COUNSELING - Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology

Greetings! Thank you for visiting the School Counseling Track webpage,

The school counseling training program at UTSA is one of the most rigorous training programs in the state and now meets the CACREP standards. This means that our graduate students will spend four semesters in training at their schools in order to receive 700 hours of clinical experience in addition to the 48 course credit hours required of the masters degree. Those wanting to apply their Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) credential in Texas to practice in the community as well as the school will be able to do this by adding an additional 300-hour training experience and coursework in Community Counseling (for a total 52 credit hours).

Most of our students work full time, and therefore they complete the core counseling training classes in two years of night school (attending one or two classes a week) during the Spring and Fall, and taking a two or three classes during the first two summers. Because the four fieldwork courses (Practicum and the three School Counseling Internships) must be taken successively, that training requires two years to complete. Therefore, most people complete the program in 3 to 4 years. Of course, Texas requires that individuals have at least 2 years of teaching experience before they can be certified by the state as Professional School Counselors, so that is experience that our students receive before, during, or after completing our program. Given this level of training and experience, we believe we are helping train individuals who have the greatest likelihood of making a significant impact on their schools and the students, families, and teachers they serve.

We would be glad to answer any questions you have about our program, and also encourage you to visit the State School Counseling and ASCA (schoolcounselor.org) websites to learn more about what being a professional school counselor means and entails. We hope, after considering the commitment involved and the options available to you in South Texas for receiving your training, that you will choose UTSA as your starting place for an exciting and impactful career as a Professional School Counselor.

Sincerely,

Michael Karcher, Assistant Professor

School Counseling Track Coordinator