Description
This 3-hour course presents the issues, research, theory, and principles of faith-based substance abuse treatment. Some of the key topics of the course are spirituality and substance abuse, hellfire theory, critical issues in faith-based community and corrections programs, faith-based and cognitive programs, and legal issues associated with faith-based treatment. The course presents over eighteen elements of interest in faith-based treatment.
Goals/Objectives
By participating in this internet based course, the trainee will understand the issues, research, theory, and principles of faith-based substance abuse treatment.
The primary objectives of this course are for the student to:
1. Understand how faith-based is defined
2. Understand faith-based community and corrections programs
3. Understand religiosity and spirituality
4. Understand the faith-crime relationship
5. Identify the types of faith-based programs
6. Understand spirituality and substance abuse
7. Understand faith-based and cognitive programs
8. Understand the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed for working in faith-based programs
9. Understand faith-based program theories and research
10. Understand the critical issues in faith-based substance abuse treatment
11. Understand spirituality and substance abuse counseling orientations
12. Understand the legal issues associated with faith-based treatment
Your Course Instructor:
Robert Shearer, Ph.D.
Dr. Robert A. Shearer is a retired professor of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling and Psychology from Texas A & M University, Commerce. Prior to teaching Criminal Justice, he taught Educational Psychology at Mississippi State University on campus and in the extension program across rural Mississippi during the civil rights era.
He has been teaching, training, consulting and conducting research in the fields of Criminal Justice, human behavior, and addictions for over thirty-six years. He is the author of over sixty professional and refereed articles in Criminal Justice and behavior. He is also the author of Interviewing: Theories, techniques, and practices, 5th edition published by Prentice Hall. Dr. Shearer has also created over a dozen measurement, research, and assessment instruments in Criminal Justice and addictions.
He has been a psychotherapist in private practice and served as a consultant to dozens of local, state, and national agencies. His interests continue to be substance abuse program assessment and evaluation. He has taught courses in interviewing, human behavior, substance abuse counseling, drugs-crime-social policy, assessment and treatment planning, and educational psychology. He has also taught several university level psychology courses in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division, led group therapy in prison, trained group therapists, and served as an expert witness in various courts of law.
He has been the president of the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counseling and the editor of the Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling as well as a member of many Criminal Justice, criminology, and counseling professional organizations prior to retirement.