Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Counseling Accelerated Option (ISIS code: CA9)

Conceptual Framwork
As reflected in our mission statement, the Warner School is informed by the following core values:

• Passion for improving education and individual lives in the pursuit of social justice.
• Belief in the key role played by research to inform meaningful, effective, and long-lasting change in education.
• Recognition of the importance of collaborating across fields and constituencies to address complex educational problems.
• Importance of conceiving of education broadly, so as to include the variety of contexts in which development and learning take place throughout the life course and the variety of professions that can support such development and learning.

At the Warner School, faculty and students are united in the commitment and passion to assist others in successfully dealing with life’s challenges. We prepare counselors who will empower their clients to create more rewarding and meaningful lives and relationships; to become more self-reflective, caring and compassionate persons; and, to contribute to the reform of the systems in which their lives are embedded. This mission is based on a contextual and ecological perspective of professional counseling that acknowledges the importance of personal development, but also recognizes that individual lives are embedded in a variety of personal and extended relationships and social systems. Our programs for preparing counselors are characterized by the following elements:

Knowledge of Theory & Practice
Effective counselors need to develop a good understanding of the knowledge base for the profession related to: professional identity; social and cultural diversity; human growth and development; career development; helping relationships; evidenced-based counseling strategies; group work; assessment; research; and program evaluation. Our students learn how to put this knowledge into practice and develop their own integrative models of counseling and clinical supervision through exposure to well researched approaches.

Recognition of Historical, Cultural, and Social Contexts
Human development and personal growth integrates biological processes with other processes that occur in historical, cultural and social contexts, and that form contexts for each other. Educational experiences with teachers, counselors, or others, are part of these contexts. As a result, our candidates understand that human development only happens in social contexts and that they are themselves constituted by broader contexts and social processes.

Integration of Bio-Psycho-Social Development
An adequate understanding of human development requires a recognition of the interdependence of the broader context, the educating professions, and developmental opportunities. Our program strives for an integrated bio-psycho-social perspective on counseling and development which purports that counselors must analyze the multivariate space within which human growth occurs in order to understand and explain human action and thereby develop effective strategies to foster positive growth and development.

Commitment to Healthy Development
Counselors need to understand human development as a life-long process and one that is influenced to proceed along healthy or unhealthy directions based on educational, economic, social and cultural contexts and experiences. Our counseling program has a particular focus on working with those who live in difficult situations and for optimizing human potential. As a result, our students learn to understand the developmental needs and potentialities of people of all ages in order to better assist students and clients in their life choices.

Counselors as Agents of Change
Sometimes counselors can better help students and clients by focusing beyond individual counseling to connect them to other community resources, advocate on their behalf, work collectively for social justice, or work to improve the institution to foster healthier development of all people. Our students develop an awareness of, and expertise in, helping clients understand and respond to the broader problems and issues that are often the genesis of individual problems.

Appreciation for Diversity
Multicultural awareness is essential to the aims of social justice, and the efficacy of our commitment to community service cannot be maximized in the absence of multicultural competency. The counseling program devotes considerable focus to the study of multicultural issues as they pertain to both the theory and practice of counseling. In addition, all of our coursework is presented in the context of race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, ability, and sexual preference.