Master's Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling

A clinical mental health counselor focuses on helping people address the personal, familial, and social issues that interfere with their abilities to lead healthy and productive lives. Our practice-oriented program equips graduates for a variety of specialties in mental health counseling, including community agency work, substance abuse and addictions work, in-patient treatment, and college counseling. Through a combination of classroom and field experiences, you develop a unique, professional identity as a clinical mental health counselor in our CACREP-accredited program.

Engage with active, dedicated faculty.

Discover a faculty of professionals who are committed to preparing you for your career through excellence in teaching, active involvement in clinical practice and scholarship, and service to the community and profession.

Learn by doing.

Apply your knowledge, develop your professional identity, and fine-tune your skills in supervised field work which includes a one semester practicum and three semesters of internship experiences. Practicum takes place in the third semester and introduces students to work in the field with 40 hours of direct service to clients as they learn the policy of the agency and the roles of the mental health counselor. The first internship semester continues at the same site as the practicum while the site for the final two-semester internship may change. The students provide 120 hours of direct service to clients during each internship semester.

Get ready for licensure.

Prepare yourself for licensure by building competency in eight core areas, as recommended by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP): professional identity; foundations of social and cultural diversity; human growth and development; career development; the helping relationship; group work; assessment; and research and program development.