What this program actually is
OrientationIntegral/transpersonal (Sri Aurobindo lineage) with a Gestalt and relational-psychodynamic clinical core
Integral Counseling Psychology is one of five separate MFT-qualifying concentrations inside CIIS's Department of Counseling Psychology — the others are Somatic Psychology, Community Mental Health, Expressive Arts Therapy and Drama Therapy — and each carries its own subject prefix in the registrar's live catalog (ICP/ICPW/ICPH for Integral, MCPS for Somatic, MCPC for Community Mental Health). Choosing CIIS is therefore a two-step decision: the school, then the concentration. ICP is the flagship and the largest, running in three formats (weekday on-campus, weekend on-campus at five Friday–Sunday weekends a semester, and a hybrid online track that qualifies for LPCC only, not LMFT).
What ICP has that essentially no other California MFT program has is a named, sourced spiritual lineage sitting inside required coursework. ICP 5619 Integral Yoga and ICP 8606 Integral Psychology teach Sri Aurobindo's integral philosophy and the contributions of CIIS founder Haridas Chaudhuri explicitly, by name, as the framework the rest of the clinical training hangs on. Alongside that runs a required 3-unit Gestalt Therapy course and a required Transpersonal Psychotherapy course — and CIIS's Church Street clinic describes itself as "the country's only university-affiliated Gestalt/existential therapy center." The clinical center of gravity is Gestalt plus relational psychodynamics plus transpersonal, not CBT.
The other structural distinction is the clinics. CIIS runs three of its own low-fee community counseling centers in San Francisco — Church Street (Noe Valley, 40+ years), Pierce Street (Pacific Heights, ~50 years) and Golden Gate — and ICP students do a year-long practicum at one of them or at an outside site. That is a genuinely unusual amount of in-house placement capacity for a private master's program. Two caveats worth naming: the program is expensive and in one of the most expensive cities in the country, and the recurring complaint in public reviews is administrative and financial-aid disorganization rather than teaching quality.
See it and hear it
The courses that define it
Every California program teaches law and ethics, assessment and a survey of theories. These are the courses that are not on every list — the ones that tell you what this particular faculty believes therapy is. The quoted text is the catalog’s own; the note underneath each one is mine.
Integral Yoga
"This course covers the history and major themes of integral philosophy, yoga, and meditation, from the South Asian lineage of Sri Aurobindo and CIIS founder Haridas Chaudhuri to its relevance to 21st century therapeutic applications... the role of Black, Indigenous, neurodivergent, disabled, feminist, queer and trans perspectives in an integral approach."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThis is the course that makes 'integral' a specific claim rather than a vague adjective: it names Aurobindo and Chaudhuri as the actual intellectual lineage. The weekend track carries the same content as ICPW 5620 'Integral Philosophy, Meditation, Yoga'. No other California MFT program requires a named contemplative-philosophy course as part of the licensure sequence.
Integral Psychology
"Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and integral philosophy, including Haridas Chaudhuri's contributions, form the spiritual foundation of the Institute. As an integration of the major schools of Vedanta, Yoga, and Tantra, integral philosophy provides an integrative framework for the many divergent schools of Western psychology."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThe theoretical companion to 5619, and the clearest statement in the catalog of what the school thinks it is doing: using Vedanta, Yoga and Tantra as the meta-framework that organizes Western psychological schools. Read this description before applying — if it does not appeal, the whole program will grate.
Gestalt Therapy
"Gestalt therapy will be presented as an adjunct to Existential Philosophy and Therapy... Main elements of Gestalt therapy will be demonstrated-i.e., contact boundaries, awareness, figure formation, the Gestalt theory of neurosis, and disturbances at the boundaries. The primary emphasis will be on working in the here and now."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingA full 3-unit required semester of Gestalt is rare; most CA programs give Gestalt a week inside a theories survey. It connects directly to placement, because CIIS's Church Street Integral Counseling Center bills itself as the only university-affiliated Gestalt/existential therapy center in the country.
Group Dynamics & Facilitation
"Students will learn theory and application of group counseling theory, including the therapeutic factors of group work and principles of group dynamics. There will be a strong experiential group process component to the course... seeing the therapy group as social microcosm."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThis is the closest thing ICP has to a semester-long interpersonal-process group: the catalog explicitly promises a strong experiential group-process component and frames the class itself as a social microcosm. Note, though, that the catalog does not use the term 'T-group' anywhere — see gaps.
Subversive Counseling
Uses Ginwright's (2022) four pivots to examine how dominant mental health paradigms perpetuate systemic oppression. Students plan a "subversion counselor practice" within one of three systems — carceral, child protection, or disability care management — framed by Angela Davis's challenge to "continue to be subversive until we have subverted the whole damn system of oppression." catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingAn unusually explicit, operational liberation-psychology elective: it asks students to pick a real institution and plan how to subvert it from inside while staying within professional ethics. Most programs' social-justice content stops at awareness; this one asks for a plan.
Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy
"An overview of the rapidly growing field of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, including background information on local, state, and federal approvals and clinical research trials of MDMA, psilocybin, ketamine, and other medicines... reviews the Indigenous origins and history of psychedelic medicine."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingA 3-unit master's elective in psychedelic-assisted therapy, available to LMFT students, is still uncommon. CIIS also runs a Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Clinic among its counseling clinics, so the classroom content connects to a real service line.
The whole degree, term by term
What you would actually take, in the order you would take it. Sequences change; check the current catalog before you count on any single term.
Cohort-based and largely lockstep over three years. The program page describes 3 years / 7 semesters but the published weekday sample course of study lists eight numbered semesters including two summers — the discrepancy is unexplained on the page. The weekend track covers the same 60 units across five-weekend semesters plus two named Intensives. Sequence below is the weekday LMFT (60-unit) sample; the LPCC track adds 10 units. course sequence ↗
60 (LMFT track); 70 (LPCC track); 66 for the hybrid, which is LPCC-onlyunits in total
- Multicultural Counseling (3)
- Therapeutic Communication (3)
- Psychodynamics (3)
- Human Development and the Family (3)
- Family Dynamics (3)
- Clinical Relationship (3)
- Group Dynamics and Facilitation (3)
- Gestalt Therapy (3)
- Professional Ethics and Family Law (2)
- Psychopathology and Psychological Assessment (3)
- Couples Counseling (3)
- Child Therapy (2)
- Assessment and Treatment of Addiction Disorders (1)
- General Elective (1)
- Transpersonal Psychology (3)
- Trauma (3)
- General Elective (1)
- Practicum (2)
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (1)
- Human Sexuality (1)
- Practicum (2)
- Research Methods (3)
- General Elective (1)
- Practicum (2)
- Integrative Seminar (3)
How practicum actually works
Californian clinical training runs in two legally distinct stages, and the difference decides what a program can and cannot do for you.
A trainee is a student. You see clients while still enrolled, at a site your program approves, supervised by someone the site provides. This is practicum, and it is the stage a program controls. An associate — registered with the Board after you graduate — is no longer a student, is usually paid, and is working toward the 3,000 hours the license requires. The Board renamed this stage from “intern” to “associate” in 2018, so any page still saying “MFT intern” is quoting something out of date.
Hours you bank as a trainee count toward the 3,000, up to a limit, which is why the size and quality of a program’s placement matters long after graduation: a student who leaves with 1,000 hours starts the associate years a third of the way through them, and one who leaves with the 225-hour minimum starts at the beginning.
Practicum is also where a degree most often stops being on schedule. Coursework runs on a calendar the school controls; placement does not. The questions that matter are therefore all about who owns the problem of finding you a site — and the answer differs enormously between programs on this list.
What happens after the degree →
You apply, with the school’s help
There is an approved-site list and real support, and the seat is still yours to win. Most programs are here and most students manage it. Ask for last year’s numbers rather than the policy: how many students placed on the first round, and how many had to extend.
Students engage in a year-long practicum at one of our three award-winning Integral Counseling Clinics or an external site of their choosing. the school’s own page →
The school runs its own training clinics. Church Street Integral Counseling Center · Golden Gate Integral Counseling Center · Pierce Street Integral Counseling Center · Center for Somatic Therapy · Psychological Services Center · The Clinic Without Walls · Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Clinic Owning a clinic and holding a seat in it are different things, so this sits beside the model above rather than replacing it.
Students complete a year-long practicum at one of the three Integral Counseling Clinics or at an external site of their choosing, supported by a Field Placement Office. Practicum is taken as paired courses — MCPI 7601A/B/C Practicum: Individual (individual supervision, case formulation and the therapeutic relationship) alongside MCPI 7602A/B Practicum: Group (case presentation and analysis in a group setting). A criminal background check is a prerequisite, and a signed "Supervised Fieldwork Agreement" must be on file with the Field Placement Office by the end of the semester or the student receives an NP grade. All three clinics run on a sliding fee scale and see individuals, couples, families, children and groups. Separately, the program requires 50 hours of personal psychotherapy with a licensed clinician. source ↗
Will this degree travel
Not COAMFTE accredited
That is not a defect — 66 of the 78 institutions on the Board’s list are in the same position, including most of the Cal States, and their graduates license in California every year.
It becomes a problem if you leave. Several states will not accept a non-COAMFTE degree without remedial coursework, and a few will not accept it at all. If there is any chance you move, check the destination board’s rules before you enroll, not after.
What the Board requires of any qualifying degree →
What it is, on paper
Integral/holistic, spiritual and multicultural orientation. CIIS also runs other counseling MAs (e.g. Somatic, Expressive Arts, Community Mental Health) not individually verified here.
What it costs
The figure below is the institution’s own, from its own page, with the year it applies to. Multiply the per-unit rate by the actual unit count and add campus fees before comparing it with anything. At this rate the 60-unit LMFT track is about $86,940 of tuition and the 70-unit LPCC track about $101,430, before fees.
$1,449 a unit 2026-27 — source
What a month costs to live on while you study →
Getting in
A GPA of 3.0 or higher in previous coursework is required. However, a GPA below 3.0 does not automatically disqualify an applicant. source →
How its graduates did on the Board’s exam
Counting every attempt rather than only first attempts, the figure is 88% across 784 sittings here, against 66% statewide. First attempts are the fairer comparison — counting resits measures how many tries people needed rather than how many passed, and it penalises a school whose graduates keep going.
On the separate California Law and Ethics exam, 86% of this school’s 872 first-time candidates passed, against 80% statewide.
Recorded by the Board as California Institute of Integral Studies, S.F.. Its list is kept by institution and its names lag: a school that has since renamed appears under the name it had when the candidates sat.
What this number is, and what it is not
It describes candidates, not teaching. In 2022 the Council on Social Work Education removed licensing-exam pass rates from its accreditation standards, saying the data “may not be an equitable measure of program outcomes” — after the social-work exam board’s own analysis found first-time pass rates of 84% for white candidates and 45% for Black candidates. A program that enrolls more career-changers and more students of color will post a lower rate while teaching at least as well. The accrediting body with the most reason to want this metric examined it and stopped using it.
The denominator is not this year’s students. These are people who sat the exam during the window, often several years after graduating and sometimes after the program changed shape or owner.
It is published here because it is a real, official figure that is otherwise almost impossible to find — and it is published on this page only. There is no pass-rate column in the directory, nothing is sorted by it, and no school on this site is ranked against another.
July 2018 - December 2024, pooled (13 semiannual BBS reports) · the Board’s published exam results by school →
What people say about it
Quoted where the wording carries the meaning, linked in every case, opening in a new window. The tags are my reading of each source, not a measurement, and the unflattering ones are here too.
What to ask before you apply
None of these are answered on a program page, and all five change what the degree is actually worth to you.
The single question that separates programs. Ask for a list of current sites, and ask plainly whether the program places you or expects you to find your own. A rural or online student unable to find a site cannot graduate.
The Board publishes this by school, so the program cannot be the only source. Ask anyway, and see whether the answer matches.
Per-unit rates move. Multiply by the actual unit count and add campus fees before comparing anything.
The 500 couples-and-families hours are carved out of the 1,750 clinical ones, and they are the category associates most often finish short on. A program placing students in adult individual settings will not generate them.
Sometimes yes, sometimes with extra units, sometimes only in one delivery format. Get it in writing rather than from a brochure.
What I could not establish
Everything above is sourced. These are the things I looked for and could not establish - take them to admissions, and note how quickly and precisely they answer.
- No course anywhere in the CIIS catalog is called a 'T-group'. A keyword search of the full live course catalog for 'T-group' returns zero results. The closest real equivalent is the required 3-unit Group Dynamics & Facilitation (MCPI 5604 / ICPW 5604 / ICPH 5604), whose catalog description promises 'a strong experiential group process component' and treats the class as a social microcosm — but it is a group-counseling course with an experiential component, not an unstructured semester-long T-group.
- There is no course titled 'Spirit, Mind and Body' or any similarly named integral-theory sequence. The integral-theory content is carried by three separate courses instead: ICP 5619 Integral Yoga (or ICPW 5620 Integral Philosophy, Meditation, Yoga), ICP 8606 Integral Psychology, and the required Transpersonal Psychotherapy course (ICP 6501 / ICPW 6501).
- Cohort size is published nowhere. CIIS is WSCUC-accredited and nonprofit, so it does not file a BPPE School Performance Fact Sheet, which is where cohort and completion numbers would otherwise appear.
- Required practicum client-contact hours are not stated on the program page, and the CIIS field-placement page could not be located at any guessed URL. The unit structure (three semesters of 2-unit practicum plus paired individual and group supervision) is documented; the hour count is not.
- The program page states '3 years (7 semesters)' but the published weekday sample course of study lists eight numbered semesters. The page does not reconcile this.
- CIIS's claim that its alums 'consistently have the highest pass rates of all graduate degree programs in California' for the LMFT exam is the school's own, on its own FAQ page, and is not sourced there to BBS data. Treat as unverified.
- Reddit was unreachable from this environment (HTTP 403 on reddit.com, old.reddit.com, the .json endpoints, pullpush.io and every mirror tried), so no Reddit comment text could be quoted — only thread titles, which are recoverable from the URLs.
Sources for this page (9)
- M.A.-C.P. in Integral Counseling Psychology — program page (formats, weekday and weekend course of study, entry requirements, FAQ)
- CIIS live course catalog (Ellucian Colleague Self-Service) — ICP, ICPW, ICPH, MCPI and MCP subject codes, full course descriptions
- About the Integral Counseling Psychology program
- CIIS Counseling Clinics — index of all seven clinics
- Church Street Integral Counseling Center
- Integral Counseling Center at Pierce Street
- Golden Gate Integral Counseling Center
- CIIS graduate programs index (confirms the five MA-CP counseling concentrations)
- Student reviews of CIIS