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[intro music]
>> GINA FRIEDEN: The HDC program I think is unique because of three things. One, I think
one of the things that we have really made an effort to do is make our program even more
developmentally based than most counseling programs. What I mean by that is this program
has a history of over 30 years at the college. During that time it really came to formation
around the idea of developmental theory, experiential learning, a lot of it based on John Dewey
and Jean Piaget. I think the second thing I would say about what makes us unique is
that we come from a tradition of believing that the individual in the context of the
system is the most important thing to look at. Our students really get the benefit of
understanding that when we are helping a client or student we're really working with not just
that individual, but with the family, the system, and the culture that surround them.
Finally, I would say, our faculty. If I look at the surveys that we've gotten over the
past five years from our alumni, one of the things that they tell us is that our faculty
has been incredibly helpful. While we're not there to be our students' counselors, we are
there to help them understand how to work with the clients in ways that promote the
client's wellbeing. In doing that, they do need to understand to some extent the ways
that their own personal triggers may enter into the work that they do. Personal growth
and development blends into professional growth and development. We try to do a good job of
that.
[music]
>> GINA FRIEDEN: The class structure for most of our HDC courses is to have the cohort in
the first year take most of the courses together. The second semester they start specializing,
the school counseling students will be in school related courses. Our clinical students
will be in more clinically related courses. Now we've gone to a two year, 48 credit hour
program of study for our school counseling students. Our clinical students are now in
a three year, 60 credit hour program. While our school students will be moving into their
practicum and internship year their second year, our clinical students will do that their
third year. One of the unique things about our course structure is we really spend some
time trying to think about the way our students should begin to build the skills and knowledge
and foundations to be good school counselors and good clinical mental health counselors.
One of the things we do is in the first semester, really work at getting the foundations and
theories of development and theories of counseling, up front in the first semester so that the
next semester they’re free to begin experiencing how to combine those theories with the skill
sets that they’re learning, in interviewing classes and in their practicum. The final
year really builds out of practicum. That’s when they do their internship. During their
internship year, they’re actually out on site getting to learn what they have practiced
through their experiential classes in the second semester. In addition to that, we have
small seminars that students come back into after they've been at their field experiences.
These provide us the ability for our students to reflect on what they've been learning,
hear from other peers in the class about how their experiences have gone and get additional
skill support from their supervisors, both faculty and site supervisors.
[music]
>> GINA FRIEDEN: The characteristics of a strong applicant in HDC probably are multiple.
I would say the first thing of course is good academic standing from the universities that
they've come from. In addition to that, I would say we look for applicants that have
experience and exposure to different types of experiences. It isn't always the case that
they need to come out of a program that is counseling or psychology related. We do look
for people that have already some sense of awareness and insight about who they are as
people and what they're looking for. Having done some research in advance so they know
the distinctions between counselor education, psychology, and social work can be helpful
in making sure that we have a good fit with that student. Additionally, we're looking
for people that have had some diverse experiences and really can bring in their own sense of
unique qualities around what their strengths and talents are and can help us refine those
as they're in the program.
[music]
>> GINA FRIEDEN: Our program equips our students to work in two specializations: one is clinical
mental health counseling and the other is school counseling. Our students that are in
the clinical mental health counseling track are learning skills in individual and group
development that they can use in community agencies, in private practice, in organizational
consulting. We try to train along that dimension of lifelong learning and we try to make sure
that we cover different ages when we're doing our training. In addition to that, in clinical
mental health, we try to include knowledge skills and competencies around how to be culturally
competent counselors and how to really work on both ends of the continuum from crisis
management to the kinds of struggles that individuals may have dealing with normal everyday
stressors. School counselors are equipped to work in the schools and in a variety of
capacities. They are there to really serve the school climate from the standpoint of
helping to boost academic development and promote the personal development of the students
that they work with. It's really always exciting to talk about our alumni because they end
up in such interesting places. We've had students, for example, that ended up in Nashville at
community organizations if they were clinical, such as Center Stone Mental Health Center,
Oasis, and Cumberland Heights, the alcohol and drug treatment center. There's a number
of different areas in the community both here but also regionally where our students end
up going that serve the purposes of what they want to do ultimately in their career.
[music]