Oswego State’s mental health counseling program received national accreditation opening new options for graduate students seeking a license to have a career in the field.
In the fall of 2016, the mental health counseling program within the Counseling and Psychological Services Department met all 156 standards set on a national level by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs.
The master’s program on campus at Oswego State and in the Metro Center location in Syracuse is a 60-hour program designed to prepare human service providers to deal with problems and general concerns of human service agency clients and employees, according to the counseling and psychological services webpage.
“The program has been amazing,” said Allison Meyers, a graduate student in the program. “They focus mainly on not just the academic part, but the person as a whole, what they are capable of and finding out who you are as you continue on through the program.”
Students take a combination of theory based classes, internships and practicums. The program has a strong student focus and incorporates a large amount of experience-based learning with field placements to ensure students get training for counseling skills in a real life setting. Possible routes a graduate of the program can take include play therapy, alcohol and substance abuse counseling and general mental health counseling.
“I was afraid to do it because of taking the GRE, but the coordinators of the program are so amazing and look at a person for their whole self instead of looking at just grades, so just to hear that from my advisor was a weight lifted,” Meyers said.
Michael LeBlanc, department chair for counseling and psychological services, said the program is student focused.
“The faculty is very responsive and they interact with students, I believe, more than most other programs,” LeBlanc said.
The mental health counseling program decided to apply for CACREP accreditation a few years ago and spent that time writing a self-study explaining the program and that it could meet all 156 national standards. Representatives from CACREP visited Oswego State last fall to determine the outcome of the program’s application.
“The big reason that we did it is that some insurance companies only reimburse counselors who graduated from CACREP accredited programs,” LeBlanc said. “They came for three days and looked through our program, interviewed people and went through our records and gave us accreditation.”
Since the program has been nationally accredited by CACREP, graduates of the program are able to obtain their mental health counseling license in any state with more ease than before the program was accredited.
For graduates in a mental health counseling program without national accreditation, it is necessary for them to take extra classes and time to achieve their licenses, especially if they decide to move to another state.
“My goal is to be a play therapist, and in order to do that, I have to have a license in mental health counseling, so that’s why I did it at first, but since I’ve started the program, it’s been a blessing in disguise,” Meyers said.
