What this program actually is
OrientationFamily-systems core with a strong trauma emphasis, taught through named single-model electives (CBT, EFT, Gestalt) rather than a single house theory
The rename is real but shallower than it sounds. Through the 2016-17 catalog this was an "M.S. in Counseling, Option in Marriage and Family Therapy"; the current title, "Counseling Psychology (formerly Marriage and Family Therapy)," dates from the 2020/2021 university catalog, and the course titles followed later — COUN 609 was still called "MFT Practicum" in the 2020-2021 catalog and is "Counseling Psychology Practicum" now. Nothing about licensure eligibility was lost. CSULB's own FAQ still opens with "The Counseling Psychology degree prepares students to enter the field of Marriage and Family Therapy," and then says the program "prepares students to apply for licensing with the Board of Behavioral Sciences for Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC)." CSULB does not publish a stated rationale for the change, but the dual LMFT/LPCC preparation is the visible difference between the old option name and the new degree name.
Two things genuinely distinguish the curriculum. First, family systems survived the rename as named, required, sequenced courses — COUN 508A (Family Systems Applied to Aging and Lifespan Development) followed by COUN 508B (Family Systems Methods), the second being pure application and practice. Second, the elective bank is unusually model-specific: rather than 'advanced techniques,' CSULB lets you spend a whole semester inside one named modality — COUN 682 Gestalt Therapy (run as an experiential group), COUN 683 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, COUN 684 Emotionally Focused Therapy, COUN 680 Family Trauma Treatment Seminar, COUN 559 Play and Art Therapy. Trauma runs through the required core too: COUN 601 Trauma and Grief Counseling is required for Counseling Psychology students specifically, and the department's clinical training partners include the Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center alongside its own Community Clinic.
The economics are the reason people apply and the reason most don't get in. CSULB estimates "$25,380 - $30,600 for California residents" for the whole 65-unit degree as of Fall 2026, for a program that qualifies you for two licenses. Its own FAQ then says admission is "highly competitive (acceptance rate is approximately 5% of the total number of applicants)." A CSULB News piece in October 2025 filled in why: applications rose from about 300 a year before the pandemic to more than 1,000, and the department doubled the cohort from 25 to 50 to absorb some of it. Classes are built around working students — most core courses meet 4:00pm or 7:00pm Monday through Thursday with some weekend sessions — but the fieldwork is not: three semesters at roughly 15 hours a week, and the program notes that "few of the non-profit settings have paid positions."
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.
Counseling Psychology Practicum
Counseling under intensive supervision on-campus in the Community Clinic and off-campus at an approved agency. Students will be required to assess, diagnose, develop appropriate interventions, and conduct counseling services for individuals, couples, or families. 150 fieldwork hours required.catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingRead the rest of this catalog entry before you enroll: a B or better is required to continue in the program, students who fail get exactly one second attempt, and "if a student does not pass COUN 609 with a B grade or better after two semesters/attempts, they will be dismissed from the MS in Counseling Psychology program." Very few CA programs put an explicit dismissal trigger on a single clinical course.
Family Systems Methods
The application and practice of family systems therapeutic methods. Prerequisite: COUN 508A or consent of instructor. Counseling Psychology Majors Only.catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThe second half of a two-course systems sequence, and the tell that the MFT identity survived the rename — the degree title changed but the family-systems requirement is still stacked and still sequenced, with a theory course feeding a methods course.
Trauma and Grief Counseling
Overview of developmentally informed models of trauma response, identifying and assessing problematic responses to trauma and loss, and guidelines for working with traumatized children, adolescents and families in various settings. Current treatment approaches of forms of post-traumatic distress and traumatic bereavement.catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThe catalog notes this is a required course for Counseling Psychology students and only recommended for the department's other counseling programs — a deliberate choice. Combined with the Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center as a training site, trauma is the closest thing this program has to a specialization.
Gestalt Therapy
This seminar is designed to be an experiential learning process of Gestalt Therapy. Students will learn Gestalt history, theory, and clinical application in a contemporary context to incorporate techniques into their own clinical practice.catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingAn experiential semester in a single humanistic model is rare in California programs, which usually reduce Gestalt to a chapter in the survey theories course. Sitting alongside COUN 683 (CBT) and COUN 684 (Emotionally Focused Therapy), it means your elective choices actually determine which modality you leave able to practice.
Family Trauma Treatment Seminar
Hands-on training in evidence-based treatment for families contending with trauma or loss. Readings, lectures, and in-class demonstrations and practice will focus on family assessment, goalsetting, narrative sharing, and family training on resilience-enhancing skills.catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThis is the course where the two distinguishing threads meet — family systems and trauma — and it is specific about method: narrative sharing and resilience-skills training with the whole family in the room, not individual trauma work with a family history taken.
Community Mental Health Counseling
Advanced seminar on community mental health counseling with an emphasis on helping counselors gain skills required in contemporary community mental health settings, including recovery-oriented treatment for severe mental illness, case management, client advocacy, and local community service resources.catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingA required one-unit seminar on case management, client advocacy and severe mental illness is a very honest piece of curriculum design: it acknowledges that most graduates' first job is county or nonprofit community mental health, not private practice, and gives them the paperwork-and-systems skills that job actually requires.
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.
CSULB publishes the required course list but not a term-by-term grid, so this is presented as a single required-coursework block. Students take 4–5 courses each Fall and Spring on either a 2-year or 2.5-year track; admission is Fall-only and the program is full-time (minimum three courses per semester). 59 units of core plus 3 units of research methods plus a 6-unit culminating option = 65 units minimum. Course descriptions cited here come from the 2024-2025 CSULB catalog, which is the most recent catalog year that renders full COUN course descriptions; the 2026-2027 catalog lists the same titles without descriptions. course sequence ↗
65units in total
- COUN 508A Family Systems Applied to Aging and Lifespan Development (3)
- COUN 508B Family Systems Methods (3)
- COUN 510 Law and Ethics for Counselors (3)
- COUN 511 Counseling the Alcohol/Chemically Dependent Person (2)
- COUN 512 Child and Spousal/Partner Abuse (1)
- COUN 513 Introduction to Clinical Interviewing (3)
- COUN 514 Psychopharmacology for Counselors (3)
- COUN 515 Counseling Theories (3)
- COUN 522 Counseling Methods and Techniques (3)
- COUN 543 Human Sexuality Counseling (3)
- COUN 555 Cross-Cultural Counseling (3)
- COUN 556 Counseling Children and Adolescents (3)
- COUN 557 Counseling Couples (3)
- COUN 601 Trauma and Grief Counseling (3)
- COUN 608 Psychological Assessment and Testing (3)
- COUN 609 Counseling Psychology Practicum (4)
- COUN 638 Group Counseling (3)
- COUN 643D Counseling Field Work, Counseling Psychology (3)
- COUN 644D Advanced Counseling Field Work, Counseling Psychology (3)
- COUN 685 Community Mental Health Counseling (1)
- EDP 520 Quantitative Research Methods in Education (3)
- EDP 595 Qualitative Research Methods in Education (3)
- Option A: EDP 698 Thesis (6)
- Option B: comprehensive exam plus six additional units of approved counseling electives
- COUN 507 Foundations of Career Development in K-12 Schools (3)
- COUN 559 Play and Art Therapy for Children/Adolescents (3)
- COUN 680 Family Trauma Treatment Seminar (3)
- COUN 682 Gestalt Therapy (3)
- COUN 683 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (3)
- COUN 684 Emotionally Focused Therapy (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 →
The school does not say
Nothing on this school’s published pages states who secures your placement. That is not the same as a bad answer - but it is the first question to ask admissions, and the specificity of the reply tells you a great deal. Thirty of the seventy-eight are in this position.
All trainees in the CSULB Counseling Psychology program begin clinical training (Practicum) on-site at the Community Clinic for Counseling and Educational Services AND begin training off-site in a non-profit setting. the school’s own page →
The school runs its own training clinic. Community Clinic for Counseling and Educational Services Owning a clinic and holding a seat in it are different things, so this sits beside the model above rather than replacing it.
Every trainee begins clinical training on-site at the Community Clinic, which provides counseling, developmental and psychoeducational assessment, and academic intervention to school-age children, adults, and youth and adults with disabilities aged 16–22, at moderate cost, under direct supervision by College of Education faculty. At the same time students carry an off-site placement in a nonprofit setting, supervised by a California-licensed professional who has held the license more than two years and is employed at that site. Practicum applications are due March 1 for the following fall and October 1 for spring, and fieldwork applications on the same calendar. The program flags that "few of the non-profit settings have paid positions." 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
What it costs
This program does not publish a tuition figure anywhere I could find it. 43 of the 78 on the Board’s list are the same. That is a fair thing to ask admissions directly, and the speed and specificity of the answer tells you something on its own.
What a month costs to live on while you study →
Getting in
No, the GRE is not required for admission consideration to the Counseling Psychology program. source →
The school contradicts itself here
The practicum page and the fieldwork course descriptions give different hour figures (175 against 150).
How its graduates did on the Board’s exam
Counting every attempt rather than only first attempts, the figure is 86% across 221 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, 93% of this school’s 185 first-time candidates passed, against 80% statewide.
Recorded by the Board as California State University, Long Beach. 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.
- CSULB does not publish a stated reason for renaming the program from Marriage and Family Therapy to Counseling Psychology. What is documented is the timing (the 2020/2021 university catalog, with course titles such as COUN 609 renamed later) and that the current degree prepares for both LMFT and LPCC. Any account of 'why' beyond that would be speculation.
- No term-by-term plan of study is published for the Counseling Psychology M.S. — the required course list exists but the sequence does not, so the curriculum section here is a single block rather than a semester grid. (CSULB publishes such a grid for its School Counseling program but not this one.)
- The CSULB 2026-2027 catalog lists COUN course titles without descriptions; all quoted descriptions here come from the 2024-2025 catalog at the same course IDs.
- COUN 684 Emotionally Focused Therapy appears on the program's elective list but no catalog course description for it could be located in any CSULB catalog year searched, so only its title is reported.
- The fieldwork hour split is inconsistent across CSULB's own pages: the practicum page says 175 hours each for COUN 643D and 644D, the catalog entries for both say 150. The 500-hour total is consistent.
- No licensure exam pass rate, graduation rate or formal job placement rate is published (the program is not COAMFTE-accredited). The '95% of graduates find work' figure in CSULB News carries no cohort or methodology.
- No independent student reviews of this specific program could be verified. Reddit was unreachable through both search and direct fetch during this research; GradReports carries CSULB psychology master's reviews, but they are for the research/experimental M.A. in the College of Liberal Arts, not this College of Education program, so they are not cited here.
- CSU tuition has no per-unit rate for graduates — it is a flat per-semester charge by unit band ($5,231/semester full-time, $3,437 part-time for CA residents in 2026-27). The program's own $25,380–$30,600 estimate is the more useful figure and reflects the 2-year vs 2.5-year track difference.
Sources for this page (11)
- Counseling Psychology — Program Description (course list, format, tracks)
- Counseling Psychology — FAQs (5% acceptance rate, cost estimate, GPA, LMFT/LPCC)
- Counseling Psychology — Practicum and Fieldwork
- Counseling Psychology — Review & Notification (admissions process)
- Community Clinic for Counseling and Educational Services — About Us
- CSULB News, 29 October 2025 — 'CSULB prepares counseling psychology grads to meet the mental health shortage'
- CSULB catalog — COUN course descriptions (2024-2025 catalog)
- CSULB catalog — Counseling Psychology, M.S. program entry (2021-2022 catalog, showing the post-rename degree title)
- CSULB 2016-17 catalog — 'M.S. in Counseling, Option in Marriage and Family Therapy' (pre-rename)
- CSULB Tuition and Fees, 2026-2027
- CSULB Counseling Psychology Information and Application Packet (PDF)