DEPARTMENT OF COUNSELING, REHABILITATION COUNSELING,
AND COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY

COUNSELING MASTERS PROGRAM

Future Students

Programs

The WVU graduate program in Counseling offers two related tracks:

  • Community Counseling
  • School Counseling

Community counselors work in many different settings, such as mental-health centers, drug-treatment centers, prisons, juvenile treatment centers, and private practice. They work with adolescents, adults, the elderly, those addicted to drugs and alcohol, or the severely mentally challenged.

School counselors work in k-12 schools and are trained in counseling interventions, theories, and techniques. These include individual counseling, conflict management, peer mediation, student mentoring, and group counseling. School counselors also work with teachers, parents, administrators, local business leaders, and community leaders in a variety of ways.

Community Counseling

This graduate program teaches students many different intervention strategies that can be used in the community or in treatment facilities. The counseling program prepares students to become licensed professional counselors in West Virginia.

Graduates have a wide variety of options. Many work in outpatient mental-health settings, in teams with medical doctors, or in private practice. Others choose to work in correctional facilities or for companies. Some community counselors emphasize working with couples and families or with adolescents, while others specialize in grief counseling or crisis counseling.

School Counseling

School counselors work with students with personal and academic concerns. They help students with educational success, interpersonal skills, and self-understanding. Counselors strive to create a total school environment in which students see themselves as important players in the success of both the school and themselves.

Counselors assist young people to personalize education and planning so they can maximize their talents and opportunities. School counselors create, develop, and shape innovative strategies that enable students to be satisfied learners as well as productive, educated citizens. School counselors are involved in personal counseling, career guidance, vocational and educational counseling, family counseling, and consultation on classroom problems with teachers and administrators.

Our program prepares graduates for certification in West Virginia and most other states as school counselors for levels K-12.