Cazenovia College offers master’s in clinical mental-health counseling

It’s the college’s first graduate-degree program in its 195-year history 

CAZENOVIA — Cazenovia College is accepting applications for its first-ever master’s degree program, which provides instruction on clinical mental-health counseling. 

It represents the school’s first graduate-degree program in its 195-year history, the school said in an April 30 news release.

Instruction on the degree program begins this fall, Tim Greene, director of communications and marketing at Cazenovia College, said in an email response to a CNYBJ inquiry.

Professors Christina Bobesky and Mary Handley will lead the program, the school said.

“By adding our first-ever graduate program in clinical mental-health counseling to its degree offerings, Cazenovia College meets not only individuals’ educational requirements for professional advancement, but also the mental-health needs of our community,” Cazenovia College President Ron Chesbrough contended in the release.

The clinical mental-health counseling program at Cazenovia College prepares students for mental-health counseling in individual, family, and group settings.

The program is structured to allow students to complete 60 credit hours of course work within two years by attending class year-round via late afternoon/evening and online classes. 

Students will also complete 15 credits of clinical experience to include a practicum (100 hours of supervised counseling experience) and an internship (700 hours of supervised counseling experience). 

“Having a clinical mental health counseling program at Cazenovia College is an incredible new asset for our community of providers,” Sara Haag, director of family services at Liberty Resources and associate lecturer at Cazenovia College, said in the school’s release. “There are many vulnerable client populations in rural Central New York, so the more professionals who can be educated and trained locally, the more assistance that can be provided to those who need it most.”

Those interested in learning more about the master of science in clinical mental-health counseling at Cazenovia College, can visit www.cazenovia.edu/gradprograms or contact gradprograms@cazenovia.edu. 

In addition, the school will hold an open house for the new degree program on June 4 from 4-7 p.m. in the Witherill Room of Hubbard Hall on the Cazenovia College campus.