Clinical Counseling Program

Mission

The mission of the Master of Arts program in Clinical Counseling is to prepare interpersonally skilled, culturally competent, and knowledgeable professional counselors who facilitate psychological growth and development for clients in a variety of community and agency settings. Our goal is to graduate ethical, self-reflective practitioners whose professional competence, social conscience, and human compassion will transform lives and communities for greater health, well-being, and the common good of all, especially for those in greatest need.

We believe in high academic and professional standards for all students, and we strive to foster critical thinking. We are grounded in a practitioner-scientist model. We are committed to fostering the personal and professional growth of our students, to delivering excellent client services, to understanding and respecting human diversity, to fostering ethical and social responsibility, and to promoting leadership and professional identity in the counseling profession.

The Ohio State University Clinical Counseling Program is approved by the State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist Board (CSW&MFT)

Objectives

The professional counselor works from an integrated understanding that combines theory and practice. The objectives of the clinical counseling program are presented in two categories: the knowledge objectives are formulated in reference to eight common-core areas: human growth and development, social and cultural foundation, helping relationships, group work, lifestyle and career development, appraisal, research and evaluation and professional orientation. The counseling objectives reflect the CACREP (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs) criteria as well as the conviction of this faculty that a program that aims to prepare effective counseling professional must have a strong clinical orientation.

Knowledge-based objectives

1. to orient students to the nature of professional counseling by
   • introducing them to the history, goals, professional roles, ethical and legal standards, preparation standards, professional organizations, and credentialing processes of the field and
   • helping them to measure their own strengths and limitations against the demands of the profession;
2. to help students to see the individual within a developmental context by introducing them to the basic theories, concepts, and principles that comprise the body of knowledge about normal and abnormal human development;
3. to acquaint students with the nature of social and cultural change within a pluralistic society and to prepare them to deal with the ramifications of on-going change in their work as professional counselors;
4. to introduce students to the major theories of counseling/psychotherapy, to help them to develop a working understanding of the relation between theory and practice in their work as counselors, and to guide them as they formulate their own personal theory of counseling -- an initial formulation that will be revised, modified, and reformulated as they grow and develop professionally;
5. to help students to understand the role of the counselor in terms of the counselor client relationship, the stages of counseling as defined by representative counseling models, and the counseling strategies and interventions that help to facilitate change in the client;
6. to introduce students to the principles of group dynamic, theories of group counseling, alternative leadership styles, and ethical considerations that comprise the body of knowledge about group counseling;
7. to help students to understand the processes and counseling implications of lifestyle and career development by introducing them to the theories, informational systems, planning models, assessment instruments, and placement and evaluation strategies that characterize this area;
8. to acquaint students with the principles, theories, and methodologies of educational and psychological appraisal (including psychometric statistics and computer-assisted approaches) that are appropriate to their work as professional counselors;
9. to introduce students to a theoretical framework for meeting the counseling needs of target populations in a programmatic fashion by focusing on the processes of population identification, need assessment, goal formulation, intervention design, and program evaluation.
10. to help students to understand social scientific research as a means of problem solving within the counseling field and require them to demonstrate their knowledge by reviewing, designing, and conceptualizing a relevant research project.

Counseling proficiency objectives

1. to involve students in the application of learning to practical situations by requiring within all didactic courses a range of self-assessment assignments, group process activities, case studies, and individual projects;
2. to help students to acquire, through supervised laboratory practice, the verbal and non-verbal interaction skills that are basic to the helping process, including appropriate physical orientation to the client; careful listening; communication of empathy through reflection of feeling and paraphrases; effective use of open and indirect questions, probing statements, summarization, and self-disclosure; and appropriate use of a range of challenging techniques;
3. to involve students in a range of group counseling activities by means of supervised counseling sessions in which they function as both group members and group leaders;
4. to require students to complete a minimum of 100 hours of closely supervised practicum experiences in appropriate settings, in which they engage in on-going counseling activities with both individuals and groups, using a range of counseling models, interpretive frameworks, and intervention strategies;
5. to require students to complete, under both university and site supervision, a 600 hour post-practicum internship in which they demonstrate their readiness for the professional counseling role by performing all of the activities that a counselor employed in that setting would be required to perform.