Field Placement

As part of your journey as clinical mental health counseling student, you will engage in field placement experience. You will complete one practicum and two internships. Practicum consist of 100 hours, while the internships consist of 300 hours. Please see the field placement sites link to explore our site affiliates. Our dedicated director of field placement is available to support students during this journey.

The field placement experience is a required component of the Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), as well as the State of New Jersey.

According to CACREP guidelines, counselors in training should have the following opportunities through their field placement experiences:

• Experience in individual and group interactions
• Opportunities for students to counsel clients representative of the ethnic, lifestyle, and demographic diversity of their community
• Involvement in a variety of professional activities in addition to direct service work
• Use of a variety of professional resources such as measurement instruments, computers, print and non-print media, professional literature, and research
• Application of the ethical code and guidelines of the American Counseling Association (ACA)
• Extensive supervision supported by observational and communications technologies

There are three important outcomes of a successful field placement experience for the student:

• It gives the student the opportunity to integrate and apply the fundamentals of the profession under the direction of qualified supervisors.
• It forms the basis for the transition from the student role to the role of the professional counselor.
• It shapes future employment by developing skills in working with particular client populations, in particular counseling modalities, and/or with particular presenting problems.