Departmental News

Congratulations to Afshana Haque!

The Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (TAMFT) has selected Afshana Haque as the recipient of its 2009 Doctoral Student Achievement Award. The award will be presented at the TAMFT Conference on January 29 in Fort Worth. As part of the award, Afshana will receive a $250 honorarium and conference registration. The Doctoral Student Achievement Award is designed to recognize outstanding doctoral students who are active in TAMFT and who have conducted distinguished research and/or community service.

Financial Assistance to Students

During the 2008-2009 academic year, the Department of Counseling and Human Services will have awarded a total of $210,000 to doctoral students and $30,000 to masters students in assistantships and scholarships. These amounts do not include assistantships awarded to Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy students by other departments in the university.

Current doctoral students: If you are fully enrolled in the doctoral Counselor Education and Supervision or Marriage and Family Therapy program, are in good academic standing, and would like to be considered for an academic, service, or research scholarship, complete the Doctoral Scholarship Application and return it to Francis Farrell.

TRIAD Grant

The Department of Counseling and Human Services has been awarded a two-year $284,000.00 grant by the Texas Resources for Iraq-Afghanistan Deployment (TRIAD) Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation. The grant will fund two outreach and referral assistantships and 26 paid internships to work in one of four sites. Click here to apply for the outreach and referral assistantships and click here to apply for an internship position.

For more information for the opportunities this grant affords our community and our students click here, or contact Dr. Dan Ratliff at (210) 436-3226 or at dratliff@stmarytx.edu for more information.

Dr. Dana Comstock, Department Chair
with Dr. Dan Ratliff, Grant Coordinator

General Departmental Information

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We offer accredited master's degrees in Community Counseling, Mental Health Counseling, and Marriage and Family Therapy and doctoral degrees in Counselor Education and Supervision and Marriage and Family Therapy. Students in our progressive doctoral programs may choose a concentration in any of the following areas:

• Marriage and Family Therapy
• Neurofeedback
• Play Therapy
• Rehabilitation Counseling
• Relational-Cultural Theory and Social Justice

Please note that the Graduate Catalog for the 2006-2007 academic year does not reflect the latest revisions to our doctoral programs. For up-to-date information on our 68-hour doctoral degrees in Counselor Education and Supervision and Marriage and Family Therapy review "Program Information" under our Doctoral Degrees link.

For additional information, click on the following links to download brochures for our doctoral programs:

• Counselor Education and Supervision (pdf)
• Marriage and Family Therapy (pdf)
• To view a list of dissertations that have been completed over the past 9 years click here.

Accreditations

Our department has dual accreditation by both the COAMFTE and CACREP.

The Master of Arts and Doctorate of Philosophy in Marriage and Family Therapy are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE).

Our master's degrees in Community Counseling and Mental Health Counseling and our doctoral degree in Counselor Education and Supervision programs are accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).

Doctoral Level Assistantships and Financial Assistance

Our Department has several types of assistantships that are available to full-time doctoral students. These positions are filled once a year in spring or early summer. The availability of positions and application instructions are posted on our Announcements Page. For information on the various types of assistantships click on the following:

• Research Assistantships
• Administrative Assistantships
• Recruitment Assistant

All faculty have a research assistant, we have one recruiter position, and we have two Administrative Positions. Each administrative position involves a 35 hour work week over nine months with a salary of $25,000.00.

In addition to these positions, our Department offers academic scholarships to doctoral applicants with outstanding academic indexes (see our Graduate School Catalog for admission criteria). These awards are in the amount of $10,000.00. Students may apply these to their tuition or take a cash award. It is possible to get an academic scholarship and to be hired for one of our many student positions. We encourage all interested doctoral applicants to seriously consider our Departmental financial support when making the decision about where to obtain your degree.

Location

The Department of Counseling and Human Services is located at 251 W. Ligustrum, just a few blocks from the St. Mary's University campus (between Bandera Road and Woodlawn Avenue). If you are coming from the front of the campus on Camino Santa Maria, turn left onto Woodlawn Avenue, and then turn right onto W. Ligustrum. The Counselor Education and Family Life Center building will be on the left side of the street.