Program Information

Welcome & Overview

Thank you for your interest in Cal State LA’s graduate program in MFT and School Counseling.

The School-Based Family Counseling (SBFC) graduate program at California State University, Los Angeles is a Master's in Counseling program. It satisfies all of the academic requirements for the California state Marriage and Family Therapy license. Our program integrates the Pupil Personnel Services (PPS) Credential in School Counseling with Advanced Authorization in Child Welfare and Attendance (CWA) into the Master's degree coursework as well. This means that when you graduate from our program, you will be able to obtain employment as an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist in any setting and/or a School Counselor in K-12 schools. The CWA authorization qualifies you for specialized school counseling positions related to child welfare and attendance in K-12 schools.

Cal State LA has a long history of involvement and activism in East Los Angeles and the greater Los Angeles urban area. As such, our program has a specific emphasis in training our students to become culturally competent, social justice oriented counselors. Our on-campus counseling clinic allows our students to gain direct clinical experience with our community members in a supportive setting.

What is School-Based Family Counseling?

School-Based Family Counseling (SBFC) is an integrated approach to mental health intervention that focuses on both school and family in order to help children overcome personal problems and succeed at school.

Essentially, SBFC practitioners see the school and the family as inextricably interconnected systems. We believe that MFTs are better therapists when they understand how to assist their clients in navigating and succeeding within the school system. We believe that School Counselors are better counselors when they have a deeper understanding of how a student's mental health and family system can affect their school performance. Over the past decade, these tenets of SBFC have been reflected in a) the increasing number of school-based mental health jobs available for Associate and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and b) the increased focus on training school counselors how to address socio-emotional issues, risk, and trauma.

Our students leave our program prepared to take on the complex challenges facing children and their families in contemporary society.

Program Requirements

The SBFC program requires 73-77 semester units. This takes from 2.5 - 3 years to complete depending on amount of fieldwork the student is able to complete after the first year of coursework.
There is only one prerequisite, which is a course in Counseling or Psychological Theories. This must be completed before beginning the program in the Fall. COUN 4500-Counseling Theories is offered at Cal State LA in the Summer semester before the program begins if you have not taken a similar course beforehand. There are no other courses that can be taken before acceptance to the program.
Students take four to five courses per semester in the first two years.This includes two to three courses during the summer semesters.
Students complete 15-20 hours per week of fieldwork in their second year and third year.
This program is full-time and is cohorted, meaning you must take your required classes at your assigned time and with your assigned cohort.
Class times are from 4:30pm-7:15pm and from 7:30pm-10:10pm. Saturday courses may be offered. Students take courses 2-3 times per week.
Students may have outside employment during their Master's program, however full-time employment is often not possible, especially when completing fieldwork.
Please consult with financial aid regarding the current cost of attendance: http://www.calstatela.edu/financialaid
We do not offer TA/GA tuition remission. Although TA and GA positions may be available by semester, typically there are very few positions (1-2) and they are paid hourly.
Most of our students take a comprehensive exam to graduate, though we do offer a thesis option. If you are interested in going on to doctorate work and would like to complete a thesis, you must come in with a research agenda, be highly intrinsically motivated, and be a good academic writer and researcher. Research opportunities are offered to students as faculty need and student desire arises.
Please review our program flyer below for the list of courses we offer.

MS COUN MFT school based fam coun Flyer - Effective F '19 DRAFT revised 5-24-19[1].pdf

Family Counseling Clinic

One of the unique aspects of our program is our family counseling clinic, an on-campus clinic that provides our community members with no-cost counseling services.

During the first and second semesters of your first year, you will complete the majority of your practicum hours in this clinic. Using a family systems, multicultural, SBFC-focused approach, you and a co-therapist will assist parents and their children with issues that range from school behavioral problems to family separation issues.

Students train in the clinic during their first semester, completing shadowing, peer counseling, and role plays. Students use the clinic equipment to record and evaluate their growing skill set. They are closely supervised by faculty members.

Employment

Due to our intensive training program in the first year, excellent fieldwork training partners and placements, and rigorous coursework, our students are prepared for the job market and gain employment in clinical, community based, and K-12 settings quickly.

Graduates from the SBFC program are eligible to:

work as School Counselors in public and private K-12 level schools.
work as Child Welfare and Attendance specialists in K-12 level schools.
work with agenies that provide school-based counseling and send therapists into schools.
work in mental health agencies.
work in a private practice setting, once licensed by the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS).

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