Counselor
Counselors assist people with personal, family, educational, mental health, and career decisions and issues in a variety of settings. They use interviews, counseling sessions, interest and aptitude assessment tests, and other methods to evaluate and advise clients.
Counselors may work in or provide services to elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, employment agencies, and business corporations, or they may establish private practices as career coaches. Other counselors provide genetic counseling or rehabilitation services in medical facilities. Counselors also offer therapeutic services in substance abuse clinics, marriage and family therapy practice, or centers that serve multicultural or aging populations.
Several programs at JFK University support your starting interest in becoming a counselor.
JFKU’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology (GSPP) offers the PsyD degree, as well as the MA degree program in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy that prepares you for future practice as a licensed marriage and family therapist (MFT). Choose from specializations in addiction studies, child and adolescent therapy, couples and family therapy, expressive arts therapy, and sport psychology. The MA in Organizational Psychology teaches both theory and practice for the field of organizational change. Our certificate program in Coaching fosters the skills you need to enable your clients to achieve the dreams and objectives in their personal and professional lives. The MA in Sport Psychology program, one of only a few in the United States, integrates counseling psychology with sport psychology to explore areas such as optimal performance, coaching techniques, social issues, and substance abuse, in addition to child, adolescent, and family counseling. Our PsyD program prepares you for the multiple roles that contemporary psychologists must fill to serve their communities: clinician, program administrator and evaluator, consultant, educator, supervisor, assessor, and critical consumer of psychological research.
The School of Education and Liberal Arts (SELA) at JFK University offers several programs that may be useful to professionals who are interested in becoming counselors: the Essentials Coaching certificate in partnership with the Ford Institute for Integrative Coaching; a BA in Psychology; a BA in Science, Health, and Living Systems; a BA in Social Ecology; single- and multiple-subject teaching credentials, and a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT).
Programs from JFKU’s School of Holistic Studies (SHS) serve professionals interested in counseling with a holistic, whole-person approach that integrates body, mind, spirit, and culture into the curriculum. The MA in Counseling Psychology offers three specializations: somatic psychology, transpersonal psychology, and holistic studies that integrates somatic and transpersonal approaches. Clinical practice opportunities are offered through the Center for Holistic Counseling in Oakland. Additional holistic programs include the MA in Holistic Health Education, and the MA in Integral Psychology.
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