Doctor of Philosophy
Counselor Education and Supervision (CES)

Mission

Through excellence in education, the mission of the Department of Counseling and Human Services is to prepare Graduates of the Counselor Education and Supervision doctoral degree to work as advanced clinicians, educators, and researchers who are able to integrate Marianist values related to promoting justice, peace, and human dignity as they serve in an increasingly pluralistic, changing, and global society.

Overview

The doctoral program is designed to carry the student through and relate the following three levels in the educational process: praxis, theory, and philosophical foundations. The program is structured for full time study of approximately three years (2 years of full-time study, and residence for a third year). The primary purpose of the Doctoral concentration in Counselor Education and Supervision is to develop counselor educators who are able to provide preservice and inservice counselor education, as well as provide effective counseling and therapeutic service/interventions to a variety of client populations in human service agencies in the public and private sectors. Course work and clinical experiences are integrated to help students formulate their personal approach to counselor education and supervision. In addition, emphasis is placed on the student's abilities to demonstrate personal growth and development. Courses are offered in the late afternoon or evening to accommodate students who work. The program is open to students from diverse philosophic and religious backgrounds. A mature, experienced student population from many related fields adds to the impact of the training.

Nature and Purpose

Counseling is a broadly defined term used to refer to the active interpersonal process whereby clients are provided the opportunity to explore life concerns. Counseling takes in the broad spectrum of services offered by mental health/human service specialists. These services may include short term, problem specific interventions that assist the person to remove blocks to growth and effective living, as well as longer term interactions which focus on unconscious processes concerned with personality structure changes.

Objectives

The learning goals set forth by St. Mary's University's doctoral program in CES are embedded within a learning environment designed to foster student's ability to achieve and demonstrate:

Objective 1: Professional Identity

Successive steps towards the development of a well-rounded professional identity. These activities are assessed and as measured by their engagement through any and/or all of the following: professional memberships, presentations, publications, leadership roles, service, advocacy, counseling, supervision, teaching, and or other professionally related counseling activities.

Objective 2: Supervision

Knowledge of counselor and counselor trainee supervision that involves a working knowledge of legal, ethical, and multicultural skills and that will foster the development of a personal style of supervision. This supervision style will be measured by: the creation of a supervision agreement to include style of supervision, the development of a philosophical supervision paper, the supervision of a minimum of one entry level masters student, and evaluations through video recording, supervisee's experience and faculty review.

Objective 3: Teaching

Knowledge and skills of Counselor Education, instruction, and the understanding of challenges in higher education through the development of the students teaching portfolio, which contains the following: personal philosophy of teaching, philosophy of assessing students, teaching evaluations from both faculty and students, and student developed instructional materials.

Objective 4: Research and Scholarship

Knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative research design along with the ability of when to and how to implement the appropriate design, statistical analyses and interpretation through the following: development of research project, successful submission of IRB proposal, completion of data collection and analysis, and a final manuscript written in APA style. All students are encouraged to submit their research results for publication and presentation upon the completion of their research sequence.

Objective 5: Grants and Program Evaluation

Competencies related to grant funding, research, writing and reporting, and program evaluation by working with faculty to meet program needs. Students are required to take a course in grant writing in which they will complete a project whereby they identify a gap in community/mental health needs, locate matching funding sources, create and/or submit a letter of interest and/or a full-grant proposal in collaboration with a faculty mentor. Students are also encouraged to gain experience in program evaluation by collaborating with the CES Program Director to create, administer and analyze data to assess the effectiveness of the quality of the counseling programs.

Objective 6: Counseling

Clinical expertise through the advanced mastery of their theoretical approach to counseling and engage with others who have diverse theoretical approaches through the following: completion of advanced counseling theories, advanced multicultural assessment, advanced clinical practicum, supervision practicum as well as student's collaborative exchanges with peers, supervisee's and faculty members.

Objective 7: Leadership and Advocacy

A culturally-competent, growth-fostering working knowledge base of leadership and advocacy skills that is applicable to their respective professional counseling affiliations, client base, local community, the broader sociopolitical context which, for international students, are applicable to their mother country. Students are required to join the American Counseling Association and divisions of interest. They are also required to take initial steps towards providing professional service in such a way that will allow them opportunities to advocate for counseling and the clients they serve.