The CMHC program mission is to inspire future mental health counselors who are passionate about pursuing the highest standard of clinical practice with cultural fluency.
Our program instills the knowledge, concepts, and skills of trauma-informed therapy in our students’ learning and clinical training. Our faculty continue to advance in the trauma-informed therapy to better prepare our students for future challenges in trauma work.
Our faculty members employ a variety of applied learning and instructional methods.
We require extensive clinical training, with an emphasis in social justice and cultural fluency. Students are trained to integrate those practices in their work with individual, family and group counseling.
Our students' experiences include:
Our program emphasizes strength-based models of human development from a culturally competent lens. The faculty incorporate a variety of theoretical approaches including classical and contemporary counseling theories, systemic frameworks, multicultural and social justice perspective that align to Association for multicultural Counseling 7 Development (AMCD) – multicultural & social justice counseling competencies. Students gain experience in mindfulness-based approaches, integrated health, holistic wellness and prevention models.
Unique program strengths:
Our courses are well designed for didactic and applied learning. In the classroom, students will explore situational factors, address learning goals for each course that meet CACREP and licensure board standards, and receive assessment results at several points throughout each course. An evidence-based course design, developed by Dr. Dee Fink, has been adopted to guide the program course design and to promote significant learning in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) training.
Integrated course design (ICD) exposes students to a variety of learning activities that enhance the integration of material from the classroom into applied clinical practice.
Integrated course design includes: