rehabilitation counseling

Welcome

Rehabilitation Counseling is a helping profession that provides services to economically and socially disadvantaged people who have physical, emotional, and/or intellectual disabilities. Rehabilitation Counselors help people with disabilities gain satisfying employment, consistent with their interests, and within their limitations. Cal State LA graduates in Rehabilitation Counseling obtain outstanding career employment in a diversity of human services settings.

As graduates from the Master of Science degree in Counseling, Option in Rehabilitation Counseling, one may find work as:

• Rehabilitation Counselor
• Career or Vocational Counselor
• College Career Planning Counselor
• College Instructor
• Disabled Student Services Coordinator
• Expert Witness for Social Security, Marriage Dissolution, Personal Injury, and/or Wrongful Death Cases
• Employment Officers for Veterans Affairs
• Grant Administrator
• Rehabilitation Student Coordinator
• Rehabilitation Agency Director

Program Outcomes

Students will:

• Learn about current issues, practices, and directions in rehabilitation counseling and the ability to inquire into these.
• Develop knowledge and skills in educational research; develop analysis and reflection skills and written and oral communication.
• Identify and analyze topics of importance in current educational conversations and debates for critical issues related to counseling. Enhance commitment to the profession.
• Increase their confidence to serve the community with disabilities.
• Improve their ability to manage and assess clients’ needs and rehabilitation potential.
• Augment the capacity to think reflectively about their ability to serve as rehabilitation counselors.
• Increase capacity to become an agent of change in the field of rehabilitation

Mission Statement

MS in Rehabilitation Counseling Program

The mission of the Rehabilitation Counseling Program is to recruit and train individuals from a remarkably diverse urban center to become rehabilitation counselors who work in a variety of employment settings. The Program serves the community by preparing counselors and administrators to become leaders and work in partnership with individuals who have disabilities to maximize their personal and professional potential.

MS in Rehabilitation Counseling Objectives

1. Recruit applicants from a remarkably multicultural, multilingual urban center, who have a variety of experiences and skills, including students with disabilities. 
1. Distribute program brochures via mail, e-mail, and our website
2. Present on the program to relevant organizations, agencies, classes at CSULA, and other colleges and universities
3. Networking with employers at practica and internship sites

2. Retain enrolled students through graduation. 
1. Encourage to join the student Rehabilitation Counseling Association and other rehabilitation-related state and national organizations to further develop their professional identity
2. Provide accurate, timely, and effective advisement throughout the academic year
3. Collaborate with Student Financial Aid and funding from outside sources (RSA and private grants)
4. Help students remedy academic difficulties

3. Deliver the CORE-accredited curriculum in rehabilitation counseling. 
1. Students will promote the dignity and worth of all individuals, and advocate for people with disabilities so that they receive maximum benefit and equitable treatment in society (C.1)
2. Students will recognize the richness and uniqueness of socially and culturally diverse populations, providing equitable services to all individuals (C.2)
3. Students will be able to recognize consumers’ strengths and capabilities throughout their lifespan, and assist them to maximize their potential (C.3)
4. Students will establish their knowledge and expertise in the world of work, and the vocational implications of disability, including the knowledge to assist with issues of accommodation and accessibility (C.4)
5. Students will develop effective individual and group counseling strategies, interviewing and consultation skills, and sensitivity in working with consumers (C.5, C.6)
6. Students will learn evaluation techniques necessary for case conceptualization and intervention targeting (C.7)
7. Students will apply empirically-supported interventions to practice and program development, and appropriately evaluate the effectiveness of these activities (C.8)
8. Students will become expert in medical and psychosocial aspects of disability and functioning (C.9)
9. Students will obtain practical experiences in working with people with disabilities in community, public, private sector agencies, and colleges and universities within an urban environment (C.10)

4. Graduate and place 100% of enrolled students. 
1. Encourage students to select employment in the public sector (e.g., vocational rehabilitation, Veterans Administration); facilitate placement in private not-for-profit and for profit agencies
2. Student development counseling graduates find disability-related employment in higher education
3. Transition services graduates will assume positions within state-federal vocational rehabilitation system, in collaboration with the secondary education system