MA in Counseling: Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Low-Residency)

The MA in Counseling with Clinical Mental Health Counseling helps students to develop the intellectual and relational capacities needed to understand and work with others in the professional practice of counseling. They will develop the skills you need to work as a counselor with multicultural, systemic, and integrative health competencies. These goals will be accomplished through a combination of required coursework, electives, and supervised fieldwork. The CMHC specialization is 60 semester credits. Additionally, hybrid course sections are offered to better adapt to the working-student lifestyle. Students may begin the program in the fall, winter, or spring quarter.

This program can be completed in 3 - 3-1/2 years.

Internship Experience: All students participate in an internship in a professional setting. This experience will enable you to validate and clarify the theory you acquire in the classroom as you develop your own role as a clinician. Examples of internship sites include the following:

•    Community mental health agencies
•    Career and employment agencies
•    Correctional facilities
•    Family service agencies
•    Gerontological settings
•    HMO’s/PPO’s/EAP’s
•    Military and Government agencies including the V.A.
•    Pastoral/religious/spiritual agencies
•    Rehabilitation agencies
•    Addiction treatment centers
•    Youth and Family Agencies
•    Substance abuse settings
•    Private practice settings
•    College counseling centers
•    Integrative Primary Behavioral Health Clinics
•    Group homes
•    Homeless shelters
•    In-patient psychiatric hospitals

The Clinical Mental Health Counseling program graduates roughly 32 students per academic year, and based on recent alumni data, 87% of graduates will obtain counseling-related employment within 6 months.  A brief Alumni Snapshot is below:

• 91% licensed as mental health counselors
• 79% completed postmaster requirements in less than 2 years.
• 60% work in nonprofit organizations
• 84% report job satisfaction
• 73% have salaries between $44-74,000

Graduates of the Master of Arts in Counseling degree program explore many professional options upon graduation. They seek positions in community agencies, hospitals, mental health clinics, and private practices, as well as teaching at community colleges or engaged in consulting and research. If you choose to continue your education, the MA program provides a solid foundation for entering a doctoral program or obtaining post-master’s credentials in an area of professional interest, such as Counselor education and supervision, play therapy, substance abuse counseling or other clinical specialties.

The objective of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program is to provide students with learning in both knowledge and skills building for the practice of mental health counseling as outlined by the Council on Accreditation for Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), the standard bearer for the profession. The curriculum is designed to meet these standards across 8 student-learning domains to ensure that graduates can be competent mental health professionals and meet the necessary licensure requirements of the profession. These domains are:

Family Systems Perspective: Students will have an understanding of family and other systems theories and major models of family and related interventions.

Professional Identity & Ethics: Students will acquire identities as professional mental health counselors who are knowledgeable about the philosophy, ethics, history, and future trends of the profession with a commitment to life-long learning and professional development. Students will be knowledgeable of the professional ethical guidelines and demonstrate their knowledge and use of at least one ethical decision-making model as they apply it to cases involving various professional domains.

Diversity & Advocacy: Students will recognize, understand, and respond to social and cultural differences and change in our society related to (but not limited to) factors of socioeconomic status, unemployment, aging, gender, race and ethnicity, developmental transitions, and sexual orientation. Students will demonstrate their ability to go beyond the conventional practice of providing individual and group counseling and to take leadership in advocating for clients and for systemic change to improve counseling and developmental services and programs.

Human Growth & Development: Students will possess a foundation for understanding human behavior and development with the skills needed to provide individual counseling, assessment, and other training to facilitate decision-making and developmental life transitions.

Career and Life Planning: Students will be knowledgeable and skilled in helping clients make life and career decisions.

Individual and Group Counseling: Students will have the knowledge and skill competencies in the counseling process and be able to work effectively in a variety of modalities (individual, group, family) and to use crisis intervention, brief counseling, and long term mental health approaches.

Research and Analytical Skills: Students will demonstrate the knowledge, skills and dispositions associated with conducting and interpreting social science research. Specifically, students will demonstrate their abilities of developing research and evaluation questions and selecting and using appropriate methods for data collection and analysis. Students will also show their ability to apply existing theory and research to the practice of counseling.

Assessment and Diagnosis: Students will have the ability to gather, interpret, and utilize a variety of assessment data. This will include the ability to select, administer, and interpret appropriate standardized tests for individual and group assessment of client needs and to complete program evaluations. Student will understand the principles of the diagnostic process and established criteria in developing treatment modalities and criteria for a continuum of care.