Students enrolled in the Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling and Therapy Program are required to successfully complete the following courses (Course Descriptions are provided here. To view full syllabi for these courses, simply “click” on the course name):
COUN 501 Introduction to Counseling
The purposes of this course are to provide students with an orientation to the counseling profession and to teach students basic skills for writing professional manuscripts in counseling and for counseling clients. The course begins with studies of the profession of counseling, including an overview of the history of counseling, professional counseling organizations and issues, major counseling specialties, requirements for counselor license and certification, and the ethical and legal issues in counseling. The course includes a laboratory component in which students learn the stages of the counseling process, the microskills of counseling, conventions for writing professional counseling manuscripts, and strategies for researching topics in counseling.
COUN 515 Statistics and Research in Counseling
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the organization, analysis, summarization and interpretation of counseling data with special emphasis on developing research projects involving counseling data. The inter-relationships among statistics, measurement and research design are examined. Training in reading and interpreting counseling research literature is provided.
EPSY 643 Measurement and Evaluation
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an introduction to educational and psychological measurement and evaluation. The topics of test construction, reliability, validity, and statistics are covered. Frequently used counseling, educational, intellectual, personality, and neuropsychological assessment techniques are discussed, along with the principles of interpreting and presenting the results of testing.
EPSY 520 Fundamentals of Human Development
This course examines the various psychological processes as they develop across the life-span. It surveys the major issues in developmental psychology and integrates them using a life-span perspective.
COUN 530 Multicultural Counseling
Through a combination of didactic and experiential learning activities, this course provides students with an introduction to multicultural counseling and increases their awareness and understanding of, as well as their ability to competently counsel, individuals evidencing diversity in culture, race and ethnicity, family, nationality, language, age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, religion and spirituality, and mental and physical abilities.
COUN 535 Career Counseling and Placement
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of career development and the role of the career counselor. The course is designed to examine theories of career development and decision making, sources of occupational information and methods of career counseling, assessment and program planning. Both theory and the practical application of career counseling will be explored through lectures, class discussions, readings, writings and projects. Students will have the opportunity to practice various career counseling techniques and gain an understanding of their own career development. Ethical and legal issues, contemporary trends and application of career counseling models to a variety of populations in school and community settings will be explored.
COUN 670 Counseling Theory and Techniques
The purposes of this course are to provide students with an understanding of the major theories of counseling and their related techniques and to apply theoretical material to case studies. Students will be exposed to an overview of current approaches to psychological counseling, including psychodynamic, existential-humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, and systems approaches. Emphasis is on both theory and practical applications of the various approaches. Through lectures, class discussions, readings, videos, writings, experiential exercises and role play situations, students will be encouraged to examine the various theories and to integrate them into their own style of counseling.
Through didactic and experiential learning activities, this course provides an introduction to group counseling that enables students to explore the nature and function of various types of groups; basic principles of group dynamics; ethical, legal and professional issues; leadership and group development; member roles and functions; theoretical approaches to group counseling; how to design and lead groups across the human lifespan; and the nature and impact of their own interpersonal styles of behavior on their roles as both group members and group leaders.
The purpose of this course is to provide counselor-in-training (CITs) with highly supervised counseling experiences. CITs will establish counseling relationships with appropriate clients, develop and implement counseling interventions and work within the structure of a counseling site. CITs are required to participate in a practicum placement experience specific to their counseling program specialization. The practicum placement will be approved and supervised by the college. Field visitations as well as individual supervision and group consultation will be integral parts of this practicum experience.
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an intensive, supervised on-the-job counseling experience specific to students’ counselor education program specialization and totaling a minimum of 600 hours. Emphasis will be upon analyzing and strengthening the application of counseling skills, maximizing utilization of community resources and facilities, and identifying and developing the consultation skills needed to negotiate professional counseling and administrative systems. Internship placements will be approved and consulted by the college. Advanced level weekly individual supervision sessions and participation in internship classes are required components of this internship experience.