Credits: 3

This course provides students with an understanding of the key conceptual principles of behavior change. It covers the “nuts and bolts” that underlie most evidence-based therapeutic interventions for children and adolescents. Students explore basic principles such as positive and negative reinforcement, conditioning, extinction, response cost, functional analysis, reinforcement schedules, exposure, coercive cycle, antecedent management/stimulus control, token systems and compliance training. Students learn how to apply these principles to case conceptualization.

Credits: 3

This course provides students with awareness and knowledge of introductory core counseling skills and methods with particular attention paid to using these skills with youth/families. Various counseling skills will be presented through lecture, discussion and audio/video presentations. The course is experiential and aimed at helping counselors develop a foundation as strong, effective therapeutic agents for their clients.

Credits: 3

This course draws from two conceptual frameworks that form the basis of current thinking about developmental psychopathology. The developmental psychopathology perspective focuses on risk and protective factors in child psychopathology, and highlights the continuity between typical and atypical development. The bioecological model of human development emphasizes the importance of understanding bidirectional influences between the individual's’ development and the surrounding environmental context. This model provides an organizational framework for understanding intrapersonal, family, neighborhood/community and social/economic risk and protective factors relevant to understanding child mental health. In this class, we will address intra-individual (e.g., temperament, emotion regulation) as well as broad social-contextual factors that contribute to children’s mental health problems, such as parent substance use and mental health problems, intimate partner violence, poverty and contexts of abuse and neglect.

Available for single course enrollment

Credits: 3

This course offers comprehensive details about providing evidence-based treatment to children experiencing a range of emotional and/or behavioral problems. Students learn about various treatment implementation approaches and examine the application of those approaches with diverse families (e.g., culturally, ethnically, sexually, economically). Upon completion of the course, students will understand the most effective treatments across a range of different childhood disorders and have a rubric for determining how to make treatment decisions.

Available for single course enrollment

Credits: 1

This seminar-style course covers ethical and legal principles in the practice of counseling and psychology.

Credits: 3

In this course, students learn to treat oppositional defiant disorder and other disruptive behavior disorders in children through evidence-based parent training skills and approaches. This course specifically addresses: 1.) cultural considerations in working with families and implementing parenting interventions and 2.) systems issues related to how evidence-based parenting approaches are implemented in different settings (e.g., mental health, child welfare). Strategies for linking assessment with the selection and implementation of appropriate evidence-based treatments for children and families will be covered, including the use of functional assessments and modifications of evidence-based treatments based on such factors as client presentation, ethnicity/culture, socioeconomic status, context and system setting.

Credits: 1–2

Culture can represent a variety of experiences and ways people identify themselves, including race and ethnicity, class status, sexual orientation, disability status, gender and religion. This seminar-style course covers key principles, theories and applications of multiculturalism in counseling contexts. It examines several aspects of various cultural experiences as they impact the client, counselor and the counselor-client relationship.

Credits: 3

This course introduces students to the major mental health disorders typically diagnosed in childhood and adolescence, including the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, current information on their etiology and the latest research on the most effective assessment and treatment. Students examine the complexity of child psychopathology from an integrated perspective that considers biological, psychological, social and contextual influences on its development. The course aims to strengthen the critical thinking and conceptual skills necessary to formulate comprehensive case formulations and develop accurate diagnoses. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to accurately conceptualize and diagnose complex diagnostic presentations in childhood and adolescence, including disruptive behavior disorders, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorder and eating disorders.

Credits: 3

The course provides students with an in-depth, hands-on introduction to evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders. Students are also introduced to evidence-based approaches for treating mood disorders. Experiential components of the class include self-monitoring of thoughts, feelings and behaviors related to anxiety, goal setting, hierarchy building, and imaginal, interoceptive and in vivo exposure. Practicing the skills taught in class helps students understand more about the range of experiences clients may have in treatment for anxiety and mood disorders.

Credits: 1–2

Culture can represent a variety of experiences and ways people identify themselves, including race and ethnicity, class status, sexual orientation, disability status, gender and religion. This seminar-style course covers key principles, theories and applications of multiculturalism in counseling contexts. It examines several aspects of various cultural experiences as they impact the client, counselor and the counselor-client relationship.

In this supervised clinical experience, you’ll get a chance to apply your classroom learning to a mental health or community setting where children and adolescents with mental health concerns are being treated. Learn more.

Credits: 3

Students learn to effectively treat more challenging disorders, such as conduct disorder, substance abuse and suicidal behaviors. For children and families in which these problems exist, symptom presentation is often complicated by difficulties in school, involvement in the juvenile justice system and often involvement in the child welfare system. In addition to learning several evidence-based approaches (including the principles of Multisystemic Therapy), students learn how to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams and manage the complex needs of these families. Students also learn motivational interviewing techniques.

Credits: 1–2

Culture can represent a variety of experiences and ways people identify themselves, including race and ethnicity, class status, sexual orientation, disability status, gender and religion. This seminar-style course covers key principles, theories and applications of multiculturalism in counseling contexts. It examines several aspects of various cultural experiences as they impact the client, counselor and the counselor-client relationship.

Credits: 3

This course offers an in-depth, hands-on introduction to evidence-based Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). Students will learn the fundamentals of how to assess and treat trauma in children. The course, which integrates theory and practice, also focuses on adaptations to match client presentation, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status and treatment setting.

In this supervised clinical experience, you’ll get a chance to apply your classroom learning to a mental health or community setting where children and adolescents with mental health concerns are being treated. Learn more.

Credits: 3

Social-emotional development includes the child’s experience, expression and management of emotions, and the ability to establish positive and rewarding relationships with others. It involves both intrapersonal and interpersonal processes. Social and emotional skills are critical to being a good student, citizen and worker. In this course, we will cover the core features of social-emotional development, including temperament, attachment, emotional competence and regulation, development of the self, gender, identity development (including ethnic and racial socialization) and prosocial behavior. Because healthy social-emotional development unfolds in an interpersonal context, we will focus on the role of parents, peers, romantic relationships and other caregivers as key contexts for strengthening children’s capacity to learn and develop.

Available for single course enrollment

Credits: 1–2

Culture can represent a variety of experiences and ways people identify themselves, including race and ethnicity, class status, sexual orientation, disability status, gender and religion. This seminar-style course covers key principles, theories and applications of multiculturalism in counseling contexts. It examines several aspects of various cultural experiences as they impact the client, counselor and the counselor-client relationship.

Credits: 3

This course covers key principles, theories and applications of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). DBT is designed to assist clients in establishing emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance and mindfulness skills. This course explores DBT’s theoretical basis and provides an overview of DBT skills and how to integrate them into practice.

In this supervised clinical experience, you’ll get a chance to apply your classroom learning to a mental health or community setting where children and adolescents with mental health concerns are being treated. Learn more.

Credits: 3

Leadership in the area of child psychology requires the capacity to think critically about current research and to communicate current findings to others. This course covers core concepts in research methodology and explores how to critically evaluate research findings. It also discusses ethical guidelines for practice and research.

Available for single course enrollment

In this supervised clinical experience, you’ll get a chance to apply your classroom learning to a mental health or community setting where children and adolescents with mental health concerns are being treated. Learn more.