Graduate Programs: Counseling Psychology
Degree Plan
Recommended Schedule
This degree program is offered in Victoria only.
This 48-hour graduate psychology program leads to a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology.
The program will prepare you to assess and to provide psychotherapy or counseling to people in need. It has a strong clinical component and meets the academic requirements for the Texas Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) credential. With this license, you can practice as a professional counselor in your own practice, for a mental health agency, a psychiatric hospital, a residential treatment center, or a university counseling center, among other sites.
As an LPC, your professional practice may involve assessment, intervention, and/or consultation.
Assessment
- Clinical interviewing
- Evaluation and classification of normal and maladaptive behavior
- Administration, scoring, and interpretation of standardized intelligence and personality tests
- Writing evaluations for a variety of clients
Intervention
- Help individuals solve life problems and create more fulfilling lives
- Provide individual, group, family and career counseling
- Provide crisis intervention and other support services
Consultation
- Consult with parents, educators, clergy, medical professionals, and others regarding client issues and welfare
- Coordinate services between treatment sites, clients, and the community
If your educational goal is to pursue a doctoral degree in Psychology, then the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology provides a valuable foundation toward that pursuit.
For more information about UHV's Counseling Psychology program, please contact Dr. Donald Loffredo, Program Director at LoffredoD@uhv.edu.
Admissions Requirements
Admission to the counseling psychology or school psychology program is based on an evaluation by the program's admission committee of the following
information.
- A 1-2 page essay that states the applicant's reasons for applying to the program and the applicant's career goals.
- One letter of recommendation from a non-UHV, non-family source.
Recommendation Form for Graduate Psychology Programs - Evidence of having completed undergraduate or graduate courses in statistics, research, and abnormal psychology. A particular course will be waived as a requirement if the student passes a comprehensive final or its equivalent for the designated course with a grade of C or better. The exam may be taken no more than once for a particular course.
Note other admission requirements are that the student must have satisfactorily completed the GRE and have an acceptable GPA for the last 60 credit hours. GRE scores and transcripts need to be sent directly from the original source to the Office of Admissions and Records.
Students are considered for admission to graduate programs on the basis of an admission index, as indicated below.
The admission index results from a combination of the following:
- Grade point average (GPA) over at least the last 60 hours multiplied by 200.
Verbal score plus quantitative score on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).
Admission index of 1,400 or higher: Students are admitted, so long as they meet any additional criteria specific to a particular degree program.
Admission index below the 1,400 minimum but not lower than 1,300: Students may be admitted by the dean of the school, considering scores on the analytic portion of the GRE (or equivalent), grades in particularly relevant courses, or other relevant indicators of a student's potential to succeed in a given graduate degree program. Such admission may be conditional or probationary with initial coursework specified.
Students with baccalaureate degrees who have not obtained formal admission to the graduate program may still take up to 12 semester hours of graduate psychology courses. They may apply for temporary graduate admission status. With the temporary admission status, they may enroll in any graduate psychology courses they have met the prerequisites for. Students with temporary admission status may not enroll in PSY 6334 (Theories and Issues in Psychotherapy) or PSY 6336 (Introduction to Assessment) since these courses have the prerequisite of formal admission to the psychology graduate program.