Program Summary

MISSION STATEMENT

The Counseling Program emphasizes the role of human relationships to heal and empower. We seek to educate a community of ethical, self-aware, and socially-engaged counselors who possess the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to competently promote the health and development of diverse individuals, couples, families, and communities. We are committed to preparing counselors to work with systemic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal factors that influence well-being when implementing culturally-appropriate counseling interventions across the lifespan. We seek to fulfill this mission with a reflective approach to counselor development that operates at the intersection of theory, research, and practice, and that promotes the education of the whole person.

DIVERSITY & MULTICULTURALISM

The Counseling Program at Sonoma State University views multiculturalism as essential to the education, training, and development of aspiring counselors and, more generally, to the counseling profession. We embrace a broad definition of diversity that includes age, national origin, immigration status, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, physical and mental abilities, and language, along with the various and complex ways these forms of diversity intersect. We seek to foster an educational atmosphere that embraces and celebrates the diverse, intersecting identities of our students, faculty, clients, and community members, where all students feel safe to learn, dialogue, and provide feedback to each other and to faculty about multicultural issues.

Recognizing this statement is aspirational, we maintain an ongoing commitment to develop and implement specific actions that uphold the values contained herein. We are committed to multiculturalism in all aspects of our program by:

• Promoting students’ and faculty’s continuous awareness of their cultural values and how assumptions derived from these values shape their approach to learning, teaching, research, and clinical practice.

• Supporting students and faculty to foster an inclusive atmosphere in all aspects of the program that moves towards models that account for the experiences of those who historically have been underrepresented in the field.

• Supporting students and faculty to critically examine the assumptions inherent in the counseling profession and society at large.

• Supporting students’ and faculty’s continuous self-examination with regard to intentional and unintentional forms of bias, stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination.

• Promoting student and faculty awareness of the limiting, and potentially harmful effects of unexamined privilege.

• Integrating multicultural perspectives throughout the program’s curriculum and training, and centralizing multicultural competence and humility as a core program goal.

• Actively recruiting and maintaining students and faculty of diverse backgrounds.

PROFESSIONAL SPECIALIZATION OPTIONS

The 60-unit graduate program in counseling offers two professional specialization options. The Clinical Mental Health specialization prepares students for careers in the mental health field and marriage and family therapist (LMFT) and/or professional clinical counselor (LPCC) licensure. The School Counseling specialization prepares students for a career in school counseling and the professional personnel services (PPS) credential. The program relies on interpersonal skill training and field experience, beginning during the first semester and culminating with an intensive supervised traineeship/field experience in a counseling setting, which fosters the integration of theory, research, and practical application.

The Department is prepared to assist CMHC students in obtaining field placements relevant to their projected professional goals. These placements include, but are not limited to: marriage and family counseling agencies, mental health clinics, counseling centers, public schools, and college-level counseling centers. For the School Counseling program, field placements are at a minimum of two of the three K-12 levels: elementary school, middle school, and high school.

UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROGRAM

1. Early observation of and involvement in actual counseling practice.

2. Development of core knowledge and experience in individual, family, and group counseling theory and practice.

3. Support for each student in the development of their individual counseling style.

4. A commitment to student self-exploration and personal growth through participation in peer counseling, individual counseling, and group experiences. This aspect of the program is seen as crucial to the development of adequate counseling skills and is given special consideration by the faculty as part of its evaluation of student readiness to undertake traineeship/fieldwork responsibilities.

5. A strong emphasis on multicultural awareness and cultural humility in counseling practice.

PROGRAM EMPHASIS

The intention of the Counseling Program is to provide students with a solid foundation for a lifetime of continued personal and professional development as they enter into an entry-level counseling position. The program emphasizes the integration of theory, research, practice, and self-exploration across the curriculum. Students find that in most of their coursework, faculty expect students to be able to articulate their personal histories (e.g., relationships with family, peers, significant others) and the unique experiences related to their intersecting identities. It is the faculty’s belief that self-understanding and awareness of our own cultural identities, and the experiences of privilege and marginalization associated with those identities, is crucial to effective, ethical, and meaningful counseling work.