Outcome III-Ethics, Values & Diversity

COUN 503 – Professional Orientation

• To recognize the diversity of client populations and to describe the counseling competencies needed to provide effective services and the advocacy processes needed to address institutional and social barriers that impede access, equity and successes for clients.

COUN 504 – Prepracticum in Counseling Techniques

• Through written assignments, in-class experiential learning activities, taping, and discussion, candidates will:

•  Engage in and demonstrate initial understanding of basic skills of the interview, including listening, influencing, and structuring an effective session with individual and cultural sensitivity.

• In group debriefings and self and peer assessments, candidates will:

• Address counselor hypotheses concerning possible problem-management and opportunity-development strategies for working with counselees that demonstrate a beginning understanding of the counselors’ roles in social justice, advocacy and conflict resolution, cultural self-awareness, the nature of biases, prejudices, processes of intentional and unintentional oppression and discrimination, and other culturally supported behaviors that are detrimental to the growth of the human spirit, mind, or body.

• In an in-depth reflective essay, candidates will:

• Address their developing understanding of the counselors’ roles in social justice, advocacy and conflict resolution, cultural self-awareness, the nature of biases, prejudices, processes of intentional and unintentional oppression and discrimination, and other culturally supported behaviors that are detrimental to the growth of the human spirit, mind, or body.

COUN 505 – Lifespan Development

• Students will develop knowledge of individual and family developmental theories.  Students will identify common counseling referral problems for different stages of the life span and be able to recognize the effects of crises, disasters, and other trauma-causing events on persons of all ages 

• Students will learn to utilize a general framework for understanding exceptional abilities and strategies for customizing interventions to meet client needs. 

COUN 506 – Ethical and Legal Issues in Schools

• Possess the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to provide ethical counseling and developmental services to clients diverse in age, gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation.

COUN 508 – Research Design and Methodology in Counseling

• Candidates analyze research studies and discuss possible ethical concerns that arise in carrying out research. Candidates submit proposals for action research to the university’s Institutional Review Board process. They address ethical concerns for their own research in the research proposal assignment for the class. Most of the action research projects involve the candidates in working with highly diverse local school populations. Assigned readings also examine issues of diversity in relationship to school counseling and research in counseling.

COUN 510 – Career Development Across the Lifespan

• Interrelationships among and between work, family, and other life roles and factors, including the role of diversity and gender in career development;

COUN 515 – Multicultural Counseling

• Understand the multicultural and pluralistic trends, including characteristics and concerns within and among diverse groups nationally and internationally

• Understand the attitudes, beliefs, and acculturative experiences, including specific experiential learning activities designed to foster students’ understanding of self and culturally diverse clients

• Be familiar with the theories of multicultural counseling, identity development, and social justice

• Will be familiar with the multicultural counseling competencies to be able to work with and advocate for individuals, couples, families, and groups from diverse populations

• Understand the counselors’ roles in developing cultural self-awareness, promoting cultural social justice, advocacy and conflict resolution, and other culturally supported behaviors that promote optimal wellness and growth of the human spirit, mind, or body

• Understand the counselors’ roles in eliminating biases, prejudices, and processes of intentional and unintentional oppression and discrimination

• To understand the multifaceted nature of cultures through an international experience.

• Become aware of the diversity in communication, relationships, history, values, beliefs, and practices as cultural differences within the United States and in International context as it relates to counseling.

• Increase their awareness of their own cultural perspective as a worldview and its’ impact in the counseling relationship in intercultural settings.

COUN 520 – Counseling Psychology: Theory

• Throughout the course, we examine ethical and legal concerns affecting counseling as it is applied to

• Students realize the diversity of the populations they will provide counseling services as professionals.  The required textbook examines specific influences of cultural diversity in the diagnostic and intervention process and in class we challenge counseling practices for their appropriateness for different cultural groups.  Course role-plays and scenarios are designed to provide experiences with a variety of individual and family cultures.

COUN 525 – Group Dynamics

• Students are asked to examine their own values and culture and how these impact their interactions with others in the group setting. Furthermore, they continue to develop cultural competency by exploring diversity and values both via text analysis and direct participation in group.

COUN 530 – Counseling Assessment

• Demonstrate the knowledge of the possible effects age, gender, ethnicity, race and SES might have on test performance and on score interpretation and the possibility of test bias against disadvantaged groups.

COUN 536 – Counseling Children and Youth in Schools

• To develop an understanding and appreciation of the role of racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage, nationality, socioeconomic status, family structure, age, gender, sexual orientation, religious and spiritual beliefs, occupation, physical and mental status, and equity issues in school counseling