PhD: Counseling

Impact the Field of Counseling

The Ph.D. program in counseling is based on a researcher practitioner model; it is primarily designed to train researchers, scholars, academicians, and highly skilled practitioners. The faculty members of the Department of Counseling and Family Therapy believe that individuals seeking Ph.D. training should be trained well to perform activities valued in academic, research, and service-providing settings. The Ph.D. deepens a student's understanding and builds refined research, teaching, supervision, counseling, and leadership and advocacy skills. The University of Missouri—St. Louis (UMSL) Ph.D. program holds advanced accreditation by the Council on Accreditation of Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP); it is the only doctoral counseling program in Missouri that holds CACREP accreditation. The faculty members of the Department aspire to provide a nationally recognized and valuable doctoral degree program. Many graduates of the program are practicing counselors or counselor educators. Graduates of the doctoral program have been placed in academic positions at major universities throughout the USA. A major emphasis in all of our graduate training is our commitment to cultural diversity and social justice.

Graduates of the program will have a degree that clearly distinguishes them from the entry-level practitioner -- to the level of research, supervisory, and teaching expert in the field of counseling. The Ph.D. degree internship (a 600 contact hour field experience) requires research activity, graduate teaching, supervision experience with master’s-level students, leadership and advocacy, and counseling practice. The Department has a counseling training center on campus, the Counseling and Social Advocacy Center, where students get practical experience under close supervision.

Our program consistently attracts diverse students from across the nation as well as internationally. Students achieve high levels of competency in the areas of research, supervision, teaching, leadership and advocacy, and clinical work. During the 2016-2017 academic year, there were three graduates (about 75% of students who begin the program complete it) in the doctoral program. The majority of these students completed their program during the expected time frame (typically three to six years). Graduates of our program seek a variety of academic and professional jobs. The placement rate of graduates who actively sought employment was 95%.