Religious understanding is crucial for counselors in a global age. Offered in collaboration with the Iliff School of Theology, a Master of Social Work (MSW) and Master of Divinity (MDiv) provides spiritual and social work training that will help religious professionals in their career advancement and bivocational work as counselors and ministers or chaplains who want to incorporate social work in their ministry.
Want to learn more about the MSW and MDiv dual-degree program?
Your Career Options
With an MSW and MDiv dual degree, you’ll graduate with a competitive, cross-disciplinary skill set that will give you an advantage in the job market. Career options include:
- Providing spiritual care as a chaplain in hospitals, hospices, the military, corporate environments and more
- Advocacy and policymaking
- Nonprofit, ministry and religious leadership
- Providing religious education
- Offering individual counseling
Featured Social Work Courses
SOWK 4721
Existential Social Work
About this Course
The problems facing people can be understood in the context of situations and meanings they give to them. This course seeks to identify useful ways to clarify and validate the client's unique "world view", bypassing the many dangers and misuses of diagnostic categorization and empowering clients in relation to themselves and problem definition.
SOWK 4535
Planning and Program Development
About this Course
This course prepares students to engage in strategic planning and program development roles and practice within a social work community, organizational or policy practice setting. Students in this course gain knowledge in the principles of planning, social enterprise, the engagement of stakeholders in planning processes, community collaboration and the elements of designing and implementing programs.
SOWK 4555
Spirituality and Social Work Practice
About this Course
The purpose of this course is to provide students with a nondiscriminatory framework of knowledge to respond competently and ethically to populations with diverse spiritual perspectives and religious cultures in social work practice. This social justice-informed course underlines and respects the diversity of all spiritualities with special attention to spiritual populations historically marginalized and neglected by Eurocentric assumptions common to social work. This course builds on the generalist approach of our foundation curriculum and integrates theories of multiculturalism, human development, and identity development while exploring how individuals view spirituality and religion as they move through the life cycle. Drawing on the work of Edward Canda, Ken Pargament and Froma Walsh, the course will explore definitions of spirituality and religion, survey methods of approaching spiritually sensitive bio-psycho-social assessments, and examine culturally and spiritually sensitive social work interventions. Class activities will emphasize dialogue, reflection, exploration and experiential learning in order to develop a balanced framework for navigating spiritually and religion in practice settings with individuals, groups, families, communities and organizations. In this course, students will gain self-awareness and learn how their own cultural and spiritual perspectives have shaped their worldview and professional sense of self. It is assumed that students enrolling in this course will bring an interest in learning about the many facets of spirituality. As such, students will be asked to explore their own ideology of spirituality as it relates to their professional identity and practice effectiveness.
Learn more about the MSW and MDiv dual-degree curriculum.
