Education - School & Mental Health Counseling (EDSC)

EDSC 5010 Ethics & Professional Principles in School & Mental Health Counseling

This course is designed to fulfill the Professional Orientation requirement of state licensure, as well as the Ethics and Professional Orientation requirement of the Planned Program of Study. It provides an opportunity for students to learn clinical skills and to refine skill application with clients. Students are also able to integrate theory and the other components of the program (Human Growth & Development, Social & Cultural Foundations, Helping Relationships) into practical application in this course. This course will assist students in the development of their knowledge and skills in ethical decision-making, ethical standards related to the field of school and mental counseling. In addition, a primary goal of this course is to help each student increase his/her knowledge of self as a provider of counseling services to others. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Summer Term

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5020 Counseling Interventions: Theory & Practice

This course will provide an overview of several of the primary theories of counseling, along with the key concepts and therapeutic processes related to those theories. Students will be guided to demonstrate a working knowledge of the theories presented, to be able to distinguish between different approaches, and develop a preliminary rationale for the use of a particular approach. The main objectives of the course are for the student to develop a working knowledge of the theories of counseling and the practical counseling interventions derived from those theoretical perspectives, and to begin practicing the applications of this knowledge. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Summer Term

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5030 School & Mental Health Counseling: Practicum I

This course emphasizes practical counseling experience utilizing rudimentary counseling skills when working with approved supervisors in school counseling programs, mental health agencies, and recording volunteer practice clients. All practicum sites have been pre-approved to meet certification standards. A primary purpose of this course is to provide beginning counseling students with a supportive learning environment and ground them in practical skills and application to the counseling profession. Students will have opportunities to practice, enhance, and refine their emerging counseling skills acquired in class, as well as through structured supervised learning opportunities in schools and clinical settings. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Summer Term

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5040 Assessment for Counselors in School & Mental Health Counseling

This course seeks to help students understand the assessment process including the theoretical and historical basis as well as legal and ethical concerns. Students will develop knowledge of concepts of measurement including descriptive statistics, central tendency, norms, reliability, validity, etc. This course will also review assessment as it relates to educational law, entitlement decisions, and high stakes accountability, in addition to teaching students how to implement assessment techniques through observation, interview and ecological and environmental methods. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Fall

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5050 Sociocultural Foundations in Counseling

Understanding sociocultural and individual differences is essential to the work of counselors. This course provides a contextual and applied understanding of working with clients who are culturally diverse. The purpose of this course is to expand one's understanding of the impact of sociocultural and contextual factors, the interaction of identities, and the application of this knowledge to working with underserved and under-addressed individuals in counseling. Both intervention and prevention strategies will be addressed. The student will be required to demonstrate a working knowledge of key concepts in sociocultural counseling and the topical areas addressed in the course. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Executive Program in School and Mental Health Couseling.

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5060 School & Mental Health Counseling: Practicum I (Continued)

This course emphasizes practical counseling experience utilizing rudimentary counseling skills when working with approved supervisors in school counseling programs, mental health agencies, and recording volunteer practice clients. All practicum sites have been pre-approved to meet certification standards. A primary purpose of this course is to provide beginning counseling students with a supportive learning environment and ground them in practical skills and application to the counseling profession. Students will have opportunities to practice, enhance, and refine their emerging counseling skills acquired in class, as well as through structured, supervised learning opportunities in schools and clinical settings. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

0 Course Units

EDSC 5070 Human Development

This course explores the characteristics of developmental change over time - from infancy through late adulthood - and the processes or mechanisms underlying these changes. Students will gain an understanding of the fundamental theories and research traditions of the field, how variations in context influence development, and how theory and research can be applied to real world issues. Using a cultural ecological framework, we will examine theoretical approaches to the study of human development emphasizing the importance of contextual factors (e.g., race, ethnicity, culture, gender, socioeconomic status, historical moment, etc.) and individual perceptions in understanding growth and change. Students will be encouraged to explore developmental change and growth as they occur across different developmental periods of life and within a wide variety of settings and cultural contexts in order to help them begin to crystallize their own world-views and conceptual frameworks of human development. Throughout the semester we will search for new ideas, challenge old ones, and wrestle with paradoxical issues. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5070A Human Development

This course explores the characteristics of developmental change over time - from infancy through late adulthood - and the processes or mechanisms underlying these changes. Students will gain an understanding of the fundamental theories and research traditions of the field, how variations in context influence development, and how theory and research can be applied to real world issues. Using a cultural ecological framework, we will examine theoretical approaches to the study of human development emphasizing the importance of contextual factors (e.g., race, ethnicity, culture, gender, socioeconomic status, historical moment, etc.) and individual perceptions in understanding growth and change. Students will be encouraged to explore developmental change and growth as they occur across different developmental periods of life and within a wide variety of settings and cultural contexts in order to help them begin to crystallize their own world-views and conceptual frameworks of human development. Throughout the semester we will search for new ideas, challenge old ones, and wrestle with paradoxical issues. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Fall

0-1 Course Unit

EDSC 5070B Human Development

This course explores the characteristics of developmental change over time - from infancy through late adulthood - and the processes or mechanisms underlying these changes. Students will gain an understanding of the fundamental theories and research traditions of the field, how variations in context influence development, and how theory and research can be applied to real world issues. Using a cultural ecological framework, we will examine theoretical approaches to the study of human development emphasizing the importance of contextual factors (e.g., race, ethnicity, culture, gender, socioeconomic status, historical moment, etc.) and individual perceptions in understanding growth and change. Students will be encouraged to explore developmental change and growth as they occur across different developmental periods of life and within a wide variety of settings and cultural contexts in order to help them begin to crystallize their own world-views and conceptual frameworks of human development. Throughout the semester we will search for new ideas, challenge old ones, and wrestle with paradoxical issues. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

0-1 Course Unit

EDSC 5080 Applied Quantitative Methods

This course is designed for counselors in training. To that end, this course will cover topics related to statistics and research methodology using instructional strategies intended to build the capacity of counselors-in- training to understand, interpret and use statistics and research methods to support their work with students, school staff, and school administrators. The majority of the course will involve a balance of lecture, discussion, and interactive practice activities, linking statistics and research methods to counseling and the real-world responsibilities of counselors-in-training. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5090 Career Counseling & Development

This course addresses career development throughout the life span. It includes the nature of work, career assessment measures, classification systems, and theory related to vocational planning. Student self-assessment, career guidance programs, and unique needs of special populations are covered. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5100 Group Counseling

This course is designed as an introduction to the use of groups in counseling practice. Its chief purpose is to provide students with an overview of basic elements of group process, with a focus on stages of group development; guidelines for multicultural practice; ethical and professional issues in group practice; and group leadership. The course is a combination of didactic and experiential elements, including demonstrations, short lectures, discussions of group process concerns, and questions and answers. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5110 School & Mental Health Counseling: Practicum II

This course emphasizes practical counseling experience utilizing rudimentary counseling skills when working with approved supervisors in school counseling programs, mental health agencies, and recording volunteer practice clients. All practicum sites have been pre-approved to meet certification standards. A primary purpose of this course is to provide beginning counseling students with a supportive learning environment and ground them in practical skills and application to the counseling profession. Students will have opportunities to practice, enhance, and refine their emerging counseling skills acquired in class, as well as, through structured supervised learning opportunities in schools and clinical settings. The Practicum is the initial opportunity for students to synthesize and integrate theoretical information from course work into their individual counseling and small group work. These objectives are met at the clinical site, through individual recorded client sessions, and in class. An additional aim of this course is to help students increase and explore their own self-knowledge as providers of counseling services to others. The course promotes an awareness and better understanding of oneself, how individual understanding may impact professional practice; appreciation of others, reinforcing the importance of empathic attention to the needs of others differing from ones own (cultural, educational, and socioeconomic background); and professional development, emphasizing skill building, ethics, and providing counseling services. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

1 Course Unit

EDSC 5120 School & Mental Health Counseling: Practicum III

This course is a continuation of Practicum II for students who need to complete their field placements. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Summer Term

0 Course Units

EDSC 6010 School and Mental Health Counseling: Internship I

This course provides the experience necessary to develop the skills to implement a comprehensive, developmental, and collaborative school counseling or mental health program. The course also translates knowledge, skills, attitudes to practice, and competencies that foster professionalism in school and community settings. Students will also complete supervised field experiences that provide actual on-the-job experience for a minimum of 420 clock hours of instructional experience for school counselor certification and/or 600 clock hours of supervised internship and a minimum of 240 hours of direct service to individuals and groups for Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) eligibility. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Summer Term

1 Course Unit

EDSC 6020 Advanced Group & Family Systems Counseling

This course will focus on the basics of systems intervention with a specific focus on families and groups, and a second focus on diversity and racial stress and literacy in systems. The purpose is to develop more advanced knowledge of practical therapeutic problem-solving skills at the graduate student level using ecological, systemic, and cultural perspectives. Students will be exposed to basic group therapy strategies with children and youth, with family interventions across various school-based emotional health diagnostic populations, and how to intervene within groups and families in which cultural differences and styles are key themes. The student will be required to demonstrate a working knowledge of the key concepts in systems intervention, to make preliminary judgments about how to apply various strategies to specific problems in a variety of naturalized and formal therapeutic contexts including schools, homes, and community centers, and evaluated on the ability to react spontaneously to moment-by-moment shifts in group and family therapy processes. Students will also be challenged to develop a preliminary rationale for a systemic theory of behavior change. Given the diversity of clients that counselors see professionally, some demonstrated knowledge of how cultural differences will be addressed in the counseling session and in the relationships of larger societal institutions will be expected. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Summer Term

1 Course Unit

EDSC 6030 Advanced Professional Development: Utilizing & Building Resources within Community Agencies & Orgs

This course is structured to create an intellectual and practice-driven inquiry community in which you as students have the opportunity to deepen and expand your understanding of the multifaceted professional roles and responsibilities of school and mental health counselors, as well as the complex systems in which these roles are formed and enacted. The primary goal of the course is to support you in developing an inquiry stance on your practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) as a means of enhancing the quality and meaning of your work and professional identity. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

1 Course Unit

EDSC 6040 Foundations in Education for Diverse Learners

This course is intended to engage you in thoughtful discussion about working with diverse learners while presenting factual information about specific areas of need. Our work will be situated within a socio-cultural framework that sees our students as resources that enrich our counseling work and their communities. In this class, we will address content related to both Special Education/Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners. As such, we use three major themes as central to school counseling work and professionalism: Supporting students with disabilities and English language learners; development of inclusive and empowering student practices and environments; and supporting positive school, community and life goals which affirm diversity and ensure equitable outcomes for all students. Over the course of the semester, you will have an opportunity to clarify and challenge your beliefs about working with students with diverse learning needs in your role as a school counselor, in urban and diverse environments. In particular, through course readings, discussion, and projects students will be challenged to think deeply and thoroughly about educating diverse students in schools, through the following core elements: a) taking an inquiry stance; b) urban contexts of schools, c) supporting social justice & equity, d) integrating theory with practice. In doing so, students will critically examine their own role in providing services to students which will support equitable, positive, student- and family-centered school and life outcomes. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Fall

1 Course Unit

EDSC 6050 School & Mental Health Counseling: Internship I (Continued)

This course provides the experience needed to develop the skills to implement a comprehensive, developmental and collaborative school counseling or mental health program. The course also translates knowledge, skills, attitudes to practice and competencies that foster professionalism in school and community settings. Students will also complete supervised field experiences that provide actual on-the-job experiences for a minimum of 420 clock hours of instructional experience for school counselor certification and/or 600 clock hours of supervised internship and a minimum of 240 hours of direct service to individuals and groups for Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) eligibility. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Fall

0 Course Units

EDSC 6060 Advanced Counseling Skills & Human Sexuality

This course will be a hybrid course combining advanced counseling skills and counseling related to human sexuality issues. The advanced counseling skills portion of the class will be understood as an elaboration of the basic understanding of theoretical interventions learned in the first year of the program by presenting students with information about case conceptualization and more advanced intervention from three major theoretical orientations (cognitive behavioral, psychoanalytic, and emotion-focused therapy). There will also be a brief consideration of what it means to integrate and combine different theoretical approaches, if they really are as different as we think. Topics in human sexuality that commonly present in school and mental health settings will be used as the context for applying advanced skills. This course aims to present students with factual information about advanced skills and human sexuality while also providing an atmosphere in which self- reflection and affective learning can facilitate counselor development in the areas of advanced skills and human sexuality. Prerequiite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Summer Term

1 Course Unit

EDSC 6070 Healthy Development & Psychopathology

This course will familiarize counseling students with the major mental disorders, as well as with conceptions of mental health, mental health promotion, resilience and recovery. It is important that counselors, regardless of concentration or specialization, be acquainted with the language, taxonomy, conceptualizations, and developments in the study of psychopathology, as well as a sense of the lived experience of people with mental disorders. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Fall

1 Course Unit

EDSC 6080 Research and Evaluation Seminar in Counseling and Education

This course focuses on the application of research concepts and use of data in comprehensive school counseling programs. The course materials, exercises and assignments are designed to help students gain and use practical skills required to make data-based decisions. Specifically, students will learn to use data to: identify needs within the school; identify possible interventions and programs to address the needs; implement interventions and programs; monitor and evaluate the interventions to demonstrate the results of the interventions; and use data to advocate for the profession, the work, and for students. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Two Term Class, Student must enter first term; credit given after both terms are complete

0.5 Course Units

EDSC 6080A Research and Evaluation Seminar in Counseling and Education

This course focuses on the application of research concepts and use of data in comprehensive school counseling programs. The course materials, exercises and assignments are designed to help students gain and use practical skills required to make data-based decisions. Specifically, students will learn to use data to: identify needs within the school; identify possible interventions and programs to address the needs; implement interventions and programs; monitor and evaluate the interventions to demonstrate the results of the interventions; and use data to advocate for the profession, the work, and for students. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Fall

0-1 Course Unit

EDSC 6080B Research and Evaluation Seminar in Counseling and Education

This course focuses on the application of research concepts and use of data in comprehensive school counseling programs. The course materials, exercises and assignments are designed to help students gain and use practical skills required to make data-based decisions. Specifically, students will learn to use data to: identify needs within the school; identify possible interventions and programs to address the needs; implement interventions and programs; monitor and evaluate the interventions to demonstrate the results of the interventions; and use data to advocate for the profession, the work, and for students. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

0-1 Course Unit

EDSC 6100 School & Mental Health Counseling: Internship II

Internship II, a continuation of Internship I, continues to provide the experience needed to develop the skills to implement a comprehensive, developmental and collaborative school counseling or mental health program. Students will continue to work on translating their knowledge, skills and attitudes to practice. The course also uses knowledge of the following areas to provide students with an understanding of the hand-on experiences of a school counselor K-12 and a mental health counseling professional: individual and group counseling, classroom guidance activities and academic, personal/social and career interventions; consultation, coordination, and referral; school/agencies policies and procedures; community-based agencies and referrals; working with students with disabilities and English language learners; professional, ethical, and legal considerations; assessment and evaluation techniques; supervision and professional development through Seminar Group. Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

1 Course Unit

EDSC 6110 Wellness & Addiction Counseling

This course will provide an overview of the foundations of addictions from a theoretical, practical and applicable standpoint. The basics of understanding the process of screening, assessing and treating addictions will be discussed as well as a focus on the strengths and wellness perspective of persons with addictions. In addition, students will gain an understanding of the effects and treatment of co-occurring disorders (e.g., addiction and depression). Addiction lingo, positive psychology and the various types of addictions will be addressed along with etiological models and current approaches for treatment. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

1 Course Unit

EDSC 6120 Trauma in School & Mental Health Counseling

Due to the overwhelming incidence of trauma, adversity, and toxic stress among consumers of mental health services and the potential profound and pervasive impact of trauma on development, it is essential that mental health professionals gain the necessary knowledge, competencies, and skills to foster resilience and healing. This course explores how trauma impacts not only cognitive and emotional processing, but also dysregulates neurophysiology, and discusses evidence based assessments and interventions that counselors can use to help alleviate the negative impact of trauma with their clients. This course is designed to provide foundational trauma education for mental health professionals working within schools and community settings to promote their ability to recognize trauma responses, to create trauma-sensitive educational and clinical environments to foster learning, growth and health and to develop trauma responsive counseling skills. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

Spring

1 Course Unit

EDSC 7010 School and Mental Health Counseling: Advanced Internship in Professional Counseling

This course is a continuation of Internship II for students who need to complete their field placements. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

0.5 Course Units

EDSC 7020 School and Mental Health Counseling: Advanced Internship in Professional Counseling

This course is a continuation of Internship II for students who need to complete their field placements. prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.

0 Course Units