Counseling, M.S.

Learning Goals and Student Learning Outcomes

The following learning goals and learning outcomes have been established for students pursuing a degree in Counseling:

Clinical Skills

  • Demonstrate effective individual (adults and children), couples, families, and group counseling skills which facilitate client growth.
  • Demonstrate the ability to evaluate progress toward treatment goals during practicum experiences.
  • Develop an awareness of, and appreciation for, social, cultural influences on human behavior and to recognize the impact of individual differences on the counseling process.
  • Recognize client issues in the context of lifespan development.
  • Recognize counter-transference that may be interfering with the client’s process, minimize counter-transference through personal work, and understand how counter-transference can be used in therapy.
  • Identify ethical and legal issues, and apply appropriately using the decision model.

Conceptualization and Treatment Planning Skills

  • Gain significant knowledge of major counseling theories in the context of individual, couple, family and group counseling, and to apply this knowledge to the actual counseling process.
  • Understanding and application of the DSM-IV, psychopharmacology, and various psychological assessment instruments.
  • Recognition and treatment of clients with addictive behaviors.

Professional Identity

  • Demonstrate an understanding of the counseling profession, develop an identity as a counselor and demonstrate a willingness to provide counseling and consultation services with the ethical guidelines of the counseling profession.
  • Use physical, cognitive, social and emotional counseling strategies which include principles of wellness, human development, and prevention in addressing clinical issues.
  • View clients from a systemic (micro system) perspective.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

  • Become critical consumers of professional research and literature.
  • Formulate sound conceptualizations, recognizing bias and misattribution, and reflecting on ways in which therapeutic or research conversations are influenced through language.
  • Collect and organize information, from clinical hypothesis from random or incomplete information, and systematically inquire about the multiple and varied perspectives of a client.
  • Integrate prior learning, create a formal system of inquiry, and apply it in a “practicum of research” which connects the work of researcher and clinicians.
  • Draw from theoretical and empirical literature, field interviews, and personal experience to develop a knowledge base about unique issues relevant to Californians served by marriage and family therapists.

Write Effectively

  • Write about various kinds of texts so as to articulate the dimensions of the work.
  • Demonstrate an awareness of audience, purpose and various rhetorical forms as well as high level writing within APA forma.