Rehabilitation Counseling, MS
Announcements
- You may only apply for a CAGS (Certificate in Advanced Graduate Studies) only if 1.) you've a master's degree or will complete one before enrolling at UMass Boston 2.) if your master's degree is in a related field. Please email csp.admissions@umb.edu if you are not sure which level you should apply to. Please note that Mental Health Counseling does not offer CAGS.
It is the mission of the Counseling Program to train individuals in the theory and practice of the profession of counseling such that they become thoughtful and responsive practitioners. The profession of counseling is grounded in the view that counselors facilitate and maximize the development and potential of all persons. Counseling is concerned with the development of appropriate repertoires of adaptive behavior within the environmental context in which the person resides. The counselor respects the ethnic background and diversity of each individual and attempts to promote development congruent with the person's beliefs, values, and personal background.
The University of Massachusetts Boston Counseling Program prepares its graduates to be professional practitioners in a variety of community settings and institutions: hospitals, schools, rehabilitation agencies, career planning centers, employee assistance programs, clinics, residential treatment facilities, and other mental health agencies.
The Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) fully accredited Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Massachusetts Boston is committed to preparing highly qualified counselors who help individuals with physical, intellectual, and psychiatric disabilities achieve gainful employment or independent living and fully develop their potential. The unemployment rate over the past 20 years for those with disabilities is consistently over 60 percent. One fifth of Americans has some type of disability and one in ten has a severe disability. The need for rehabilitation counselors is clear with over twenty million Americans with severe disabilities. The Rehabilitation Counseling curriculum is organized to identify the potential and to facilitate the development of its students and the individuals with disabilities with whom they work. The emphasis is on developing empathy and respect for the social foundations and cultural diversity of all persons by fostering each individual's self awareness, respect, and esteem, and through its hiring policies of faculty and recognition of multicultural students. Students are provided opportunities to recognize, develop, and promote their own resources as a means of adapting effectively to their own environment and life conditions, which, in turn, as tools they may share with the individuals with disabilities with whom they work. The curriculum attaches particular importance to the role of adaptation in a person's life. Students are prepared to make significant practitioner-oriented contributions to rehabilitation counseling and prepare them for further study at the doctoral level if they so desire.
*RSA Training Scholarships*
Training scholarships are now available to eligible graduate students of the University of Massachusetts Boston Rehabilitation Counseling program. These scholarships are made available from a Long-Term Training grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). Please contact program director, Dr. Sheila Fesko (sheila.fesko@umb.edu), for information and scholarship application materials.
Program Outcomes Information
The University of Massachusetts-Boston (UMB) offers a campus-based and an online Rehabilitation Counseling Masters of Science program, both fully accredited by the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) through 2014 (www.core-rehab.org)
The online program admits students to begin each summer semester and the campus-based program admits students each fall semester with a goal of admitting 8-10 students annually for the graduate cohort. There are currently 24 students enrolled in the graduate program. The grade point average of the current students in the program is 3.8/4.0.
Across academic years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, a total of 13 students graduated from the program. Of these students, 100% passed their clinical coursework and capstone projects. As graduates, 100% are now employed in the rehabilitation field. Nine of the thirteen graduates elected to take the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) exam and 100% passed (www.crccertification.com).
Click here to find out more about what Rehabilitation Counselors do, including job outlook.
Program Director: Sheila Fesko sheila.fesko@umb.edu
For more information, contact Sheila at 617-287-4365 or for applicantion questions please email Dan at csp.admissions@umb.edu.
