Counseling Psychology Specialization (M.A.)

The Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology prepares students for master’s-level licensure as a therapist in Nebraska and most jurisdictions in the United States. Attending full-time, the degree takes two full calendar years to complete. 

The mission of the MA program in Counseling Psychology is to train ethical, competent, and culturally responsive mental health professionals whose work is grounded in health service psychology (HSP). The program’s specific aims are to train students for professional HSP work requiring a master’s degree (1) using counseling psychology values as a framework (Scheel et al., 2018; Singh, 2020) and (2) integrating science and practice. The integration of science and practice undergirds the training you will receive, with a particular emphasis on how to be a responsible consumer of research and utilize science to inform clinical practice.

Thesis Option

The Thesis Option requires students to take all course work for the degree, plus coursework to support thesis research (e.g., research design and statistics courses). Accordingly, students opting to do a thesis should plan for approximately one additional year in the program. Students planning to continue in a doctoral program after graduation from the master’s program are strongly encouraged to complete a thesis or to take the lead in research projects during their master’s program to gain the necessary experience and competence be competitive for PhD admission. 

Practica and Field Placement

During the second semester of their first year of study, students provided psychotherapy services to individual clients in the Department’s Counseling and School Psychology Clinic. Students typically see 1-2 clients in the Spring term with an option to continue in Summer term, pending available supervision. 

During their second year of study, students enroll in field placement. In this course, students provide clinical care with a program-approved community partner agency. The field placement requirement includes 600 total hours of field work, or 20 hours weekly for two full semesters. Often, students’ field placement sites offer opportunities to continue in the summer to accrue additional experience and clinical hours. 

Direct and indirect hours for licensure vary by jurisdiction. Our program is designed to meet the requirements for the state of Nebraska. Students are encouraged to discuss with faculty whether the requirements of other states in which they may seek licensure are reasonable given the structure of the program. In Nebraska, students must obtain 300 direct hours (face-to-face client hours) to apply for provisional licensure; therefore, clinical experiences in the program are designed to meet this minimum number of hours. 

Comprehensive Exams

All master’s students must take a comprehensive examination during their last semester of coursework. For counseling psychology students, the comprehensive exam is comprised of three parts: 1) Counseling, 2) Development, and 3) Research Methods. See the EDPS website for more information. 

Beginning academic year 2027-2028, the program plans to require the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Exam (CPCE) in lieu of the exam detailed above. The CPCE tests students on the same eight domains as the National Counselor Examination: Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice, Social and Cultural Diversity, Human Growth and Development, Career Development, Counseling and Helping Relationships, Group Counseling and Group Work, Assessment and Testing, and Research and Program Evaluation. 

The program’s passing score on the CPCE, and in turn comprehensive exams, is 80. Students will be authorized by the program to register for the exam. The cost to students is $75 for registration. If you have financial need, please apply for the Counseling Psychology fellowship funds (see Application link in Teams) to pay for the exam. If a student does not pass the CPCE, they may re-take it in a subsequent semester. If comprehensive exams are failed twice, the student will be dismissed from the program.