Program Statistics
Visit Master's Program Statistics for statistics such as program admissions, enrollment, student demographics and more.
Counseling
Degree Type: MA
Northwestern University’s nationally-renowned Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, offered in sites on-ground and online, is dedicated to the cutting edge preparation of tomorrow’s professional counselors. Our degree program stands on several pillars of excellence:
- The Dynamic Clinical Training Model of The Family Institute at Northwestern University – The Family Institute (TFI) is a world-renown organization with a long tradition of integrating mental health education, practice and research. In TFI's approach, students are educated in mental health practice and apply their skills with real clients in TFI's onsite clinic and in clinical centers around the country. Students work under the supervision of seasoned practitioners, many of whom are leaders in professional counseling and psychotherapy. TFI sets a high standard in innovative scholarship, teaching and practice and this drives our students to rapidly gain therapeutic knowledge and skills.
- The Counseling Profession – Influenced by the theoretical and intellectual traditions of the Counseling field, our students are prepared to protect the mental health and wellness of those who use counseling services. Students complete education and supervised practice experiences that are required by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). CACREP is the body that accredits our program and currently we are in an 8-year accreditation cycle. We frame coursework in the context of ethics, multiculturalism, lifespan development, advocacy/outreach, and evidenced-based practice. These powerful pedagogical traditions lead to the development of a strong professional counselor identity, preparing students to seek licensure across the United States.
- The Program’s Historical Foundation – Our master of arts degree program grew out of a doctoral program in Counseling Psychology and the intensity and rigor of advanced education are still embedded in our pedagogy and training. Our program is psychodynamically-informed and emphasizes the centrality of the therapeutic alliance and the importance of therapist self reflection. Students are trained to be practitioner-scholars and delve into research and other scholarship in mental health, culminating in their own Capstone project. The Capstone intermingles the program’s rich academics with current best practices in the field and students become informed consumers whose Capstone presentations showcase the research base of our profession and also help to expand it with new ideas. We also encourage students to offer their ideas about mental health and wellness in conferences presentations and academic publications. We take pride in our student clinicians-in-training research ideas that generate future scholarship that will advance our field.
Our Program's Vision
We are leaders in preparing psycho-dynamically-informed, culturally-responsive, clinical mental health counselors to promote the mental health and wellness of people.
Our Program's Mission
Our mission is to deliver innovative, clinical mental health counselor training that is grounded in contemporary psychodynamic theory, best practices from multiple perspectives, and a multicultural worldview, preparing students to become competent counselors, mental health advocates and leaders nationwide.
Program Objectives
Students will:
- Possess an in-depth understanding of Clinical Mental Health Counseling
- Understand strategies to integrate psychodynamic thought and emerging best practices into clinical work
- Demonstrate self-reflective, counseling skills honed through extensive and closely supervised clinical work
- Demonstrate rich multicultural awareness that embraces and advances diversity and social justice values
- Embody a professional counselor identity
- Showcase a scientific mindset, interest in scholarship and profession-centered activities.
The Essence of Our Vision, Mission and Objectives
Our psychodynamic foundations influence the cornerstone education and training experiences that facilitate counselor idevelopment. The psychodynamic flavor of the program encourages students to explorate and acknowledge the forces outside of awareness, often rooted in the past, that can exert profound influences on identity, values and experiences. We train students to become aware of
how their past, as well as their clients' past dynamically affect their present lives. The goal is to liberate the shackles of the past for a more enriching, authentic life in the present. To amplify the psychodynamic lens our program emphasizes two core experiences: Reflective practice and comprehensive immersion in multiculturally competent clinical work.
Emphasis on Reflective Practice
While academic coursework is integrated and therapeutically potent skills are emerging, we offer students opportunities to reflect on their training experiences in a supportive environment. It is here that students' understand their personal and professional strengths, examine struggles and barriers to learning, and identify strategies for navigating the training process. Three powerful reflective experiences are the building blocks of a reflective training foundation.
- Reflective Practitioner Supervision (RPS)- During the Practicum experience, students meet weekly in small groups with a seasoned practitioner. Students examine their emerging therapeutic skills to separate what is a therapeutically powerful tool from what needs to be sharpened. RPS also focuses on understanding client transference and therapist countertransference, identifying biases that affect therapeutic objectivity, and removing personal barriers to staying fully present with clients. Students are also encouraged to becoming highly aware of their own social and cultural identities, power and privilege, to pave the way for cross-culturally proficient work with clients.
- Case Conference Supervision (CCS)– During the Internship experience, students meet weekly with a seasoned practitioner to discuss challenging cases and receive consultation that integrate psychodynamic and multicultural perspectives. Here our rich coursework comes alive to facilitate students' engagement in the therapeutic process. Through the exploration of challenging or difficult cases, students learn how to assess their therapeutic effectiveness and articulate areas of concern that can be addressed in consultation in order to increase efficacy.
- Group Relations Immersion– During Practicum students participate in Group Dynamics immersion, a three-day group experience guided by teams of seasoned practitioners. Both on-campus and online sites meet separately on the Evanston campus. The group immersion is a living laboratory in which students experience and examine group, institutional and diversity dynamics. Embedded in our Group Dynamics course, the immersion generates powerful experiential learning that reverberates throughout students' time in the program. Students are encouraged to apply knowledge of their unconscious and covert processes, as well as inter- and intra-personal dynamics to work with clients.
Comprehensive Immersion in Clinical Work
From the moment most students enter the program (in a majority of curricula tracks) they are immersed in clinical work. The “learning-by-doing” approach exposes students to clinical practice while providing complementary academic experiences. At each stage in their development as professional counselors, students are equipped with the necessary clinical skills and knowledge. Our program caters to students entering the counseling field with academic and experiential background in psychology or human services and prior paraprofessional experiences and we also offer a program designed for those entering the counseling field for the first time, following a career in another discipline and/or with minimal academic and experiential background in psychology or human services.
- In the practicum training year students spend 16-20 hours per week immersed in clinical work. They complete a minimum of 50 hours of face-to-face counseling and receive close to 100 hours of group and individual supervision. Additionally, students meet weekly in Reflective Practitioner Supervisor groups and participate in the Group Dynamics Immersion.
- In the internship year, students spend 20-24 hours per week at a clinical field site. They complete a 600 hour internship experience with a minimum of 240 hours of face-to-face counseling and spend a minimum of 85 hours in clinical supervision and the Case Conference Supervision. To the extent possible, the internship placement is tailored to the student's choice of specialization. Students often draw on clinical training to formulate their Capstones.
Additional resources:
Program Contact
Contact Deidre Hicks
Coordinator of Education Programs
847-733-4300 ext 205
Degree Requirements
The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in The Graduate School Policy Guide.
Master's
Total Units Required On-ground: Standard Curriculum 24 units, Two-Plus Curriculum 27 units
Total Units Required Online: Standard Curriculum 24 units, Bridge Curriculum 27 Units
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| COUN 406-0 | Research Methods in Counseling |
| COUN 406-6 | Research Methods in Counseling |
| COUN 411-0 | Psychodynamic Counseling: Individuals and Systems |
| COUN 411-6 | Psychodynamic Counseling: Individuals and Systems |
| COUN 412-0 | Group Counseling Theory and Practice |
| COUN 412-6 | Group Counseling Theory and Practice |
| COUN 413-0 | Human Growth and Lifespan Development -2 |
| COUN 413-6 | Human Growth and Lifespan Development -2 |
| COUN 414-0 | Human Growth and Lifespan Development |
| COUN 414-6 | Human Growth and Lifespan Development |
| COUN 415-0 | Psychopathology and Diagnosis in Counseling |
| COUN 415-6 | Psychopathology and Diagnosis in Counseling |
| COUN 416-0 | Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy |
| COUN 416-6 | Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy |
| COUN 417-0 | Cognitive Behavioral Therapy |
| COUN 417-6 | Cognitive Behavioral Therapy |
| COUN 419-0 | Contemporary Issues in Career Counseling |
| COUN 422-0 | Family, Marital and Couple Counseling |
| COUN 422-6 | Family, Marital and Couple Counseling |
| COUN 423-0 | Assessment in Counseling- 2 |
| COUN 423-6 | Assessment in Counseling- 2 |
| COUN 425-0 | Advanced Research Methods in Counseling |
| COUN 425-6 | Advanced Research Methods in Counseling |
| COUN 426-0 | Assessment in Counseling |
| COUN 426-6 | Assessment in Counseling |
| COUN 427-0 | Career and Lifestyle Planning |
| COUN 427-6 | Career and Lifestyle Planning |
| COUN 429-0 | Human Sexuality |
| COUN 429-6 | Human Sexuality |
| COUN 430-0 | Vocational Assessment in Counseling |
| COUN 436-0 | Counseling Children and Adolescents |
| COUN 436-6 | Counseling Children and Adolescents |
| COUN 440-0 | Play Therapy Methods |
| COUN 440-6 | Play Therapy Methods |
| COUN 451-0 | Special Topics in Counseling |
| COUN 451-6 | Special Topics in Counseling |
| COUN 452-0 | Addictions Counseling |
| COUN 452-6 | Addictions Counseling |
| COUN 453-0 | Evaluation and Treatment of Trauma |
| COUN 453-6 | Evaluation and Treatment of Trauma |
| COUN 454-0 | Evaluation and Treatment of Trauma - 2 |
| COUN 454-6 | Evaluation and Treatment of Trauma - 2 |
| COUN 455-0 | Introduction to Psychopharmacology |
| COUN 455-6 | Introduction to Psychopharmacology |
| COUN 479-1 | Introduction to Clinical Mental Health Counseling |
| COUN 479-2 | Introduction to Clinical Interviewing |
| COUN 479-3 | Contemporary Topics in Counseling |
| COUN 479-6 | Introduction to Clinical Mental Health Counseling |
| COUN 479-7 | Introduction to Clinical Interviewing |
| COUN 479-8 | Contemporary Topics in Counseling |
| COUN 480-1 | Methods 1: Introductory Counseling Skills |
| COUN 480-2 | Methods 2: Advanced Counseling Skills |
| COUN 480-3 | Methods 3: Skills for Social Justice Advocacy, Outreach and Prevention |
| COUN 480-6 | Methods 1: Introductory Counseling Skills |
| COUN 480-7 | Methods 2: Advanced Counseling Skills |
| COUN 480-8 | Methods 3: Skills for Social Justice Advocacy, Outreach and Prevention |
| COUN 481-0 | Supervised Practicum in Counseling-0 |
| COUN 481-1 | Supervised Practicum in Counseling-1 |
| COUN 481-2 | Supervised Practicum in Counseling-2 |
| COUN 481-3 | Supervised Practicum in Counseling-3 |
| COUN 481-6 | Supervised Practicum in Counseling -1 |
| COUN 481-7 | Supervised Practice in Counseling -2 |
| COUN 481-8 | Supervised Practicum in Counseling -3 |
| COUN 482-0 | Supervised Internship in Counseling -0 |
| COUN 482-1 | Supervised Internship in Counseling-1 |
| COUN 482-2 | Supervised Internship in Counseling-2 |
| COUN 482-3 | Supervised Internship in Counseling-3 |
| COUN 482-4 | Supervised Internship in Counseling-4 |
| COUN 482-6 | Supervised Internship in Counseling 1 |
| COUN 482-7 | Supervised Internship in Counseling -2 |
| COUN 482-8 | Supervised Internship in Counseling -3 |
| COUN 483-1 | Ethics and Legal Issues in Counseling |
| COUN 483-2 | Multicultural Counseling |
| COUN 483-3 | Professional Topics in Counseling |
| COUN 483-6 | Ethics and Legal Issues in Counseling |
| COUN 483-7 | Multicultural Counseling |
| COUN 483-8 | Professional Topics in Clinical Mental Health Counseling |
| COUN 484-1 | Individual Diagnosis and Assessment |
| COUN 484-2 | Individual Diagnosis and Assessment |
| COUN 484-3 | Individual Diagnosis and Assessment |
| COUN 485-1 | Advanced Internship In Counseling |
| COUN 485-6 | Advanced Internship In Counseling |
| COUN 489-6 | Advanced Research Colloquium |
| COUN 491-0 | Colloquium in Counseling |
| COUN 491-6 | Colloquium in Counseling |
| COUN 499-0 | Capstone in Counseling |
| COUN 499-6 | Capstone in Counseling |
| COUN 540-0 | Play Therapy Methods in Counseling |
| COUN 540-6 | Play Therapy Methods in Counseling |
| COUN 582-2 | Supervised Internship in Counseling |
| COUN 582-3 | Supervised Internship in Counseling |
| COUN 584-0 | Advanced Internship in Counseling |