Master of Education in Counseling Psychology
Mental Health Counseling Track with Bilingual Concentration
The Bilingual Latina/o Mental Health (BLMH) concentration within the Ed.M. program is the only program in New York to offer culturally appropriate training in delivering mental health services in Spanish to Latinas/os. The BLMH concentration will train bilingual students with intermediary Spanish fluency to be bicultural/bilingual counselors and counseling psychologists with the necessary competencies needed to understand and provide culturally responsive care to Spanish-dominant and bilingual multi-racial Latina/o clients. Students will take courses concurrently within the required Ed.M. or Ph.D. curriculum coursework. All courses within the BLMH will be taught by bilingual faculty. Additionally, students will be supervised by a bilingual supervisor at his/her fieldwork training site.
Mission and Goals
The concentration in BLMH aspires to train students to become bilingual and bicultural mental health providers proficient to treat the Latina/o population by:
- Gaining understanding of the demographic and cultural make-up of Latina/o population
- Increasing knowledge of psychosocial factors that impact the Latina/o population
- Learning to effectively assess the varied psychological needs and expressions of distress of the Latina/o client
- Gaining the counseling skills needed to provide mental health services in Spanish
- Acquiring the knowledge of Spanish therapeutic concepts, interventions, and terminology
- Learning to apply intervention models (strategies, and techniques) to treatment of Latinas/os.
Ed.M. Program Highlights
The Ed.M. in Mental Health Counseling prepares students to practice mental health counseling. Our program is dedicated to the preparation of professionals who 1) facilitate the optimal development of individuals, groups, and organizations through 2) strategies of prevention, intervention, and remediation that are 3) culturally-relevant and psychologically-appropriate across the lifespan.
In-depth infusion of racial-cultural and social justice emphases throughout program components. Although our curriculum features certain courses with words like "multicultural" in the titles, our multicultural-social justice instruction does not reside in just those courses. Rather, we conceptualize every course and program experience within the context of a social justice and racial-cultural framework. Not only is this orientation consonant with our belief that socially-just practice is ethical, effective practice, it also allows us to align our work with broader movement toward social equity.
A commitment to the crucial role of experiential training and self-awareness within the best counselor preparation. As a counselor or therapist, the instrument that you use to enact your professional work is you -- so the more aware you are of your own interpersonal style, skills, and biases, the more effectively you can use your instrument. Many students find that some of the most important, challenging, and transformational aspects of their TC training results from courses like Foundations, Group Counseling, and Racial-Cultural Counseling Lab, where students learn about themselves as they learn about the practice of counseling.
Research exposure and opportunities. As a license-eligible Ed.M. program, our first priority is to train caring, ethical, effective practitioners -- yet, at Teachers College, you have the opportunity to get first-rate practitioner preparation in the context of first-rate scholarship. Our faculty includes researchers whose work has shaped the counseling profession, and every faculty member maintains ongoing research teams to which students at any level of training may apply. To find out more about our faculty's research interests, please consult their individual pages on the TC website.
Our students are prepared to work in a variety of settings, including those that emphasize health (e.g., outpatient clinics, hospitals, nursing homes). Graduates will be able to apply their skills in clinical practice, administration, assessment, and research as well as to produce knowledge, to be leaders in policy development and implementation, and to work in independent practice.
With the help of a faculty advisor, students register for required and elective courses relevant to their needs and career objectives. Depending on their areas of interest and levels of training, graduates have found employment in colleges, adult education centers, hospitals, clinics, health centers, and community and government agencies. Many of our students also go on to study at the doctoral level.
To learn more about licensure requirements, please visit the New York State Education Department's Office of the Professions. If you are interested in eventually obtaining licensure in another state, you will need to research that state's requirements. View our Mental Health Counseling Program Data.
Admissions Information
Master of Education
- Points/Credits: 60
- Entry Terms: Fall Only
Certification
View Public Disclosure Notification
- Mental Health Counselor
Application Deadlines
- Spring: N/A
- Summer/Fall (Priority): January 15
- Summer/Fall (Final): April 15
Supplemental Application Requirements/Comments
- Online Degree Application, including Statement of Purpose and Resume
- Transcripts and/or Course-by-Course Evaluations for all Undergraduate/Graduate Coursework Completed
- Results from an accepted English Proficiency Exam (if applicable)
- $65 Application Fee
- Two (2) Letters of Recommendation
- Application Supplement (included in online application)
Requirements from the TC Catalog
The Ed.M. is granted after successful completion of a comprehensive examination, a special project, and 60 points of planned, sequential study beyond the bachelor’s degree, of which at least 48 points must be taken at Teachers College. Approval of transfer credits to the Ed.M. program must be conducted upon admission into the program; transfer credits will not be accepted thereafter. The Ed.M. degree could lead to the doctorate at Teachers College and elsewhere but usually with some loss of time and credits because of differences in emphases between master’s and doctoral programs. Students who apply to the program during or after taking classes at Teachers College as a non-matriculated student can transfer up to 9 points (with a maximum of 8 points in the major) if accepted as a matriculated degree student. Additional information may be found in the Psychological Counseling Program Handbook.
School counseling is one of several areas of specialization within the Ed.M. program in Psychological Counseling (COUS). It is a specialty that allows students to develop appropriate skills to deliver services that are specific to school settings, in addition to learning the essential functions generally found in the counseling profession. A graduate of this specialization is eligible for provisional certification as a School Counselor in New York State after completing the program, including a series of specified courses. Consult the Master’s Student Handbook for more information about the School Counselor specialization. For permanent certification, New York State requires two years of employment as a school counselor and 30 additional credits of graduate work. The credits from the Ed.M. beyond the M.A. will be applied toward the 30. Students planning to obtain New York State Certification in School Counseling use the en passant M.A. to apply for provisional certification. Students should complete the application for certification upon graduation from the M.A. program.
In 2005, Teachers College received approval from New York State to offer a License-Qualifying Mental Health Counseling Program (COUM). Along with completion of required coursework, students can become eligible for licensure when they complete 3000 hours of post-master’s supervised experience in the practice of mental health counseling and pass a national examination. For information regarding licensure, please contact the Office of the Professions, New York State Education Department (www.op.nysed.gov/prof/mhp/mhclic.htm)
All students in the Psychological Counseling Ed.M. program (COUM and COUS) must take specific required courses in the following content areas:
- Human growth and development: HUDK 4022, Developmental psychology: Childhood (3); HUDK 4023, Developmental psychology: Adolescence (3); HUDK 4024, Developmental psychology: Adulthood and the lifespan (3); or HUDK 5029, Personality development and socialization across the lifespan (3)
- Social cultural foundations of counseling: CCPJ 4873, The Winter Roundtable on Cultural Psychology and Education (1) and two of the following: CCPJ 5165, Racial-Cultural Counseling Laboratory (4); CCPJ 5020, Racism and Racial Identity in Psychology and Education (3) CCPJ 5164, Multicultural Counseling and Psychology (3) (4) CCPJ 4050 Microaggressions in Instituitional Climates (3) or CCPJ 4180 LGBT (Q) Issues in Psychology (3). Please note: one of the two courses must be CCPJ 5020, CCPJ 5164, or CCPJ 5165
- Counseling theory and practice: CCPJ 4064, Theories of counseling (3) and CCPJ 5371,Foundations of counseling (3)
- Psychopathology: CCPJ 4000, Multicultural psychopathology (3); CCPX 5032, Adult psychopathology (3); or CCPX 5034, Child psychopathology (3)
- Group counseling: CCPJ 5025, Group counseling (3)
- Lifestyle and career development: CCPJ 5062, Career counseling and development (3)
- Assessment and appraisal: CCPJ 5060, Assessment in counseling psychology (3), and one of the following: HUDM 5059, Psychological measurement (3); HUDM 4050, Introduction to measurement (3); or CCPJ 4066, Foundations of testing and accountability (3)
- Research and program evaluation: ORLJ 4009, Understanding behavioral research (3) and ORL 5522, Evaluation methods I (3)
or CCPJ 5070 Evaluation methods in counseling psychology (3)
- Professional orientation and ethics: CCPJ 4560, Professional and ethical issues in psychological counseling (3)
- Foundations of mental health counseling and consultation: CCPJ 5371, Foundations of counseling (3) (also listed under Counseling Theory and Practice) and CCPJ 4165, Consultation in community agencies and resources (3)
- Clinical instruction: CCPJ 5360, Practicum in career and personal counseling (4)
- One year of supervised fieldwork: CCPJ 5260, Fieldwork in psychological counseling and rehabilitation (6 points total spread over two or three semesters); CCPJ 5263, Supervised fieldwork in elementary school counseling (6 points total spread over two or three semesters); or CCPJ 5265, Supervised fieldwork in secondary school counseling (6 points total spread over two or three semesters).
School counselors (COUS) also are required to take the following:
Elementary
- HUDK 4022, Developmental psychology: Childhood
- CCPJ 5263, Supervised fieldwork in elementary school counseling
- CCPJ 4160, School counseling for children or adolescents, or
- Child abuse and maltreatment identification, reporting and intervention
- Violence prevention and intervention
High School
- HUDK 4023, Developmental psychology: Adolescence
- CCPJ 5265, Supervised fieldwork in secondary school counseling
- CCPJ 4160, School counseling for children and adolescents, or
- Child abuse and maltreatment identification, reporting and intervention
- Violence prevention and intervention
Required courses often are scheduled in the afternoon and evening, so it is possible for students with flexible schedules to attend on a part-time basis and complete the program; however, it should be noted that at times, required courses may be offered during the day and students must be prepared to make needed accommodations. Full-time students generally complete the program in about five semesters. The length of program completion for part-time students varies with the number of points in which they enroll each semester.
In addition to required core courses, students will be expected to select electives from the various areas of psychology and other appropriate disciplines that will provide breadth and depth to their preparation as counselors. Consult the Master’s Student Handbook for further information about Ed.M. program requirements.
New York State Education Department (NYSED) has teacher certification requirements that are needed for program completion and graduation which are listed in the Office of Teacher Education section of the catalog.
A special project is required in addition to the 60 points of coursework. Students should plan to complete their project in the same semester that they apply for the Ed.M. degree.
The Comprehensive Exam, which is a mandatory requirement for obtaining the en passant M.A. and the Ed.M., is generally taken in the semester in which 45 credits are completed.