Counseling

Master's Degree Program

Opportunities for graduate studies

The counseling program at the University of North Texas offers professional training at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. This training is designed to prepare you for a variety of counseling settings, such as a school or university, community agency, church, private practice, or business and industry.

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP, 1001 North Fairfax Street, Suite 510, Alexandria, Va. 22314, 703-535-5990, http://www.cacrep.org] has conferred accreditation on the elementary school counseling (M.Ed. and M.S.), secondary school counseling (M.Ed. and M.S.), college and university counseling (M.Ed. and M.S.) and community counseling (M.Ed. and M.S.) tracks at UNT. CACREP is a specialized accrediting body recognized by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation.

The UNT counseling program has won several honors and awards. It was the first in the nation to receive the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision's (ACES) Outstanding Program Award and earned that recognition again in 2000. The counseling program faculty members also received the association's "Publication in Counselor Education and Supervision" award for their 2004 book, The Professional Counselor: Portfolio, Competencies, Performance Guidelines, and Assessment (third edition). In addition, since 1998 when U.S. News and World Report began ranking counseling and counseling psychology programs housed in colleges of education, the UNT program has been ranked for seven consecutive years among the top 20 programs in the U.S. and first in Texas.

You may pursue a master's degree in one of four tracks of study. All tracks meet academic specifications for Texas licensure as a professional counselor.

Elementary and secondary school counseling. These two tracks prepare you to become school counselors for children in preschool through grade 12. You will become familiar with school counseling and guidance services, develop better self understanding and develop the competencies of school counseling guidance specialists.

The elementary and secondary school counseling tracks differ in some course requirements to appropriately reflect differences in the functions of counselors at the two school levels. These tracks meet Texas specifications for school counselor certification.

College and university counseling. This track prepares you for counseling in community colleges, as well as senior-level colleges and universities. The track provides counseling experiences in all areas of student life.

Community counseling. This track prepares you for counseling positions in various community agencies such as mental health centers, private counseling agencies, drug abuse centers, centers for counseling the elderly, child protective services, child counseling clinics, family counseling centers, pastoral counseling settings, and business and industry. The track provides the opportunity to counsel a broad range of clientele.

Admission requirements

You must meet the admission requirements of the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies and the specific requirements for the counseling program. You must apply and be accepted to the graduate school at least one month prior to counseling program deadlines. Contact the counseling and higher education department for specific deadlines.

For provisional admission to the counseling master's program you must meet the following requirements:

• completed application for admission to the master's program in counseling
• normally, an undergraduate GPA of at least 2.8 overall or 3.0 for the last 60 hours
• GRE verbal, quantitative and analytical writing portions taken at least one month prior to the counseling program deadline
• three completed reference evaluation forms provided by the program
• a one-page, typed writing sample
• attendance at an orientation meeting
• satisfactory completion of a group interview

You must submit application materials to the program office in time to be processed by the application deadline. Contact the program office for specific deadlines.

After the orientation and interview, the Master's Admissions Committee conducts a holistic review of all applicants. Within one month of the orientation and interview, you will receive a letter granting or denying provisional admission. If you are granted provisional admission, you should contact the counseling program for advising before registration. You will be administratively dropped from counseling program courses if you are not granted provisional admission.

Degree requirements

The M.Ed. requires a minimum of 48 semester hours, and the M.S. requires a minimum of 51 semester hours. All degree programs must be planned in consultation with your advisor. You are required to file a degree plan during your first semester of graduate study.

Each master's degree program requires an internship that should be the last two courses in the master's program. Placement for the internship is selected in cooperation with the internship supervisor and must be approved by the program.

For the M.Ed. degree, you are required to complete COUN 5720/5721, Internship in Counseling, with a grade of B or higher and a final exit interview, in lieu of a thesis.

For the M.S. degree, you are required to complete the M.Ed. requirements, complete EPSY 5050, Educational Research and Evaluation, and pass a written comprehensive exam.

Required courses
All areas (36 hours)

• COUN 5470 Career Development and Information Resources
• COUN 5480 Biopsychosocial Assessment and Wellness in Counseling
• COUN 5660 Advanced Counseling Skills
• COUN 5680 Basic Counseling Skills
• COUN 5690 Practicum in Counseling
• COUN 5710 Counseling Theories
• COUN 5720 Internship in Counseling I
• COUN 5721 Internship in Counseling II
• COUN 5740 Group Counseling Theories and Procedures
• COUN 5790 Counseling Culturally Diverse Clients
• DFST 5123 Human Development Across the Life Span
• EPSY 5210 Educational Statistics

Elementary school counseling track

• COUN 5700 Introduction to Play Therapy
• COUN 5760 Appraisal in Child and Adolescent Counseling
• COUN 5770 Counseling in the Elementary School
• Elective: One course selected in consultation with your advisor (3 hours)

Secondary school counseling track

• COUN 5600 Counseling in Secondary Schools
• COUN 5760 Appraisal in Child and Adolescent Counseling
• Electives: Two courses selected in consultation with your advisor (6 hours)

College and university counseling track

• COUN 5730 Appraisal in Adult Counseling
• COUN 5750 College Student Development Theory
• EDHE 5120 Student Development Programming Administration
• Elective: One course selected in consultation with your advisor (3 hours)

Services of the counseling program

Counseling and Human Development Center

The center offers individual counseling for clients of all ages as well as couple, family and group counseling. Low-cost counseling services are provided by counselors-in-training under the supervision of counseling program faculty members using the latest in audiovisual technology.

Child and Family Resource Clinic

The clinic provides diagnostic and remedial services to children, adolescents, adults and families experiencing difficulties at home or school. Graduate students in the counseling program acquire valuable field experience by providing the low-cost services of the clinic under the supervision of counseling program faculty members.

Center for Play Therapy

The center conducts research, provides a directory of play therapy training programs in the U.S., publishes The World of Play Therapy Literature: A Definitive Guide to Authors and Subjects in the Field, and offers special workshops and courses in play therapy. With eight fully equipped play therapy rooms and video equipment, the center is the world's largest play therapy training program.

Biofeedback Research and Training Laboratory

Through the laboratory, biofeedback treatment of a variety of stress-related disorders is available on a sliding-scale fee basis. Biofeedback treatment is provided under counseling program faculty supervision by graduate counselors-in-training who are preparing to become nationally certified as biofeedback therapists.

Center for Animal-Assisted Therapy

The center trains professionals and volunteers to work with their pets to facilitate the development of students in kindergarten through 12th grade with pet-assisted educational programs and to enhance the emotional well-being of people of all ages through positive human-animal interactions. Workshops and courses are offered for national certification training for people who wish to work with their pets to perform animal-assisted volunteer service or provide professional animal-assisted therapy.

Continuing education opportunities

Each year the counseling program offers conferences at which nationally known speakers present current perspectives on issues in counseling. Licensed professional counselors, nationally certified counselors and Texas Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse counselors may earn continuing education credit by attending these conferences:
Animal-assisted therapy training workshops (September and April)
Play Therapy Conference (October)
Summer Play Therapy Institute (July)
Institute in Counselor Supervision (January or February)