M.A. in Human Development
Program Overview |
Admission Requirements |
Application Process
Program Overview
A master's program that you design yourself!
The Master of Arts in Human Development was established by Saint Mary's University of Minnesota in 1972. It is a 35-credit, low-residency interdisciplinary graduate program that allows students to combine academic interests with career goals. The wholly unique combination of scholarship, mentoring, and program flexibility allows individuals to custom design programs that lead to personal and professional enhancement. Students in the human development program have secured major grants, published both creative and scholarly works, produced commissioned works of art, and received public recognition for their accomplishments.
Possible programs include, but are not limited to, concentrations in:
- Adult Education
- Career Counseling
- Ecological Studies
- Employee Assistance Counseling
- Holistic Health/Wellness
- Music Therapy
- Organizational Development
- Organizational and Individual Coaching
- Social Justice
- Spiritual Studies
- Transformational Leadership
- Writing
Any two or more of these fields may be combined into one 35 credit program. The only required courses are HD690 The Process of Human Development, HD691 Ethics & Social Responsibility and HD698 Writing the Position Paper.
Learning Contracts
The contract serves as the basic unit of each student's work and as an agreement between Saint Mary's University, the human development staff and the student. Although the program is flexible enough to accommodate a change of plan or direction, each student should have a fairly clear conception of overall goals from the beginning of his or her program. Credits for each contract are assigned on the basis of the amount and depth of work. Contracts may include learning experiences such as: formal course work at Saint Mary's University or other institutions, professional workshops or seminars, independent study, research, practica, and internships.
HD690 The Process of Human Development (1)This course is the first in a series of three required courses that provides a touchstone for students to meet in community as they progress through their individualized programs. This first course covers the history, Lasallian charism, philosophy, ethical expectations, and design of the program; the structure of learning contracts; the delineation and evaluation of learning objectives; the use of appropriate graduate level resources; guidelines for graduate level work and credits; reflective writing; and the establishment of professional, educational, and personal goals/vocation. This course is a prerequisite for all other courses.
Prerequisites:
- Acceptance into the Human Development program
HD691 Ethics and Social Responsibility (1)This course is the second in a series of three required courses that provides a touchstone for students to meet in community as they progress through their individualized programs. This course integrates a deeper examination of the Lasallian philosophy, ethics, and social responsibility into an application to the student's field. This course environment fosters a renewal of meaning and purpose in the student's graduate work alon with a further articulation of vocation and service to the community.
Prerequisites:
- HD690 The Process of Human Development
- 8 credits completed in the program
HD698 The Process of Writing a Position Paper (1)This is the final course in a required series of three courses that provides a touchstone for students to meet in a community as they progress through their individualized programs. This course addresses the elements of writing a position paper. The course provides the student with a review of APA style and skill development in stating and defending a position, conducting research, and professional writing. The course emphasizes applied ethics as an essential component of the position paper. Planning the student's own position paper and colloquium are featured.
Prerequisites:
- HD690 The Process of Human Development
- HD691 Ethics and Social Responsibility
- Completion of at least 16 credits
HD568 Designing Corporate Training (2)This course examines the tools, techniques and knowledge necessary to create corporate and industrial training programs and professional development seminars and workshops. It considers ways to design, develop and deliver programs efficiently and in a way that maximizes adult learning.
HD585 Meditation (1)This course examines the psychology of meditation, modes of meditation, and uses of meditation for personal growth, in therapy, and in spiritual direction. Emphasis is on understanding and practicing various modes of meditation, mindful action, and meditative reading.
HD589 Creativity and Self-Renewal (2)This course explores definitions of creativity, the creative process, the psychological dynamics influencing creativity and methods of stimulating creativity for self renewal.
HD596 Creating Optimal Healing Environments (1)This course focuses on those factors that facilitate the healing process within the individual. It explores the states of individual consciousness that contribute to or detract from the healing experience and the approaches that create these states. It examines relationship patterns that support healing and the qualities in the environment that contribute to health, balance, and well-being.
HD604 Telling Our Story: Memoir (1)This course examines the memoir as narrative that captures and communicates one's own specific life experience and its individual, social, personal, and communal significance. It studies the myriad forms of techniques for composing a memoir.
HD626 Science and Spirit: Contemplative and Phenomenolog (2)This course presents significant subjects of religious and spiritual exploration. It examines qualitative methodologies within human science that permit systematic and rigorous exploration of them. The course reviews contemplative, phenomenological and systems approaches and ways to select a particular methodology appropriate to the exploration of a particular religious or spiritual concern.
HD629 Exploring Spiritual Life through Literature (1)This course explores major symbols of the spiritual journey in mystical literature of diverse times and places. It examines a variety of literary genre to explore themes inherent in spiritual life and the value of taking the spiritual journey and communicating it in the context of time and place.
HD633 Many Faces of Art: A Psychological Perspective (2)This course focuses on psychological aspects of the visual arts. Topics include the normative development of artistic ability, the impact of developmental and environmental challenges, mental illness, and health related issues on the production of visual art. Relevant theory and artistic production are examined.
HD635 Getting Published (1)This course explains the basics of getting published and helps participants define possible projects, identify publications and publishers, and prepare a draft of a proposal that might be submitted to a publisher.
HD636 Coaching and Team Building: Applying Human Develop (1)This course addresses the application of human development processes to the roles of organizational consultant and/or organizational leader. Techniques to enhance capacity to act as an effective facilitator of employee growth and development in organizational settings, particularly in coaching and team building, are examined.
HD647 Introduction to Transpersonal Body Therapy (1)This course examines transpersonal body therapy as an emerging therapeutic approach that integrates physical, emotional, mental and spiritual processes. It describes the theoretical basis of such concepts as: the holistic paradigm of health and healing, the new science, models of transformation, and the body energy system. It introduces other related concepts including therapeutic touch, imagery, sounding, and storytelling to facilitate healing.
HD671 Women's Self-Esteem and Spirituality (2)This course focuses on the effects of the religious traditions and contemporary culture on women's self-esteem and spirituality. Issues surrounding women's development of adequate self-esteem and spiritual maturity are addressed. Alternative visions for women's self affirmation, full human development, and spirituality are investigated in theoretical and practical ways.
HD672 Claiming Our Spirituality (1)This course outlines the elements of spirituality, including creed, code, and cult. Means of making desired changes in spirituality are discussed. Elements of spirituality explored are: core beliefs and values, relationships, service, work, care of the earth, leisure, ritual, prayer and meditation, and the body, and planning for spiritual growth.
HD673 Journaling: Life's Companion (1)This experiential course gives the student an opportunity to journal as a means of self-discovery. After outlining a rationale for the process and psychology of journal writing, this course assists participants in learning and employing a wide variety of journaling techniques for their personal growth.
HD674 Religious and Spiritual Development Through the Li (2)This course traces religious and spiritual development through the lifespan, using theoretical models, clinical experience, personal histories, and research data as guides. Particular attention is given to images of God and the sacred, styles of prayer, approaches to ritual, concepts of justice and service, and paradigms of community in the various stages.
HD681 Creativity and Holistic Health (2)This course explores the relationship between creativity, holistic health, and artistic expression. Elements of the creative process are articulated and compared to that of an holistic lifestyle. Impediments to creative expression are identified along with methods that free creativity for expression in one's personal and professional life.
HD693 Psychological Transformation and the Spiritual Jou (1)The tradition of depth psychology describes a pattern of individual interior evolution that is reflected in changes in our external life. This course explores the interior process of making significant changes in one's life, direction, career, or relationships and resonance between our exterior lives and interior development.
HD694 Emerging Trends in Holistic Health (2)This course presents an overview of contemporary trends in holistic health and wellness and gives students an opportunity to explore the mind-body connection in healing and wellness.
HD695 Children of Addiction (1)This course explores issues related to counseling the child of addiction. It offers a preliminary overview of some of the current effects experienced by many adults who have been raised in such a setting. It also considers strategies for fostering a path of recovery for those who find themselves suffering the lingering effects of an addiction-based childhood.
HD698 The Process of Writing a Position Paper (1)This is the final course in a required series of three courses that provides a touchstone for students to meet in a community as they progress through their individualized programs. This course addresses the elements of writing a position paper. The course provides the student with a review of APA style and skill development in stating and defending a position, conducting research, and professional writing. The course emphasizes applied ethics as an essential component of the position paper. Planning the student's own position paper and colloquium are featured.
Prerequisites:
- HD690 The Process of Human Development
- HD691 Ethics and Social Responsibility
- Completion of at least 16 credits
HD714 Spirituality and Care of the Earth (2)This course explores both the exploitation of and return towards a sustainable human/earth balance. An inter-religious approach to scriptural, ethical, liturgical and spiritual traditions which call for greater human accountability toward earth is used.
HD715 Cross-Cultural Ritual (2)This course focuses on cross-cultural patterns of ritual and their religious as well as spiritual implications. Participants consider Greco-European, Asian-Buddhist (esp. Tibetan), American Plains and Woodland Indian, African (Bemba) , Hispanic and Hmong cultural patterns of ritual.
HD717 Grief and Loss (2)This course offers a multidimensional approach to the spirituality of suffering, death, grief and bereavement in the context of participant's own experience of profound loss. Participants focus on their assumptions, beliefs, and experiences in the context of their own spiritual and healing processes as well as those of other cultures.
HD718 Relationships and Spirituality (2)This course focuses on persons as communal individuals who live in relationship with others, nature, and the cosmos. It explores the integral nature of relationships and how we can grow as relational, communal, and spiritual individuals.
HD720 Reengaging our Relationship with Conflict (1)This course offers participants a framework through which to view the nature of conflict and their relationship with it. The nature of conflict and strategies for resolving it are explored from the perspective of conflict as a block to the natural flow of energy, or chi between people. The extent to which conflict represents imbalance and energy are examined. Strategies for resolving conflict by addressing imbalances or disease at the mental, emotional and spiritual levels are explored.
HD725 Transpersonal Bodywork (2)This course introduces the student to transpersonal bodywork, an holistic approach which integrates physical, emotional, mental and spiritual processes. The course includes such concepts as the holistic paradigm of health and healing, models of transformation, the new science, and the body as an energy system. Students are introduced to techniques including therapeutic touch, imagery and the expressive therapies as related to transpersonal bodywork. The experiential component of the course gives students an opportunity for personal exploration in relation to course topics.
HD730 Eastern Movement and Philosophy (2)This course explores the holistic wisdom embedded in Eastern movement forms such as Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Akido, or Yoga. Students are introduced to several different forms with a focus on the beginning practice of depending on the instructor's expertise. The Eastern philosophy underlying the movement form is discussed as well as health benefits and the translation of Eastern movement forms into a Western lifestyle.
HD732 Human Development and Spirituality in Coaching and (2)This course explores the human development process in development of the organizational leader or consultant. It addresses techiques for acting as effective facilitators of employee growth and development in organizational settings, with particular focus on coaching and team building in organizations.
HD733 Work and Spirituality (1)This course explores new paradigms of spirituality in workplace leadership and shows how workplace values such as trust, justice and fairness, respect, dignity, service and humility are grounded in spiritual principles. It examines an understanding of how the implementation of these values is needed for the long-term success and prosperity of the workplace and the community we seek to benefit.
HD734 The Art and Practice of Executive Coaching (2)This course defines executive coaching and compares it to other forms of executive training and development. The rationale for using executive coaching in light of adult learning theories is discussed. A model of executive coaching is presented along with various methodologies and approaches currently used. The benefits of executive coaching to the individual and the organization are highlighted.
Program Staff
Program Director, Master of Arts in Human Development and Coordinator of Graduate Lasallian Studies