The Counseling Department (COUN) aims to prepare counselors to skillfully address the whole person, given the individual’s socio-political and cultural context. Faculty members are committed to a holistic, culturally sustaining approach to counseling, synthesizing physical, intellectual, psychological, emotional, interpersonal, socio-cultural, and spiritual processes and emphasizing the systemic interconnection among these dimensions of our lives. Within this framework, the goal of counselor education matches that of counseling: the empowerment of the whole person, the family, the school, and, ultimately, the community. The faculty members prioritize the healthy personal and professional development of counselors-in-training, as well as their cultivation of self-awareness (particularly in regard to the therapeutic relationship and client-counselor differences), knowledge, demonstration of counseling skills, and ability to critically evaluate and integrate information relevant to this profession. Students are provided with the theoretical and research-based knowledge, experiential practice, supervision, and personal attention needed to become competent counselors. Master of Arts and Education Specialist degree students are required to complete practicum and field experience placements in diverse community, school, and/or college/university settings that are appropriate to their career objectives and designed to make them more well-rounded counselors.They are trained in providing both in person and telehealth services to support the development of competencies that they can adapt to meet the needs of the modern world.
The Counseling Department specializations are designed for people who wish to work in schools, colleges, family service agencies, private practice, or a variety of other counseling settings. Candidates may choose a plan of study leading to an Ed.S. in School Psychology or a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Counseling with a specialization in one of these programs:
General Counseling
Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA)
Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) & Professional Clinical Counseling (PCC) (integrated emphasis)
School Counseling (SC)
With the permission of their advisor, students may complete more than one program by taking additional courses and successfully completing all field placement requirements for the chosen programs.
COUN Mission Statement
The mission of the Counseling Department is to prepare counselors to be competent practitioners and agents for positive personal and social change through advocacy.
COUN Vision Statement
The Counseling Department provides a supportive learning environment that encourages students’ personal wellness, cultural awareness, and professional development as counselors. As students seek to learn not only facts but also fundamental principles, they gain insight into their own life experiences and personalities. They embark upon a quest that touches the spirit as well as the intellect, illuminates connectedness as much as individuality, and promotes wonder as much as it instills mastery.
The department enables the development of counselors who affirm and foster the essential goodness, dignity and freedom of all people. Becoming an effective helping professional requires more than learning theories, techniques, and research methods; ultimately, counselors integrate academic knowledge and clinical experience with their own quality of being. They become empathic listeners and potent allies, engage in self-awareness, and develop critical thinking and self reflection skills that will make them effective advocates to address the needs of marginalized populations as well as systemic discrimination. We ask students to be ready to grow, with the struggle and exhilaration that such growth implies. Self-awareness, self-inquiry, self-reflection, self-understanding, self-compassion, curiosity, and cultural humility are essential traits of effective counselors. Students are required to do their own counseling as well their own inner work to examine who and what they are and believe, considering multiple dimensions, from self-constructs and world views to cultural/ethnic, sexual/gender, spiritual/religious, and other identities, beliefs, values, and biases. Students examine their own backgrounds, personal and familial histories to understand how their unique experiences and upbringing have impacted their development. These foundational skills and processes support their overall development as professional counselors and ability to support their client’s on their own personal and mental health journeys.
The department’s faculty members are also engaged in their own personal and professional development, thereby modeling as well as teaching the attitudes and behaviors that they value. Students can expect faculty and staff to care about them, treat them with respect, and attempt to accommodate individual needs. In the heritage of Saint Mary’s College and the Lasallian tradition, students and faculty are expected to be as committed to a high standard of professional ethics and proactive social responsibility as they are to academic excellence. To this end, the Counseling Department offers a synthesis of foundational information in counseling theory, values, history, and research, as well as competency-based counseling skills, within a holistic, humanistic, multicultural, and systemic framework.
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