Dr. French has a long and rich history at ORU. As a child, her mother would bring her and her younger brother to the foot of the Praying Hands when visiting from Denver, Colorado. Every summer trips to see her grandparents, and associated visits to the ORU campus were the beginnings of a call of God to attend the university and to later work and serve at ORU as both a staff and faculty member. Her husband, mother, brother, and sister-in-law are also ORU alumni.
Dr. French has many years of experience working in local church ministry and higher education, within Oklahoma, California, and Colorado. In addition, she founded and operated a private counseling practice in Denver, where she specialized in working with anxiety disorders, depression, vocational issues, chronic illness, and grief and bereavement. With this, Dr. French taught theological and biblical studies courses for the College of Adult and Graduate Studies at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colorado.
In 2019, she and her husband returned to Tulsa and to the ORU community after ten years away; several years of which were spent living and studying in Scotland. She was appointed as the Director of Student Counseling Services at ORU, where she managed a staff of therapists and graduate interns who offered mental health support to the student body, in addition to counseling her own clients.
In the fall of 2021, Dr. French joined the ORU faculty as an Assistant Professor of Professional Counseling in the Graduate School of Theology and Ministry.
Dr. French has a Bachelor of Arts in Sacred Music with a vocal emphasis from Oral Roberts University (2006), a Master of Divinity from ORU (2009), a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Denver Seminary (2012), and a Ph.D. in Practical Theology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland (2019). She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Colorado and Oklahoma.
Dr. French has written and published on the work of the Holy Spirit in the counseling process, particularly as understood through lived experience. Her research interests include further developing Pentecostal practical pneumatology of counseling and exploring the ways in which specific Christian traditions, with their ecclesial practices, theologies, and praxes, inform the provision of counseling by those who have been spiritually formed within those traditions.
She is passionate about encouraging burgeoning counselors to think theologically about the care and counsel they provide, and to engage in meaningful reflection on their formation through worship, to better understand the ways in which their theology shapes their provision of care.
She is happily married to Dr. Nathan French, a fellow ORU colleague, and they have two sons, Ezra and Boaz.
Haley R. French, PhD, LPC Assistant Professor of Professional Counseling Graduate School of Theology & Ministry Oral Roberts University Office: 4A26A Phone: 918.495.6623 hfrench@oru.edu