海角社区

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Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Program Mission Statement

The mission of the 海角社区Master’s Program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) is to train excellent clinical mental health counselors who are culturally competent, community-engaged, ethical, and service-driven. To reach this goal, we provide individualized mentorship, intentional support, and diverse transformative learning opportunities to train clinicians as scholar practitioners, fierce advocates, and thoughtful leaders in the mental health field.

Student Learning Outcomes

Knowledge of the Literature of the Discipline

  • Students will understand the role of work in clients’ mental health.
  • Student will understand the therapeutic factors of group counseling.
  • Students will understand the wholistic process of case conceptualization.
  • Students will understand the influence of key domains of development on mental wellness.
  • Students will understand the influence of cultural identities on mental wellness.

Ability to Engage in Independent Research and Professional Practice

  • Students will understand the role of personal values in ethical decision-making process.
  • Students will understand the process of conceptualizing and conducting mental health research.
  • Students will understand the role of assessments in treatment planning and delivery.

Assessment Approaches

The CMHC program utilizes an array of course-level and program-level assessments. These include the following:

  1. Course Assignments – Individual course assignments are present in all CMHC courses. These often include experiential practice assignments (e.g., mock sessions, conducting research). Another popular type of course assignment is reflective papers, as clinical mental health counseling prioritizes the development of each student’s individual counselor identity. Other, less frequently used, course assignments may include quizzes and exams.
  2. Comprehensive Exams – The CMHC program requires two comprehensive exams as part of each student’s successful completion of the program. The first exam is administered in the Summer after the students’ first year in the program. Currently, the CMHC program uses the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Exam administered through Pearson. The purpose of this comprehensive exam is to assess the students’ overall knowledge of the fundamentals of the CMHC field. The second exam, administered after the Fall of the students’ second year, is designed to assess the students’ clinical application skills. This exam is a case vignette-style exam with five open-ended questions derived from the five CMHC specialty areas stipulated by our national accrediting body, Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).
  3. Student Progress Assessment – Each student receives three formal SPAs during their time in the program, one after their first Fall semester in the program, one after their first Summer semester, and one after their second Spring semester. The SPA is completed collaboratively by all program instructors and assesses the student’s professional disposition and fit for the field (e.g., professional communication and behavior, ethical decision-making, cultural competence). Students who receive unsatisfactory SPAs are provided specific feedback on how to address the areas of weakness in order to successfully complete the program. Ad hoc SPAs may also be conducted in the event that a student is considered to be uniquely in need of remediation. The aim of SPAs is to be supportive rather than punitive.
  4. Four-Year Plan: The CMHC program faculty have identified eight Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), one for each domain of the CACREP standards. At least two SLOs are assessed each year. This means that each SLO will be assessed at least once during any 4-year period.