Master of Arts in Counseling - Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling

The mission of the University of Nevada, Reno counseling program is to educate competent, culturally aware, ethical counselors who will provide exceptional services in both public and private settings to meet the needs of a increasingly diverse society.Emphasis in Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling (MCFC) is a 67 credit hour nationally accredited (CACREP) program. Graduates of the specialization in the MCFC area of emphasis are able to deal effectively with the variety of issues and family constellations. Students receive in-depth training in conceptualization skills as well as the theoretical and practical application of systems theory. Aside from formal coursework, graduate students have the opportunity to intern in the Downing Counseling Clinic, located within the College of Education and Human Development. The clinic serves as a low-cost clinic for the surrounding community.
From admission through exit students will demonstrate the attitudes, characteristics, and behaviors defined by the program as characteristic of exemplar counseling professionals.
Students will demonstrate the capacity to practice counseling from a strong foundational understanding of ethical and legal issues, intentionally integrating counseling ethical practices into day-to-day professional activities.
In keeping with the ACA multicultural competencies, students will develop self-awareness, knowledge, and skills to prepare them to be contemporary, relevant, and culturally informed practitioners in clinical, marriage and family, and school counseling settings.
Students will demonstrate knowledge of lifespan development and the capacity to integrate knowledge of developmental theory into practice.

The admissions criteria for the Master of Arts in Counseling takes into account three broad factors: 1) appropriate student dispositions, 2) academic potential, and 3) counseling career fit:
Academic Potential
This includes an analysis of student transcripts, undergraduate GPA, coursework taken, and GRE scores. The GRE is required of all students, but is only one factor in the comprehensive rating of academic potential.
Appropriate Student Dispositions
These are traits appropriate for the counseling field and wellness across the lifespan.
A table of Attributions and Descriptions
Conscientiousness - Behaviors demonstrating taking responsibility, perseverance, the capacity to plan ahead, and self-discipline.

Self-Awareness - A conscious knowledge of ones own traits, emotions, and behavior, and the impact of ones behaviors on others.

Coping and Self-Care - Engages in appropriate levels of self-care. Identifies and responds appropriately to personal stress, burnout, situational impairment, loss, trauma, medical issues, and crisis. Uses positive coping and stress management mechanisms.

Interpersonal Skills - Demonstrates the capacity to interact effectively with others, energy in interpersonal relationships, and appropriate warmth.

Ethical Behavior - Integration of professionalism and ethical standards into day-to-day behavior.

Emotional Stability - Behaviors that demonstrate the capacity to control negative emotions, demonstrates a generally positive perspective in all aspects of academic engagement, behaviors that show effective management of personal struggles that could potentially interfere with professional functioning.

Honesty - Academic honesty, reliable and truthful in dealings with others, engenders public trust.

Openness - Behaviors that demonstrate tolerance for ambiguity, tolerance for the culture and lifestyle differences of others, imaginative, curious, open to new experiences, intellectually interested and engaged.

Cultural Sensitivity - Behaviors that suggest tolerance for the culture and lifestyle differences of others, cultural sensitive to the multiple possible factors that make up an individuals identity, awareness of one's own heritage and the impact on others.

Cooperativeness - Behaviors that suggest cooperation, such as working well with authority figures, avoiding inappropriate competition or power struggles, accepting influence from supervisors and other experts, a general display of helpful behaviors, collaborative.

Counseling Career Fit
Career fit includes consideration of paraprofessional and other relevant work and life experiences. Admissions Process for the Master of Arts in Counseling.

TOEFL: 550 (paper) or 79 (internet)
IELTS: 6.5 (academic version)