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Earn your Masters in School Counseling and become a licensed school counselor. Our CACREP-accredited counseling program, Walsh's online MA in Counseling and Human Development offers the best of both worlds. Our School Counseling program teaches students the vital skills necessary to succeed, including working with at-risk students, facilitating crisis counseling, connecting families with community resources, and so much more.
- Application Deadline: Nov 29, 2024
- Start Date: Jan 6, 2025
Fast Facts
- Prepare for Licensure
100% of our 2021 students passed their NCE on their first attempt and landed jobs within six months of graduation. - Core Knowledge
Engage in a curriculum that teaches core competencies, counseling in practice, ethical, legal, and professional foundations to serve diverse cultures and communities. - Field Experience Support
Our team will help guide you through the field experience process, providing the tools needed to secure an approved internship and practicum site in your area. - Flexibility Choose from five convenient starts per year and complete your coursework 100% online, with no on-campus visits required.
- No GRE or MAT Required
When entering the program with a 3.0 GPA or higher, you will not be required to take a GRE or MAT exam prior to enrolling. - Compassionate Faculty
Guided by Catholic values with an emphasis on human dignity, Walsh provides you with 1:1 faculty guidance to prepare you to become a licensed counselor ready to serve.
Admissions Requirements
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
- Cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale preferred (No GRE required with 3.0 GPA)
- Completion of online application and supporting materials
Online School Counseling Program Curriculum
Below is a sample list of courses you will take while enrolled in the online School Counseling program. After finishing 60 credit hours of coursework, you will complete 100 practicum hours and 600 internship hours within your community. For a full list of courses, please download a brochure.
Online Counseling Programs:
Internship/Practicum Support
Walsh is committed to your academic success and as such, provides field experience support resources at no additional cost. Our field experience team works with you directly to help guide you through the field experience process, providing you with the tools and strategies needed to help secure an approved internship and practicum sites in your area. In addition, we assign you a dedicated Student Support Advisor who assists and guides you in your educational journey from enrollment to graduation.
Join the growing, compassionate workforce striving to heal our world. Careers in counseling are growing faster than the national average. In the U.S., 41% of all counselors are employed as school counselors.*
- Projected 10-year job growth for school counseling is 8%.*
- There were 75,458 School Counseling job postings in 2020.
- There are 784,000 counselors employed nationally.
*U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Orientation to the counseling profession through an examination of the history and philosophy of the counseling profession; professional roles of counselors; professional counseling organizations; and legal, ethical, and professional issues in professional counseling. Introduction to stages and strategies in the counseling process. Development of attending skills, basic and advanced counseling skills, as well as an introduction to case conceptualization skills. Includes an intensive laboratory focused on developing interviewing skills and mastering counseling procedures.
Introduction to School Counseling is a foundational course designed to introduce students to the school counseling profession. This course explores the history of the school counseling profession; the roles, functions, and professional identity of the school counselor; and the current models of school counseling programs such as the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) national model. Students will develop knowledge of the current issues and directions for the profession, and the requirements and challenges of being a professional school counselor.
Students will develop an understanding of counseling clients/students during crisis, disaster, and other trauma/grief causing events. This course will examine theories, models, assessment techniques, and intervention strategies. The counselor’s collaborative role in crisis preparedness and response is examined, including self-care strategies. The differences in responses to trauma/grief will be explored, along with counseling strategies to facilitate a healthy recovery. Counseling approaches for clients/students and families experiencing the trauma/loss such as suicide, death of a child/sibling, homicide, and unexpected death will be included.
The course covers the clinical management of common problems with children/adolescents. The importance of family and parent training is emphasized, as well as the critical need to intervene with children using play as the language of the child, Issues such as academic achievement, mood and anxiety, behavioral management, oppositional and defiant behavior, sexuality, substance use and abuse, self-harm and suicide are explored from a developmental perspective. Assessment, service planning and building a community-based system of care will be described based on current research literature. Creative interventions, including symbolic and art techniques, will also be explored. This course will be delivered in a hybrid format.
This course is designed to provide an overview of current issues in school counseling, such as achievement gap, academic success, preventing school dropout, at-risk youth, exceptional abilities, homelessness, etc. This course emphasizes developmentally appropriate prevention, intervention, and responsive counseling services for working with the diverse populations within the school setting. Included topics are program planning, implementation and evaluation, use of date and accountability, advocacy, and ethical and legal practices in the context of the school environment.