Enrolling in the Christian Spiritual Direction courses offered by the American Institute of Health Care Professionals (AIHCP) opens the door to helping cultivate spiritual formation in others.. As part of our spiritual director certification program, AIHCP’s courses aim to not just provide valuable techniques but also provide a solid foundation in helping others cultivate a deeper spiritual union with God
Requirements for Spiritual Direction Certification Courses
Anyone can sign up for each course below, but those taking them as part of the certification program need to meet one of the criteria listed below:
- A registered nurse currently licensed to practice nursing.
- A licensed social worker.
- A licensed healthcare professional.
- A healthcare provider with at least an associate’s degree.
- A licensed counselor or psychologist.
- A professional with a bachelor’s degree or higher in psychology, human services, theology, pastoral ministry or other health-related fields.
- Working in a healthcare chaplain ministry under the direction of a pastoral chaplain or clergy.
- A licensed minister or any legal clerical representative of a religion.
- A crisis counselor.
- A certified addictions counselor.
- A professional currently certified in grief counseling, stress management consulting, or pastoral thanatology.
If you don’t meet the criteria above, but still believe your experience and credentials merit entry into the program, please fill out our qualification review form.
Board Approvals for Spiritual Director Certification Courses
The continuing education courses offered below are by AIHCP, which is an approved provider of continuing education by the listed states:
- The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is an Approved Provider for Continuing Education by the South Carolina Professional Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists and Psycho-Educational Specialists licensing board, Provider # 4637.
- The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc. is a licensed Continuing Education Provider in the State of California, Board of Registered Nursing, Provider # CEP 15595.
- The following CE Courses have provider approvals: The American Institute of Health Care Professionals, Inc. is an Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Florida State Board of Nursing Provider # 50-11975.
Additionally, AIHCP also has Nursing Board Rule Provide Approvals from these states:
- The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Arkansas Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
- The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Georgia Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
- The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the South Carolina Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
- The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Professional Registered Nurses. CE Provider # 50-11975.
- The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
For the full list of our current state and board approvals, please visit our healthcare continuing education approvals page
Spiritual Director Course List
The five courses below cost a total of $900. You may enroll into as few or as many course as you wish. All of the CE courses are self paced, independent study. Students buy the textbooks, follow the syllabus and take a comprehensive online exam. Faculty mentoring is provided, as needed. Many of our courses include supplementary videos and course materials. Students have a two-year timeframe to complete all required CE courses in the curriculum. Again, all textbooks and learning materials are separate and not included in the course cost.
SC 690 – Introduction to Spiritual Direction
Spiritual Direction is different from counseling. It is a one-on-one relationship between director and directee born out of charity and agape love. It helps admonish, guide, instruct, and help cultivate a closer relationship between the directee and God. It involves trust and a secure relationship that permits discourse and opening of one’s deepest secrets and wounds. It is not meant to heal psychological wounds or treat pathology but look to help one grow spiritually and in a closer relationship with God. The history of spiritual direction is a rich tradition within the Church and is crucial to the pilgrim Church on earth. It is not merely tied to the responsibilities of clergy, but even to a lay apostolate where Christian mentors help and aid others in becoming more perfect in Christ.
This course places the exploration of the interior life at the heart of spiritual direction, examining how attention to one’s interior life forms the indispensable foundation for growth in holiness and union with God. Students will develop an understanding of the structure and dynamics of the interior life, learning to guide directees in the self-examination that spiritual progress requires. The course will explore the identification and addressing of root sins — the deep, often hidden patterns of disorder that shape behavior, obstruct grace, and impede the soul’s movement toward God. Drawing on the spiritual masters John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Ignatius of Loyola, students will trace the three phases of the
spiritual life and the process of purification. Students will also examine the themes of woundedness, healing prayer, and the role of vulnerability in both the spiritual director and the directee. Emphasis is placed on the practice of attentive listening and effective communication within the spiritual direction relationship. Students will receive and utilize a spiritual director’s guide designed especially for the course to assist in exploring the interior life by mastering reflective questioning, identifying corresponding virtues for roots sins and positing strategies to grow in those virtues.
This CE course is a Christian based spiritual direction format that introduces qualified professionals and pastoral caregivers the necessary information and confidence to help others through spiritual life. The course includes both a Christian text as well as a general spiritual text that highlights important elements of spiritual direction and lays the foundation for a strong understanding of what spiritual direction encompasses. In addition, the course looks to strengthen basic core counseling and communicative skills to enhance one’s ability to better communicate and help individuals reach spiritual goals.
Course Code: SC 690. Contact hours of Continuing Education: 60. Course Cost: $200
SC 691 – Applications in Spiritual Health
Growth in spirituality encounters many impasses, crosses and challenges. The Spiritual Director utilizes his or her spiritual resources to help individuals advance as new challenges arise in spiritual life. As the person progresses, there will be challenges to faith that come in the form of decisions, discernments, encounters, losses, desolations and traps of the devil. This course looks at some of these core issues in spiritual advancement and applies classical Christian spiritual direction guidance to these age-old problems that manifest in the modern world. This course focuses heavily on Ignatian perspectives in spiritual advancement to face the common problems of everyday spiritual life. The course also includes Dom’s Scupoli’s classic “Spiritual Warfare” as a resource to better understand spiritual advancement as well as spiritual attacks. In addition, there are a variety of video content that accents all the readings with details about the demonic, as well as spiritual combat. The purpose of the course is to not only further one’s knowledge and education in these spiritual exercises and understanding but also to help guide others through the troubled waters of advanced spirituality.
Course Code: SC 691. Contact hours of Continuing Education: 50. Course Cost: $200
SC 692 – Cultivating The Interior Spiritual Life
At the heart of the spiritual life is prayer. It is how we best prepare the interior life for union with God. This course is meant for spiritual direction students who would like to help deepen a directees’ understanding of the meaning and kinds of prayer, and to companion them through the steps needed to grow in this union. The characteristics of each stage of the spiritual life – – purgative, illuminative and unitive – will be analyzed and the role of the spiritual director in guiding a directee will be explored. Spiritual direction students will learn how the soul moves through the stages and what prayer looks like in each stage. The course presents both the biblical history and the development in the Christian tradition of various approaches to the spiritual life and growth in prayer. Specifically, the course looks at vocal prayer, meditation, centering prayer, and contemplation, and the various systems developed to enhance each in the soul. The prayer systems of the great spiritual masters, such as Ignatius Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis DeSales and Thomas Keating are presented and discussed. Practices such as lectio divina, fasting, abstinence, and almsgiving will be viewed in terms of their role in bringing a soul closer to God. Impediments to the spiritual life, such as the seven capital sins, the three temptations of humanity, the dark night of the soul and spiritual desolation will be examined.
Because this course is meant to provide the knowledge necessary for spiritual directors to address the prayer and spiritual life of directees, students will receive a Spiritual Direction guide. The guide will outline the stages of the spiritual life, provide methods for the spiritual director to proceed in each stage, and supply outlines of the major spiritual systems.
Course Code: SC 692. Contact hours of Continuing Education: 50. Course Cost: $200
GC 630 – Counseling Ministry To The Bereaved
Christianity has always viewed grief as a true human reality that is not to be escaped but accepted and transformed into something new and redeeming. This course, GC 630 continues this Christian theology and attempts to apply it to ministry. The text for the course “The Unwanted Gift of Grief” exemplifies this notion as grief as a gift. The text is not intended for one to escape the pain but hopes to invite one into it and through that pain create a “transformation and new life”. The course Christianizes the behavioral sciences not only within the text but also looks at the “Unwanted Gift of Grief” through the story of Job. This second text and commentary on Job nourishes the spirituality of the counselor and equips the counselor with greater understanding of one of the greater Old Testament works on grief.
Course Code: GC 630. Contact hours of continuing education: 50. Course Fee: $ 150.00
SC 650 – Christian Morality
This course is an in-depth look at Christian Morality and Moral Theology. Moral Theology deals with moral law and how it is applied to individuals in their everyday choices. The knowledge in this field is critical for any Christian Counselor since it helps him or her able to help others with moral choices.
In this study, one will learn about Christian Law and its objective nature but also how that law is applied to individuals. Furthermore, this course will review other key concepts in Moral Theology that deal with Ethical models for decisions, as well as the role of conscience and discernment, and also the study of virtue in the Christian moral life
Course Code: SC 650. Contact hours of Continuing Education: 30. Course Cost: $150.
The Benefits of Christian Spiritual Direction Courses
Investing valuable time and resources into these courses allows ministers and lay pastoral counselors to be more confident in their apostolate of helping others in their spiritual formation. Combining spiritual concepts with known techniques can help directors help directees advance within their spiritual life and form a closer union with God. With these courses from AIHCP, professionals can easily expand their current skillset and reach new clients over time, ensuring long-term success.
After completing both courses, certification candidates can apply for their spiritual director certification. With it, you can use the initials “C-CSD”, or “Certified Christian Spiritual Director”. They may also use the title “Christian Spiritual Director, Certified.”
The certification is valid for four years, after which you must retake AIHCP’s recertification courses to continue using the credentials or title in a professional capacity.
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