Our dedication to Racial Equality and Social Justice (RESJ) spans decades. Learn more about our RESJ Initiative
Rehabilitation Counseling Certificate
-
Credits:
18
-
Degree:
Post-master's certificate
Program Description
The Rehabilitation Counseling Certificate is for the individual seeking to add to their credential by pursuing national certification and state licensure as rehabilitation counselors: Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification and Licensed Rehabilitation Counselor by the Massachusetts Board of Allied Mental Health and Human Services Professionals.
In 2021, Cambridge College's mental health counseling certificates were ranked as #1 in New England for Best Quality, #2 in New England for Best Value and #25 in the U.S. for Best Value by Healthcare Degree Search (HDS), an organization that specializes in promoting healthcare careers, and ranks programs on outcome-based factors, based on data from the U.S. Department of Education. Learn more.
Program Outcomes
A focus on rehabilitation counseling helps practitioners to more comprehensively serve the mental health and vocational needs of individuals with cognitive, developmental, psychological, medical, intellectual and physical challenges seek employment, maintain employment or return to work. These individuals include veterans who face mental health and rehabilitation complications, and a host of other issues relating to the interface of disabilities and mental health.
Careers
Graduates will be qualified to pursue national certification and state licensure as rehabilitation counselors: Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification and Licensed Rehabilitation Counselor by the Massachusetts Board of Allied Mental Health and Human Services. Candidates must also pass an exam and have had 36 months of acceptable employment.
Rehabilitation counselors typically work in settings such as mental health agencies, the Veterans Administration, state vocational rehabilitation agencies, insurance companies dealing with disability, non-profit agencies, employee assistance programs, disability management firms and consulting agencies, among others.
For more information, please contact Admissions at 1-800-829-4723.
Curriculum
Rehabilitation Counseling Courses
15
Credits
Vocational and Affective Counseling
CCP 655
This course acquaints students with the process, history and philosophy of rehabilitation counseling. Class discussions will focus on the organizational structure of the rehabilitation system, the professional identity of the rehabilitation counselor, and legal and ethical issues in the practice of rehabilitation counseling and how it complements the area of mental health delivery of services. This course includes the fundamental occupational tasks of assessment, case presentation, case collaboration, team membership and client interaction.
Medical and Psychological Aspects of Disabilities
CCP 643 • 3 credit(s)
The course offers students with little or no exposure to advanced medical sciences the opportunity to examine the physiological and anatomical basis for many chronic illnesses, medical and psychiatric disabilitites they will encounter in the rehabilitation counseling setting. Students examine the etiology, progress, and correlations between mental health and other disabiling conditions as well as the psychosocial implications associated with these circumstances. This course includes the fundamental occupational tasks of assessment, case presentation, case collaboration, team membership and client interaction.
Vocational Assessment and Evaluation
CCP 656 • 3 credit(s)
This course provides an orientation to individual appraisal, standardized testing, and test and measurement principles found in psychological testing for mental health assessments, but expands and provides increased focus on vocational and career interest testing. It includes standard test areas such as achievement, aptitude, interest, personality, situational testing, behavioral observation, work samples and functional evaluations. This course will also address career alternatives for the rehabilitation counselor. This course includes the fundamental occupational tasks of assessment, case presentation, case collaboration, team membership and client interaction.
Rehabilitation Plan Development
CCP 654 • 3 credit(s)
This course acquaints students with case and caseload management, delivery systems for public, private and nonprofit settings for individuals with cognitive, intellectual, medical, physical and psychiatric disabilities. This course will address laws and ethical standards that impact rehabilitation counseling and the range of community resources available to the counselor whose goal is the effective and comprehensive mental health recovery of individuals, including achieving maximum independence and employment. This course includes the fundamental occupational tasks of assessment, case presentation, case collaboration, team membership and client interaction.
Career Development
CCP 639 • 3 credit(s)
This course provides an experiential approach to career development for mental health, school and rehabilitation counselors to support clients with and without disabilities across the lifespan in both individual and group settings. Orientation to key assessment instruments, online resources, labor market information, transferable skills analysis, job placement strategies and work-related supports will be made to support the career guidance process and to develop comprehensive plans of action for clients.
This course addresses the following Massachusetts State Standard for School Counseling: i. Career counseling.
Electives
3
Credits
Choose one of the following elective courses:
(Not applicable to School Adjustment Counseling students.)
Post Traumatic Stress Reactions
CCP 724 • 3 credit(s)
This course focuses on theory, research and practice of trauma by addressing systemic and cultural aspects of diagnosis, assessment, dynamics, and trauma treatment. This includes acute stress disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and complex PTSD, as well as dual diagnoses. Immediate and long-term effects of trauma on various populations will be explored: trauma in adults, children, and families, sexual and physical abuse survivors; victims of crimes, large scale disaster, war; workplace violence and complicated grief. Other topics include trauma resilience, natural courses of coping; transgenerational aspects of traumatization and life span perspectives on trauma.
This course addresses the following Massachusetts State Standard for School Adjustment Counselor/School Social Worker: d: Prevention and treatment of substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse, and violence in PreK-12 students. This course includes the fundamental occupational tasks of assessment, case presentation, case collaboration, team membership and client interaction.
Clinical Interventions for Combat Stress and Trauma
CCP 727 • 3 credit(s)
This course is taught in the fall only. The content and design of this course is to familiarize students with the history, diagnosis and treatment of combat stress and trauma (CST) in the lives of primarily military people, but also the effects of CST on civilian populations exposed to war operations. The course will further provide information concerning the effects of CST on veterans’ families. Through lecture, class discussion, directed readings and case studies, students will become acquainted with causes and effective treatments of CST. Emphasis will be placed on diagnosis, treatment, referral resources and the support systems. Students will gain knowledge of: 1) the prevalence and complexity of combat stress and trauma; 2) counseling and treatment methods for returning veterans and their families; and 3) referral resources for veterans. Students will demonstrate proficiency in understanding the nature and complexity of combat stress and trauma. Includes the fundamental occupational tasks of assessment, case presentation, case collaboration, team membership and client interaction.
Trauma Specific Interventions
CCP 728 • 3 credit(s)
Students will learn about assumptions, principles and concepts of trauma-specific treatment approaches and trauma-informed care. Students will gain knowledge of theory and practice of psychological first aid, its application in disaster mental health, crisis intervention and crisis counseling. They will become familiar with major approaches in trauma treatment: individual and group trauma counseling, cognitive, behavioral, psychodynamic, and exposure therapies, psychopharmacological treatments, and newly emerging approaches. The acquired knowledge and skills can be applied in providing individual and group crisis intervention, brief trauma counseling and treatment of survivors of sexual abuse, war trauma, torture, disasters and workplace violence and other. The ethics of trauma work will be thoroughly covered. This course includes the fundamental occupational tasks of assessment, case presentation, case collaboration, team membership and client interaction.
Trauma Interventions in Schools
CCP 729 • 3 credit(s)
This course is taught in the spring term only. Trauma, chronic fear and stress impact children’s neurobiological development which affects critical brain functions (memory, language, problem-solving, higher order thinking, and executive function skills). The support a child/adolescent receives from those around them and the communities they inhabit heavily influences the trauma response and forward growth. Schools are children’s communities. This course will explore the impact of trauma on the child/adolescent’s neurobiological development, relationships, behavior, learning and academic performance. Trauma sensitive approaches in schools are described, including prevention and treatment of physical, sexual and substance abuse, as well as clinical interventions related to stabilization and the development of coping and social skills. School and system-wide crisis prevention, intervention and postvention planning and implementation will also be reviewed. Includes the fundamental occupational tasks of assessment, case presentation, case collaboration, team membership and client interaction.
This course addresses the following Massachusetts State Standard for School Adjustment Counselor/School Social Worker: d: Prevention and treatment of substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse, and violence in PreK-12 students.
This course addresses the following Massachusetts State Standards for School Guidance Counseling: f. Knowledge of strategies used for the prevention and treatment of substance, physical and sexual abuse, the spectrum of mental illnesses, and violence in PreK-12 students
Program Chair
Core Faculty
(617) 873-0204john.carew@cambridgecollege.edu
(617) 873-0237massomeh.namavar@cambridgecollege.edu
Senior Instructor
(617) 873-0201Judith.Bralove@go.cambridgecollege.edu
(617) 873-0012Elena.Cherepanov@go.cambridgecollege.edu
413-787-7475Shannon.Dion@go.cambridgecollege.edu
(617) 873-0135Colleen.Goode@go.cambridgecollege.edu
800-877-4723katrina.ramos@cambridgecollege.edu
(617) 873-0135paul.white@cambridgecollege.edu
Pages
Admissions
-
Admission Test:
No standardized graduate school tests required for admission into non-licensure programs
-
Admissions Office:
1-800-829-4723
- Application Form:
-
Application Fee:
$50 ($100 for international students)
Program Requirements
60-credit master's or higher degree in mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy, social work, or psychology.
Health Requirements for Massachusetts Students
The Massachusetts Health Department and Cambridge College require the following of students in Massachusetts:
Immunizations – All students in Massachusetts are required to get certain immunizations before you can register for your first term. See form
Health Insurance – In Massachusetts, undergraduate students taking nine or more credits/term and graduate students taking six or more credits/term must enroll in the College’s health insurance plan. Students who have insurance with comparable coverage may request a waiver. See information and enroll or waive.
School Requirements
International Students
International students need to provide supplemental documentation:
- Official demonstration of English language proficiency
- Supplemental documentation for issuance of I-20
- International transcripts, evaluated by an accepted evaluation service
Transfer Credit
Please complete the transfer credit request form if you wish to have prior course work evaluated for transfer. Learn more.
Tuition
-
Credits:
18
-
Cost per credit hour:
$639
-
Application Fee:
$50 ($100 for international students)
-
Health Insurance Fee:
$3,940 - Required for Massachusetts students only. See waiver details on Tuition & Fees page.)
-
Internship/Practicum Fee:
$400
Note: Rates are as of July, 2022, and are subject to change without notice. Rates apply to all students, unless otherwise noted.
Financial Aid
Cambridge College offers financial aid to students in our degree programs who are enrolled at least half time. Undergraduate students must be enrolled in at least 6 credits each term. Graduate and doctoral students must be enrolled in at least 4 credits each term. Learn more
Grants, Scholarships and Loans
Cambridge College welcomes the opportunity to support your efforts to pay for college. Federal, state and local resources in the form of grants, scholarships, loans and work-study, including Cambridge College Scholarships, are available to help defray the cost of tuition. Learn more
Getting Your Company to Help
Many companies have tuition assistance programs, designed to help their employees with their professional development. Learn more
Take the Next Step Toward Your Certificate
Take the Next Step Toward Your Certificate
