The Pilgrim’s Protest

By Courtney Kilgore

Carrie Caudill is a new professor in the Psychology department at CIU.

How did you meet your husband?
In the nursery at church. He volunteered in the nursery even though he was a single guy. His first words were “I don’t know how to change a diaper”

What motivated you to pursue psychology?
I love to understand how people think and live and how they are affected as a result of that; what makes them healthy and happy and what makes them dysfunctional and miserable. It fascinates me trying to understand who we are and what makes us who we are.


What interested you in marriage and family counseling?
Realizing that so much of life tends to be about relationships and so much of the way we report happiness is dependent on the quality of the relationships we have, seemed like a fascinating subject to study to me. What makes them quality relationships versus what makes them bad relationships – we have to look at individuals within the context of their system; seeing that is fascinating.

Was it difficult to maintain your faith at USC?
It was not as difficult to maintain my faith in God as it was to maintain whether or not the absolute truths I embraced were ethical. I never had a crisis of faith of as to whether God was real or anything, but the philosophy taught in my classes said out right that “There are no absolute truths. It’s whatever is best for that individual and what ever they need, as a counselor that is what you need to come alongside and support.” Obviously that is not something from my frame work that I could believe in because I believe in things that are going to be good and bad for us- and of course there was no concept of sin taught in my classes. So my struggle was taking what is solid and what is true no matter what your faith background is, and finding out their interpretation and their bias and filtering that out. The more aware you are of what you are hearing the more you can dissect it.
Coming from a certain philosophy and having certain beliefs makes the ethical issues hard because there’s God’s answer to problems and man’s answer to problems so there was constant filtering that had to go on. This really became an issue when I was in a practicum lab. I was counseling a girl who was married, they were struggling financially, her husband had just lost his job and she found out she was pregnant for the 2nd time and was distraught. When I brought this up in my practicum lab my professor asked me, “Why didn’t you recommend an abortion for her?” that was when I started crying. The idea that I would ever recommend something like that and that I was being told by my education system that would have been an appropriate counseling recommendation was terrifying to me. If the girl had brought up abortion I would have said “Ok, why do you think that is going to be the easy way out?” but thankfully she didn’t bring it up. The first thing my professor thought about was an “easy solution” to this situation that was causing so much distress that it had a lot to do with me deciding I needed to go into Christian private practice because there I can own my values and my beliefs. I tell whoever walks through my door up front that I am a Christian and I do believe that there is a best way that God intended and we all struggle with different sins in our lives but there is a best way that God intended and if this is uncomfortable for you then I can recommend someone else with whom you might be more comfortable. My role isn’t as a pastor to provide answers but as a counselor to direct to the right questions.

Before teaching here how long were you in private practice and did you find the transition from private practice to teaching difficult?
Three years; I am still doing private practice so I haven’t fully transitioned out of it. I was at Palmetto Health teaching family groups (about 40 per class) about healthy relationships co-dependency, addictions, family roles, etc. so that has helped prepare me somewhat for teaching here.

How does it feel to be teaching alongside Dr. Farra, your former professor?
I’m in awe because I always thought I’d be doing this in my fifties and I’m not in my fifties and I really feel blessed and I still look at him as Dr. Farra; I don’t think I could ever refer to him as “Steve.” What better way to train up professors than to get them while they are young. So I think it’s a really smart move on Dr. Blewett’s part to hire younger professors.

How has your background prepared you for teaching at CIU?
The counseling experience I’ve had and I love to learn. I have an insatiable desire to know more because I don’t know it all that makes me go that extra mile and learn as much as I can. It’s that drive to make sure I’m not missing anything and desiring to give a comprehensive view.

What’s one thing you want students to come away with from your classes?
In marriage and family, a real look at marriage and how to make those commitments and have that happy, fulfilled, God honoring marriage. I’m privileged to have the opportunity to teach this required course at CIU. Overall Christian marriages do not look much different from secular marriages and, in my opinion, what accounts for that is communication. If I can really convey the communication fundamentals and get you guys to use them then I’m hoping I can affect marriage; one of God’s most sacred things.
I don’t know because I never would have seen myself here 10 years ago but I know that I am doing what I love and I want to continue doing that. I love being married to my husband and the ministry that we have. I love teaching, even though there are moments of insecurity, I really enjoy it. I love the fact that CIU is big on mentoring and I love doing private practice feeling like I am in the trenches really helping people.

What kind of ministry are you and your husband involved in now?
It’s in transition- primarily young adults. Our focus is to get this young adult generation to really seek and encounter God and stir their hearts toward Him. The way we go about that keeps changing. Right now we have an open format called “Seek His Face Night” that is primarily worship where you can encounter God and contribute to worship. The other thing we are doing is a 24/7 prayer to pray for Columbia.

How can CIU students get involved?
If they wanted to, if prayer is something they are passionate about, we have a building that we rent a couple days a week and if they wanted to organize a prayer day then all they would need to do is give a pastor reference or CIU reference and we would put is on the prayer calendar and they would be in charge of organizing it.

What is one thing you wish you had known when you were a student here that you want to share with other students?
One of the best things I can encourage you to do is get to know your professors. CIU has some amazing professors here who want to invest into you. When I was a student I had scheduled times to sit down with Dr. Farra but did not do that much with other professors. Now looking back I think it would have been good to do that with Dr. Layman or Dr. Beyer because they really do want that and I think that is one of the best ways to get an idea of what life is like. Also, this is a really great networking place for whatever you are going to do after graduation. Rather than looking at it as “doing my time” take advantage of the time you have.