Professional Counseling - Community Counseling
Curriculum
Areas of Concentration
The core courses of the Community Counseling Masters Degree Program are designed to provide a broad base of instruction and experience and to meet licensure and accreditation standards. This program is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). Students can also concentrate their preparation, through additional coursework, in providing counseling services for a particular client population or service setting. Areas for such concentration include marriage and family therapy, drug and alcohol counseling, juvenile offender counseling, geriatric counseling and women’s studies.
Core Courses
| ECHD 6020 (3 hours) | Interpersonal Relationships |
| ECHD 7920 (3 hours) | Research Methods in Counseling & Psychology |
| ECHD 7010 (3 hours) | Individual Appraisal |
| ECHD 7050 (3 hours) | Lifestyle and Career Development |
| ECHD 7600 (3 hours) | Foundations of Mental Health & Community Counseling |
| ECHD 7080 (3 hours) | Introduction to Group Counseling |
| ECHD 7860 (9 hours) | Internship in Community Counseling |
| ECHD 7700 (3 hours) | Individual Counseling Practicum |
| ECHD 7040 (3 hours) | Theories of Counseling & Human Development |
| ECHD 7060 (3 hours) | Multi-Cultural Counseling |
| ECHD 8020 (3 hours) | Seminar in Counseling and Human Development Services |
| ECHD 8030 (3 hours) | Psycho-Diagnosis |
| ECHD 8180 (3 hours) | Alcohol and Drug Therapy |
| ECHD 9110 (3 hours) | Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy |
Elective Courses
Elective courses are generally taken in psychology, social work, or child and family development. M.A. students normally will take 3 hours of ECHD 7300M (Thesis) and ERSH 6300 (Applied Descriptive Statistics).
Pre-Professional Certificate Program in Marriage and Family Therapy
The University of Georgia has a Pre-Professional Graduate Certificate Program in Marriage and Family Therapy. This interdisciplinary certificate program (Child and Family Development, and Counseling and Human Development Services) can help a student to begin to prepare for state licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist or for clinical membership in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (although neither of these goals can be completely met by the certificate program, since there are extensive supervised practice requirements). If students in the Community Counseling program take all their electives to meet the requirements of the certificate program they can then obtain an M.Ed. in Community Counseling and a Certificate in Marriage and Family Therapy simultaneously. When this is done, students generally will have to take more than 54 hours of coursework to meet the requirements of both programs.
Students interested in this certificate program must file a separate application to be admitted to this program once they are admitted into the Community Counseling Program. Not all of the students who submit applications to the certificate program have to be accepted into this program.
Students are expected to take courses in the following areas in order to meet the requirements of this certificate program: Professional Studies, Marriage and Family Therapy, Therapeutic Skills, Human Development and Practicum in Marriage and Family Therapy.
*Students who are interested in this track should contact Dr. Georgia Calhoun.
Clinical Requirements
Following the successful completion of ECHD 6020, Interpersonal Relationships, and ECHD 7040, Theories of Counseling and Human Development, students may begin their practicum and internship experiences. One semester of prepracticum and one semester of practicum are required. This is an intense clinical experience in which students’ clinical skills are developed with clients under the close supervision of faculty and on-site counselors. Students select practicum and internship sites based on their clinical interests and faculty approval. Supervision is offered on-site and from departmental faculty. Audio/video taping is required.
Two semesters of internship are also required. This experience closely parallels on-the-job training in which student counselors work under the supervision of on-site counselors. Group supervision by faculty is also provided.
