Counselors must have a critical body of knowledge and set of skills in order to help clients function effectively in their lives. To achieve this goal, the program offers a curriculum which includes the following core components:

• human growth and development
• social and cultural foundations
• the nature of helping relationships
• group theory and group process
• career and lifestyle development
• appraisal, research and program evaluation
• ethics, standards, and credentialing; and professional issues.

In addition, course work specific to the various emphasis areas is required. Finally, a variety of field placement activities (e.g., practicum, internship) are required to ensure that students are able to apply the skills and knowledge they have learned. The Counseling Program is also designed to make sure that the counseling student possesses the personal characteristics necessary to be an effective helper. This is accomplished through a multifaceted admissions process, the use of experiential learning approaches, and through the application of an ongoing screening of students' personal characteristics. Specifically, the objectives of the program are:

Goals

• To produce counselors with the personal qualities, interpersonal skills and awareness, and the ethical sensitivity predictive of success in a broad array of social, economic, and political contexts.
• To produce counselors competent to access a broad range of theoretical and practical approaches with sufficient depth to be effective, flexible practitioners.
• To produce counselors who have an understanding of group development, dynamics, differing theoretical approaches to group work, group leadership skills and strategies.
• To produce counselors competent in the comprehension and application of concepts, models and techniques to professional practice.