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Admission handbook

(Table of Contents)
Chpt 1: Introductions & deadlines
Chpt 2: Qualifications for admission to program
Chpt 3: Factor #1: Academic background
Chpt 4: Factor #2: Clinical experience
Chpt 5: Factor #3: Appropriateness of goals
Chpt 6: Factor #4: Ability to resolve issues
Chpt 7: Factor #5: The "person" of the therapist
Chpt 8: Procedures for application to program
Chpt 9: Possible appl. outcomes

(On-line forms)
MAC application form
Supplementary form

Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology ("MAC")

MAC Admission Handbook:
Chapter 7: Factor #5 -- The "person of the therapist"

The selection of students from the pool of applicants to the MAC program is a demanding task presenting numerous challenges. Some evaluation criteria are relatively simple to observe (such as GPA, specific experience in the field, and writing ability).

However, there are other less objective issues which must be evaluated as well. It is this attention to what we call the "person of the therapist" and the student's suitability to the field of counseling in training that makes our program distinct.

The MAC program is known for training people to become true therapists, not just for providing a body of knowledge and a bag of techniques. The MAC program has a clear psychotherapeutic focus, students involved in the program are becoming clinicians as well as scholars. For these reasons, during the selection process considerable attention is placed on admittedly subjective qualifications of the applicants.

These intangibles include (in no particular order):

ability to work with abstractions and applications of theory
ability (or potential) to move fluidly between theory and practice
capacity for compassion and ability to be warm, enthusiastic, and nurturing
acceptance of others, appropriate social skills, and excellent "people skills"
a tendency toward, and desire for, personal growth and enrichment
psychological self-awareness and emotional "groundedness"
clarity of purpose and ability to be self-directed and self-motivated
non-discriminatory and non-ethnocentric attitudes and behavior
emotional maturity and readiness (this is not the same as "age")

It is our opinion that while much of what it means to become a therapist can be taught, there are subtle qualities that make some people effective healers and others not. In fact, in our profession, we deal with the reality that some highly trained practitioners are nevertheless ineffective or worse, harmful as therapists. This danger is most often related to lack of self awareness, which can result in unethical practices and poor therapeutic presence.

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