Counselor Education

The Counseling Education program at St. John's University offers a blend of courses designed to provide the skills and knowledge necessary for becoming a knowledgeable, thoughtful, skillful, and caring school & mental health counselor.

Our courses have proven to be an effective training process for our graduates who seek employment as professional counselors in varied settings or who desire advanced graduate study beyond the master’s degree.

Counselor Education Department Mission Statement

The mission of the Department of Counselor Education at St. John’s University is to prepare motivated, competent, culturally literate, and ethical counselors whose Vincentian inspired work will help them meet the demands of a rapidly changing society. Our students will receive quality clinical and academic experiences that will foster advocacy and research skills. Our unified and dedicated faculty will utilize the latest technology, evidenced based research, and the current Council on the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP) accreditation standards to inform our teaching.

Counseling Department Objectives

1. To train graduate students as professional counselors in School or Clinical Mental Health settings in accordance with CACREP standards, while orienting students to the role and identity of a professional counselor, legal and ethical issues of the profession, and guidelines of the American Counseling Association. 
    
2. To train graduate students to be ethical and effective counseling practitioners, and empower them to utilize counseling skills in a variety of modalities, including individual counseling, group counseling, career counseling, assessment, and consultation.
    
3. To train students to utilize appropriate evidence-based counseling theories and treatment modalities, and to ensure that students select counseling approaches in alliance with the developmental level and cultural beliefs of the clients/students they serve.
    
4. To foster an expectation of cultural awareness, social justice and responsibility among counselors-in-training following our Vincentian mission, and to hold students to an expectation of respect for diversity, equity, and inclusion in their academic, personal, and clinical practices.
    
5. To foster critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, and current knowledge of the counseling profession utilizing research and scholarship, while also requiring continual, critical self-reflection for internal biases and ongoing self-assessment of counselor wellness.
    
6. To foster an expectation of continued professional development and advocacy for the counseling profession and for the clients we serve, via active involvement in counseling organizations, ongoing training, and advocacy efforts, both throughout their program and beyond.

Programs

• M.S.Ed. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
• M.S.Ed. in School Health Counseling
• Advanced Certificate in School Counseling Bridge Program
• Advanced Certificate in Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Accreditation

The School of Education's Clinical Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling MS.Ed. programs are accredited by The Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP). CACREP is a programmatic accreditor of counseling education programs at colleges and universities in the United States. It is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. For more information, visit our Accreditation Information page. 

Department Contact

Heather C. Robertson, Ph.D., LMHC, CRC, CASAC
Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Counselor Education
St. John's University 
The School of Education