Mission
The mission of the Counseling Program at Governors State University is to prepare culturally competent, social just, ethical professional counselors who possess knowledge and skills to practice and advocate effectively in clinical mental health, marriage and family, or school counseling settings.
Vision
The counseling program maintains an etic and emic perspective committed to serving the diverse local and global populations between community agencies and schools.
Goal and Objectives
The Goal of the Counseling Program is to prepare professional counselors with personal and professional integrity. This endeavor requires, at a minimum, institutional and departmental support, a programmatic structure meeting credentialing requirements, qualified faculty, and dedicated students. In order to help prepare students to enter the field of counseling, students will be provided with specialized curricular, experiential, supervisory, and professional experiences. These include coursework, practicum, internship, supervision, and opportunities for professional experiences. Students are encouraged to work with faculty on presentations and in research. Faculty and students are expected to participate in local, state, and national professional activities and associations such as the American Counseling Association (ACA), its divisions, branches, and its affiliate organizations.
Graduates of the counseling program will meet the following objectives:
1. Understand the various aspects of professional functioning and identity, including: the history and philosophy of the counseling profession, professional roles and ethics, functions and relationships with other human service providers and the importance of ACA and its division, branches and affiliates.
2. Demonstrate the ability to act professionally and ethically.
3. Understand the cultural context of relationships, issues, and trends in a pluralistic society and demonstrate the ability to integrate this knowledge in clinical practice.
4. Understand the nature and needs of individuals and families at all developmental levels through the application of theory, learning, personality development, and human behavior and demonstrate the ability to integrate this understanding in clinical practice.
5. Understand the nature of career development and life factors that relate to career decision making, labor market information, career planning, and career assessment, and demonstrate the ability to integrate this understanding in clinical practice.
6. Understand helping relationships as related to counseling and consultation practices across the lifespan and demonstrate the ability to integrate this understanding in clinical practice.
7. Understand group theory and group practice as related to dynamics, counseling theories, group counseling methods, and group approaches and demonstrate the ability to integrate this understanding in clinical practice.
8. Understand individual, marriage and family, and group assessment approaches and evaluation and their utility in a pluralistic society and demonstrate the ability to integrate this understanding in clinical practice.
9. Understand appropriate research methods (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, case study), statistical analysis, needs assessment and program evaluation methodologies, as well as ethical concerns for conducting research and evaluating research in a pluralistic society.
10. Demonstrate the ability to use and apply basic technology needed for academic excellence and professional use.
11. Understand the role of the advocacy competencies, social justice and diversity research and literature, and demonstrate multicultural counseling interventions in clinical practice.