MA in Counseling: Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Low-Residency)

Counsel others to cope with life’s challenges.

Counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals. We strive to give our adult learners the skills and knowledge needed to address the complexity of issues impacting the mental health of individuals and families. As a competency-based program, the curriculum represents the highest standards of professional ethics, theoretical integration, clinical skills, and multicultural and social justice counseling competencies. Students will learn to address the personal and environmental struggles of others while also accentuating their unique and inherent personal qualities for empowering change, creating fulfilling relationships, and leading meaningful lives. This degree is offered by AU Seattle.

2022 Recipient of the Robert Frank Outstanding Counselor Education and Supervision Program Award

Antioch University’s MA in Counseling: Clinical Mental Health Counseling program is the recipient of the 2022 ACES Robert Frank Outstanding Counselor Education and Supervision Program Award. The Robert Frank Outstanding Counselor Education Program Award honors a counselor education program that exemplifies the importance of excellence through standards (which was the essence of Robert Frank’s career as a counselor educator) and innovation.

Program Overview

The low residency Master of Arts program is based on the current Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Antioch University Seattle, which has been accredited since 2012 by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling-Related Education Programs (CACREP). The curriculum meets the highest standards in counselor training and supervision with advanced competencies in multicultural counseling, evidence-based practices, and clinical competencies. At a total of 90 graduate credits, the low residency CMHC program provides a structure and set of experiences to help students develop the intellectual and relational capacities needed to understand and work with others in the professional practice of counseling, empowering diverse individuals, families, and groups. With a greater emphasis on multicultural counseling competence, the program will also equip students to address community and institutional inequities consistent with a social justice counseling orientation. These goals are accomplished through a combination of required coursework, electives, practical experience, and a supervised internship. Concentrations in Addiction Counseling, Advanced Multicultural Counseling, Play Therapy, and Human Sexuality are also available. The Clinical Mental Health Counseling program exceeds the educational requirements for state licensure in Mental Health Counseling (LMHC) and meets national curriculum standards described by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Program (CACREP). Students in Clinical Mental Health Counseling address the following knowledge areas in their graduate studies:

• Graduate-level understanding of fundamental theoretical models of human behavior within the counseling field;
• The ability to make use of research literature and other sources of relevant knowledge as an integral part of the ongoing responsible practice of counseling;
• Skills in building relationships, including the development and deepening of self-awareness, empathy, ethical awareness, social responsibility, and respect for human diversity;
• Graduate-level mastery of counseling skills, including an ability to apply one’s knowledge and relationship-building skills to the counseling situation, to think critically about human behavior and the counseling relationship, and to integrate theory with practice in ways that facilitate ethical and effective practice as a counselor; and
• Knowledge of professional development issues, professional organizations, and state requirements for practice as a clinical mental health counselor.
• Developed with the working professional in mind, the MA in CMHC is a unique low-residence, three-year, and year-round cohort model. Classes meet on Monday afternoons and evenings. In addition to the online course work, students will attend two four-day residencies (winter and summer quarters) per academic year, in Seattle (Summer) and another west coast city (Winter). The residential experiences will provide opportunities for intensified face-to-face training and community enrichment and a seminar format for rich discourse and meaning-making. This collective experience is consistent with an infused emphasis on multicultural discourse, resilience, civil enrichment, and social justice.

For those interested in expanding their counseling career into the areas of teaching, supervision, research, and leadership, 72 credits of the master’s degree will transfer into the 144-credit PhD in Counselor Education & Supervision—the only program of its kind in the country due to the program’s Creative Arts Cognate.

Accreditation

Antioch is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Students enrolled in this program save between $5,000-8,000 on required supervision hours. View our 2023 Counseling Department Annual Report.

Degree Requirements

Program Length: This program can be completed in 3.25 years. Requirements: The MA in Counseling with Clinical Mental Health Counseling helps students to develop the intellectual and relational capacities needed to understand and work with others in the professional practice of counseling. They will develop the skills you need to work as a counselor with multicultural, systemic, and integrative health competencies. These goals will be accomplished through a combination of required coursework, electives, and supervised fieldwork. The CMHC specialization is 90 quarter credits. Additionally, hybrid course sections are offered to better adapt to the working-student lifestyle. Students may begin the program in the fall, winter, or spring quarter. Core Courses: All coursework is completed prior to your internship: First Year

• COUN 5042: Multicultural Counseling: Cultivating Self Awareness
• COUN 5080: The Counseling Profession & Identity
• COUN 5041: Multicultural Counseling: Intersectionality
• COUN 5180: Ethics & Professional Issues
• COUN 5060: Communication & Counseling Skills
• COUN 5231: Research Methods: Introduction to Research
• COUN 5231: Human Growth & Development
• COUN 5050: Systems Perspectives in Family Therapy

Second Year

• COUN 5105: Counseling Theories & Practice I
• COUN 5150: Psychopathology
• COUN 5115: Counseling Theories & Practice II
• COUN 5160: Psychodiagnostics & Treatment Planning
• COUN 5070: Group Counseling
• COUN 5600: Trauma, Disaster Response & Crisis Counseling
• COUN 5270: Career Development & Counseling
• COUN 5520: Assessment: Tests & Measurements
• COUN 5920: Practicum I (w/Supplemental Supervision)

Third Year

• COUN 5290: Addictions & Substance Abuse
• COUN 6300: Social Justice Counseling
• COUN 5920: Practicum II (w/Supplemental Supervision)
• COUN 6003: Internship & Case Consult
• Elective/Concentration*
• COUN 6003: Internship & Case Consult
• Elective/Concentration*
• COUN 6003: Internship & Case Consult
• Elective/Concentration*
• COUN 6003: Internship & Case Consult
• Elective/Concentration*

Elective Courses: Elective courses provide students with an opportunity to advance their clinical training in particular areas and to pursue interest areas with depth beyond material covered in the required courses. Elective courses are offered on a regularly scheduled rotation throughout the academic year. In addition, students are required to take one course from each of the following domains:

• Multicultural Counseling Series (titles vary), or
• Historical and Socio-Cultural Perspectives in Psychology Series (titles vary)
• Elective concentrations are also offered in Addiction Counseling, Clinical Treatment courses (children, adolescents, older adults), Creative Modalities courses (music, writing, dramatic enactment, movement), Counseling & Spirituality courses (Introduction to Counseling & Spirituality, and Integrating Challenges in Psycho-Spiritual Work), and Advanced Theories courses (Psychosynthesis, Buddhist, Integral, Jungian, Existential, Cognitive, Adlerian, and Brief approaches) as well as select course work in the Couples and Family Therapy program and the Art Therapy and Drama Therapy specialties.

Internship Course:

• Internship & Case Consultation: Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Internship Experience: All students participate in an internship in a professional setting. This experience will enable you to validate and clarify the theory you acquire in the classroom as you develop your own role as a clinician. Examples of internship sites include the following:

• Community mental health agencies
• Career and employment agencies
• Correctional facilities
• Family service agencies
• Gerontological settings
• HMO’s/PPO’s/EAP’s
• Military and Government agencies including the V.A.
• Pastoral/religious/spiritual agencies
• Rehabilitation agencies
• Addiction treatment centers
• Youth and Family agencies
• Substance abuse settings
• Private practice settings
• College counseling centers
• Integrative Primary Behavioral Health Clinics
• Group homes
• Homeless shelters
• In-patient psychiatric hospitals
• *Program Requirements and Course Offerings Are Subject to Change

For detailed curriculum, degree requirements, and course descriptions, please visit the AUS catalog.

Career Outlook

The Clinical Mental Health Counseling program graduates roughly 32 students per academic year, and based on recent alumni data, 87% of graduates will obtain counseling related employment within 6 months. A brief Alumni Snapshot is below:

• 91% licensed as mental health counselors
• 79% completed postmaster requirements in less than 2 yrs.
• 60% work in nonprofit organizations
• 84% report job satisfaction
• 73% have salaries between $44-74,000

Graduates of the Master of Arts in Counseling degree program explore many professional options upon graduation. They seek positions in community agencies, hospitals, mental health clinics, and private practices as well as teaching at community colleges, or engaged in consulting and research. If you choose to continue your education, the MA program provides a solid foundation for entering a doctoral program or obtaining post-master’s credentials in an area of professional interest, such as Counselor education and supervision, play therapy, substance abuse counseling, or other clinical specialties.

Learning Outcomes

The objective of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program is to provide students with learning in both knowledge and skills building for the practice of mental health counseling as outlined by the Council on Accreditation for Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), the standard bearer for the profession. The curriculum is designed to meet these standards across 8 student-learning domains to ensure that graduates can be competent mental health professionals and meet the necessary licensure requirements of the profession. These domains are: Professional Identity & Ethics: Students will acquire identities as professional mental health counselors who are knowledgeable about the philosophy, ethics, history, and future trends of the profession with a commitment to life-long learning and professional development. Students will be knowledgeable of the professional ethical guidelines and demonstrate their knowledge and use of at least one ethical decision-making model as they apply it to cases involving various professional domains. Diversity & Advocacy: Students will recognize, understand, and respond to social and cultural differences and change in our society related to (but not limited to) factors of socioeconomic status, unemployment, aging, gender, race and ethnicity, developmental transitions, and sexual orientation. Students will demonstrate their ability to go beyond the conventional practice of providing individual and group counseling and to take leadership in advocating for clients and for systemic change to improve counseling and developmental services and programs. Human Growth & Development: Students will possess a foundation for understanding human behavior and development with the skills needed to provide individual counseling, assessment, and other training to facilitate decision-making and developmental life transitions. Career and Life Planning: Students will be knowledgeable and skilled in helping clients make life and career decisions. Individual and Group Counseling: Students will have the knowledge and skill competencies in the counseling process and be able to work effectively in a variety of modalities (individual, group, family) and to use crisis intervention, brief counseling, and long term mental health approaches. Research and Analytical Skills: Students will demonstrate the knowledge, skills and dispositions associated with conducting and interpreting social science research. Specifically, students will demonstrate their abilities of developing research and evaluation questions and selecting and using appropriate methods for data collection and analysis. Students will also show their ability to apply existing theory and research to the practice of counseling. Assessment and Diagnosis: Students will have the ability to gather, interpret, and utilize a variety of assessment data. This will include the ability to select, administer, and interpret appropriate standardized tests for individual and group assessment of client needs and to complete program evaluations. Student will understand the principles of the diagnostic process and established criteria in developing treatment modalities and criteria for a continuum of care. Family Systems Perspective: Students will have an understanding of family and other systems theories and major models of family and related interventions.

Licensure Information

Graduates of the CMHC Program may apply for professional credentials recognizing their level of training and experience. Credentials may be granted by national professional boards/organizations or by state regulatory boards. The CMHC Program recognizes the importance of licensure and certification for professional practice. The legislature in each state establishes the criteria for licensure and an appointed board determines if an individual’s education and experience meet their standards. The AP Department has designed its programs to be consistent with the standards of the representative professional organizations. Individual states, many of which base their legislation on professional organization’s standards, vary as to specific coursework, number of hours of supervised practice, supervisor qualification, and other required criteria. While the department offers coursework and internships that allow students to put together a licensable portfolio, it cannot guarantee licensure. Students with any negative results on a criminal background check should inquire with the state board in advance to determine if the results of their background will hinder their ability to become licensed in their state. As graduates are eligible to obtain full certification as a National Certified Counselor (NCC) upon graduation after passing the National Counselor Exam offered in April of their final year and completing the required applications. See the NBCC website for information on this process. Graduates self-reported pass rate on the NBCC exam is 80%. Students will learn about the steps to licensure for the state in which they plan to pursue licensure in the Professional Orientation and Ethics course, however, students are responsible for knowing the expectations of the state in which they plan to apply. Students should actively consult their state’s counseling board for the most recent information about professional licensure. Faculty are available to consult with students and the following websites are helpful when navigating the licensure process: National Board of Certified Counselors American Counseling Association American Mental Health Counseling Association American Association of State Counseling Boards To locate contact information, available licenses, and required examinations per State, visit the NBCC’s State Board Directory: http://www.nbcc.org/Search/StateBoardDirectory For information on individual state requirements, see the NBCC State Licensure page

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