Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology

The Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology is a counselor training program designed to prepare professional counselors to intervene in relation to both individual and social system functioning within family, work, academic and community settings. The program, jointly administered by The Graduate School at Northwestern University and The Family Institute, is strongly committed to ensuring that every student achieves the highest standards of excellence as a clinically skilled and theoretically sophisticated practitioner. As such, extensive programmatic resources are dedicated to this objective.

Rigorous, intensive supervised clinical training and the ongoing integration of theoretical knowledge and applied practice are hallmarks of the program. To optimize and personalize the clinical experience, each student is carefully matched with a quality field training setting and clinical supervisor every year, and the training process is closely monitored throughout the student's academic tenure. In addition, a distinctive feature of the program is the Preceptor Model of Clinical Training, a unique approach to clinical training developed in this program over 30 years ago, and greatly responsible for the clinical excellence and high marketability of graduates of the program. The model embodies the program's strong belief in the importance of individualizing and personalizing the clinical training process: every Supervised Practicum student is assigned to a Backhome Preceptor, an experienced clinical practitioner who serves as a coach and mentor to facilitate the emergence of basic skills and professional identity development during the early phases of the training process specifically in concordance with the student's own personal attributes and characteristics.

The theoretical coursework embraces a life-course developmental perspective with an emphasis on individual personality and social systems approaches to the study of human behavior, psychopathology and the adaptational aspects of individuals, groups, families and organizational systems. The faculty represent a wide range of interests and diverse scholarly backgrounds, but all subscribe to the program's theoretical framework. It is a particularly notable strength of the program that every faculty member has extensive scholarly and clinical experience and expertise in the specific area of his or her teaching.

Students are admitted to one of two separate but overlapping curricula. The Standard Curriculum, consisting of 24 courses or academic units (each course is equivalent to one academic unit), is appropriate for students entering the program with some academic and applied clinical experience in psychology or a related field and is completed in two academic years. The unique Two Plus Curriculum, consisting of 27 courses or academic units, welcomes students with minimal or no background in psychology who are shifting to Counseling from other careers or academic majors, and is completed in three academic years.

Students in both curricula choose to specialize in one of the following tracks: General Psychological Counseling (individual, group and family), Career Counseling or Child Assessment and Intervention. Specializations are distinguished by specific courses and clinical training experiences; students may select the specialization at the time of matriculation or no later than the end of Winter Quarter of their Supervised Practicum year.

The program prepares students for clinical positions in mental health, human services and

academic/educational settings, including but not limited to community mental health centers,

specialized social service agencies, college/university career and psychological counseling services, hospitals, employee assistance and government agencies. Graduates are also competitive for quality Counseling or Clinical Psychology Ph.D. or Psy.D. programs. Independent practice is permissible with the Master's degree and appropriate licensure as defined by the Counselor licensing statute of the respective state in which the practice is located. Both the Standard Curriculum and the Two Plus Curriculum satisfy the requirements for licensure as a Clinical Professional Counselor in Illinois, and every effort is made to enable students to satisfy Counselor licensure requirements in other states.

Twenty-five students typically enter the program each year, including some who qualify for the Standard Curriculum and others from an array of different academic and professional backgrounds who qualify for the Two Plus curriculum. Students admitted to the Standard Curriculum must have completed, at the very minimum, one basic (undergraduate level) course in Personality and one in Abnormal Psychology (or Psychopathology) prior to matriculation. The curricula are designed for full-time study only (a minimum of three courses per quarter) beginning with Fall Quarter matriculation. Students are not expected to register for courses during Summer Quarter but some clinical opportunities may require Summer enrollment. To earn the degree, students must satisfactorily complete the Master's Comprehensive Examination in the Spring Quarter of their final year in the program.

Counseling Psychology students are strongly encouraged to become members of appropriate professional organizations such as the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, the Illinois Counseling Association and the Illinois Psychological Association, and to submit and present scholarly papers at regional and national conferences sponsored by these professional organizations.

The program endorses and abides by ethical standards of service delivery and research established by the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association and Northwestern University, and rules of ethical conduct and practice prescribed by the State of Illinois. In accordance with these ethical standards, students are not permitted to engage in the independent practice of psychology or counseling prior to earning the Master's degree and counselor licensure. Information on professional ethics is distributed to and reviewed with each incoming class, and reiterated in the program's courses and seminars.

Thursday, November 11, 2010 -- 3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

Please stay for our celebrated CAREER'S NIGHT directly following the Open House on Thursday, November 11. This event is held at Norris Center (on campus) from 6:30 p.m to 9:00 p.m. This is an extremely popular program event designed to introduce current and prospective students to a panel of our "alums" who will describe the jobs they have forged in the professional marketplace, talk about their career paths and the evolution of their respective careers, discuss careers in counseling, professional licensure issues and trends in the field. It is a great opportunity to see the wide array of jobs our alums have secured and the range of ways they have used their skills in the professional world of work.

Friday, February 11, 2011 -- 3 p.m.-5 p.m.