By Brittney Payette
Assistant Managing Editor
At 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 3 via Zoom Cameron’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies and the Department of Psychology hosted the CU Be a Therapist event.
The event covered two possible tracks for Cameron’s Master of Science in Behavioral Sciences (MSBS) program: Licensed Marital and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC).
Chair and Associate Professor Dr. Shaun Calix was one of the hosts of the event, and he talked about the different format options that Cameron offers for the MSBS programs and how Cameron tries to help their students fit their necessary classes into their schedules.
“Most of our courses are offered face to face or online,” Calix said. “Except for those skill-set courses.”
Cameron has both daytime and nighttime classes offered. Classes meet one day a week, for 16 weeks. Calix said that most of the traditional face to face format classes rotate between being offered during the day and during the night. The course rotation is published in the information packet and on the Cameron website so that students are able to predict when they want to take the course during their degree program.
“We have a lot of students in our MSBS program that have full-time jobs and they cannot attend classes during the day,” Calix said. “We have a lot of students who have children at home, and they need to be at home with them during the evening. A lot of you as you are completing your degree program are probably going to end up taking a mixture of day and night classes.”
Psychology instructor at Cameron Paul James said that to be an LPC you must have 60 credit hours.
“Counselors tend to play a lot of different roles in a lot of different places,” James said.
Advisement specialist Chad Hobbs said that department advisors can help students rework the degree program schedule on an individual level so that students can determine what the best schedule for them is.
“There is a lot of variability in the programs themselves,” Hobbs said. “It is possible with your advisors in the department to, you know, kind of course correct and adjust for your needs.”
Director of Cameron’s Psychology Clinic, Professor, and LMFT Dr. Joanni Sailor said that both the LPC and the LMFT degree plans at Cameron are already preapproved by the Oklahoma state board of licensure.
Sailor said that Cameron has their own clinic on campus, which is where students can get their required practicum hours. The students get immediate feedback on their sessions from their instructors. Students also have the opportunity to shadow licensed professionals at an external site.
“We provide free mental health to the community,” Sailor said. “This is not like any other University clinic because at most of the University clinics they’re treating students, so students are treating students. Our students get real, hands-on experience at the clinic.”
Cameron counseling student Janet Love said that she came to Cameron’s counseling program in a unique way because she was retired.
“I really became so engaged,” Love said. “I just have loved my journey with Cameron. Cameron has an excellent program.”
Love said that she started working at the Cameron Psychology Clinic three semesters ago, initially as a graduate assistant. Now, she is in a therapy room with real clients. Love said that she hopes that people will give the counseling career a real try because the need for mental health services is so great.
“It is so rewarding,” Love said. “It’s amazing. I don’t even know how to describe it. We have the opportunity to practice with real clients, and then to be able to go out into the community at large and see the need that’s out there and see what we can do for them.”
For more information about the MSBS programs for Psychology, go to the Cameron website https://www.cameron.edu/psychology/degree-programs/master-of-science-in-behavioral-sciences.