Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision

We're  hosting our Ph.D. CES Pre-Admissions Workshop on Thursday, Feb. 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Email invites coming soon to eligible applicants.

Counselors on the front lines touch the lives of countless people. University professors of counseling and clinical supervisors can multiply that number endlessly. Our Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision will develop your expertise in teaching, research, leadership and advocacy, and supervision. You'll develop critical thinking through personal and professional growth experiences that promote awareness of self and impact on others. You'll also generate new knowledge and skills through meaningful research to promote social justice and advance the field. We are nationally accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs.

Innovative Experiences

We promote best practices in the preparation of educators, advocates and leaders. Our alumni are committed to what graduate preparation should encompass: understanding the past, advancing the present, and modeling for the future. Your program will include concurrent internship experiences (a minimum of six semester hours) with academic courses, and a dissertation (a minimum of 15 semester hours) that reflects your original scholarship and independent research. A graduate certificate is available in trauma-informed counseling.

Program admissions is for the fall semester only. You must apply to our program through the NIU Graduate School, and if invited, attend the Pre-admissions Workshop. You'll need to submit your application information and upload copies of transcripts, your résumé or CV, Ph.D. CES applicant essay responses and three letters of recommendation (at least one from an individual holding a doctoral degree). A test of English proficiency will also be requested if you are an international applicant. Submit all your application documents in English.

Are you ready to become a leader in counselor education and supervision? Are you eager to learn how to help others prepare for professional counseling practice in our world?

  • Priority deadline: Nov. 15
  • General deadline: Feb. 1

Apply Today!

As you have carefully considered your interests, determination, and capacities to pursue admissions consideration, respond to the following essay prompts using the writing guidelines.

Essay Prompts

  • Share your experiences with research and your evolving research interests.
  • Discuss academic, personal, and professional strategies you would use, or that you may need to develop, to support your success in managing new and potentially conflicting priorities of PhD studies.
  • How do you embody multiculturalism, social justice, and intersectionality? What does your continual engagement in these look like, and mean to you?
  • Discuss what experiences might inform your developing teacher identity.
  • Describe your "theory of change," when it comes to counseling and clinical supervision.
  • Is there anything else that you would like for us to know which might be of help in our admission decision processes?

Writing Guidelines

  • Provide responses to the prompts as a single document, without page breaks.
  • For each writing prompt, a maximum of 2 (two) pages per prompt
  • Text should be double-spaced, Times New Roman or Calibri, 12-point font with 1-inch page margins.
  • Running header should appear on each page with your name and page numbers.
  • Use these major headings for each question prompt, aligned-center, bold-font style within your response document:
    • Research
    • Success Strategies
    • Multiculturalism, Social justice and Intersectionality
    • Teacher Identity
    • Theory of Change
    • Conclusion
  • Submit PDF file format document.
  • Title the document with your name and "CES app essay"

Mission Statement

The Department of Counseling and Higher Education makes strong contributions to both the NIU mission and to the goals of the Illinois commitment. All programs, including the doctoral program, prepare multiculturally competent counselor educators and supervisors who develop an expertise in the core CACREPcacrep competencies of teaching, research, leadership and advocacy, advanced counseling, and supervision. Students develop critical thinking through personal and professional growth experiences that promote awareness of self and impact on others. Students involve themselves in appropriate program and professional association activities. Students generate new knowledge and skills that result in meaningful research that promotes social justice in a pluralistic society as well as advances the profession of counselor education and supervision. Preparing professionals with a counselor identity to work as multicultural, ethical counselor educators and supervisors is the program’s highest priority.

Program Objectives

The objectives for the PH.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision program at NIU are to address the professional leadership roles of counselor education, supervision, advanced counseling practice and research competencies expected of all graduates of the doctoral program.

Objective 1: Students will explain the theory of advanced human growth, development, and/or learning.

Objective 2: Students will describe advanced knowledge of counseling theories.

Objective 3: Students will demonstrate skills in counseling throughout internship and during sessions in applied settings.

Objective 4: Students will apply learned skills while supervising colleagues in applied settings by completing coun 752, supervision in counseling and personnel services, with 80% accuracy or better as assessed by the instructor.

Objective 5: Students will describe advanced research skills in counseling.

Objective 6: Students will demonstrate competence in an area of specialization related to counseling.

Objective 7: Students will demonstrate proficiency with and sensitivity to issues in counseling related to diversity in race, gender, religion, age, ability, sexual/affectional orientation and other facets of identity and culture.

The program requires a minimum of 84 semester hours, including a maximum of 30 semester hours from the master's degree. During your program of study, you will:

Demonstrate knowledge in applied counseling skills.
Demonstrate knowledge in advanced teaching skills.
Demonstrate knowledge in advanced supervision skills.
Demonstrate knowledge in advanced leadership skills.
Demonstrate the ability to conduct independent scholarly research.

Our Community Counseling Training Center is a comprehensive learning and service location for students of our counseling and counseling supervision program to provide timely, culturally responsive counseling services to NIU students, faculty, staff and community members.
You'll apply your instructional knowledge by working with clients in a clinical setting, and with graduate-level students through co-teaching in the classroom. You'll also facilitate weekly individual and group supervision sessions and conduct counseling-related research under faculty mentorship.

The Counselor Education and Supervision degree program is an 84 credit hour CACREP-accredited program under the 2016 standards. Program courses are offered on a standard curriculum course rotation.

COUN 700 Professional Orientation to Counselor Education: Identity and Ethics
COUN 701 Professional Seminar in Counselor Education and Development
COUN 730 Advanced Theories of Counseling
COUN 750 Advanced Practicum in Individual Counseling
COUN 752 Supervision in Counseling
COUN 786 Internship in Counseling
COUN 790 Research and Scholarship in Counselor Education
ETR 521 Educational Statistics I
ETR 522 Educational Statistics II
ETR 525 Qualitative Research in Education
COUN 799 Doctoral Research and Dissertation

The Counselor Education and Supervision program is a quasi-cohort model with 32 doctoral students enrolled last year. On an annual basis, 15 to 20 eligible applicants apply for admissions to the Ph.D. degree program. The average admitted class is seven to ten students. Last year, 12 new doctoral students were admitted from across the nation. The Counseling faculty work to recruit and admit diverse student populations of various multicultural identities and intersectionality.

Counseling faculty work to recruit and admit diverse student populations. Note: NIU collects race/sex demographic information based on students' legal classifications. However, in alliance with NIU's stated commitment to diversity and inclusion, we recognize that our students, faculty and staff may identify beyond the demographics listed.

Self-reported counseling student race and sex last year included:

Race/Ethnicity Women Men
African-American or Black 25% 6%
Asian-American 6% 0%
Caucasian or White 38% 16%
Hispanic, Latino or Spanish-American 6% 0%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 3% 0%

The NIU Counselor Educator team includes seven full-time faculty and two instructors of counseling. Professors of counseling represent not only diversity of multicultural intersectionality but also diversity of counseling approaches and research interests.

Counselor education program faculty review various program and student outcome data points each year to determine the continuation of our changes in program delivery design. This annual review report (DOCX) includes:

Summary of the program evaluation results
Subsequent program modifications
Any other substantial program changes

Our Counselor Education and Supervision faculty provide knowledge and mentorship in counseling-related research, clinical supervision and instruction in counselor preparation programs.

Our program is designed to help you develop awareness, knowledge and skills in counseling, supervision, teaching, research and professional leadership if you intend to become a university professor of counseling and clinical supervisor.

Our faculty and current students work consistently to create a collegial and collaborative community of acceptance, mentorship and professional networking within the university, regionally and nationally.

The Counselor Education and Supervision program graduated 14 students last year with a 67% completion rate and 100% of our doctoral students found job placement after graduation.

Contact Us

Department of Counseling and Higher Education
Gabel 200
815-753-1448
cahe@niu.edu
Counseling Admissions
Graham 416
815-753-5749
cahc_admissions@niu.edu
Higher Education and Student Affairs Admissions
Gabel 201 B
815-753-1306
dmiesbauer@niu.edu
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