Department of Counseling and School Psychology
The Department of Counseling and School Psychology prepares individuals to enter professional roles as mental health counselors, school counselors, school adjustment counselors, and counseling and school psychologists. The content and experiences within our programs are systematically designed to build on the mission of the college and university. We prepare highly qualified, thoughtful, and responsive professionals educated to serve a diverse urban population as mental health counselors, school adjustment counselors, school counselors, and counseling and school psychologists. The department offers three programs at the master’s and/or specialist’s level (mental health, school counseling, and school psychology) and a PhD with a concentration in counseling or school psychology.
We are committed to the following goals for our students. Through training and experience:
- Our students will become knowledgeable and skilled practitioners;
- Our students will become caring, principled, and respectful professionals;
- Our students will become committed agents of change for social justice;
- Our students will become committed reflective and critical thinkers.
Why Counseling and School Psychology
The faculty of UMass Boston's Counseling and School Psychology Department are world-renowned psychologists and counselor educators, who impact national and global policy on mental health, schools, and activism … and who love to teach!
We train clinicians, counselors, and leaders from a unique social justice perspective that emphasizes work to fight oppression, combats stigma surrounding mental health concerns, and addresses institutional barriers to healthy human development in diverse populations.
How We Teach
Our training is both academic and applied. We teach skills, but all of our programs prepare students to conceptualize the whole person in socio-cultural-developmental, family, and multicultural contexts. Students receive a strong foundation in traditional theories and practice while learning to consider their limitations and use new knowledge and counseling skills to enhance the empowerment and strengths of those they serve.
What We Focus On
We are both competency-based and evidence-based, with an eye toward original and creative responses to how and why competencies are important for whom, and what evidence is necessary to work toward each goal. Student learning prioritizes a social justice perspective and a focus on diverse populations from childhood through adulthood, in schools, communities, mental health and counseling centers, agencies, and hospitals. Our graduates succeed in obtaining the careers they desire, whether in an agency, school or at a university, and in changing the world for the people they serve.
Department of Counseling and School Psychology