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Master of Arts Counseling
Wayland offers three counseling degree programs, each set within a distinctive Christian environment. These programs offer a unique format, blending face-to-face courses taught on weekends (Friday evening and Saturday, about once a month) with online courses. This format provides tremendous flexibility for working students and also allows for direct skill instruction with experienced professors and other students.
Each program is designed to lead to licensure and/or certification through the state. Licensure requirements vary by state and students may check requirements for any state as published by the American Counseling Association at: https://www.counseling.org/knowledge-center/licensure-requirements/state-professional-counselor-licensure-boards.
M.A. Counseling
The M.A. in Counseling is a 48 credit-hour program designed to equip a student to sit for the state board exams as a licensed professional counselor or licensed mental health counselor in Hawaii and New Mexico. Once licensed, counselors may work in private practice or at state agencies, hospitals, churches or other organizations. Students seeking licensure in Hawaii need to take an additional 6 hours of content courses to meet the requirements of the state board, and may choose to pursue the M.A. in Clinical Counseling. Students in other states where Wayland has a counseling program may elect to complete the 48-hour M.A. in Counseling degree, with the understanding that they may not meet all of the requirements for licensure in their state.
M.A. Clinical Counseling
The M.A. in Clinical Counseling is a 60 credit-hour program designed to equip a student to sit for the state board exams as licensed professional counselor or licensed mental health counselor in Alaska, Arizona, Oklahoma, or Texas. Students in other states where Wayland has a counseling program may also pursue the M.A. in Clinical Counseling if it better fits their career needs. In TEXAS ONLY, a student may elect to qualify for the exams for both the LPC and school counseling.
M.A. School Counseling
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The M.A. in School Counseling is only available in Texas. This program requires 48 credit hours and prepares students to sit for the certification exam as a school counselor in Texas public schools. Students in the school counseling program must be certified teachers and have a minimum of two years teaching experience before they will qualify for the school counselor exam in Texas.
