Mental Health Counseling
Your path to mental health counseling licensure
The Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) in Mental Health Counseling is designed to be a "bridge program" for individuals who have already earned a Master's degree in counseling, but who do not meet the required coursework and experience for mental health counseling licensure. This includes Master's degrees in school counseling, community-agency counseling, and college counseling/college student development, or older general counseling degrees.
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>The programs offered off-campus follow the exact same curricula as those on Alfred University's main campus. Instructors include regular Alfred University faculty and experienced adjunct faculty.
The CAS is an 18 graduate credit program consisting of four three-credit classroom-based courses and two three-credit internship courses spanning three semesters.
>Students are required to complete Foundations of Mental Health Counseling and Psychopathology, before starting their internships. The two remaining classroom-based courses may be completed during the internship.
Semester 1
- COUN 603 Foundations of Mental Health Counseling
- COUN 615 Psychopathology and Differential Diagnosis
Semester 2
- COUN 619 Program Development and Grantsmanship
- COUN 663 Internship in Mental Health Counseling I
Semester 3
- COUN 628 Assessment in Mental Health Counseling
- or COUN 641 Counseling Special Populations
- COUN 664 Internship in Mental Health Counseling II
Each applicant to the program must have a supervisor or another professional familiar with the applicant's work as a counselor complete the Certificate of Advanced Study in Mental Health Counseling Applicant Evaluation Form, available once the application process has begun.
Individuals seeking to obtain the LMHC are required to complete the following post-training requirements, whether they graduate from a certificate or a Master's program:
- 3,000 additional hours of supervised mental health counseling experience. This equates to approximately 2 years of full-time experience.
- Pass the Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC) examination administered by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC).
Financial aid is available through the Alfred University Office of Student Financial Aid. Students who follow the standard sequence meet the minimum 6 credits/semester requirement for financial aid. Aid is primarily in the form of subsidized loans.
The internship must consist of 600 clock hours of experience across 2 semesters, 240 of which must involve direct counseling activities with clients. Therefore, the breakdown by semester is 300 clock hours and 120 hours of direct client contact.
The supervisor must be a licensed mental health professional. This includes licensed mental health counselors (LMHC), licensed psychologists, licensed clinical social workers (LCSW), and licensed psychiatrists. It does not include school psychologists, school social workers, or LMSWs, all of whom are not appropriately licensed under the State Education Department supervision regulations.
The internship site must be an agency or other setting licensed by the appropriate state regulating entity (OMH, OASAS, etc) or a professional practice that is a PC, LLC, or LLPC.
Students are responsible for identifying potential internship sites. Sites must sign an internship agreement with Alfred University before a student is allowed to begin the internship.