Coursework Requirements and Practicum for Licensure as Professional Counselor or Professional Counselor Associate
Definitions of Categories for Required Coursework
- Human Growth and Development
- Social and Cultural Foundations
- The Helping Relationships
- Groups
- Lifestyle and Career Development
- Appraisal
- Research and Evaluation
- Professional Orientation
- Psychopathology
- Diagnostics of Psychopathology
By law, all applicants must have a 48 hour master's degree or higher in counseling or in a related discipline, and the applicant must demonstrate on graduate transcript successful completion of one (1) three-hour graduate level course in each of the following ten areas and completion of a 150 hour counseling practicum:
Coursework Areas:
1. Human Growth and Development
2. Social and Cultural Foundations
3. The Helping Relationship*
4. Group Dynamics, Processing, and Counseling
5. Lifestyle and Career Development
6. Appraisal of Individuals
7. Research and Evaluation
8. Professional Orientation
9. Psychopathology
10. Diagnostics of Psychopathology
*Counseling Theories and Techniques (With this course, you will meet the requirements for one course in "The Helping Relationship" category. Refer to #3).
This includes study of basic counseling theories that include a range of approaches to professional helping. These include psychodynamic, existential, behavioral, person-centered, cognitive, and other accepted theories and models. This coursework provides a general knowledge of theories, their principles, and techniques for application in counseling relationships. In addition, this coursework provides a broad understanding of philosophic bases of counseling processes, basic and advanced helping skills, consultation theories and their application in various professional settings. Finally, this coursework helps the counselor facilitate the client's self-understanding and decisions for change.
Practicum
A minimum of 150 hour Supervised Counseling Practicum is required to provide supervised field placement(s) in an appropriate counseling setting and for academic credit as part of the degree program.
Please note: If, as a licensed professional counselor associate, an applicant would like to assess and treat the more problems as categorized in standard nomenclature, they must have a practicum that dealt directly with the assessment and treatment of the more serious problems as well as a 600 hour internship dealing with the more serious problems as part of the degree program.
This course of study may be completed during the qualifying degree program or additional graduate-level coursework may be completed successfully at a college or university accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, one of its transferring regional associations, the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, or a regionally-accredited institution of higher learning.
The above ten core courses plus a supervised counseling practicum are considered adequate for licensure, whether in a Master's degree program or a doctoral degree program.
Each of these courses must be at least a 3-credit semester course, with a minimum of 45 classroom hours per course.
Definition of Categories for Required Coursework
Studies that provide an understanding of the nature and needs of individuals at all developmental levels, normal and abnormal human behavior, personality theory, and learning theory within cultural contexts
Social and Cultural Foundations
Studies that provide an understanding of societal changes and trends, human roles, societal subgroups, social mores and interaction patterns, and differing lifestyles
Studies that provide an understanding of philosophic bases of helping processes, counseling theories and their applications, helping skills, consultation theories and applications, helping skills, consultation theories and applications, helper self-understanding and self-development, and facilitation of client or consultee change
Studies that provide an understanding of group development, dynamics and counseling theories; group leadership styles; group counseling methods and skills and other group approaches
Lifestyle and Career Development
Studies that provide understanding of career development theories, occupational and educational information sources and systems; career and leisure counseling, guidance, and education; lifestyle and career decision making and career development program planning; resources, and evaluation
Studies that provide an understanding of group and individual educational and psychometric theories and approaches to appraisal, data and information gathering methods, validity and reliability; psychometric statistics, factors influencing appraisals and use of appraisal results in helping processes
Studies that provide an understanding of types of research methods, basic statistics, research report development, research implementation, program evaluation, needs assessment, and ethical and legal considerations
Studies that provide an understanding of professional roles and functions, professional goals and objectives, professional organizations and associations, professional history and trends, ethical and legal standards, professional preparation standards, and professional credentialing
Studies that provide an understanding of psychopathology, abnormal psychology, abnormal behavior, etiology dynamics, and treatment of abnormal behavior
Diagnostics of Psychopathology
Studies that provide an understanding of the diagnostics of Psychopathology (study includes DSM)