire in other locations where our friends serve. Not all of them offer internships, but may be good to reach out to for potential opportunities.

Austin-Stone Counseling in Texas
Biblical Counseling and Training Ministries in Mississippi
Bridgehaven Counseling in North Carolina
Cedar Cove Counseling in Minnesota
CCEF in Pennsylvania, Montana, and Vermont
Chapelgate Counseling in Maryland
Fieldstone Counseling in Ohio
Harvest USA in Pennsylvania
Heart Song Counseling in VA, DC, FL, and other states
Hope Counseling Services in North Carolina
John Applegate and Associates in Pennsylvania
Northwest Counselling and Consulting in Ontario
Redeemer Counseling Services in New York City
ServingLeaders Ministries in Pennsylvania

How To Get Started As An Intern

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Those who teach are held to a higher standard; pray earnestly.

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You should be well supported in ministry and able to offer excellent care to people in need. We can help with that.

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