Health counseling: a graduate program and course

Area of Science:

• Health Education
• Counselor Education
• Interdisciplinary Studies

Background:

• The emergence of health counseling as a distinct specialization necessitates a defined curriculum.
• Existing health education and counselor education programs often lack the resources for independent health counselor training.
• An interdisciplinary approach is advocated for comprehensive health counselor preparation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline an interdisciplinary master's degree program designed to train health counselors.
• To address the need for a specialized curriculum in health counseling.

Main Methods:

• Description of a 45-semester-hour interdisciplinary master's degree program.
• Collaboration between Health Education and Counselor Education Programs at the University of Arkansas.

Main Results:

• A structured curriculum for health counselor preparation has been developed.
• The program integrates expertise from both health education and counselor education.

Conclusions:

• The described interdisciplinary master's degree program provides a viable model for training health counselors.
• This approach addresses the resource limitations of individual programs and promotes a unique specialization.