Welcome to the Minor in Counseling & Social Change
Have you thought about the possible career pathways in the helping professions? Or, perhaps you are interested in exploring the intersections of socially just causes and finding ways in which you can serve people and communities to make a difference. We are very excited to offer a minor in counseling and social change as supplement to your major to explore these possibilities.
This minor is an interdisciplinary study geared to support and complement students who are studying a variety of majors, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, communication, social work, nursing, liberal studies, child development, history, kinesiology, as well as many other fields.
While the minor in counseling and social change maintains a specific interest in equipping you with some foundational clinical counseling skills, the minor is much broader in scope than counseling and highlights an array of helping professions. The Helping Professions are a constellation of diverse disciplines that typically include, but are not limited to, professions such as School and Professional Counseling, Social Work, Couple and Family Therapy, Career Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling, Coaching, Teaching, and Nursing.
We offer robust and engaging courses to introduce students to several concepts, ideas and skills that serve to engage students in basic counseling, listening, and just practices that will increase opportunities for employment in any profession where communication and interactions with people are central. Themes examine how issues of what is socially just runs throughout each course to explore how issues of racism, sexism, violence, poverty, and oppression impact on professions intended to serve individuals, families, and communities.
Mission Statement
The Minor in Counseling & Social Change encourages students to examine how cultural, social and political contexts work to produce and sustain inequities among people, while inviting them to thoughtfully consider their own role to support socially just efforts to remedy these inequities. The minor introduces students to a number of concepts, ideas and practices that serve to engage students in developing therapeutic relational and conversational skills that build upon basic counseling, listening and socially just frameworks. Students are presented with the opportunity to gain theoretical knowledge, accompanied by experience-based practice, that are complementary to a variety of career paths, including, school, community, and professional counseling, couple and family therapy, social work, psychology, nursing, teaching, coaching, and leadership.