Here’s a mini-post about one of our student’s featured in the Seattle Times!

Knox Burnett, a second-year MACP student and volunteer at Union Gospel Mission was recently interviewed in the Seattle Times about the work the mission is doing to offer a creative space for the homeless and hurting. Located in Pioneer Square, Union Gospel Mission is participating in the “First Thursday” Artwalk by having their community offer their own artwork.

Give someone the opportunity to create art, says Knox Burnett, and their work will tell a story about their life.

You can read the article in it’s entirety here.

I learned from a very young age to speak of the world in ‘black and white’ terms where everything can be separated into two camps: it’s either this or that, us or them, me or you. This was the product of what I would label ‘legalism’ or maybe it was simply the Southern Christian culture in which I found myself in; I was unable or unwilling to acknowledge the gray areas of life. Since coming to Seattle and choosing Mars Hill Graduate School as my place of further education I have experienced many transformations both educationally and personally (although those are not mutually exclusive of each other). While the weather in Seattle leans mostly towards the gray spectrum these days I’ve learned to see the beauty of the colors in everything. More specifically, to speak in black, white, and gray terms means that I tend to ignore the bright, beautiful, splendid colors that our Creator uses when (S)he creates – vibrant greens, plush reds, cheery yellows, ominous oranges, brilliant blues, purples that take your breath away… how could I be so unaware of the beauty that permeates my reality?

Continue Reading The Beauty of the Gray

We’ll be taking a break from posting to enjoy the holiday, but will resume our regularly scheduled programming in mid-January. Stay tuned for some exciting changes to our site and more stories from MHGS.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from all of us at MHGS!

It is finished.

I don’t mean to sound like a heretic, but that’s the only phrase that went through my mind as I turned in my last exam, indicating that the the fall term at Mars Hill Graduate School is over. Well, “it is finished, ” came first and then there was, “let the wild rumpus begin!” from  Where the Wild Things Are.

I was walking home from the bus stop listening to some happy music on my headphones and found myself lifting my face to meet the rain, feeling refreshed by it’s coolness on my skin, feeling the burden of this term being carried away. I may have even danced down the sidewalk for a block or two when the wave crashed over me – the wave of realization of all I had endured this term.

Continue Reading The End of Fall

The year is rounding out with it’s big, glowing, gracious finality.

I am sitting in solitude and reflecting on all the blessings I have received this week. Closeness with classmates meeting me where I am–in my need and in my joy. Practicum and its culmination feel surreal. Looking forward to classes next trimester makes me feel so happy–”wow…I get to do this again, with a whole new batch of material and some new teaching faces” what a miracle! Life at MHGS has only gotten sweeter and more promising–the hopes I feel for how we can tackle darkness and, the new tools I have received here, tell me that I am home-free thanks to Christ. The whole thing reminds me of this drawing theme in my sketches: We are invited to touch the darkness inside of us, and in doing so we witness Christ’s overcoming of it in us in our specificity. See? That little voice inside of us is touching the monster. !

I love you, MHGS.

Jocelyn Skillman was born in the Seattle area and attended the University of Puget Sound where she studied Comparative Sociology and Ancient Greek. She is involved in sketch comedy in Seattle and loves yummy food, gibberish, and playing pretend!

Several weeks into the fall trimester, first year MACP student, Jenny Behrens, announced she would begin teaching a weekly yoga class on campus. The first class was 2 weeks after I had begun seeing clients of my own at my counseling  internship at Seattle Pacific University. Having done yoga several times a week all summer, I strode into the classroom-turned-studio, feeling confident amongst yoga novices.

It was awful.  The class and the instruction – those were fantastic.  The pain in my body – that was awful.

Continue Reading Therapeutic Yoga

MACP student Joel Frazer shares thoughts on beginning his counseling internship in the fourth year of his studies.

I had begun internship early and I fully don’t know why.  Class that summer semester had been some of the most difficult work I’d completed at MHGS—not so much academically, but personally.  My body and mind were anxious and tired.  Two weeks into my internship, and after a physically painful, sleepless night of fending off something I couldn’t identify, I was jolted when something inside softly suggested “slow down.”  That next morning I shocked my parents, my therapist and my supervisor with this statement:  “I am not ready to counsel.”

Continue Reading “To Sit With…” Counseling Internship Then & Now

My first encounter with academic shame happened in kindergarten. Here is what I remember: We were working on cutting out shapes in class, and my teacher gave me extra cutting homework because I couldn’t cut in a line like the rest of my classmates.

My first thought: “Who can cut in a straight line at age 5?”
My next thought: “I still remember this. Why do I still remember this?”

This next statement may not surprise you: Since kindergarten, I have become an excellent student. I am an “excellent” student, but the ashamed little girl who couldn’t do her cutting the right way is still very much inside of me.

Continue Reading Of Scissors and C+’s: A T.A.’s Reflection on Being Graded

When Rob Bell visited Mars Hill Graduate School in January while in Seattle for his ‘Drops Like Stars Tour,’ he created quite a buzz around campus. When it was announced a week later that he would be teaching a class at our fair institution in the near future, excitement and anticipation erupted within the MHGS community. Needless to say, Rob Bell is highly respected at our school, myself included. He’s sort of a big deal!

What graduate school program allows you to relearn what it means to be a child in such a tangible way? Welcome to the Mars Hill Graduate School Counseling Psychology program.

During the summer term course entitled Counseling Children and Adolescents, taught by Dr. Steve Call, we have been learning that to be a therapist to children and adolescents we have to relearn what it means to be a child. In other words, we have to learn how to play again. During class students were given a break from the lecture time and handed buckets of chalk. The only instructions given by Steve were, “go play.”

Games of hopscotch began not long after that, along with artistic expressions inspired by the beautiful Seattle summer day. There is never a dull moment at MHGS.