Graduate Level Counseling Course Descriptions
510
– The Counseling Profession
and Ethics, 3 Cr.
This course equips the entry-level counselor with an
introduction to the profession of counseling and its history. It will explore
the professional roles, organizations, training, and credentialing standards of
the profession as well as the ethical, legal and professional issues facing
counselors today and in the future. This
course will also stimulate students’ self-awareness of personal, values, and
multicultural issues concerning ethical decision-making.
520
– Multicultural Perspectives
and Counseling, 3 Cr.
The course promotes an understanding and appreciation of cultural and
ethnic differences among individuals, groups and families, and explores the
impact of such differences on the theory and practice of mental health
counseling. This is designed to enhance student’s abilities to apply
multicultural awareness to their professional work.
530
– Human Development in Social
Context: Lifespan Counseling, 3 Cr.
This course provides an overview of theory and research related to
human growth and development over the lifespan. The course provides specific
developmentally appropriate interventions and culturally sensitive
developmental assessments supported by research that are designed to enhance
the growth and development of clients who seek counseling services. Students
also will engage in experiential activities designed to enhance their own
growth and development.
540
– Theories of Mental Health Counseling,
3 Cr.
The course examines the philosophical bases of
the helping processes as well as major contemporary counseling theories and
their application in individual and group counseling and in family systems
counseling. It is designed to aid students’ development of
a personal counseling theory toward developing therapeutic relationships,
counseling goals, intervention strategies and client outcome evaluation. Prerequisite:
510
550
– Career Development and
Counseling, 3 Cr.
The purpose of the course is to introduce students to career
development theories, career counseling procedures and techniques, career
assessment tools, career development program planning, and sources of
occupational information. Emphasis is placed on empirically-based theories,
theoretically based counseling interventions, and current issues in the world
of work and vocational counseling as well as the social contexts of career
development, and how these contexts can be integrated with existing career
theory. Prerequisite: 530
560
– Testing and Assessment in
Counseling, 3 Cr.
The course provides an overview to the basic principles of assessment
in counseling, focusing on test and non-test appraisal instruments and
development of diagnostic skills. The course includes selection, use, and
interpretation of instruments appropriate for appraisal of individuals and
families. Attention is given to development of clinical documentation skills
with a variety of populations. Prerequisite: 510.
570
– Couples and Family
Counseling, 3 Cr.
An overview of various
family forms, the family life cycle, and healthy family functioning will be
provided, followed by a review of the major theories of systemic family
therapy. Basic family therapy process and outcome research will be reviewed.
The code of ethics will be applied to clinical ethical dilemmas. A role play
format will be used to practice basic therapy counseling skills. Prerequisite:
540.
571 – Techniques in Counseling Children and
Adolescents, 3 Cr.
This course provides an overview of theories and basic skill
development for developing competency in child/adolescent assessment and
counseling. Ethical dilemmas inherent in work with these populations will be
addressed. Prerequisite: 540.
572
– Advanced Counseling for Children and Adolescents, 3 Cr.
This course will provide in-depth knowledge and skills for advanced
work with children, adolescents, and adults. Included will be primary
theoretical models, evidence-based practices, and general applications for
developing competency for working with children, adolescents, and their primary
care givers. Prerequisites: 530, 571.
580
– Wellness Counseling and
Spiritual Health, 3 Cr.
This course highlights the
psychological aspects of wellness, complementary health, and
rehabilitation. It seeks to promote the
knowledge and skills that counselors should possess to effectively engage
clients in the exploration of their overall wellness, including their spiritual
and religious lives, as it relates to other psychological concerns. The course
also explores the actual and potential roles in the fields of health
maintenance organizations and preventative medicine in designing and
implementing plans to improve the wellness of individual patients/clients, and
groups.
581
– Promoting Healthy
Lifestyle Choice and Interventions, 3 Cr.
This course provides the
student with a general overview of the physical, social, emotional,
intellectual, spiritual and environmental dimensions of health and their
applications to personal wellness. The focus of this course will be on the
knowledge and skills necessary for the promotion of positive lifestyle choices
integrating wellness and resilience.
582
– Integrative Holistic
Medicine, 3 Cr.
The purpose of this course on alternative medicine is to explore
complementary and alternative healing practices emphasizing patient/client
counseling and education about mind-body approaches, complementary therapies,
health promotion, disease prevention and wellness. The course seeks to prepare
mental health counselors with assisting individuals, families, and groups with
achieving a level of health and well-being that reaches beyond merely the
absence of disease. Prerequisite: 580.
590
– Models of Addiction
Counseling, 3 Cr.
This course provides a survey of various chemical and
behavioral addictions, including, but not limited to, substance abuse
disorders, eating disorders, and sexual addictions. Students will participate
in the evaluation of various causal and treatment models, focusing upon
theoretical analysis of various addictive constructs and treatment paradigms.
591 – Substance Abuse Disorders Counseling, 3 Cr.
This course addresses the
personal, social, emotional, physiological, and environmental factors related
to substance abuse disorders. Evaluations, diagnosis and treatment methods for
substance use disorders, as well as co-occurring disorders will be examined.
Professional, ethical, and legal issues unique to this population will be
addressed. Prerequisite: 590.
592
– Fieldwork in Substance
Abuse Disorders, 3 Cr.
This course
provides practice and fieldwork in the areas of prevention, assessment,
intervention and treatment of substance abuse disorders with an emphasis on
evidence-based individual and group methods. Specific topics covered include
dual diagnosis, risk assessment, crisis intervention, and issues related to
diagnosis and treatment in multicultural populations. Prerequisite: 590.
630
– Mental Health Leadership,
Consultation and Advocacy, 3 Cr.
This course is designed as an experiential/lecture
experience for counseling students to learn about issues and trends in
counseling with multicultural and diverse populations. Emphasis will be placed
on the leadership for equity, social justice, and advocacy in counseling with
underrepresented and oppressed populations. This course also provides an
overview of the major consultation frameworks and associated techniques to be
applied in schools, community agencies, or other organizational settings.
Prerequisite: 520.
640
– Psychodiagnostics and
Treatment Planning, 3 Cr.
This course will prepare the masters
level professional in a variety of diagnostic procedures and processes. The
areas covered include but are not limited to structured and unstructured
interview formats, mental health screening and diagnostic protocols, mental
status examinations, for suicidal and homicidal risk assessment, and substance
abuse screening will be reviewed for use in assessment and treatment planning.
Multicultural and diversity issues in diagnosis will also be reviewed. Prerequisites:
520, 560.
650
– Psychopharmacology for
Counselors, 3 Cr.
This
course is designed to acquaint counseling students with the fundamentals of
psychoactive drugs and their use, effects, and potential for abuse. The neural
mechanisms of drug action, along with the physical and behavioral consequences
of use and abuse, are explored. Emphasized concepts include the physiological
and psychological mechanisms of addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal. Basics of
pharmacology, adverse effects, indications, and drug interactions will be
examined. Boundaries of practice and practical issues of assessment and
referral will be covered. Prerequisite: 590.
660 – Research, Evaluation, and Evidenced-Based
Practices, 3 Cr.
This course provides an overview of both the method and content of the
research that the counseling tradition now depends on for accountability and
transparency. Research will be analyzed and connected to the “best practices”
that it informs, as well as the methods that it has shown to be ultimately less
effectual, ineffectual, or even psychologically damaging. The Science
-practitioner model: research informs practice and practice informs research
will be central. Prerequisites: 510, 560.
675
– Techniques of Counseling,
3 Cr.
This course consists of
laboratory training in counseling skills and application of major theories of
counseling and psychotherapy with a
special focus on gender, culture, ethical dilemmas, counselor preparation, and
common theoretically-based assessment and case formulation strategies. The
course is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to begin a
counseling practicum that include the following: counseling micro-skills,
intervention strategies, treatment planning, goal setting, and counseling
termination. Emphasis is on application of theoretical approaches to
counseling strategies. Prerequisite: 540.
680
– Group Counseling, 3 Cr.
This course explores the theory,
practice and ethics of group counseling while providing students supervision in
the development and application of group counseling skills. Students will
acquire knowledge through practical and theoretical activities to gain the
ability to articulate theory and group process. Prerequisite: 675.
690
– Counseling Practicum, 3
Cr.
The purpose of the course
is to enhance the counseling skills and conceptualization processes acquired
through direct counseling experience, supervision, and classroom interaction. The
application of counseling theory and techniques will occur with clients in a
supervised lab in preparing supervisees for internship and their development as
independent professional counselors. Prerequisites: 660, 675.
695
– Counseling Internship, 3
or 6 Cr.
The counseling internship
is a field counseling experience supervised by a qualified counseling
professional. Placement is at a site
suitable to the counseling emphasis requirements and interests of the student
and provides opportunities for the student to perform, under supervision, a
variety of counseling activities that a professional counselor is expected to
perform. University group supervision is conducted throughout a student’s
internship experience. Prerequisite: 690.