The 60-credit Mental Health Counseling Program has been approved by the New York State Office of Professions and can lead to a license in Mental Health Counseling. It includes the “core” offering of the other programs, and allows students to define their clinical interests through a variety of clientele and sites for internship. Clinical practice sites include the full range of mental health services and agencies.
Given the program goals and assumptions outlined in the Mission Statement below, the curriculum includes both comprehensiveness and depth. To these ends, admission requirements include 15 credit hours of psychology including statistics, abnormal psychology, and personality. The full-time program curriculum includes a research/assessment sequence, an intervention theory/techniques sequence, a fieldwork sequence, and electives.
Program Mission Statement
The Master's Program in Mental Health Counseling is designed to prepare counselors to assume the full range of professional responsibilities required in a variety of human service agencies and organizations. Our training model, which integrates behavioral science theory and knowledge with practitioner skills, assumes that the effective counselor has a strong understanding of the theoretical and scientific basis of professional concepts and techniques. We adopt the definition that counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals.
Three other assumptions are basic to the design of this program. The first assumption is that counselors are involved primarily in facilitating positive interactions between individuals and their environments. For this reason, they work with a variety of client systems such as families, peer groups, job settings, educational settings, and other significant interpersonal or organizational contexts. Contemporary counseling is therefore no longer solely based on one-to-one counseling relationships but also uses group methods, consulting relationships, community resources, and training techniques as intervention treatments or modalities.
The second assumption is that one of the counselor's primary goals is to facilitate human growth and development. Developmental goals are applicable to all human beings. These goals are essentially educational and both encompass and transcend remedial or therapeutic methods. In addition to understanding deviancy and pathology, the counselor is interested in facilitating development by building on the client's assets and strengths.
The third assumption of our program is that counselors have an ethical responsibility to engage in a lifelong practice of critically thinking and deconstructing personal, societal, and institutional oppression and biases. We foster a culture of respect for diversity, inclusion, and equity, while continually developing professionally relevant knowledge and skills.
Given these program goals and assumptions, the curriculum includes both comprehensiveness and depth. To these ends, admission requirements include 15 credit hours of psychology including statistics, abnormal psychology, and personality. The full-time program curriculum includes a research/assessment sequence, an intervention theory/techniques sequence, a fieldwork sequence, and electives.
Program of Study
The program requires a minimum of 60 graduate credits distributed as follows:
- Specialized courses in Counseling as follows: (36 credits)
Cpy 521, 601, 603, 604, 607, 608, 612, 614, 627, 630, and 667 and Psy 524; - Fieldwork in Counseling: (15 credits)
Cpy 602, 606; - Electives as advised: (9 credits).
**Special requirement - A two-hour training program in mandated child abuse reporting. Students must complete the new Identification and Reporting of Child Abuse and Maltreatment/Neglect Training as of January 2025.**
Master's Comprehensive Examination
Students in the Mental Health Counseling program must satisfactorily complete a comprehensive examination. Students typically take the examination in their last fall semester, but must take it within one calendar year of completion of coursework in their program of study.
Students who fail the comprehensive examination may petition the faculty to re-take the exam. The second examination must be taken within a calendar year of the first attempt to pass the examination. Students must maintain active status in the program until they have successfully passed the comprehensive examination. Petitions to take a third examination will not be considered.
Please note: This program requires an internship, field experience, study abroad component, or clinical experience requirement. Students who have previously been convicted of a felony are advised that their prior criminal history may impede their ability to complete the requirements of certain academic programs and/or to meet licensure requirements for certain professions. If you have concerns about this matter please contact the Dean’s Office of your intended academic program.
Federal Licensure/Certification Disclosure
Effective July 1, 2024, federal regulation requires institutions of higher education to make a determination whether a Title IV eligible academic program that leads to professional licensure or certification meets the educational requirements for licensure/certification in the U.S. State where the institution is located and the U.S. States where “distance education” students are located at the time of initial enrollment in the program, as well as U.S. States where the program is advertised as meeting such requirements, and if applicable, the U.S. State where students attest they intend to be licensed/certified.
The Mental Health Counseling MS program at the University at Albany is registered by the New York State Education Department and thus meets the educational requirements for licensure/certification for New York State. Through a good faith effort, and for the purpose of complying with the federal regulation, we have determined that the Mental Health Counseling MS program at the University at Albany meets the educational requirements for licensure/certification in the additional following U.S. States: none.
It is important to note that the University at Albany is not the licensure/certification authority in other U.S. States and cannot assess whether an individual candidate will be issued a license/certificate in other U.S. States and instead it is incumbent on each individual candidate to contact the licensure/certification authority in the applicable U.S. State for any further guidance on the requirements for licensure/certification requirements and application processes.