Program Overview

Mission Statement, Objectives & Accreditation

Our mission is to nurture students for professional practice and scholarship in counselling psychology.

Core Program Objectives:

  • To cultivate competent professional counsellors with a vision to address human suffering and promote human flourishing.
  • To promote engagement between scholarship and practice in a faith context.
  • To encourage personal and spiritual growth.
  • To foster the development of community awareness and commitment to social justice.
  • To actively cultivate multicultural and international dialogue among helping professionals.
  • To promote scholarship, research, and publication.
  • To prepare students for doctoral studies.

Our Community Counselling Approach Promotes:

  • Counsellors who are equipped to function competently and professionally in community agencies and who work effectively with an increasingly diversified and pluralistic population.
  • Students who understand and work with issues such as substance abuse, dysfunctional families and domestic violence.
  • To foster the development of community awareness and commitment to social justice.
  • Students who can function competently and professionally in an environment working with children, youth, teachers, administrators, and parents.
  • Students with appropriate intervention skills so that they can competently work with children and youth who are facing issues of abuse, violence, substance abuse and other anti-social activities.
  • Students' ability to network with and refer to agencies and mental health professionals in cases where further professional help is required.

Accreditation of MA Counselling Psychology Program at TWU:

  • Council for the Accreditation of Counsellor Education Programs (CACEP) 

CACREP is the accreditation body of the American Counseling Association (ACA). The Masters in Counselling Psychology (MA-CPSY) program first received accreditation from this body in 2002, and was accredited through to October 31, 2014. The MA-CPSY program has been a full member of CACEP - the accreditation body of the Canadian Counselling & Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) since 2012.  Reaccreditation was granted in 2018 through to November 2024 when another site visit and reaccreditation process will take place. 

  • International Registry of Counsellor Education programs (IRCEP) 

The International Registry of Counsellor Education Programs (IRCEP) was developed by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) to respond to growing requests for an international recognition review process for counsellor education programs around the world. The Masters in Counselling Psychology (MA-CPSY) program at TWU is an approved program included in this registry.

ASSOCIATED PROFESSIONAL LINKS:
 
 
 
 

MA Counselling Psychology Program Outcomes:

Approximately 45 completed applications are received each year, resulting in an average of 25 new students being successfully admitted to the program. The 2017-18 headcount for the program as a whole totaled 104 students.

Since the program’s inception in 1993, there have been a total of 421 graduates. In 2017-18, 23 students graduated from the MA-CPSY program. During the period of 2012-2017, the program experienced an overall completion rate of 93% with students taking an average of 2.59 years to complete the degree.

According to an Alumni Survey conducted in 2017, 45.6% of program graduates who responded indicated that they obtained employment as a counsellor, prior to their degree conferral, while an additional 14.7% of respondents obtained employment in their chosen field within 3 months of graduating. 93.7% of those same respondents indicated they would recommend TWU’s MA-CPSY program to others considering a career in counselling.