Accredited semester programs in career counseling, school counseling or student affairs must have 48 credit hours. Programs that operate on quarters need 72 credits. Semester programs in addiction counseling, marriage or couple counseling, and family counseling need 60 credits for accreditation (90 on quarters), according to CACREP. Clinical mental health counseling programs on semesters need 54 credits while those on quarters need 81.
Accredited counseling programs cover eight main areas related to counseling: professional practice; social and cultural diversity; human growth and development; career development; helping relationships; group work; assessment; and research and program evaluation, according to CACREP. In these areas, students learn such things as the history and philosophy of counseling as a profession as well as the roles and responsibilities of counselors. They also learn how to work with a patient in crisis or within the context of a patient's culture.
Most counseling programs have a specialty area for their students. The CACREP has accredited programs in specialty areas such as career counseling, college counseling, community counseling, gerontological counseling, marital, couple, and family counseling/therapy, mental health counseling, school counseling and student affairs. These programs cover the basics of counseling, but the curriculum tends to mold around the area of specialty. For example, a program in addiction counseling may cover the history of addiction counseling.
Accredited counseling programs also must include a practicum and internship to help students practice their counseling skills. For the practicum, students must have at least 100 hours of experience over a semester. Forty of those hours must be working directly with clients, according to CACREP. The internship requires students to complete 600 hours. Two hundred and forty of these hours must be with patients. Both the internship and practicum must be supervised and the student cannot begin the internship until he has finish the practicum.
Students also have the option to attain a doctoral degree in counseling, according to the CACREP, these programs go beyond what one would learn in a master's counseling program. Doctoral programs also emphasize research in counseling and encourage students to publish scholarly publications and presentations. Like masters programs in counseling, doctoral ones also include a required practicum and an internship.