School of Graduate & Professional Studies, Department of Counseling and Marriage & Family Therapy
USJ's School of Graduate and Professional Studies maintains multiple concurrent missions of:
- Providing relevant, values-based, and intellectually rigorous education to a diverse student body
- Preparing skilled, knowledgeable professionals who practice with cultural responsiveness to deliver effective services
- Cultivating a learner-centric environment founded on accountability and integrity
- Developing graduates who embrace lifelong service, learning, and social equity promotion
- Preparing students for effective community leadership and professional accomplishment
In furtherance of all the foregoing ambitious academic agendas, SJU strives to infiltrate all instruction within every program offering with ambiances of excellence and "nothing less than the best."
Clinical Mental Health Counseling – M.A. ("MACMHC")
This 60-credit MACMHC program has a commitment of educating counselors who ultimately become leading mental health practitioners across the entire human lifespan. As efforts to ensure this end, it places a heavy emphasis on holistic education that reiterates integrating body and spirit as well as the mind.
DCMFT has a philosophical view of professional counseling interventions with an ideal primary focus of facilitating individual growth to fulfill maximum human potential.
Accordingly, its MACHMC curriculum has a heavy focus on assisting students to assist others by designing effective counseling interventions to address the full spectrum of common personal stressors of contemporary life.
Below is a list of individual MACMHC learning objectives.
Skill Competencies
Encompasses self-help engagement among served clientele and culturally appropriate techniques and competencies essential to appropriate pre-session, in-session, and post-session counseling behaviors
Case Conceptualization
Contemplates skills essential to formulating clear comprehension of the client's personal struggles and framing meaningful counseling plans from a theoretical perspective with contextual sensitivity for the client's personal worldview
Counseling Process
Denotes apt and rapid recognition of any counselor-client interactive aspect(s) that could be construed as direct or indirect influencers of the client, counselor, sessions, and/or overall momentum toward affecting ultimate counseling outcome
Personal Growth
Translates to cognizance of any aspect(s) of a student's character that enhances or detracts from counseling work and required skills to affect active deployment of affirmative measure to resolve personal obstacles effectively
School Counseling – M.A.
This 54 to 57-credit MASC degree program has a commitment to educating school counselors with leadership capacity in serving secondary school students' developmental needs. DCMFT has a philosophical view of school counseling as ideally focused on facilitating K-12 pupils' maximum psycho-social and academic potential. As such, its MASC curriculum has a heavy focus on assisting aspiring school counselors to assist secondary students, educators, and parents throughout the entire continuum of compulsory K-12 attendance.
Consistent with the Catholic founding from which all tenets of institutional parent USJ stem, both the MACMHC and MASC curricula feature solid liberal arts and professional educational foundations designed to facilitate maximum development of students' potentials. Both offerings also have a common commitment of educating counselors who provide effective growth-oriented advocacy, leadership, and interventions while serving individual client needs within diverse practice settings.
Accreditation
CACREP-accredited
Contact
Office of Graduate Admissions and Academic Services
McDonough Hall Room 100
1678 Asylum Avenue
West Hartford, CT 06117
Phone: (860) 231-5261 or (855) 857 -4723
Email: graduate@usj.edu