No, we admit in the winter for beginning in Fall quarter annually.
Application to the MAP program is online and overseen through the Office of Graduate Admissions.
In the process of applying to the program you will need to submit the following items to Office of Graduate Admissions:
The Priority Deadline for applications to start the MAP Program in the Fall is January 15. We begin review of applications at that point. We typically continue to accept applications beyond that date until we have a full cohort of students.
Candidates must hold a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution. Candidates will also need to have completed prerequisite psychology coursework in the following six areas: 1) Introduction to Psychology, 2) Abnormal Psychology, 3) Developmental/Lifespan Psychology, 4) Personality Psychology, 5) Statistics, and 6) Research Methods. This is ordinarily equivalent to a minor in Psychology. The six prerequisite Psychology courses must be completed before classes begins in the Fall Quarter. If you have not yet completed all six you may still apply to the program, as long as you outline a plan for completing them by the beginning of Fall Quarter. A transcript showing a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) in undergraduate work is required.
Any accredited institution that can provide you with transcripts of the classes you have completed may qualify, whether the class was taken online, in person, or a combination of both. In the Seattle area, these include (but are not limited to) Bellevue College, Seattle Central Community College, North Seattle College, South Seattle College and Shoreline Community College. We do not recommend specific online providers, but many are available. They simply need to be accredited. Please note: Personality Psychology (sometimes called Personality Theory) can be a difficult course to find as it's often only offered once a year, so please plan accordingly. Taking the course online may offer the most flexibility.
Our intention with this requirement is that applicants should have some experience working with persons in distress and have a sense of what it might entail to be a psychotherapist or work in community mental health settings prior to beginning work in the program.
This experience can take a variety of forms. We prefer that an applicant have experience working in a structured role in a community mental health program, human services agency, or an educational or social services setting. The work should involve direct interaction with clients experiencing distress or difficulties. So for these purposes, working as a teacher or teaching assistant with children with autism or emotional difficulties would qualify. Likewise, working with at risk youth in a community-based program, or doing support work with clients in a domestic violence shelter would count, but serving in an administrative or fund-raising role at a VA clinic would not. Other acceptable experiences might include volunteering for a Crisis Line, working as a residential counselor or caseworker, or serving as an intern screening participants for a clinical mental health research study.
Ideally, your experience(s) should include some form of training, mentoring, and/or supervision by a professional in the field. The key is that you receive some meaningful form of training for the role you are in, along with opportunities for feedback and growth in your role. You are not simply left alone to struggle with your experiences. You can accumulate the required 600 hours across a variety of different work or volunteer experiences or in a single role at a single site. You do not need to have completed the full 600 hours of work at the time you apply and interview for the program. However, you should have completed some significant portion of this work requirement at the time you apply. In your application essay, you should be prepared to describe and reflect on your human services experiences to this point, and you should be prepared to describe how you will complete the 600 hour requirement prior to starting in the program in September.
Change answer to: Seattle University is regionally accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) and this accreditation applies to the MAP program as well. Regional accreditation is a requirement for licensure in some states. The MAP program’s curriculum meets licensure requirements in the State of Washington for the Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate (LMHCA) credential. Our graduates are trained and qualified to enter professional work in counseling, community mental health, psychotherapy and other vocations. Requirements for licensure in other states are established on a state-by-state basis. It is the responsibility of applicants to the MAP program to research states where they may wish to practice and determine if the MAP program will meet the licensing requirements for that state.
Some limited scholarship (fellowship) aid is available to new students entering the MAP program.
Selection Criteria and Process of Selection:
Fellowship awards are based on a combination of factors, the most important of which include indication of unmet financial need, strength of fit with the values and training approaches of the program, and evidence of interest in working with underserved or marginalized groups. This would include work with individuals from racial, sexual and ethnic minority backgrounds, service to refugee or immigrant communities, homeless or at-risk youth, women with children recovering from domestic violence or youth in the juvenile justice system. Faculty meet to discuss applicants and determine fellowship recipients in the spring of the year.
Notification Process:
Applicants who are awarded a scholarship are generally notified at the time of their acceptance into the program. Letters are initiated and sent from the Office of Graduate Admissions.
Students are part of a yearly cohort; the average size is 20 students.
Class sizes vary somewhat between elective and required courses. In general, in required courses for the program class sizes tend to be approximately 20 students. This reflects the fact that, since students are part of a cohort, they take many courses together with their peers. However, elective classes tend to be smaller, having an average of 12 to 18 students. Certain intensive clinical skills courses are taught in smaller groups of from three to six students.
Most class meetings take place Monday through Thursday. Classes begin no earlier than 3:30pm and end no later than 9:00pm. This schedule changes during the summer term between students' 1st and 2nd year in the program. In summer term classes are run in four week blocks during weekday daytime hours.
The MAP program is currently a 72-credit program that requires 2 - 3 years to complete. Pending administrative approval, however, it will become a more extensive, 90-credit hour program, in fall of 2024. With that change, the program would become a 3-year program for students who are enrolled full-time.
The LMHC license in Washington state is a general mental health counselor license. Students do not have to have an emphasis on work with a specific clinical population, though many do have areas of practice in which they want to focus. Students can choose what populations they want with to work with in their clinical internship experiences whether children, adults or families, and what particular types of clinical issues and approaches they would like to focus upon.
The core curriculum includes the following subject areas:
Foundations for Existential-Phenomenological, Relational and Humanistic Clinical Practice
Electives may include the following subject areas:
For the 72-credit program, students must take 50 hours of required course
credits, which includes completing a clinical internship and a capstone integration paper. Additionally, students need to take 22 credits in elective coursework. A list of required courses and a sample of electives is available here: Required Courses. These requirements may change pending approval of the transition to a 90-credit curriculum. This website will be updated at that time to reflect the revised requirements.
MAP students fulfill a substantial clinical internship requirement (600 hours) in their second year in the program. The MAP program holds an Internship Orientation Session each year in the winter quarter in which the MAP Clinical Director and clinical faculty walk first year students through the steps of the process of researching and applying to clinical internship sites.
We provide students with a list of roughly thirty sites in the Puget Sound area with which the program has worked in the recent past. The list provides an overview of the orientation of each clinic, the clientele served, as well as contact information for site training directors and previous interns from the MAP program who may have worked there. Students are responsible for choosing which sites they want to apply to, and then applying and interviewing with sites. Clinical internship entails roughly 20 hours per week of work in the role of counselor/therapist for a period of 9 to 12 months.
Seattle University's MAP program is existential-phenomenological (EP) and humanistic in its orientation. EP is a continental philosophical tradition that speaks to contemporary psychology and psychotherapy by offering a fundamentally different model of training than most other training programs. The program offers a broad foundation in psychology, philosophy, and psychopathology that also engages the humanities. Through exploring these in relation to psychotherapy and counseling, students come to appreciate the significance of therapeutic attitude and presence. Most fundamentally, we place a strong emphasis on the relational and ethical dimensions of psychotherapy.
The time limits and curriculum constraints of a two-year professional degree program mean that the MAP program is primarily a clinical training program. While there are opportunities to get involved in ongoing qualitative research projects with faculty members and alumni, and MAP students frequently author papers for professional presentations and sometimes publication, there are significant limits on the support the program can provide for student research and research training.
Only under exceptional circumstances may a student substitute undertaking a master’s thesis (that is, a research project involving human subjects review, collection and analysis of original data) for completion of the program's capstone Integration Paper. These exceptional circumstances include:
A thesis cannot be undertaken in the MAP program solely in anticipation of pursuing future graduate study (e.g., Ph.D., Psy.D). Students focused on seeking graduate training at the doctoral level and interested in gaining additional research experience should speak with the program faculty regarding the available options. Applicants to the program should consider as well whether their ultimate career goals might be best served by applying directly to a research-focused doctoral program.
The MAP program has a full-time faculty of six professors. Each faculty member brings their distinct educational background and experiences to teaching and training students. Most are experienced clinicians; all are active researchers in the human sciences. In addition, we have an excellent supporting team of clinical instructors and mentors with expertise across a wide range of clinical areas.
Yes. Twenty (20) hours per week is easily doable. Thirty (30) hours is more difficult. We do not recommend working full-time while in the program. The second year also has an approximately 20 hour weekly internship requirement.
No.
Yes.
Approximately $60,000 for the 72-credit program which will end after Summer of 2024. $75,000 for the 90-credit program beginning Fall of 2024, pending approval.
The need for affordable housing is a critical issue for many students and those thinking about attending the MAP program. For information and resources for housing that is located near the SU campus click here or visit Seattle University's partner Places4Students.
MAP Program Information
Harding 140
206.296.5400
eppsyc@seattleu.edu
SU Graduate Admissions
206.220.8010
grad-admissions@seattleu.edu