Program Overview
Purpose Statement, Objectives & Accreditation
Our purpose 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, then extended to January 2026. CACEP has granted full accreditation to the MA-CPSY program until November 19, 2031.
Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association
202-245 Menten Place
Ottawa, ON, K2H 9E8
- 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, then extended to January 2026. CACEP has granted full accreditation to the MA-CPSY program until November 19, 2031.
- 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:
An average of 84 completed applications are received each year (2020–2026), with an average of 25 new students being successfully admitted to the program each Fall. The 2026–2027 headcount for the program as a whole totaled 97 students.
From the program’s inception in 1993 through November 2026, there have been a total of 625 graduates. Between 2020 and 2026, an average of 21 students graduated each year from the MA-CPSY program, indicating an 84% completion rate, with students taking an average of 2.79 years to complete the program.
According to an Alumni Survey conducted in 2021, 44.1% of program graduates who responded indicated that they obtained employment as a counsellor prior to their degree conferral, while an additional 26.2% of respondents obtained employment in their chosen field within 3 months of graduating. Another 11.7% of graduates indicated they obtained employment in their chosen field within 2 years of graduating. 9.5% of graduates indicated that they went on to pursue further graduate education, including doctoral studies, while 26% of graduates said that pursuing an advanced level doctoral degree was part of their future plans. 94.6% of those same respondents indicated that TWU’s MA-CPSY program met or exceeded their expectations.