Earn your Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling online
Prepare for a rewarding career providing compassionate and competent counseling services in clinical mental health settings such as mental health agencies, group practices, residential treatment centers, hospitals, university counseling centers or private practice. With 100% online coursework and experiential learning, gain the necessary knowledge and skills to use your calling as an exceptional licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) who improves the lives and mental health of individuals through holistic wellness. You will be equipped to empower others to make positive changes in their lives.
Faith-integrated mental health counseling program
In Northwestern College's online M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, you will be part of a community dedicated to the development of outstanding counselors who are called to serve others in diverse settings. Students integrate a Christian perspective with culturally sensitive and ethical clinical skills so they can courageously and faithfully provide compassionate care in pursuing God’s work of restoration and healing in the world.
Through NWC's M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling you will be equipped to:
- Apply ethical and legal considerations, behavior, and judgments in counseling situations
- Display multicultural awareness and sensitivity
- Demonstrate an ability to articulate a biblical world view and be able to articulate how your most important spiritual and religious values impact your counseling practice
- Display the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to serve and influence your communities, workplaces, and families
- Next steps
- Request information Apply
100% online coursework. 8-week courses. Experiential learning.
Through online, 8-week classes, students log into their courses to complete assignments each week on their own schedule. Most courses include 3-4 synchronous virtual class meetings arranged by the instructor. Practicum and internship experiences enrich learning and skill-building through offering services to actual clients in approved and supervised settings near where the student lives.
The master's in clinical mental health program is designed for working professionals to complete the program in just two years (6 semesters) by taking two courses at a time.
Professional preparation
Northwestern's Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health is designed to prepare students to be outstanding counselors in the practice settings of their choice and is aligned with the standards and competencies of the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). The program plans to apply for CACREP accreditation as soon as the application is allowed (once the program has produced its first graduates). After successful completion of the counseling program, students will be prepared to pursue licensure as a professional counselor in their state and take the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Exam (CPCE).
Beginning July 1, 2026, all CACREP programs require an in-person experience twice during the program to observe and assess counseling skills and professional dispositions. Details to be announced in Fall 2025.
Program mission
The Counseling Program at Northwestern College is a Christ-centered community dedicated to the development of outstanding counselors who are called to serve both Christ and in diverse, multicultural, and global society with marginalized populations. Students integrate a biblical perspective with culturally sensitive and ethical clinical skills so they can courageously and faithfully provide compassionate care in pursuing God’s work of restoration and healing in the world.
Application requirements
No GRE required. No Application fee.
Application materials reviewed on a rolling basis.
Application materials will be evaluated as they are received. Following a review of all completed application materials, applicants will be invited to a virtual interview with a faculty member.
Official transcripts showing a degree from an accredited institution.
- Official transcripts are needed from your bachelor's degree institution as well as from any institution showing graduate credit if seeking transfer credit.
- No undergraduate transcripts are required of NWC alumni
Send official transcripts to onlineadmissions@nwciowa.edu or Northwestern College, Graduate & Professional Studies, 101 7th St SW, Orange City, IA 51041.
Minimum undergraduate cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
- Applicants with a GPA under 3.0 may be eligible for conditional admission on a case-by-case basis.
Updated résumé can be uploaded and submitted with your application or emailed to online@nwciowa.edu following submission of your online application.
Background check must be completed through CastleBranch.
Preferred application process for Northwestern College graduates
Graduates of Northwestern College receive the benefit of a more streamlined application process and do not need to submit their NWC undergraduate transcripts. All other application requirements are required.
Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate preparedness to enter the counseling field as clinical mental health counselors.
- Demonstrate the ability to apply ethical and legal considerations, behavior, and judgments in counseling situations.
- Recognize the impact of heritage, attitudes, beliefs, understandings, and acculturative experiences on an individual’s view of others.
- Demonstrate an understanding of biological, neurological, and physiological factors that affect human development, functioning, and behavior.
- Demonstrate the ability to conceptualize the interrelationships among and between work, mental well-being, relationships, and other life roles and factors.
- Demonstrate the essential interviewing, counseling, and case conceptualization skills necessary to be competent and ethical clinical mental health counselors.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and functions of effective group leaders.
- Demonstrate knowledge of, and an ability to use assessments relevant to academic/educational, career, personal, and social development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of evaluation procedures for counseling interventions and programs.
- Demonstrate competence in utilizing an intake interview, mental status evaluation, biopsychosocial history, mental health history, and psychological assessment for treatment planning and caseload management as appropriate.
- Demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to serve and influence their communities, workplaces, and families.
- Demonstrate multicultural self-awareness and clinical competence.
- Demonstrate an ability to articulate a biblical worldview, and identify how their self-identified most important spiritual and religious values and beliefs impact their counseling practice.
- The program will demonstrate it effectively meets the needs of its key stakeholders.
Program Requirements
The 60 credit clinical mental health counseling program includes valuable hands-on learning in the practicum and internship courses. Students will apply theory and develop as clinical counselors by providing services to actual clients. They will also develop the skills and knowledge related to their counseling setting such as timeliness, documentation and site policies and procedures.
- The practicum experience requires completion of a minimum of 100 hours of which 40 hours must be direct client services.
- The Internship experience is a 600-hour experience of which 240 hours must be direct services to clients.
Courses
COUN 505 - Professional Orientation
This course introduces students to the field of counseling in diverse
settings, including school and clinical mental health settings. The course
provides a broad overview and survey of the counseling profession, including
its historical and theoretical foundations, the major professional
associations of the counseling profession, and roles and responsibilities of
counselors in a variety of settings and within and among the other mental
health professions. Students will begin development of a professional
identity and will reflect on their calling to the profession of counseling
and their vision for using their master's degree in the future. Students
will begin the process of spiritual formation for counseling. (3 credits)
COUN 515 - Ethics
This course introduces students to legal and ethical issues relevant to the
counseling profession and equips students with an ethical decision-making
model for navigating ethical dilemmas and issues related to professional
practice. Students will develop ethical sensitivity and utilize the ethical
principles, which serve as the profession's foundation for ethical behavior
and decision making, in evaluating case studies. An overview of the Iowa
statutes which govern practice will also be provided. The goal of this
course is to get students to think about major issues related to the
professional practice of counseling, while challenging them to formulate
positions on such issues, consider a biblical perspective, and appraise the
values impacting counselors and the counseling profession. (3 credits)
COUN 520 - Social & Cultural Foundations
In this course, students will examine the psychological and sociological
factors that form self-concept and cultural identity, and consider how these
constructs impact effective counseling with diverse populations. Students
will begin a professional journey of developing multicultural competence
through developing self-awareness, sensitivity to elements of diversity,
knowledge of cultural values, and a commitment to the counseling
profession's core value of honoring diversity and embracing a multicultural
approach in support of the worth, dignity, potential, and uniqueness of
people within their social and cultural contexts. Students will learn how to
apply awareness and culturally competent skills and knowledge in
interventions and advocacy practices with diverse populations. Course
concepts will be considered through a biblical world view which provides a
foundation for understanding how God views all people groups. Prerequisite:
COUN505. (3 credits)
COUN 525 - Human Growth & Development
One of the philosophies underlying the counseling profession that helps set
it apart from the other mental health professions is a developmental
perspective; a recognition that many of the issues clients face in life are
developmental in nature. This course introduces students to theories of
individual and family development across the lifespan, theories of learning,
theories of moral and spiritual development, and theories of normal and
abnormal personality development. The course also delves into factors and
circumstances that can impact a person's development; biological,
neurological, and physiological factors, addictive behaviors, systemic and
environmental factors, crises, disasters, and trauma, and culture. Students
will develop a general framework for developing interventions based on
client developmental level and ethical and culturally relevant strategies
for promoting resilience and wellness across the lifespan. (3 credits)
COUN 550 - Theories & Skills of Counseling I
This course is part one of a two-part integrated skills and theories series
that introduces students to the basic skills of the counseling relationship
and the major theories of personality and psychotherapy, and provides
students an experiential opportunity to begin practicing and assimilating
these skills in their counselor identity. In Theories and Skills of
Counseling I, students are introduced to counseling skills such as
attending, active listening, empathy, questioning, observation, encouraging,
summarizing, reflecting, and challenging. Skills are practiced with role
play partners, video recorded and submitted to the professor for review and
feedback. Theories covered in Theories and Skills of Counseling I include
Psychodynamic, Adlerian, Client-Centered, Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy,
Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive Therapy. Modern psychotherapies are
considered through a biblical world view. Prerequisite: COUN515. (3 credits)
COUN 510 - Assessment & Appraisal
This course introduces students to the field of counseling in diverse
settings, including school and clinical mental health settings. The course
provides a broad overview and survey of the counseling profession, including
its historical and theoretical foundations, the major professional
associations of the counseling profession, and roles and responsibilities of
counselors in a variety of settings and within and among the other mental
health professions. Students will begin development of a professional
identity and will reflect on their calling to the profession of counseling
and their vision for using their master's degree in the future. Students
will begin the process of spiritual formation for counseling. (3 credits)
COUN 551 - Theories & Skills of Counseling II
This course is part two of a two-part integrated skills and theories series
that introduces students to the basic skills of the counseling relationship
and the major theories of personality and psychotherapy, and provides
students an experiential opportunity to begin practicing and assimilating
these skills in their counselor identity. In Theories and Skills of
Counseling II, students review counseling skills such as attending, active
listening, empathy, questioning, observation, encouraging, summarizing,
reflecting, and challenging. Skills are practiced with role play partners,
video recorded and submitted to the professor for review and feedback.
Theories covered in Theories and Skills of Counseling II include
Existential, Gestalt, Interpersonal, Family Systems,
Mindfulness/Contemplative, Positive Psychology, Integrative, and
Multicultural approaches. Modern psychotherapies are considered through a
biblical world view. Prerequisites: COUN515 and COUN550. (3 credits)
CMHC 515 - Marriage & Family
This course introduces students to the field of marriage and family
counseling. The course covers the history and development of the field as
well as the research foundations for the field and specific models and
approaches to treatment. Models covered include the Systemic and Strategic
approaches, Structural, Experiential, Intergenerational and Psychoanalytic
approaches, Cognitive-Behavioral, Mindfulness-based, Solution-Focused, and
Narrative approaches, and the Gottman approach. A Christian perspective on
marriage and family interventions is incorporated into the coursework.
Prerequisites: COUN550 and COUN551. (3
credits)
CMHC 520 - Diagnosis & Psychopathology
This course provides students with an overview of psychopathology through
the lens of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (5th ed.) of the American
Psychiatric Association. Fundamental clinical mental health counseling
processes such as the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment
planning processes are also explored. The course utilizes case studies,
discussions, presentations, and reflection papers to assist students in
developing an understanding of the importance of the clinical interview and
the mental status exam on the diagnostic process, and to help students
examine and reflect on disorder etiologies and the impact of culture,
biology, neuroscience, and spirituality on the diagnostic process. A
Christian perspective on understanding and treating mental health disorders
is integrated into the course. Prerequisites: COUN550 and COUN551. (3
credits)
COUN 555 - Crisis, Trauma, & Suicide
This course introduces students to the field of counseling in diverse
settings, including school and clinical mental health settings. The course
provides a broad overview and survey of the counseling profession, including
its historical and theoretical foundations, the major professional
associations of the counseling profession, and roles and responsibilities of
counselors in a variety of settings and within and among the other mental
health professions. Students will begin development of a professional
identity and will reflect on their calling to the profession of counseling
and their vision for using their master's degree in the future. Students
will begin the process of spiritual formation for counseling. (3 credits)
COUN 605 - Skills II
This course is designed to give students practice experience
engaging in a counseling relationship over the course of six sessions, in
the practice setting most relevant to the client's future practice (clinical
mental health, school counseling, etc.). Students will review and utilize
basic counseling skills and continue developing their own individual
counseling approaches with an emphasis on integration of theoretical
orientation techniques, ethical practices, personality, spiritual
integration, and setting-specific practices, under the instruction and
evaluation of the course instructor. This course is largely experiential
and is focused on preparing students for their Practicum experiences.
Students will engage in a multi-session counseling experience with a
learning partner focused on solidification of basic counseling skills and
growth of advanced counseling skills. Prerequisites: COUN505, COUN515,
COUN520, COUN550, COUN551, COUN555 (prerequisite or concurrent), CMHC520 or
SCO520. (3 credits)
CMHC 610 - Practicum
The counseling Practicum experience provides students with an initial
experience in providing counseling services in the clinical mental health counseling
setting. The Practicum experience requires a minimum of 100 clock hours of documented
contact including indirect and direct service, and supervision both onsite (provided
by a designated site supervisor) and in class (provided by your assigned faculty
member). The Practicum course is a seminar-style class which supports students
participating in their Practicum experience and which supports students in developing
their basic counseling skills and in learning a variety of assessment and intervention
techniques. Students are required to earn a minimum grade of a B in this course in order
to move forward in the program. This course requires online students to attend
weekly synchronous class meetings. The day/times of the meetings will be determined
by the course instructor. Prerequisites: COUN505, COUN515, COUN520, COUN525,
COUN550, COUN551, COUN555 and COUN605. (3 credits)
COUN 530 - Group Counseling & Group Work
This course introduces students to the theory and practice of group
counseling, its development within the field of counseling, and its
utilization as an intervention in school counseling, clinical mental health
counseling, and other settings. Group work requires some distinct
understandings and approaches from individual counseling and as such, this
course focuses on the stages of group formation, group therapeutic factors,
group facilitation skills, dealing with challenges particular to group
settings, and utilizing the group modality effectively. Students will be
given the opportunity to participate in a group process, both as
participants and as leaders. Because of this component, there will be a
synchronous component to this course, where students will have to coordinate
a day/time where they can consistently meet with their group to meet this
requirement of the course. Prerequisites: COUN515, COUN550, COUN551,
COUN605. (3 credits)
CMHC 575 - Psychopharmacology & Neuroscience
This course introduces students to the field of psychiatry and examines the
topic of psychopharmacology, or the treatment of mental health conditions
through prescribing of medications and psychoactive substances, and the
topic of neuroscience, or our current understanding of brain science and the
impact of the brain on human cognitions, emotion, and behavior. Students
will work to be able to collaborate with multidisciplinary treatment teams
that include psychiatrists and other medical doctors, and understand how
psychopharmacological and neuroscientific issues impact the work counselors
do in clinical mental health counseling settings. The course is arranged
around students working in groups with classmates to consider a series of
case studies through the lens of psychopharmacology and neuroscience.
(Prerequisite: CMHC520. (3 credits)
CMHC 615 - Internship I
The Counseling Internship experience provides students with experience in
providing counseling services in the clinical mental health counseling setting. The
Internship experience requires a minimum of 600 clock hours spread over at least two
semesters of documented contact including indirect and direct service, and supervision
both onsite (provided by a designated site supervisor) and in class (provided by an
assigned faculty member). The Internship course is a seminar-style class which supports
students participating in their Internship experience and which supports students in developing
their counseling skills and in learning a variety of counseling and intervention techniques.
Students are required to earn a minimum grade of a B in this course in order to move
forward in the program. This course requires online students to attend weekly synchronous
class meetings. The day/times of the meetings will be determined by the course instructor.
In this course, students will increase competency in their clinical skills, case
conceptualization abilities, and ability to apply what they have learned in the program to the work they
do with clients. Students' caseloads and responsibilities will increase and they will
continue to fine tune their theoretical orientations, increase awareness of their counseling
styles, and develop their counseling identities. Students will also continue to develop their
written and verbal communication and presentation skills, and peer feedback skills.
Prerequisites: COUN505, COUN515, COUN520, COUN525, COUN550, COUN551, COUN555, COUN605 and COUN610. (3 credits)
COUN 580 - Career Development
This course provides an overview of career development theory, models,
occupational information sources and systems, college and career readiness,
and career assessment instruments for diverse populations. Students will
consider the relevance of career in the overall development of the
counseling profession, the interrelationship between work, mental
well-being, relationships, and other life roles and factors, and specific
career interventions in clinical mental health and school counseling
settings. The course will focus on the career decision-making process and
how counselors can use assessments and different career resources to gather
information tailored to help guide the client in the decision-making
process. Prerequisite: COUN510. (3 credits)
COUN 585 - Research & Program Evaluation
This course provides students with practical guidance for accessing and
comprehending published research articles with a goal of helping students
incorporate an intention of understanding the evidence base for the
interventions they use with clients and a willingness to be life-long
consumers of counseling research. The course provides an overview of
important methodological concepts of research, measurement and statistical
concepts, and quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research
methodologies. The course also examines program evaluation with a focus on
understanding the need for, and strategies for utilizing program evaluation
in diverse settings. (3 credits)
CMHC 620 - Internship II
The Counseling Internship experience provides students with experience in
providing counseling services in the clinical mental health counseling setting. The
Internship experience requires a minimum of 600 clock hours spread over at least two
semesters of documented contact including indirect and direct service, and supervision
both onsite (provided by a designated site supervisor) and in class (provided by an
assigned faculty member). The Internship course is a seminar-style class which supports
students participating in their Internship experience and which supports students in developing
their counseling ski and in learning a variety of counseling and intervention techniques.
Students are required to earn a minimum grade of a B in this course in order to move forward in the
program. This course requires online students to attend weekly synchronous class meetings.
The day/times of the meetings will be determined by the course instructor. In this course,
students will continue to hone their clinical skills, case conceptualization abilities,
and ability to apply what they have learned in the program to the work they do with
clients. Students will continue develop their theoretical orientations, increase awareness of their
counseling styles, and develop their counseling identities. Students will also continue
to develop their written and verbal communication and presentation skills, and peer
feedback skills. Prerequisites: CMHC610 and CMHC615. (3 credits)
CMHC 570 - Foundations of Addictions Counseling
This course introduces students to the field of treating substance use
disorders. As such, it provides an overview of the major theories, issues,
and modalities for treating addictive disorders and the major drugs of
abuse. Students will explore the impact of addiction on clients' lives, and
consider a holistic approach to recovery which includes biological,
psychological, sociological, and spiritual dimensions. Students will
explore spiritual treatment approaches including the 12-step approach
originating with Alcoholics Anonymous, and mindfulness meditation, and
reflect on how spiritual approaches could support students' understanding of
and treatment of addictive disorders in practice. Prerequisites: CMHC520 or
SCO520.
(3 credits)
COUN 635 - Capstone
This course is intended to be a final summation of students' experience in
the clinical mental health counseling and school counseling programs. As
such, it is intended to be taken during students' last semester of the
program, where they can reflect back on what they've learned over the
previous semesters. Students will reflect on and integrate features from
psychology, theology, Christian spirituality, and the practice of
evidence-based counseling skills and methods as students work to continue
refining their individual counseling approaches that they will be applying
in school counseling and clinical mental health counseling settings.
Prerequisite: COUN615. (3 credits)
