New Master’s in Counseling Psychology to Help Meet Need for Mental Health Professionals

WEST ROXBURY, Maine, Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — To help meet society’s increasing need for accessible, highly trained mental health professionals at all levels, the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP) is now offering a Master’s of Arts in Counseling Psychology. Designed to provide high-quality training at the master’s level, the principal aim of the program is to graduate qualified professionals who can function in a variety of settings and will help address some of the gaps in the current mental health care system.

“There are many therapeutic situations in which a master’s level professional can provide appropriate and high-quality care,” says Dr. Nicholas Covino, president of MSPP. In addition, MSPP’s counseling program is the first of its kind to offer concentration tracks in Child and Family Counseling; Substance Abuse and Trauma; Community Mental Health; and Spirituality and Mental health — areas that could use an infusion of well-trained providers.

According to a recent study by the MSPCC (Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) and Children’s Hospital, 70 percent of the state’s children in need of mental health care fail to receive it. “With the limited treatment largely occurring in medical settings, there is a critical need for new providers and new delivery systems to reach these children,” says Covino, who adds: “Likewise, there is a significant shortage of professionals to provide substance abuse treatment and care for those who live in less advantaged communities.”

Says Dr. Modesto Hevia, the new director of the program: “With this program, MSPP has created a curriculum that will promote and nurture the development of front-line mental health professionals whose skills and accessibility should be warmly welcomed by a community in great need.” Hevia, most recently the director of the Counseling Center at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, adds: “The program will follow MSPP’s hallmark tradition of integrating rigorous classroom work with expert field supervision. We will train our students with our customary academic and clinical rigor and with sensitivity to the needs of the diverse communities they aspire to serve. This is a challenging enterprise, but I am confident that as with MSPP’s other training programs, the results of our efforts will ultimately speak for themselves.”

MSPP officials believe that this new counseling psychology program, approved last fall by the state’s Board of Higher Education, should appeal to human services professionals wishing to re-specialize or enhance skills and to new college graduates seeking this level of training. The two-year, 60- semester credit program will prepare students to be Licensed Mental Health Counselors and will offer them the opportunity to concentrate their interests in a number of areas where accessibility to providers has become an increasingly urgent issue.

High-need populations should benefit the most from this new program, according to the program’s creators, Dr. Bob Lichtenstein, and Dr. Stanley Berman, who envision its graduates having an important impact in community mental health centers, residential programs, hospitals, substance abuse programs, colleges, government agencies, elder care facilities, and faith communities.

The MA Counseling faculty will consist of professional psychologists who have extensive experience as practitioners and as graduate level instructors.

For additional information about this event and the Master’s of Arts in Counseling Psychology, please go to http://www.mspp.edu/.

Founded in 1974, MSPP strives to be the preeminent school of psychology that integrates rigorous academic instruction with extensive field education and close attention to professional development. We assume an ongoing responsibility to create programs to educate specialists of many disciplines to meet the evolving mental health needs of society.

Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology

CONTACT: Patti Jacobs, +1-617-872-0364, for Massachusetts School ofProfessional Psychology

Web site: http://www.mspp.edu/