School & Mental Health Counseling: Practicum II

Catalog description

This course emphasizes practical counseling experience utilizing rudimentary counseling skills when working with approved supervisors in school counseling programs, mental health agencies, and recording volunteer practice clients. All practicum sites have been pre-approved to meet certification standards. A primary purpose of this course is to provide beginning counseling students with a supportive learning environment and ground them in practical skills and application to the counseling profession. Students will have opportunities to practice, enhance, and refine their emerging counseling skills acquired in class, as well as, through structured supervised learning opportunities in schools and clinical settings. The Practicum is the initial opportunity for students to synthesize and integrate theoretical information from course work into their individual counseling and small group work. These objectives are met at the clinical site, through individual recorded client sessions, and in class. An additional aim of this course is to help students increase and explore their own self-knowledge as providers of counseling services to others. The course promotes an awareness and better understanding of oneself, how individual understanding may impact professional practice; appreciation of others, reinforcing the importance of empathic attention to the needs of others differing from ones own (cultural, educational, and socioeconomic background); and professional development, emphasizing skill building, ethics, and providing counseling services. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Executive Program in School and Mental Health Counseling.