Master of Arts Degree in Counseling Psychology (California)

A study of the essential principles and theories of psychology. Topics include social, developmental, and cognitive psychology.

A study of the essential principles and theories in psychology. Topics include an overview of biological psychology, personality theory, and abnormal psychology.

Prerequisite: Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology , or PSY 501A and PSY 501B

This course examines the theories of development as applied to the clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. Areas considered include diversity, gender, and multicultural issues as well as identifying normative developmental transitions and their differentiation from deviant developmental patterns. This course also focuses on developing foundational knowledge of human sexuality at a professional level.

Prerequisite: PSY 501A; PSY 501B

An exploration of the role of culture, social justice, and systemic privilege and oppression in concepts of mental health practice. Students will examine how their own cultural background frames their understanding of themselves and others. Social and economic disadvantage, structural inequality, white fragility, and the limitations of the dominant Eurocentric psychological world view to diverse populations are explored.

Prerequisite: Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, or PSY 501A and PSY 501B

This course explores community mental health theories and practices in the US and internationally from the theoretical perspectives of community psychology and social justice. Topics include the history of institutionalization and community mental health movements; navigating the complex public health and social services systems; working with dual diagnosed clients, useful therapeutic models and effective practices; principles of recovery; strength-based assessment and resilience; and fundamentals of case management.

This is the first of a two-course sequence. In this course students learn what makes an effective psychotherapist and what therapeutic skills that lead to positive client outcomes. The clinician’s ability to establish and maintain a trusting, supportive relationship with clients, and bring presence to the therapeutic encounter, is essential to all current therapeutic approaches. Students learn how to create and maintain the therapeutic frame and understand how the structure of a therapeutic relationship differs from other types of relationships. Students also learn the basics of crisis intervention, including assessing and addressing suicide risk. Students learn to practice counseling psychology with cultural humility, curiosity, an awareness of one’s own biases, cultural influences, and social location. Finally, students learn about barriers to mental health services experienced by non-dominant groups in American society.

Prerequisite: PSY 644A

This is the second of a two-course sequence. In this course, students continue to learn what makes an effective psychotherapist by studying the work of several master psychotherapists. Students expand their knowledge of how to create and maintain a strong therapeutic alliance, understanding the therapy relationship as a microcosm of the client’s life, using compassionate and effective feedback to address dilemmas and obstacles to therapeutic progress. Students become more familiar with interpersonal, psychodynamic, solution focused, attachment-based, cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness approaches to conducting therapy, understanding when to apply a short-term or long-term approach. The course includes a brief introduction to the contributions of modern neuroscience to the field of psychotherapy. As with all of our courses, a multi-cultural and social justice orientation will increase knowledge of the social structure of our society and experiences of marginalized and oppressed cultural groups.

This course discusses clinical assessment from the bio-psycho-social-spiritual, resiliency, recovery and medical models. Interviewing skills and the use of assessment instruments are covered. Assessment, diagnosis, and treatment approaches for anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders.

Prerequisite: PSY 612A

This course covers the assessment and diagnosis for Gender Dysphoria and Anxiety, Psychotic, Personality, and Dissociative Disorders in the DSM and other assessment systems. Students will practice assessment skills and development of treatment plans during the course. Outcomes assessment and case conceptualization processes will be discussed.

Examines assessment techniques, perspectives, and strategies essential to the treatment of children and adolescents. It also includes the therapeutic relationship, assessment and diagnosis, evidence-based treatment, family systems perspective, and legal/ethical concerns related to working with children and adolescents. Public settings and treatment based on cultural awareness as well as the recovery/resiliency model are covered.

This course provides a comprehensive look at the theories, techniques, and critical issues involved in treating couples. It will provide a focus on major approaches to the treatment of couples, including resilience and recovery models. The course also focuses on identifying and treating sexual problems and unhealthy sexual relationships. Students will have an opportunity to practice counseling sessions with couples in a role-play format.

This course provides a comprehensive review of the theories, strategies, techniques, and critical issues involved in clinical work with families. This course will discuss various treatment approaches including an emphasis on evidence-based, recovery, and resilience-based approaches. Students will have the opportunity to role play family sessions.

This course examines the laws and professional codes of ethics pertaining to the practice of counseling and psychotherapy. How legal and ethical issues impact the profession of counseling with an emphasis on current California law is discussed.

Prerequisite: PSY 644A; PSY 644B

This course focuses on how to integrate existing clinical skills into the pragmatics of clinical practice. Additionally, the course provides an introduction to crisis assessment, treatment planning, and intervention. This includes how to develop a case conceptualization, identify specific goals, and connect them to appropriate and effective interventions. This will be done through the integrated model of psychotherapy, where a variety of therapeutic models and interventions are utilized in the development of a treatment plan. Students will gain practical experience with both process and content issues through in-class role playing and demonstrations and receive both instructor and peer feedback. Grading is H, S or U only.

Prerequisite: PSY 644C with a minimum grade of S. Student must pass the prerequisite.

First of five practicum courses where students work as MFT or PCC trainees. Students will participate in an academic seminar for two months online. Students in either the MFT only track or the MFT/PCC track should complete approximately 30 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course. Students will demonstrate their ability to assess, diagnose, and formulate an initial treatment plan for clients with acute suicidal ideation, as well as their understanding of clinical issues related to the practice of telehealth. Students will assess clinical diagnoses from the current DSM, strength-based and recovery model perspectives. Students will identify their own likely symptoms related to burnout and the life practices that will assist in reducing such symptoms.

A comprehensive study of the major approaches, techniques and interventions used in group psychotherapy. Also emphasizes dynamics of group process including the types, stages and formation of groups.

Prerequisite: PSY 681A with a minimum grade of S. Student must pass to move forward in sequence.

Second of five practicum courses where students work as MFT or PCC trainees. Students will participate in an academic seminar for two months online. Students in either the MFT only track or the MFT/PCC track should complete approximately 30 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course. Students in the MFT only track should complete a minimum of 60 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course. Students in the MFT/PCC track should complete a minimum of 70 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course. Students will demonstrate their ability to perform an initial assessment and diagnosis of clients at their site as well as the ability to design an effective treatment plan based on that assessment. Students will assess clinical diagnoses from the current DSM, strength-based, and recovery model perspectives.

This course is a survey of holistic approaches to counseling psychology. Theories and practices of transpersonal, somatic, expressive arts, and holistic psychology will be examined. The course will focus on experiential examination of each theory and how it may be clinically applied with different therapeutic issues and across different client identities. Ethical considerations for use of Holistic Counseling will also be examined.

This course covers the theories, etiology, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of addictive and compulsive disorders from the resiliency, recovery, and medical models. This course also addresses the impact of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, other environmental factors and contemporary controversies on the development and treatment of addictive disorders.

Prerequisite: PSY 681B with a minimum grade of S. Student must pass to move forward in sequence.

Third of five field practicum courses where students work as MFT or PCC trainees. Students will participate in an academic seminar for two months online. The presentations of the Signature Assignment will begin in this course. Selected students will present a clinical case from their community site with a video of a live client session (unless the site will not allow videotaping in which case an alternative video assignment will be shown). Students will receive feedback about their clinical skills as demonstrated in the video from their peers and the professor. Students will assess clinical diagnoses from the current DSM, strength-based, and recovery model perspectives. Students in the MFT only track should complete a minimum of 60 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course. Students in the MFT/PCC track should complete a minimum of 70 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course.

This course concentrates on the basics of trauma theory, trauma responses and treatment of traumatic symptomatology so that students can develop the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively treat survivors. The course will review the assessment process, including frequently used standardized measures, and various intervention approaches utilized with this population. Included in the course are maps, models and the development of skills with a focus on the Nervous System as a guiding approach. Students will learn to help clients resource, stabilize, process, metabolize and integrate personal and historical experiences of trauma, as well as ongoing challenges with activation.

This course will look at the traumatic impact of institutionalized racism, bias and marginalization as well as the isolative effects of acute trauma on the client and how these systemic issues can be worked with in a therapeutic session. Issues of diversity, privilege and human potential will be explored. The course will also explore trauma of war including moral injury as well as an exploration of the effects on refugees and displaced individuals. Relational violence and its traumatic effects will also be an area of focus.

Prerequisite: PSY 681C with a minimum grade of S. Student must pass to move forward in sequence.

Fourth of five field practicum courses where students work as MFT or PCC trainees. Students will participate in an academic seminar for two months online. The presentations of the Signature Assignment occur in this course. Selected students will present a clinical case from their community site with a video of a live client session (unless the site will not allow videotaping in which case an alternative video assignment will be shown). Students will receive feedback about their clinical skills as demonstrated in the video from their peers and the professor. Students will assess clinical diagnoses from the current DSM, strength-based, and recovery model perspectives. Students will demonstrate their ability to identify and integrate legal and ethical issues into their work with clients. Students in the MFT only track should complete a minimum of 60 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course. Students in the MFT/PCC track should complete a minimum of 70 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course.

Psychopharmacology is the study of how medications and other drugs affect the human mind and body. This course has two major areas of focus. The first area of focus is on the principles of neuroscience and the brain mechanisms that are responsible for behavior. In order to understand how psychiatric medications work, one must first understand how the brain works, especially the neurons of the brain. The latest understanding of how psychotherapy changes brain functioning is also discussed. The second major area of focus is an exploration of the major therapeutic drugs for depression, psychosis and anxiety, etc. Metabolism of the medications and their action on neurotransmitter systems are important parts of the knowledge base. Emphasis is on choice of medication, mode of action and side effects.

Prerequisite: PSY 681D with a minimum grade of S. Student must pass to move forward in sequence.

Fifth of five field practicum courses where students work as MFT or PCC trainees. Students will participate in an academic seminar for two months online. The presentations of the Signature Assignment occur in this course. Selected students will present a clinical case from their community site with a video of a live client session (unless the site will not allow videotaping in which case an alternative video assignment will be shown). Students will receive feedback about their clinical skills as demonstrated in the video from their peers and the professor. Students will assess clinical diagnoses from the current DSM, strength-based, and recovery-model perspectives. Student will demonstrate their ability to identify and integrate legal and ethical issues into their work with clients. Students in the MFT only track should complete a minimum of 60 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course. Students in the MFT/PCC track should complete a minimum of 70 hours of face-to-face work with clients at an approved clinical site during the two months of this course.

The Research Methods and Evaluation course provides a brief introduction to various forms of research methods: quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, art-based, and community-based participatory research. We will explore these paradigms as they apply to social science research, and students will apply these methodologies to a research question of their choosing. Scientific problem-solving will be emphasized to include observational techniques and measurement tools, coding, analytic strategies, and reporting of research – as well an in the use of program evaluation. This course emphasizes the embodied research and the ability of students to navigate published literature in the field of mental health.

Acquaints students with the standard career interest measures used in clinical practice, including the psychometric principles of the measures. Emphasizes integrating conceptual, ethical, and practical information drawn from client background and assessment reports.

This course provides an opportunity for students to learn and evaluate several key career development theories and practice how to integrate and apply aspects of theories to their counseling work with diverse client populations. Students will understand the importance of theory in career development and life planning, learn the historical and philosophical perspective of career development, recognize current challenges in existing theories, explore emerging issues and trends, and appreciate the complexity of career choice, decision-making, and satisfaction of clients.

Early practicum course providing program support for students beginning supervised clinical experience before PSY 680A. Faculty permission required for enrollment.

Practicum course for students who have not completed their required hours of experience at the conclusion of PSY 680B. This course is repeatable for credit until the student has completed their hours.