University of the West Online

Preparation for college-level reading. Focus includes critical & analytical reading skills for academic texts, information literacy skills for college writing, & academic vocabulary.

This seminar examines the politics and ethics of knowledge through the lenses of narrative, attention, and authority.  Humans make meaning through stories, beliefs, and evidence.  How do those narratives shape individuals, communities, and public life?  We examine how knowledge claims are constructed, evaluated, and lived, bridging religion, science, history, media, and technology.  This course is discussion-intensive, practice-oriented, and project-based. You will engage with readings, films, experiential practices, and media artifacts to build habits of care with attention, interpretation, and public expression.  This is not a course about easy answers but about better questions.

This course will explore the historical views and current perspectives of abnormal behavior, including categorical versus dimensional perspectives. Major diagnostic categories and criteria, individual and social factors of maladaptive behavior, and types of therapy are reviewed. Additionally, various methods of clinical assessment and research strategies are covered. Special attention is paid to the impact of culture on abnormality.

Congratulations! You have reached the final milestone in your journey to become a licensed professional in the field of Behavioral Science. 

Your Comprehensive Exam (Comps) is a testimony to your education, training, and experience you have acquired in our MA-MFT Program at UWest. We are confident that the comps not only validates the efficacy of our training and your dedication, but it also prepares you for the BBS-LMFT licensure examination that you will undertake in the near future. 

The comps contains 180 questions and it covers the following areas it their respective percentages:

Clinical Evaluation 27%

Developing a Diagnostic Impression 11%

Managing Crisis Situations 11%

Case Conceptualization and Planning 12%

Treatment 29% 

Managing Legal and Ethical Obligations 10%

You will need to obtain answer correctly 80% of 180 questions, or 144 questions, to pass the comps. 

To ensure the efficaciousness of this process and the success of passing this exam, we have prepared three (3) practice exams this semester before you take your final exam in April 2025. These practice exams will be held in February, March, and early April 2025 (refer to Course Schedule for details). Each exam has 50 practice questions and needs to be completed in one hour. 

All exams are conducted online and timed. If missed, the practice exams cannot be rescheduled. The final exam will be conducted in the Computer Lab on campus (2nd Floor, ED Building) on April 24, 2025. The total time allowed to take the exam is two (2) hours. If a retake is necessary, the second and final date for taking the comps in Spring 2025 is May 8, 2025. 

Go well!

This course examines aspects of suffering, social engagement, spiritual maturity and leading from within, through a developed meditation practice, ritualized life, awareness of conditioning, perspective taking, and spiritual bypass as seen in traditional and contemporary texts.

Introduces the art of writing & giving dharma talks. Students identify styles & methods to help them in their own homiletic work while exploring how to relate the professional imperatives of chaplaincy with the imperatives of a Buddhist faith.

This course examines the ways influential thinkers have understood stages of transformation in spiritual development. Students explore the ways in which significant works may deepen their own personal practice as well as their approach to chaplaincy.

This class is a survey of the doctrinal contexts, theoretical frameworks, and the practice of and approaches to early Buddhist meditation. The course will contain both the emic/practitioner’s perspective as well as the study of meditation as an academic discipline.

Topics to be covered and discussed in this course include (primarily presented in this order): The etymology of meditation; the soteriology of Buddhist meditation; The dynamics of Calm and Insight (śamatha-vipaśyanā); the role of concentration and the nature of attention; mindfulness, clear comprehension, ardency, and other requisites in the culture of Buddhist mental development; meditative absorption/immersion/composure (jhāna); the controversies over jhāna and other aspects of meditation; stages of insight and the supramundane fruitions; eidetic and “antidotal” meditations; and new horizons in the study of meditation and consciousness.