MA Mental Health Counseling at Touro

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jilymich

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Does anyone have information on the Masters in Mental Health Counseling at Touro College in NY?

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Updating a dead thread, because I remember coming across this thread looking for information prior to starting that program. I'm hoping this might help someone else ask questions and make informed decisions regarding graduate study.

It is a part time program that allows you to take many of the courses online. My one semester there was a bit of a horror story. My psychopathology/abnormal course was taught by a neuropsychologist who did not know what we were getting our masters' in, and tried teaching us neuropsych testing despite this being out of our scope of practice. About half the semester was spent on epilepsy, traumatic brain injury and the like, while skipping conditions more relevant to our future practice. This professor later told me that no other school would hire him other than Touro :) Other courses were combined with the school psych MA program. This isn't inherently bad, but our family and couples therapy equivalent course was taught by a school psychologist with no such experience, as he did mostly school based testing and evaluation. The research/evaluation/stats course was a straight rehash of undergrad psych stats, nothing added to make it graduate level or relevant to counseling. A biological foundations/health psych used an undergraduate textbook - no other readings assigned. Program administration was entirely unresponsive to students concerns.

Of the four courses I took, there were no references by any professors to any modern theories or models of treatment, nor was there a single clinically/counseling specific reading assigned, even in the course that was supposed to cover couples/family. Students (not me) complained after the semester, and had a brief summary of some family theories emailed to us.

Similarly, I found the academic level of my fellow students to be even lower than the public university where I went for undergrad. Students complained to professors about workload in courses that only had two papers all semester. At least one student told me she went there after the social work school rejected her, and told her mental health counseling was "the same kind of thing". A lot of the students are there because this program is designed for people who are working full-time. Being fresh out of undergrad, and having a good sense of what I should be learning in graduate school, I got out of there quickly. Not everyone realized what sort of education they were missing out on. Most told me how lucky I was to get out of there.

After one semester, I switched to a more reputable program in the NYC area (it was cheaper too!). Luckily 9/12 credits transferred. The second program was taught mostly by top clinicians or full time faculty. A CBT course taught by someone well published on the topic, clinically focused courses taught by clinical supervisors from top clinics and training programs. Students who had a desire (mostly) to learn more and seek out additional readings and training. The work was significantly harder, but the courses were more relevant, and my peers and I actually felt like we were being well prepared to step out as mental health counselors. A night and day difference.
 
Just to note for NYC people considering counseling degrees: lots of people don't know this (none of my NYC friends in counseling programs knew), but Hunter College's school of education has a mental health counseling degree in addition to its school counseling options. It's cheap. It's not as well-known as the school of social work, and I have no idea about the quality of the program, but it's definitely something to consider.
 
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Just to note for NYC people considering counseling degrees: lots of people don't know this (none of my NYC friends in counseling programs knew), but Hunter College's school of education has a mental health counseling degree in addition to its school counseling options. It's cheap. It's not as well-known as the school of social work, and I have no idea about the quality of the program, but it's definitely something to consider.

I can post more on this later if anyone has questions about it, but I would be weary of their MHC program because it's not CACREP accredited as of yet. Their Rehabilitation Counseling program is CORE accredited though, and IMHO Rehabilitation Counseling can open a few more doors depending on what you want to do.
 
I can post more on this later if anyone has questions about it, but I would be weary of their MHC program because it's not CACREP accredited as of yet. Their Rehabilitation Counseling program is CORE accredited though, and IMHO Rehabilitation Counseling can open a few more doors depending on what you want to do.

Hmm. I didn't know that. I agree -- don't go to a non-CACREP school. The jobs are thin enough for counseling grads as it is.
 
I can post more on this later if anyone has questions about it, but I would be weary of their MHC program because it's not CACREP accredited as of yet. Their Rehabilitation Counseling program is CORE accredited though, and IMHO Rehabilitation Counseling can open a few more doors depending on what you want to do.

Most NY metro area programs are not CACREP accredited yet, unfortunately. This includes Columbia, NYU etc. It's not a big obstacle if you are looking for a job in NY. Though the new VA positions require it. The MHC degree is definitely not the best route to employment in NYC though, regardless of CACREP status.
 
Most NY metro area programs are not CACREP accredited yet, unfortunately. This includes Columbia, NYU etc. It's not a big obstacle if you are looking for a job in NY. Though the new VA positions require it. The MHC degree is definitely not the best route to employment in NYC though, regardless of CACREP status.

Yeah, NYC is not the best place for counseling. Besides the dearth of good counseling programs and the near-absence of CACREP-accredited programs (which isn't good for mobility), New York imposes additional burdens on counselors. LMHCs can't be Medicaid providers, which effectively restricts the populations with whom they can work. An LMHC treating someone with a serious mental illness must seek approval from a physician, something other providers don't have to do. The scope of practice for counselors includes "evaluation and assessment" but not diagnosis.

This PDF provides a side-by-side comparison with social workers: http://www.naswnys.org/LCSW LMHC Comparison.pdf

Anyone considering counseling here in New York should think carefully. I know several counselors who can't find work in their fields.
 
Yeah, NYC is not the best place for counseling. Besides the dearth of good counseling programs and the near-absence of CACREP-accredited programs (which isn't good for mobility), New York imposes additional burdens on counselors. LMHCs can't be Medicaid providers, which effectively restricts the populations with whom they can work. An LMHC treating someone with a serious mental illness must seek approval from a physician, something other providers don't have to do. The scope of practice for counselors includes "evaluation and assessment" but not diagnosis.

This PDF provides a side-by-side comparison with social workers: http://www.naswnys.org/LCSW LMHC Comparison.pdf

Anyone considering counseling here in New York should think carefully. I know several counselors who can't find work in their fields.

Thanks! I wasn't aware of that particular regional limitation. In Texas you basically have the opposite issue.
 
Doesn't Touro function like a for-profit uni? I thought I read they "sold" part of themselves to an outside group. I can't speak to their MA Pyh programs, buti know their med school isn't held in high regard.
 
Doesn't Touro function like a for-profit uni? I thought I read they "sold" part of themselves to an outside group. I can't speak to their MA Pyh programs, buti know their med school isn't held in high regard.

I have no idea about the quality of Touro's programs (although I know that the grad schools are kind of last-resort here in NYC with all the other options available), but I did laugh a little when I looked them up a little while ago on Wikipedia and saw the prominently-displayed picture of their heavily graffiti'd Brooklyn nursing school.
 
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