Master of Arts in Counseling with a School Counseling Specialization — 100% Online
3.5 Years to Complete
16 Online Courses
3 Start Dates Per Year
8% Job Growth1
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Serve as an Advocate to Help Students Thrive
Transform Your Career with a Faith-Based Education Built on Purpose
Guiding students through their education and personal lives is one of the most important jobs you can hold. With Our Lady of the Lake University’s Online Master of Arts in Counseling – School Counseling specialization, you’ll enter school counseling with knowledge about counseling history, development of comprehensive guidance program models, P–12 models of career development, school-based collaboration and consultation, and assessment. This degree helps you to create and evaluate programs, and confidently promote academic achievement. All of your knowledge, including helping students to navigate crises in a complex world, will boost the healthy development of our youth to provide a brighter tomorrow for future generations.
Start your educational journey at Our Lady of the Lake University where you’ll become part of a close-knit community that fosters your academic, spiritual, personal, and professional growth to prepare you for success and service. Become part of the next generation of leaders with a convenient online format that presents unique, hands-on learning experiences.
Expert Faculty, Convenient Online Coursework
Prepare to serve as a positive influence with 16 specialized courses that will help you meet the needs of diverse student populations in primary and secondary education. Through in-depth, online coursework, lively discussion groups, and engaging fieldwork you’ll learn to effectively deal with social, emotional, and academic issues. Our counseling curriculum prepares you to promote psychological health among children and adolescents. You’ll complete 60 credit hours to prepare for school counseling licensure in Texas and other states with the tailored option of adding 12 more credit hours to prepare for the Licensed Professional Counselor exam in many states, including Texas.*
With no on-campus residencies and a convenient online format, you can elevate your career from the comforts of home. Enjoy small class sizes and expert faculty with decades of experience in educational counseling.
Highlighted Courses:
Professional Orientation: School Counseling
An introduction to the field of professional school counseling and the role and responsibilities of school counselors regarding comprehensive school counseling programs including: the history and emergence of school counseling, approaches to school counseling, current issues, advocacy, consultation, collaboration, certification and ethical and legal standards.
Clinical Diagnosis
Gain an understanding of dysfunction in human behavior or social disorganization, including etiology, nomenclature, treatment, referral, and prevention of mental and emotional disorders.
Explore characteristics, risk factors, and warning signs of clients at risk for mental health and behavioral disorders, including suicide risk assessment, and the impacts of crisis, trauma, and abuse.
Career Counseling
Explore career counseling development, theories of career choice, and career counseling issues throughout the lifespan. You’ll also examine use of occupational testing and computer-assisted guidance systems, sources of educational and occupational information, career decision-making processes, and services provided in schools and agencies.
Child and Adolescent Counseling
Learn counseling approaches and skills appropriate to children and adolescents, including strategies to help children and adolescent clients clarify problems, set goals, explore options, and implement change. You’ll also explore the characteristics of youth impacted by familial substance abuse.
Guide Our Future Generation
Most school counselors need a master’s degree in school counseling and a state-issued credential to enter the field.1 The median salary in 2020 among school counselors in elementary and secondary schools was $58,120 and the projected job outlook from 2019-2029 is growing at 8%, considered a much faster-than-average rate.1
With the applicable skills obtained from OLLU’s Master of Arts in Counseling – School Counseling specialization, you’ll be able to conduct effective assessments, facilitate career exploration, and utilize counseling techniques and strategies in various roles to make a difference in the lives of youth.
Top 5 Careers for School Counselors3
- Elementary School Counselor
- Middle School Counselor
- High School Counselor
- Career Coach
- College Advisor
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Get StartedSources and Disclaimer
- “School and Career Counselors and Advisors: Occupational Outlook Handbook.” BLS. Retrieved on July 7, 2021 from https://www.bls.gov/.
- “No. 19 Best Online College for School Counseling Degrees for MEd School Counseling Program.” SR Education Group (2019). Retrieved from GuidetoOnlineSchools.com.
- “Occupational Outlook Handbook: School and Career Counselors and Advisors – What They Do.” BLS. Retrieved on July 7, 2021 from https://www.bls.gov/.
*Applicants seeking licensure or certification as counselors are encouraged to review all applicable eligibility requirements related to the respective credential they are seeking per their state of residence. In Texas, that would be the Texas occupations code HB 1508.