The minor requires only 18 units to complete. There are four required courses and two courses that are designed to work with your existing coursework from your major. The courses can be taken sequentially or in a sequence that compliments your schedule. Most students take the courses in their junior or senior year, but you are welcome to enroll in courses sooner as well if your schedule allows. There are NO prerequisites for these courses. They are also available to you as electives to your current program of study should you wish to only take one, two or three of the classes that fit with your schedule. If you are intending just to take a few of the courses to serve as electives towards your degree, do consult with your advisor and/or program coordinator to ensure they are appropriate for your program of study.
Courses can be completed on either the San Bernardino Campus or the Palm Desert Campus!
Required Coursework (18 Units):
COUN 3101: Introduction to counseling and the helping professions
COUN 3102: The social construction of the self (The search for the Self?)
COUN 3103: Introduction to Counseling skills and practices
COUN 3104: Counseling and social change
Course Descriptions:
COUN 3101: Introduction to counseling and the helping professions
This is an introduction to the Counseling & Social Change minor. Students are exposed to themes that cut across counseling and helping professions, including listening skills, the experience and value of compassion and compassionate action, the ethics of caring, and the effects of power relations in the helping profession. Professional pathways will be explored including, degree requirements, nature of the work, types of clientele served, theoretical modalities, work sites, ethical dimensions, and desirable personal characteristics.
COUN 3102: The social construction of Relationships
This course emphasizes how the construction of identity is shaped through experiences that are tied to social, political, cultural and environmental processes that intersect with various forms of institutionalized power, privilege and oppression.
COUN 3103: Introduction to Counseling skills and practices
Counseling is an interpersonal process with culturally-based ideas and practices that has effects on social interaction, interpersonal communication, and social change. This is an introductory course to counseling and compassionate listening skills with a particular focus on understanding how stories are constructed and shape identities utilizing an active and participatory learning experience.
COUN 3104: Counseling and social change
This course provides a critical analysis of issues and actions needed to advance social justice in counseling practice. It attends to the contemporary social, cultural, and economic issues that often negatively affect the lives of clients. The emphasis is on promoting social change within the counseling context among client groups that have historically been marginalized or oppressed in some fashion.
Elective Requirements (6 Units):
In addition to the four core/required courses, students must add two outside electives to fulfill the requirements of the minor (1 GE & 1 additional class that qualifies from your overall degree of study). These 2 electives should be similar in theme and content to the minor and must be approved by the faculty coordinator of the minor. To select appropriate electives from completed coursework you will need to meet with the faculty coordinator to review your transcripts. If your transcripts do not reflect courses that are compatible in theme or content with the curriculum and focus of the minor, the faculty coordinator will work with you and your academic advisor to suggest appropriate classes that you will need to plan to complete. The majority of the time, taking additional classes to meet the elective requirement is not necessary, though is required from time to time depending on a student’s unique plan of study.