Master of Education in Counselling

This degree is tailored for future masters-level practitioners, working as school counsellors or counselling therapists in community agencies or private practice. The MEd in Counselling also offers the option of a combined research and practice-based degree, prior to pursuing your doctoral studies in counselling psychology.

Note: The MEd Counselling degree is not designed to qualify people for licensure as a psychologist.

Work with individuals, groups and families

Counsellors work to address a wide range of issues related to daily life and development, including:

• career choice and adjustment
• successfully making life transitions
• functioning in interpersonal relationships
• emotional and behaviour problems

Faculty conduct research on issues such as:

• career and vocational development
• counselling processes
• therapeutic relationships
• growth psychology
• the practice of counselling and counselling psychology in Canada

We offer two routes for our students:

• MEd course route: 10 courses (33 credit hours which includes a six-credit-hour practicum)
• MEd thesis route: 10 courses + thesis (48 credit hours)

Resources

• Pre-requisite courses for entry
• Program requirements
• Recommended sequence of courses
• Tentative schedule of courses

Admission considerations

Deadlines

The MEd Counselling Program has one application deadline date of Dec. 1 to begin in fall. 

Three pre-requisite courses from New Brunswick universities are required for entry into the MEd Counselling program, over and above the general Faculty of Education requirements for entry into a master’s degree.

Applicants must have completed:

• at least one undergraduate level course (3 credits) in theories of counselling, theories of personality or theories of psychopathology.
• at least one undergraduate level course (3 credits) in counselling/guidance practices, counselling interviewing skills, alliance formation skills, or social work practice skills.
• at least one undergraduate level course (3 credits) in human development, child or adult development, or developmental psychology.

Applicants are expected to hold a four-year undergraduate degree with a grade point average of at least 3.0 (B, or its equivalent) and must have a minimum of one year's experience in some aspect of human services. (Volunteer work is accepted as experience). Well-qualified applicants will have completed undergraduate courses at the advanced level in psychology or counselling.

Application process fairness

In order to maintain fairness in the process of accepting students into the counselling program, applications to transfer into the program from other UNB Faculty of Education master’s programs will be evaluated together with new applicants into the program.

The following practices have been adopted to facilitate this:

1. There will be no automatic transfer of students into the counselling program, regardless of the number of counselling degree requirement courses students may have completed as part of another program at UNB.
2. Applications for transfer will be reviewed once per year, with the deadline to submit transfer applications being the same as the new applicant deadline.
3. Transfer applicants will be placed in the same pool as incoming applicants and evaluated according to the same criteria.

Students intending to pursue doctoral studies in counselling psychology will need to complete additional coursework and internship hours to meet the entrance requirements for the different PhD programs in the country. UNB does not offer a counselling psychology PhD program.

The Canadian Psychological Association lists accredited doctoral programs.

Students intending to pursue certification with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) are encouraged to review the requirements to become a Canadian Certified Counsellor and to plan their program of study accordingly.