School Counseling, M.A.

(also see Clinical Mental Health Counseling  and Marriage and Family Therapy )

The School Counseling Program is committed to educating counselors who will provide leadership in serving the developmental needs of children in a school community. The purpose of a counselor’s intervention is seen as facilitating growth towards the student’s full academic and psychosocial potential. The program focuses on assisting future counselors with the wide range of issues that confront students, teachers, and parents across the full span of the school years (K-12). Therefore, school counselors who graduate from the University of Saint Joseph are prepared to work with elementary, middle, and high school students and to assist them with the types of challenges that they face as they grow and develop.

Learning Outcomes for the School Counseling Program

• Counseling Skills: This domain focuses on the skills necessary for engaging in the helping process. Students will demonstrate culturally appropriate skills and techniques necessary for successful pre-session, in-session, and post-session counseling behaviors
• Conceptualization of Student and/or Programmatic Need(s): This domain focuses on the skills needed to formulate a clear under-standing of a student’s or school community’s need within a broader social context and the ability to construct an intervention plan that reflects respect for the individual and/or the larger group
• Counseling Process: This domain focuses on the ability to recognize any aspect of counselor-client interaction, total or in part, that can be understood to directly or indirectly affect the counselor, the client, the direction of sessions, and movement toward the resulting outcome of counseling
• Professional Role Skills: This domain focuses on an awareness of the aspects of the candidate’s character that serves to enhance working as a school counselor, as well as those aspects that serve as obstacles to success in the school counselor role

Degree Requirements

The School Counseling curriculum is designed to facilitate self-understanding and development through individual and small group activities across a variety of educational domains that pertain to counseling practice. In addition to a common core of curricular experiences, all students in the School Counseling Program are expected to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in foundations of school counseling, ability to conceptualize a comprehensive counseling program, and the practice of school counseling including program development, implementation, evaluation, and consultation.

Matriculation

A student seeking to matriculate into the program is required to submit the following to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies:

1. A completed admission application along with a nonrefundable application fee
2. Two copies of all official college transcripts, one mailed directly to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies and one mailed directly to the Department of Counseling and Family Therapy. These must be from accredited institutions and must evidence at least a baccalaureate degree with a GPA of 2.67 or higher. Transcripts are required prior to registration
3. Two letters of professional reference mailed directly to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies recommending the candidate for graduate work in the School Counseling Program at the University of Saint Joseph. Recommendation forms are available in the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies
4. Two copies of Praxis I scores, one to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies and one to the Department of Counseling and Family Therapy. Any student who has scored 1100 or higher on the math/verbal SAT may apply for a Praxis I waiver
5. All immunization records as required by the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies
    

In addition, School Counseling applicants are required to:

6. Submit a personal entrance essay (essay guidelines available through the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies and the Department of Counseling and Family Therapy)
7. Sign up for a group interview/information session once the application and an official transcript are submitted and received.

Note: During the interview , a planned Program of Study (POS) will be prepared based on the number of credits the student wishes to carry each semester. This POS will then be sent via email to you with instructions for registration and final matriculation.

When all the required documentation is received by the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies, the file will be submitted to the Department of Counseling and Family Therapy for matriculation.