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Counseling Master's Program

Earning your counseling master’s degree will prepare you for a career in counseling, helping children and adults with their relationships, mental health, and personal goals. After you’ve earned your master’s degree, you’ll be prepared to work as a school counselor or community counselor, working to help improve other people’s lives.

Our counseling master’s program includes focus areas in:

With your master’s degree in counseling, you’ll understand how to best communicate with your clients, evaluate the factors that influence a person’s wellbeing, apply contemporary methods for evaluating and treating clients, and lead group and individual counseling sessions. Throughout your time in our counseling master’s program, you’ll have opportunities to work with clients in our on-site clinic, gaining practical experience as you earn your degree.

Our counseling master’s degree curriculum is designed to align with professional standards so you can get the relevant expertise to advance your career. Becoming proficient, by these standards, will allow you to meet the demands of your field and expand your opportunities.

Students who enter our counseling master’s program range in age from 22 to 65. As a result, they bring a wide range of prior experience. The diversity in age and experience our students bring to our master’s program in counseling is one of our most valuable learning tools. Their experience may be volunteer or paid, and may have taken place in education, business, mental health care, or other settings. If you do not have experience in a helping relationship, we usually recommend that you volunteer in a school or agency before you apply to the counseling master’s program.

Licensure

Our counseling master’s program is designed so you will meet the educational requirements to earn your licensure or certification for either clinical mental health counseling or school counseling. After you've graduated, you'll be responsible for taking the National Counselor Examination for Licensure or the Praxis II for Professional School Counseling—and you’ll be ready.

This program prepares its students for licensure or certification within the state of Louisiana. Please visit the list of licensure programs for important information if you plan to move out of state.

Clinical Mental Health Counseling

The Clinical Mental Health Counseling focus meets the educational requirements for licensure as a professional counselor (LPC) in Louisiana and prepares you to deliver services in a variety of mental health settings.

School Counseling

The School Counseling focus meets the educational requirements for certification by the Louisiana Department of Education as a counselor, K-12, or ancillary counselor, K-12.

Timeline

The counseling master’s program typically takes between two and a half to three years to complete. You can take courses year-round, registering for an average of 9 to 12 credits per academic semester.

To complete the master’s program within a reasonable time, we recommend that you take 6-12 credits per term. Fewer credits may be taken during the summer term. If you are interested in completing the program in less than three years, consult with your faculty advisor to determine how many credits to take each semester. Note that there are some courses offered only during the summer term.

The program is designed so you can complete core courses and one concentration in a reasonable period of time. You can add a concentration, but doing so will extend the amount of time needed to complete degree requirements, which will include a 600-hour internship in each concentration.