NCCA - Sarasota Academy valid or fake?

I've briefly read over the posts back in 2003 about National Christian Counselors Association and Sarasota Academy but I'd like to know if they have improved in any way since then; as in, are they now issuing valid accredited credentials? I'm considering their program for a MA in Christian counseling (among others).

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

The National Christian Counselors Association is not a recognized accrediting agency.

 

But a Religious degree earned and used in Florida would be held exempt; we are talking about "Sarasota" Florida right?

 

A cursory review of Walston's Guide to Christian Distance Learning (successor guide to Walston & Bear's Guide to Earning Religious Degrees Non-Traditionally) will reveal that far too many unaccredited seminaries play up an affiliation with the National Christian Counselors Association as if it were legitimate accreditation when it is not.

 

The NCCA was founded by Richard Gene Arno, an ordained minister of the now-defunct Church of the Gospel Ministry, Chula Vista, CA. He also holds degrees from very suspect, unaccredited schools. Arno created the Arno Profile System (FKA Temperment Analysis Profile or TAP).

The original TAP used the old FIRO-B and FIRO-BC scales to measure one's temperament in Inclusion, Control, and Affection. The whole system is based on the theory of temperaments--Melancholy, Phlegmatic, Choleric, Sanguine, and Arno's own creation of Supine.

 

Having a religious exemption from school licensing requirements is no indication of quality, however.

 

Some accredited alternatives:

Luther Rice University (TRACS accredited)
Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling
http://www.lru.edu/Content.aspx?page=degree_ma_counseling
Cost: $7,848

APEX School of Theology (TRACS accredited)
Master of Arts in Christian Counseling
http://www.apexsot.edu/programs/programs_counseling.html
Cost: $10,125

Liberty University Online (Regionally accredited)
Three different MA counselling programs; two have minimal residency requirements
http://www.luonline.com/index.cfm?PID=14279
Cost: $11,850

I'm sure there's plenty more, these are just three I knew about or came across during a brief Google search.

 

True enough, however the same "quality rule of thumb" (exempt, accredited, or otherwise) also does not indicate quality either. I suspect that you get what you pay for and in many cases you only achieve quality when you put forth the same; garbage in - garbage out.

 

I would take exception the the 'accredited' institutions that are RA accredited. The RAs set minimum standards - if an institution does not satisfy these standards then that institution is put on probation and if no improvement then accreditation is lost.
When I was at CSUDH they were put on probation and it was a major effort to recover.
One S. Cal college, Compton, lost their RA (the college was then taken over by El Camino College).

 

Actually, accredited does indicate that the school meets certain minimum quality standards. State approval might indicate that some quality standards have been met, but that varies by state. Exempted means that the school did not even have to meet what little quality standards that state approval might have met.

 

Maybe, maybe not.

A Florida religious exemption only exempts a FL post-secondary school's proprietor from having to meet some/all of Florida's school licensing laws, provided that the school teaches religious degree subjects exclusively. The exemption doesn't really address his students at all. It certainly doesn't suggest any state endorsement of their degrees.

Graduates are still going to have to comply with any relevant professional licensing laws, including those applicable to mental-health professionals.

Now there may very well also be additional religious exemptions applying to pastoral counseling, but that's a totally separate issue. People would have to consult the mental-health licensing laws in their own state.

Religious exemptions for pastoral counseling are unlikely to be absolute and total. There will be limitations on who qualifies and on the scope of allowable practice under the exemptions.

Boasting of being licensed when one in fact is exempted from licensing, and sporting misleading initials crafted to resemble those of conventional secular professionals, might be illegal in some jurisdictions.

Serious ethical questions will arise everywhere.

 

Click here to read the old thread.