The certificate is for individuals who are enrolled in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program or have earned a graduate degree in counseling or a closely related field. Specifically, the certificate program: (1) allows individuals currently working in mental health settings to upgrade their knowledge and skills related to working with clinical populations, (2) allows individuals who have earned a degree in counseling or a closely related field with fewer than the required minimum hours for professional counseling licensure to add the necessary hours, and/or (3) allow individuals with a license as a professional counselor to add one or more specialization licenses available through the Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling. To gain admission to this certificate program, applicants in Arkansas State University’s graduate degree programs noted above must be a student in good standing with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA, have completed a minimum of 24 credit hours toward their primary degree, have successfully completed COUN 6203 - Counseling Prepracticum  and PSY 6113 - Theories and Techniques in Counseling  with a course grade of “B” or better, and have a recommendation from their primary academic advisor. Post graduate applicants must meet requirements for admission to the Ed.S. degree in Psychology and Counseling (Clinical Mental Health Counseling track).

Students in this certificate program will complete a minimum of 15 hours from among existing courses approved for credit toward the existing Specialist in Education degree with an emphasis in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Hours completed in fulfillment of a prior degree cannot be counted toward certificate requirements. Other relevant coursework completed while pursuing a prior degree, but not counted toward a prior degree, might be counted toward certificate requirements with approval of the academic advisor. The basic curriculum for the certificate program is comprised of the courses required by the licensure board that typically are not required by any of the programs that are identified as feeders to this certificate program.