CMHC Mission Statement
Valparaiso University’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling program is dedicated to facilitating the development of professional counselors ready to serve their community through promotion of mental health, autonomy, and general well-being across the lifespan. By fostering an inclusive learning community grounded in scholarship, leadership, and justice, our mission is to prepare ethical and dedicated counselors from diverse backgrounds to assist increasingly global communities and mental health organizations. The CMHC program advances this mission through the development of professional identity, cultural competency, and basic counseling skills. Strengthening, serving, and leading communities, we empower our students to pursue excellence, uphold ethical standards, and contribute meaningfully to society.
Objective 1: Professional Identity
Students will develop personal identification with and commitment to a professional counseling identity grounded in ethics and guided by best practice. Students will demonstrate their professional identity, emphasizing leadership and service, by becoming active in professional counseling organizations. Additionally, graduates are prepared to meet all academic licensure requirements within the state of Indiana. Growth of professional identity is developed through successful completion of program curricula as well as through student projects such as professional goals/self-reflection papers and intentional familiarity with local and regional counseling agencies. Upon graduation students will demonstrate…
- a) Ethical and legal proficiencies in professional counseling.
- b) Utilization of strategies for conceptualizing the interrelationships between their work, mental well-being, relationships, and other life roles.
- c) Service to the counseling profession through membership, leadership, or participation in professional or student organizations and proseminar activities.
Objective 2: Cultural Competency
Consistent with the Multicultural and Social Justice Competencies, students will develop keen awareness of themselves and others through learning and incorporating individual cognitive, emotional, and spiritual factors, social, familial, and community influences, and societal and institutional impacts on one’s development, utilizing respectful clinical skills consistent with the cultural contexts of their clients. Further, students will have the skills to demonstrate their self-awareness through assessment of personal strengths and challenges related to working with diverse client populations. These skills will be introduced and practiced within a variety of learning opportunities both in the classroom and the community. Upon graduation, students will be able to…
- a) Apply cultural and developmental factors that impact clients’ and counselors’ worldview to assessment, diagnostic, and treatment considerations.
- b) Advocate on behalf of individuals receiving counseling services.
- c) Develop culturally sustaining and responsive strategies for establishing and maintaining effective counseling relationships with a diverse population.
Objective 3: Counselor Competencies
Students will demonstrate skills aligned with the counseling profession in a counseling context as they relate to clinical skills, converting counseling knowledge/theories into best professional practice, advocacy, and social justice. Students will develop counselor competencies as evidenced through scholarship and knowledge as shown through multiple projects at determined milestones throughout the program. Students will demonstrate the successful acquisition of these competencies through completion of practicum and internships that include case presentations and faculty review of recorded sessions. Students must demonstrate their ability to…
- a) Apply relevant research findings to inform their practice
- b) Develop effective interviewing and case conceptualization skills
- c) Develop theoretical and practical foundations of developing and leading therapeutic groups
- d) Utilize assessment results for diagnostic and clinical intervention planning purposes
- e) Utilize evidenced-based counseling strategies and techniques for prevention and intervention