Behavioral Health Ed.S. & Ed.D.

The Programs and courses in the Department of Behavioral Health provide competencies for numerous careers in educational and psychological helping services. Behavioral analysts try to analyze the function of behavior and develop intervention strategies to change maladaptive behaviors into adaptive ones. Counselors (school counselors, professional clinical counselors and marriage and family therapists) provide crisis intervention services as well as various individual and/or group interventional strategies

In addition, school counselors develop prevention/ intervention programs within school settings that are considered essential to the school’s mission. They also assist in the area of career development. School psychologists develop specialized knowledge and skills for identifying and correcting learning disabilities and for facilitating of academic, personal, and social development in children and adults at all levels of education.

The median annual wage for psychologists was $92,740 in May 2023. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $52,430, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $151,880.

Median annual wages for psychologists in May 2023 were as follows:

• Industrial-organizational psychologists $147,420
• Psychologists, all other $117,750
• Clinical and counseling psychologists $96,100
• School psychologists $84,940

Students graduating with a degree offered by the Department of Behavioral Health in addition to the previously stated objectives and programs, will gain proficiencies in the following domains:

1. Assessment. Organize and effectively apply assessment processes to practical situations effectively as it relates to the discipline under study.

2. Critical Reasoning. Identify critical theories unique to the discipline of focus and understand how to conceptualize, dissect, contrast, and organize these theories in evidence-based ways.

3. Intervention. Organize and effectively apply prevention/intervention processes to practical situations effectively as it relates to the discipline under study

4. Professional Ethics and Legal Mandates. Understand and perform various ethical and legal duties responsibly. Understand the steps involved in ethical decision-making processes.

5. Systems and Consultation. Understand complex issues that require critical and analytical thinking as it relates to working and communicating effectively with individuals, families, groups, other professionals, and society in general. Understand the steps recognized in the consultation process in various organizational and classroom settings.

6. Multicultural Sensitivity. Be sensitive to diversity- related issues and respect responsibilities as it relates to diversity in all domains. Demonstrate not only self-awareness, but also a general respect for differing worldviews.

7. Writing Skill. Exhibit scholarly competence in the writing domain (i.e., in terms of organization, continuity, flow, and intellectual cohesion).

8. Professional Growth. Show high levels of general academic, research, and technological capacity, personality traits consistent with practicing psychology, personal and professional maturity, ethical decision-making and behavior, and professional demeanor. Not only possess the ability to identify areas of personal weakness or strength related to one’s career field, but also demonstrate an ability to make changes when needed in any domain identified as a personal deficit (cognitive, emotional, psychological, and social).