Business Administration - John F. Kennedy University

Performance review and evaluation
Following admission, there is an ongoing evaluation of each
student’s academic performance and readiness to continue in the
program. When an evaluation indicates that a student’s performance
falls below the standards of the department of Counseling
Psychology, a student may be required to take additional
coursework, complete additional supervised field experience,
undertake personal growth work, take a leave of absence, or
withdraw from the program. The final decision is made by the
department chair in consultation with the dean of the school.
After one year in the program and completion of the courses listed
below, students are given a year-end progress review. This year-end
review is a supportive team process involving the review of written
faculty feedback and evaluation, grade standing, and an assessment
of the individual’s overall readiness to proceed further in the program.
field Placement
Students in the counseling psychology MA degree program gain
therapeutic experience and develop clinical skills through required
12 units of field placement. Students complete their field placement
at the School’s Center for Holistic Counseling in Oakland, JFK
University’s commu nity counseling centers in Sunnyvale or at
another approved community-based site.
The 12 units (four consecutive quarters) of supervised field
placement are integral to students’ clinical training. Students are
trained to conduct screening interviews, crisis intervention,
assessment, referral, and community outreach. Students have
ample opportunity to share their clinical experience with other
trainees and to receive feedback on their work from skilled
practitioners. Working with the guidance of experienced, licensed
therapists, trainees are assisted in developing therapeutic skills
through a variety of means, including individual and group
supervision, training sessions, individual and family case semi nars,
direct observation through one-way mirrors, and use of audio and
videotape. Students may sometimes be required or have the option
to take a fifth quarter of field placement.
Supplemental field placement is for students who wish to gain
clinical experience in addition to their required 12 units of field
practicum and wish to count those hours of experience towards BBS
licensure. In order to be eligible a student must complete at least 18
quarter units of graduate coursework in the counseling program.
Those 18 units must include Therapeutic Communication A–B
(HSJ 5105–06, SPC 5323–24, or TPC 5213–14), Group Process A–C
(HSJ 5101–03, SPC 5004–06, or TPC 5004–06), and Ethics and the
Law (HSJ 5235, SPC 5631, or TPC 5235). After receiving permission
from the field placement coordinator and the program chair or
director, a student must register for the one-unit supplemental
fieldwork course for each quarter.
individual Psychotherapy
The program considers it essential that a practicing therapist
understand the therapy process on a first-hand and personal basis.
All students in the counseling psychology program are required to
complete at least 12 months or 48 hours of weekly individual
psychotherapy with a licensed therapist. In some cases students
may be required to complete more than the 12-month minimum
requirement. Students receive no academic credit for this and must
make financial arrange ments directly with the therapist. Students
must start their psy chotherapy on or before the beginning of the
second year in the program.
College of Professional Studies
Individual therapy gives students the opportunity to work on
personal concerns and issues that may affect their work with
clients. The therapist acts as an exemplar: students studying to
become therapists have an opportunity to extend their expertise by
direct supervision from an experienced professional. These hours
can be applied toward MFT licensing requirements.
Spiritual Practice requirement
In keeping with the school’s recognition that daily spiritual practice
is fundamental to growth in consciousness, students in the program
are required to practice a daily spiritual discipline. Sitting
meditation, somatic disciplines such as tai chi, yoga, or aikido, or
the practice of other comparable disciplines are all acceptable
possibilities. Students determine which discipline best serve their
needs and are expected to articulate how the discipline has
contributed to their individual growth in writing or during the
year-end review.
California MfT licensing requirements
The Master of Arts degree in counseling psychology with a
specializa tion in integral psychotherapy, somatic psychology,
transpersonal psychology, or holistic studies meets the educational
requirements for the California Marriage and Family Therapist
(MFT) license. Licensing statutes and regulations are subject to
future legislative or administrative revisions. (Counseling
psychology students will be kept informed about MFT licensing
requirements and changes as they occur.)
A description of the requirements of the law (Business and
Professional Code §§4980.37 and 4980.38), and the way in which
the program meets these requirements are available from the
College of Professional Studies.
Ma in Counseling Psychology
Somatic Psychology Specialization
The central principle of somatic psychology is that soma and psyche
are inseparable. Cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and bodily
experience must therefore be actively included in therapeutic work.
The MA degree program in Counseling Psychology with an
emphasis in somatic psychology is a professional training in
psychotherapeutic practice from an integrative, whole-person model.
It provides students with professional clinical skills of assessment,
diagnosis, and treatment with a particular emphasis on somatic
processes, such as sensate experience, sensorimotor development,
movement expression, structural patterning, and regulation of
physiological states. This master’s-level degree program is one of a
very few in the world that integrates the study of the body and
psycho-emotional process in the practice of psychotherapy.
The program offers a strong foundation in basic counseling theory
and practice. It combines theoretical and experiential learning
modalities and emphasizes personal attitudes and beliefs that
become embodied and expressed in one’s posture, gesture, voice,
movement, and ways of relating. Movement seminars explore the
reciprocal rela tionship between movement and the psyche. Students
learn to utilize movement and somatic awareness techniques to work
through emotional blocks, allow tension patterns to unravel, and
cultivate body-mind-spirit integration. Courses focusing on trauma
and stress negotiation provide students with the clinical
understanding of hyperaroused physiological states, the importance
of working within the “window of tolerance,” and practical
resourcing skills. Students are encouraged to pursue both spiritual
JOHn F. KEnnEdy UnIvErSITy College of Professional Studies 91
College of
Professional Studies