Master in Counseling (Non-Thesis Program)

Master in Counseling

(Non-Thesis Program, NTMACLG)

The Master in Counseling Program (non-thesis) is designed for practitioners of counseling in various settings or for those who wish to get into the practice but are without the professional training for it. It offers specializations in school and community counseling.

PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES (PLOs)

Graduates of Master in Counseling (Non-thesis program) are expected to possess the following Lasallian attributes, namely:

LO1: Critical and Creative Thinker

Demonstrates knowledge of the philosophies, theories, practices, techniques, and tools for individual and group counseling. (Areas: Counseling Intervention; Career Counseling and Development)
Articulate a philosophical/theoretical framework for counseling. (Areas: Counseling Intervention; Career Counseling and Development)
Develop assessment/appraisal instruments relevant to guidance and counseling interventions. (Area: Psychological assessment)
Demonstrate knowledge and skills relevant to the selection, administration, and interpretation of psychological assessment data. (Area: Psychological Assessment)
Demonstrate knowledge of the different psychological assessment tools and techniques necessary to enhance client career decision-making and lifestyle planning. (Area: Career Counseling and Development)
Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the theories, principles, and models of organizing, administering, and managing guidance and counseling programs. (Area: Organization, Administration, and Management of Guidance Programs)
Demonstrate knowledge of and application of the theories, models, and skills in program development, implementation, and evaluation relevant to guidance and counseling programs. (Area: Group Process and Program Development)
Demonstrate knowledge of relevant career trends, occupational outlook, and career development information. (Career Counseling and Development)
Access scientific knowledge bases continuously and apply those appropriately. (Area: Scientific Foundation and Research)

LO2: Effective Communicator

Demonstrate knowledge and skills in the proper writing and communication of counseling- and assessment-related reports. (Areas: Psychological Assessment; Counseling Interventions; Career Counseling and Development)
Demonstrate knowledge and skills in the proper writing and communication of guidance and counseling programs. (Areas: Organization, Administration, and Management of Guidance Programs; Group Process and Program Development)
Contribute to knowledge, broadly defined (e.g., publication/presentation, dissemination of information about practice to researchers, contributing to a practice database, participating in peer supervision, contributing to communities and psychoeducational settings; (Area: Scientific Foundation and Research).

LO3: Reflective Lifelong Learner

Assess the effectiveness of one’s own counseling intervention. (Area: Counseling Intervention)
Critically evaluate the appropriateness of psychological assessment tools to local context and client characteristics. (Area: Psychological assessment)
Promote multicultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, and appreciation of cultural diversity. (Area: Organization, Administration, and Management of Guidance Programs)
Critically evaluate the appropriateness of the different approaches to group process, program development, and career counseling and development. (Area: Group Process and Program Development; Career Counseling and Development)
Demonstrate the ability to be culturally sensitive in interpersonal and group skills and interventions that facilitate counseling effectiveness and client outcomes. (Areas: Counseling Intervention; Group process and Program Development)
Critically evaluate one’s own interventions and outcomes. (Area: Scientific Foundation and Research)
Show appreciation for science as a dynamic and continuous process by continually updating and evaluating one’s knowledge and skills. (Area: Scientific Foundation and Research)

LO4: Service-Driven Citizen

Demonstrate facilitating and counseling skills relevant to and appropriate for individual and group counseling. (Area: Counseling Intervention)
Establish effective counselor-client relationships that facilitate client change and well-being. (Area: Counseling Intervention)
Demonstrate ability to design, implement, and evaluate need-based, developmental, and structured guidance and counseling programs, that provide preventive, remedial, and crisis interventions for clients across settings and developmental phases. (Area: Organization, Administration, and Management of Guidance Programs)
Demonstrate knowledge of and skills relevant for effective management of program resources and components, as well as, personnel supervision and evaluation. (Area: Organization, Administration, and Management of Guidance Programs)
Systematically deliver group interventions using contemporary theories of group process, functioning, and counseling. (Area: Group Process and Program Development)
Utilize appropriate assessment and evaluation tools to define client needs, identify program content, and measure program effectiveness. (Area: Group Process and Program Development)
Demonstrate facilitating and counseling skills relevant to and appropriate for individual and group interventions in career counseling and development. (Area: Career Counseling and Development)
Demonstrate culturally sensitive interpersonal and group skills that facilitate counseling effectiveness and career development outcomes. (Area: Career Counseling and Development)
Demonstrate knowledge in developing interventions for either community or school setting (Area: Counseling Intervention)

LO5: Innovator and Constant Seeker of Improvement

Formulate appropriate modifications for counseling interventions. (Area: Counseling Intervention)
Provide empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of guidance and counseling programs. (Area: Organization, Administration, and Management of Guidance Programs)
Demonstrate knowledge and skills in organizing, analyzing, and utilizing assessment data for evaluating and improving programs and group-based interventions. (Area: Group Process and Program Development)
Demonstrate knowledge of and apply scientific concepts that influence practice, including the internal and external validity inherent in cultural/social diversity. (Area: Scientific Foundation and Research)
Subject one’s work to the scientific scrutiny of colleagues, stakeholders, and the public. (Area: Scientific Foundation and Research)

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

A Bachelor’s degree with 15 units of required subjects in psychology (i.e., 3 units each of general psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology, theories of personality, and abnormal psychology);
A college grade-point average equivalent to 2.5 or 85%;
Passing the admissions test administered by the ITEO;
An interview with the department chairperson;
For non-English speaking applicants, enrollment in an English language course at the Center for English Language Learning (CELL) prior the first trimester of the program.

An additional six (6) units of Advanced Technical Reading and Writing 1&2 will be required for applicants with a low score in the essay part of the entrance examination.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Core/Foundation Courses	6 units
Major Courses	15 units
Cognates	6 units
Elective Courses (to be offered upon request)	0 units
Practicum	3 units
Written Comprehensive Examination	0 units
Oral Comprehensive Examination (Capstone Project)	0 units
Total	30 units

Written Comprehensive Examination

The WCE is the final check on the student’s competency in both pedagogy and his/her major field. Hence, the student takes the WCE in two tranches: the first part is on pedagogical knowledge and the second part is on the content knowledge.

Oral Comprehensive Examination (capstone project evaluation)

The student presents and defends his/her research work to a panel. The research, or the capstone project for the program, is done during enrollment in the Graduate Seminar course. A manuscript of the completed work must be submitted to the panel members prior to defense.

PROGRAM CURRICULUM

CORE COURSES (6 units)

CPS545M Foundations of Guidance and Counseling (3 units)
This course provides an overview of the concepts, principles and practices of guidance and counseling. It provides a study of the rationale for the elements of the guidance and counseling processes in both school and community setting.

CPS675M Human Development and Multicultural Awareness (3 units)
This course highlights the intricate relationship between culture and human development. It provides an overview of the developmental stages of men and women from early childhood to late adulthood. The aim of the course is to increase the awareness and appreciation of students on the important contribution of cultural factors in directing the course of human development.

MAJOR COURSES (10 units)

CLG550M Theories and Techniques in Counseling (3 units)
This course is a discussion of the meaning and dynamics of the counseling process, covering general principles as well as various selected theories. It is also designed to familiarize the student, through laboratory training, with the use of basic and advance counseling skills and techniques, applied with multicultural and ethical sensitivity.

CPS560M Assessment Tools with Laboratory Training (4 units)
This course provides students with an overview of different assessment tools, including standardized tests and alternate and authentic techniques, which are used for counseling. It equips prospective test-users with skills to select, administer, score, interpret and evaluate these measures.

CPS595M Development and Management of Counseling Services (3 units)
This course covers two areas of counselor competency: program development and the management of guidance and counseling services. The course provides students with opportunities to learn and apply the principle of planning, designing, implementing and evaluating psychoeducational programs. The course also focuses on the (1) organization and management of guidance and counseling services in the elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels; (2) responsiveness of the programs to contemporary social issues and client needs, and (3) the expanding roles of counselors in the school and community settings.

CLG593M Group Process (3 units)
The course deals with the theoretical and experiential understanding of group, purpose, development, dynamics and group counseling methods and skills and other group approaches. Students will be exposed to various group activities/exercises to learn how to become effective members and facilitators of groups in different settings.

CLG601M Career Counseling and Development (3 units)
This course allows the students to examine the different career development theories and their use in understanding the individual’s personal and career needs across work settings.

COGNATE COURSES (6 units)

for School Counseling

CLG695M Current Trends in School Counseling (3 units)
The course discusses the current trends and contemporary issues in school counseling.

CLG543M Consultation with Individuals and Groups (3 units)

This course trains counseling students on basic skills in consultation with individuals and groups in schools, industry and the community. This shall be done through exploration of the theoretical concepts in consultation, experiential learning, and actual field practice.

for Community Counseling

CPS600M Counseling Special Populations (3 units)
This course covers the counseling approaches and interventions that could be utilized when working with individuals and groups from traditionally underserved populations. In counseling, such populations have traditionally included minorities, the elderly, the poor, homosexuals, and other groups that have encountered barriers in obtaining appropriate treatment. Students will be given an opportunity to survey recent literature on how counseling has been used in serving special populations.

CPS621M Trauma Counseling (3 units)
This course examines the history, scope, and impact of human trauma, how human beings adapt to traumatic experience in different contexts. The course also explores treatment, intervention, adaptation, resiliency, and recovery as applied in varied community, school, and other counseling settings.

ELECTIVE COURSES (to be offered upon request)

for School Counseling

CPS612M Marital & Family Counseling (3 units)
This masteral subject is an introduction to selected theories and approaches to couple and family counseling. Multicultural contexts, especially Filipino socio-cultural value systems, will be considered.

CPS662M Creative Therapy (3 units)
This course deals with theories and concepts of various creative therapies and their applications in particular settings.

CPS670M Studies on Philippine Culture and Personality (3 units)
A course which examines the role of Philippine social institutions and Filipino personality in counseling.

for Community Counseling

CPS662M Creative Therapy (3 units)
This course deals with theories and concepts of various creative therapies and their applications in particular settings.

CLG695M Current Trends in School Counseling (3 units)

CPS670M Studies on Philippine Culture and Personality (3 units)
A course which examines the role of Philippine social institutions and Filipino personality in counseling.

PRACTICUM (3 units)

CLG925M Practicum (3 units)
A course designed for actual field experience and practice, closely guided and supervised on the following areas: application of assessment tools, counseling techniques and skills in different settings/practicum sites, and other pertinent counselor functions/services.

Align practicum placement with specialization

COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATIONS (0 units)

NTMC-CW Written Comprehensive Examination

NTMC-OCE Oral Comprehensive Examination (capstone project evaluation)

PREREQUISITE COURSES

CLG200M Psychological Foundations 1 (3 units)
(Personality, Abnormal Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Social Psychology)

This three-unit course is designed to provide students with a brief overview on the psychological foundation courses that includes Personality, Abnormal Psychology, Development Psychology and Social Psychology. Personality emphasizes on the application of their contributions to understanding normal behavior and personality in contrast to psychopathology. Abnormal Psychology covers various theoretical perspectives on maladaptive behavior and the major diagnostic and treatment issues for a variety of categories of abnormal behavior according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Human development focuses on current research and theory on the biological, linguistic, social and emotional dimensions of development and the factors that affect the progress of development. Social psychology with emphasizes on how individuals form social cognition

CLG500M Statistics (3 units)
This course focuses on the fundamental principles and techniques of descriptive and inferential statistics as applied in counseling and education. The definition, data requirements and interpretation of statistical analysis are covered in the course. Each statistical analysis is performed through the process of hypothesis testing. Part of the course is training the students in performing statistical analyses using statistical software. Possible research problems in the different fields of counseling psychology and education are posed and data are gathered and analyzed statistically. The statistical analyses in the course are useful as a tool in conducting research.

ENG501M Advanced Technical Reading and Writing 1 (3 units)
The first part of an intensive English academic reading and writing course focuses on the review of basic reading and writing skills and their application in the preparation of short academic papers such as definitions and descriptions, and non-prose forms. It emphasizes the mastery of active reading strategies, the effective use of rhetorical and organizational features of academic writing and proper documentation.

ENG502M Advanced Technical Reading and Writing 2 (3 units )
The second part of an intensive English academic reading and writing course, focuses on the writing of data commentary and the various parts of a research report, with emphasis on the different rhetorical moves and the linguistic features that realize these moves. The course continues to emphasize the observance of integrity in writing and research.