MHC in WA, but want to move to FL

[prisoner24601]

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Here is my background:
I got my BA (in Journalism) in a foreign country and came to the US about 4 years ago. I want to be a mental health counselor. My problem is that I am now in Seattle but would like to move to FL in 2 years. There is a school called City University near my work, and I can go to school and work at the same time. It’s not a great school since I am sure most of you have never heard of it and it’s also not a CACREP program . I also checked out the FL licensing requirement, I will need to do 2 years of post-master's supervised experience under the supervision of licensed mental health counselor or the equivalent who is qualified as determined by the Board. So my questions are:

1. Should I get my degree at City University in Seattle, and move to FL to do my 2 years of post-master's supervised experience?
2. Some people in this forum said that the connections/networking are important while you are in school, so will I have a problem finding an agency to help with my post-master's supervised experience in FL after I get my degree in Seattle?
3. Should I wait till I move to FL to go to school and get my post-master's supervised experience there?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can offer some solid advice!

 

[kid16]

Ok, as someone who has a Master's in Mental Health Counseling from NYU (which, is NOT CACREP accredited) who then relocated from NYC to Miami, FL, I can tell you that you definitely CAN go to a non-CACREP accredited program and still get licensed in the state of Florida. However, it's not a simple/easy process and unless you're very passionate about a particular program (like I was about NYU... also, I had no plans to ever leave NYC, but.... life happens), I'd recommend probably just going to a CACREP program if you know you're coming to Florida. If you don't, here's what you need to be sure of.....

1- That you take the right courses to meet all of the Dept of Health's "Non-accredited program Content Areas." There are a total of 12 including some very strange areas like a "counseling in community settings" course that isn't usually offered outside of CACREP programs (unless they are in the State of Florida and are trying to ensure that their future grads can get licensed). See the Florida Dept of Health Website for the 12 content areas. A difficult aspect here is that they don't tell you if particular courses from particular universities meet the requirements for them. You have to submit the course description from the university catalogue.

Ultimately, if you don't match all of their content areas in your MA degree program, while your actual advanced degree in Counseling will be recognized by them, you'll need to take add'l coursework after your MA. In that case, play it really safe and get those one or two courses from a CACREP program.

2- Your practicum/off-site internship needs to be 1000 hours. Many non-CACREP accredited programs are only 500-700 hours. So, if you go to a non-accredited program and leave with only, let's say, 600 hours, you'll need to have a total of 3400 post-graduate hours of supervised training (3000 + the 400 you missed in your MA internship).

3- While you can start accumulating hours before you've met all 12 content areas, you must have both 7 of the 12 already done and psychopathology must be one of those 7. Otherwise, your hours won't count. Let's say you have 11 of the 12 done... but psychopathology is the last one (#12) and you haven't taken it... well, you're hours don't count until you do, and it's recognized as completed by the Board.

4- In order for you MA to be recognized, you need to have a total of 60 credit hours between your MA program and any content area courses you take at the graduate level from other schools. So, if you go to a 48 credit hour program (which would be irresponsible of the university, but I'm sure they exist), even if you meet all the content areas w/in those 48 credits, you'll still need to take 12 more credits to reach the 60 total.

Bottom line after all this......... probably just go to a CACREP program if you are sure you're going to live/practice in a State that provides a direct path to licensure if you did...

 

[miamia078]

Wow it really is alot of hoops to jump through if you dont follow a CACREP course which I understand the reasoning behind. I was having difficulty with a similar question becuase I wanted to go to the UK to get my masters in counselling Psychology and I wasn even sure if that would be recognised at all over here. I am also not really receiveing any advice from the local licensing board as they only look at qualifications after you have earned them they dont seem to be able to look at the course outline and tell me if it will be good over here, before I take the course which is obviously important. Licensing is definately the way forward for me so I am still in two minds as to whether to do my masters in the UK (one year full time and considerably cheaper that in the USA) or spend two / 3 years studying over here and following a CACREP course.