Central Connecticut State University  

The Clinical Professional Counseling program is a 60/63 credit graduate program designed to prepare students for work in a variety of rehabilitation, mental health, addictions, and community agencies assisting individuals with emotional, mental, social and physical challenges and disabilities. Employment opportunities exist in numerous settings including human service agencies, community mental health centers, community rehabilitation programs, alcohol and drug treatment clinics, state-federal Vocational Rehabilitation agencies, private rehabilitation companies, rehabilitation hospitals, hospitals for individuals with a wide range of mental and emotional disabilities, insurance companies, and correctional institutions. Students are taught theories and techniques of practice in individual and group counseling modalities. They also learn about the special problems and concerns of people with a wide variety of physical and mental challenges and disabilities and other socially stigmatizing conditions. The philosophy of the program is that a student must integrate theories and techniques as tools for enhancing one’s effectiveness as an agent of intervention and change.

The philosophy of the program has a mindfulness-based theoretical orientation. The program emphasizes theories that promote recovery, resiliency, and rehabilitation. Students learn to integrate a mindfulness orientation with theories and techniques that enhance one’s effectiveness in facilitation of development and change. Through the process of study and practice, the student has an opportunity to incorporate a wide array of learning gradually and comprehensively. The end product of such training is a Professional Counselor who is well-grounded in theory, and who has had the nurturing through an on-going training and supervisory process to use him- or herself effectively, professionally, and ethically as an agent of change at a variety of levels. The Clinical Professional Counseling program provides the academic background necessary for students to pursue certification as Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), licensing as a professional counselor (LPC), and Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC). The Clinical Mental Health and Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling tracks are accredited by CACREP effective August 2017.