The graduate counseling program at NVU-Johnson offers a state-of-the-art Master of Arts (M.A.) in Counseling with a concentration in either clinical mental health, substance use, or school counseling. It is the mission of the program to prepare professional counselors to work in mental health, community, and educational settings, in order to promote individual and community wellness, resilience, recovery, and education. This program is designed to be highly accessible to working adults, in order to encourage a diverse group of students, including people currently working in the field. Graduates demonstrate a strong grounding in the knowledge and skills of the counseling profession. Throughout the academic program the focus areas include person-centered and strength-based approaches; culturally competent practice in a multicultural and diverse society; integrated, evidence-based approaches in educational settings, clinical practice in mental health and substance use, and a commitment to leadership, systemic change and advocacy within the profession, the community, and the larger society.
This program combines face-to-face instruction and distance-learning activities geared to adult learners. Located at the NVU-Johnson campus, modalities for the M.A. in Counseling courses are determined by the instructor and range from hybrid courses to in-person, evening, weekend intensive, and in-person seminars. The program focuses on the theory and practice of counseling with a unique emphasis in clinical mental health, substance use or school counseling. It emphasizes clinical and leadership skills in counseling, community-based behavioral health and other social service settings. Students complete a Master of Arts in Counseling degree requiring 60 credits for the chosen M.A. in Counseling concentration.
Faculty are scholar-practitioners who bring national and local expertise in mental health counseling, school counseling, integrated service delivery, research, and administration to the program. The program prepares students to pursue licensure in clinical mental health, substance use, or school counseling.
Learning Objectives:
1. Knowledge: Use academic study to develop content area knowledge in the common core areas in counselor education, as well as for specializations in clinical mental health, substance use disorder and school counseling.
This includes: counseling and helping relationships; history of and orientation to the counseling profession; ethical practice; social and cultural diversity; human growth and development; group counseling; diagnosis, assessment and testing, and research and program evaluation.
2. Counselor Disposition: Demonstrate, in the classroom and in field placements, growth towards a counselor disposition grounded in a strengths-based, person-centered, wellness and recovery-oriented and ethical approach.
This includes: empathy, respect, genuineness, acceptance, openness, and professional behavior.
3. Counseling Skills & Practice: Demonstrate, in the classroom and in field placements professional counseling practice, grounded in culturally relevant, evidence-based and promising approaches.
This includes: foundational counseling skills, teaming and collaboration, and state-of-the-art interventions in integrated mental health, health and SUD counseling. (Evidence-based and promising approaches includes an understanding of the value of peer-run services and community-involvement and inclusion.)
4. Ethics: Develop a personal code of ethics, grounded in the ACA, AMHCA, ASCA and NAADAC codes, which reflects an understanding of diverse world views, cultural competence, health equity and ethical practice.
This includes: self-awareness, personal growth, self-care, supervision and ethics related to clinical practice, research and academic honesty.
5. Leadership & Systems Change: Demonstrate ability to critically analyze information for purposes of program evaluation, advocacy, consultation, systems change and personal and organizational leadership.
Information includes: the research literature, data collected to evaluate personal practice and programs, first person-accounts and client satisfaction.
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