Harold abel school of psychology

Harold Abel School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Counseling

Clinical counseling-related programs:

To be considered for admission into the Capella clinical counseling programs, you must submit all required application materials.

However, submitting your materials does not guarantee admission. Program faculty will evaluate your materials and make the final decision on your admission.

• Marriage and Family Counseling / Therapy

• Mental Health Counseling

• School Counseling

Admission Essay

Your essay must be 3-6 pages in length and address each of the areas outlined below. Please utilize the required template that begins on page 2 and address each of these five essay components under the provided headings.

Required Essay Components:

1. Rationale for seeking specialization in a clinical counseling-related program

This section must address:

• Your clear understanding of the clinical program area, with attention to licensure and the role of a licensed counselor.

• The clear link between the program you selected and your career goals.

Your substantive, carefully considered reasons for seeking a clinical graduate degree in counseling. (Beyond merely being a good listener or wanting to help others).

4. Self-awareness

This section must address:

• Life experiences that may have heightened your level of self-awareness, impacted your decision to apply to the program, and influenced your career goals.

• The characteristic ways in which you process life events and challenges, and how those ways have helped you develop strengths relevant to your chosen program area.

Your discussion of self-awareness should demonstrate emotional stability and readiness to undertake a graduate degree program in counseling.

2. Impact of previous employment, volunteer work, and other human service or counseling experiences

This section must address:

• Key experiences in your employment or volunteer work that influenced your decision to apply for the program.

• If you have no experience in human services, please identify specific ways you could gain related experience, such as volunteer work.

3. Culturally relevant interpersonal skills

This section must address:

• Your ability, based on life experience, to relate interpersonally to individuals from different cultural contexts (e.g. age,

5. Future professional goals in counseling

This section must address:

• Your specific career goals and the licensure requirements you will need to achieve them.

• Since licensure requirements vary from state to state, be specific about the requirements in the state where you intend to practice.

Your essay should reflect professional standards of clarity, tone, and grammar. Please include your name and the date you wrote the essay in the space provided on page two of the essay template. Please also include your email address and the clinical program to which you are applying.

disability, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, etc.) in both individual and small group settings.

•Your understanding of the importance of culturally relevant interpersonal skills in the role of a counselor, and at least 2 steps you plan to take to further the development of these skills.

Please either email or fax your completed essay to:

Attn: DMMS, Capella University

Capella Tower

225 South Sixth Street, Ninth Floor

Minneapolis, MN 55402

Fax: 612.977.5060 Toll‐free fax: 1.888.227.8492

Email: efaxdocmgmt@capella.edu or email your Enrollment Counselor directly.

Capella University Essay for Admission to the Clinical Counseling Programs

Insert First and Last Name Here

Insert E-mail Address Here

Insert Today’s Date Here

Insert Your Clinical Counseling Program Here

1. Rationale for seeking specialization in a clinical counseling-related program

This section must address:

· Your clear understanding of the clinical program area, with attention to licensure and the role of a licensed counselor.

· The clear link between the program you selected and your career goals.

· Your substantive, carefully considered reasons for seeking a clinical graduate degree in counseling (beyond merely being a good listener or wanting to help others).

· Support your ideas with relevant information from reliable sources, utilizing correct APA formatting.

Insert your answer to question number 1 here:

2. Impact of previous employment, volunteer work, and other human service or counseling experiences

This section must address:

· Key experiences in your employment or volunteer work that influenced your decision to apply for the program.

· If you have no experience in human services, please identify specific ways you could gain related experience, such as volunteer work.

Insert your answer to question number 2 here:

I have worked in the healthcare field in the past as a Mental Health Tech and a Counselor in Training at a substance abuse center. I want to learn more about Substance Abuse and Mental Health Counseling to help someone to prevent them from relapsing with their drug and alcohol problem as well as any other issues they may have. I have developed a passion to help people and I love what I do. I enrolled in college to fulfill a dream of becoming a counselor.

My ideas, observations, and experiences regarding substance abuse and treatment is that treatment centers serve a variety of clients, men and women, young and old, homeless and affluent individuals, from every racial and ethnic majority and minority group. They have a wide range of substance abuse profiles that can include many disorders, such as anxiety, depression, obsessive thoughts, withdrawal symptoms, and affective disorders, disturbances in social relationships, occupational, interpersonal difficulties, isolation, personal responsibilities, and mental problems.

Through my experience, I consider substance abuse a disease and learned behavior. Through research, addiction is a disease that affects both the brain and behavior. Many of the biological and environmental factors have been identified and they are beginning to search for the genetic variations that contribute to the development and progression of the disease.

As I graduate from this university, I will have benefited from the psychological skills and knowledge I acquire since I joined my first class. It has been a long journey with lots of challenges which have been crucial in strengthening these skills and making me a better person every day. And my cognitive abilities have been developed greatly in the continuous and mind challenging assignments we do every week.

3. Culturally relevant interpersonal skills

This section must address:

· Your ability, based on life experience, to relate interpersonally to individuals from different cultural contexts (e.g. age, disability, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, etc.) in both individual and small group settings.

· Your understanding of the importance of culturally relevant interpersonal skills in the role of a counselor, and at least 2 steps you plan to take to further the development of these skills.

· Support your ideas with relevant information from reliable sources, utilizing correct APA formatting.

Insert your answer to question number 3 here:

4. Self-awareness

This section must address:

· Life experiences that may have heightened your level of self-awareness, impacted your decision to apply to the program, and influenced your career goals.

· The characteristic ways in which you process life events and challenges, and how those ways have helped you develop strengths relevant to your chosen program area.

Your discussion of self-awareness should demonstrate emotional stability and readiness to undertake a graduate degree program in counseling.

Insert your answer to question number 4 here:

5. Future professional goals in counseling

This section must address:

· Your specific career goals and the licensure requirements you will need to achieve them.

· Since licensure requirements vary from state to state, be specific about the requirements in the state where you intend to practice.

· Support your ideas with relevant information from reliable sources, utilizing correct APA formatting.

Insert your answer to question number 5 here:

My future professional goal is to become an LPC and be an independent Mental Health Counselor. I have developed a passion for neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology. I want to be the most popular mental health counselor in the state of Louisiana. I want to be skilled, competent and empathic with every patient that I meet. I would like to be knowledgeable and take that knowledge with me into practice into the following disorders: dual diagnosis, substance abuse and mainly neuropsychology. I want to remain teachable and humble. There is additional information coming out that will benefit clients on what would be the most effective treatment for a certain disorder.

Louisiana has unique licensing requirements for professional counselors. By fulfilling basic requirements for education, examination, and supervised experience, you can be credentialed as a Licensed Professional Counselor by the Louisiana Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners. For your program to be considered a “counseling degree”, it must meet at least one of the following requirements: It's CACREP accredited, it includes the words counselor or counseling in the title, it's in a field that's closely related, or it includes the content outlined below. Programs in counseling psychology or vocational rehabilitation are acceptable. If your counseling degree does not include all required components, you may complete additional units beyond your master's.

You must have at least 48 semester hours in counseling. Your course of study must

include a 100-hour practicum and a 300-hour internship, as well as coursework in the following

eight areas:

· Human growth and development

· Counseling/theories of personality

· Abnormal behavior

· Counseling techniques

· Group dynamics, processes, and counseling

· Individual appraisal

· Career and lifestyle development

· Ethics

Your practicum must include at least 40 hours of direct client service. It must also include, on a

weekly basis, at least one hour of individual supervision and at least an hour and a half of group

supervision. Your internship must include at least 120 hours of direct counseling service.

Supervision requirements are similar to that of` the practicum: an hour of individual supervision

each week, an hour and a half of group. You will find a dozen schools listed on the site of the

Louisiana Counseling Association.

You must practice under supervision before becoming licensed at the professional level.

In most cases, you’ll be required to work for a total of 3,000 hours. This supervised practice must

include at least 1,900 hours of direct client contact and at least 100 hours of face to face

supervision. At least 50 of these must be individual supervision; the remaining can take place in

a group of up to ten. Up to 1,000 hours may be spent in broader tasks related to professional

counseling (like case notes, staffing, or assessment).

Post-master’s coursework may lessen your supervised practice requirement. If you have

30 semester hours of counseling education beyond the master's level, you may substitute

that for 500 hours of supervised practice. Semester hours that you earned doing

practicum, internship, or supervised experience may not count toward the 30 semester

hours, however. And no matter how much education you have, you’ll need to put in at

least 2,000 hours of supervised experience before you’re licensed.

Your supervision must take place over a period of two to seven years. You will need a

clinical supervisor. This is different from an administrative supervisor. The clinical supervisor

has the responsibility for mentoring you as well as documenting that you meet

board standards; often she is not the person who is making administrative or staffing

decisions. Supervisors are Licensed Professional Counselors with at least five years’

experience (at least two post-licensure). They must meet board-specified standards,

which include taking a graduate course or board-approved training program in supervision.

You must submit a written proposal of supervision to the board sixty days

Before commencing. You will get a letter that either approves the supervision arrangement or

rejects it and explains what the problems are. At the end of your supervised practice, your

supervisor will verify your hours, evaluate you, and make a recommendation. However, before

you can become a Licensed Professional Counselor in Louisiana, you’ll need to take the

National Counselor Examination.

https://www.counselor-license.com/states/louisiana-counselor-license.html#context/api/listings/prefilter