MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — In the January edition, Middle Tennessee State University’s “Out of the Blue” television magazine program spotlights the Professional Counseling graduate degree program in the College of Education.

Show host Andrew Oppmann, vice president for marketing and communications, interviewed program coordinator Robin Lee.

Watch the full segment:

The program offers an education specialist degree in professional counseling, with concentrations in clinical mental health and school counseling. The program’s training ground is the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, which provides students with professional experience while serving the campus community as well.

“Students come in with an undergraduate degree, maybe in a related field, but not always necessary,” explained Lee, who also serves as clinical director of the counseling center.

The students must complete 60 graduate course hours while working toward becoming a professional counselor or school counselor — careers that are in high demand, Lee said.

“We don’t have any issues with our students finding jobs. They’re very successful,” Lee said.

One of the most vital parts of the program is the experience students receive through the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, where they must each complete 40 direct hours with clients. The counseling services are provided free of charge for MTSU students, faculty and staff, or it’s $10 per session for the community at large — what Lee calls “a win-win.”

A part of the Division of Academic Affairs, the program’s counseling center provides each client up to 10 therapy sessions per semester. It is a separate service from the student-focused campus counseling center in Keathley University Center, which offers short-term assistance through the Division of Student Affairs.

“We have this opportunity for them to serve in this training clinic, and it really is a unique opportunity. We have a state-of-the-art audio/visual system. We record all our sessions,” Lee said, “and we make sure that folks know that ahead of time.”

Professional Counseling program students and their peers watch and review the therapy sessions for educational purposes.

“It can be very anxiety provoking. But I think it does help them get used to the idea that they’re going to be in supervision for many years before they actually reach that point where they are independent practitioners,” Lee explained.

Deadline to apply to the professional counseling program is Feb. 1 for fall admission and Sept. 1 for spring. The multistep process includes individual and group interviews to ensure those admitted “are really a fit for the field.” The program accepts approximately 30 students per year, or 15 each academic cycle.

“We wish we could accept everybody, but we can’t,” Lee said.

To learn more about the program, visit the center website at ccps.mtsu.edu.

“Out of the Blue” is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 6:30 p.m. Sundays; and streamed on the MTSU Jazz Network through WMOT.org at 7 a.m. on the first Sunday of each month; and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings.

It is also available as a podcast on iTunes and Google Play and as individual interview segments on Spotify at https://spoti.fi/453hxg3. 

Watch previous episodes of “Out of the Blue” at https://mtsunews.com/out-of-the-blue.

— Nancy DeGennaro (Nancy.DeGennaro@mtsu.edu)