Leave with purpose.
Broaden your perspective to help close the gap in mental health care.
Prepare for a career in service and advocacy with the purpose-driven approach of Marquette University’s online master’s in mental health counseling.
Our online Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) is built on a tradition of excellence and commitment to working in diverse settings. In the Marquette mental health counseling program, you will gain the insights and experience to pursue a thoughtful and fulfilling career as a clinical mental health counselor—with the flexibility and convenience of an online program.
Whether you choose to specialize in child and adolescent counseling or pursue our general track, you will be focusing on growth and development, improving the quality of lives, identifying the strengths and tools your clients need to succeed, and the issues and mental health concerns that hold them back.
Program details
- Complete in a few as 3 years
- 60 credits
- 18 required courses
- 2 elective courses
- Three opportunities to start per year
- Pursue general track or the child and adolescent counseling specialization
- CACREP accredited
Mental health care in the United States is in demand—and you can help by becoming a counselor.
Choose counseling for a richly rewarding career helping people.
While the increased adoption of telehealth services are helping to improve Americans’ access to mental health services, counselors are needed across community settings to guide clients through managing substance abuse, behavioral disorders and more.
Clinical mental health counselors work in various settings, including:
- Community health centers
- Hospitals
- Outpatient and residential mental health centers
- Prisons
- Private practice
Specific licensing requirements vary from state to state, but mental health counselors typically require a degree in higher education, including a master's degree. Some states require counselors to earn their master’s degree from a CACREP-accredited program such as Marquette’s. Counselors also are required to complete an internship to sit for licensing exams.2
Specialize in child and adolescent counseling
Dive deep into the unique counseling techniques for working with children by pursuing our Child and Adolescent Counseling specialization option. In the same 60 credits required of the general track, you will prepare in class and on site in your practicum and internship courses for a career helping young people face life’s challenges.
Build confidence in your skills
Find flexibility for your work and life
Learn from the experts at Marquette
Why Choose Marquette for your online master’s in counseling?
Like you, Marquette University is driven by purpose. You’re devoted to social justice and helping people navigate their mental health. Marquette is devoted to providing a transformative education and preparing you to enter the field undaunted by systemic challenges and with the compassion to make a difference.
Throughout the program, you’ll share experiences and learn from your peers to improve your ability to adapt to new situations and handle difficult cases. Across the university, you will find a commitment to compassionate cultural competence and a belief that helping and advocating for the most vulnerable in our communities improves the world for all.
Grounded in the Jesuit tradition of intellectual inquiry and service, the online master’s in counseling primes graduates for personal and professional excellence. After earning your degree, you’ll be prepared to meet the educational requirements for mental health counseling licensure in Wisconsin and many other states.
As professors in this program, we are counselors. Thus, we are considerate, understanding, and wholeheartedly supportive of students and do all that we can to support their growth and learning. Becoming a counselor is a professional journey, but it is also a personal journey, and we understand that as we also went through it in our training.
We’re here for you, wherever you are.
Courses for the online master’s in counseling are organized in an intuitive digital learning management system, D2L, designed to foster collaboration and allow more open communication between you, your peers and the instructors. Learning from the same rigorous course work and dedicated faculty as our on-campus clinical mental health counseling students, you’ll use D2L to access materials, track your grades, view lectures, participate in discussions and submit assignments.
When you enroll as a student in our clinical mental health counseling master’s degree program, you will be assigned a dedicated student success coordinator. This committed partner will work with you throughout the mental health counseling program and can help you understand and meet important deadlines, resolve any technical challenges that arise, strategize your course selections and more.
Dedicated to your success.
Marquette’s master’s in clinical mental health counseling graduates consistently achieve high pass rates on their licensing examinations. In 2022, on-campus students (with the same curriculum and requirements as the online program) had a 100% pass rate on the national counseling exam, and 100% of Marquette’s counseling students who were actively seeking employment obtained positions within 90 days of receiving their degrees.3
What you will learn in Marquette’s CACREP accredited online mental health counseling program:
- Understand the foundations of behavior through biological, psychological, social and cultural lenses and evidence-based approaches to individuals and groups
- Gain a grounding in the professional, ethical and legal standards of the profession
- Serve as an advocate for the mental health care of underserved individuals and communities
- Build critical practices, such as self-awareness and reflection, into your role as a counselor
- Understand clinical mental health counseling prevention and treatment for individuals as well as groups
- Retrieved on November 14, 2024, from apa.org/pubs/reports/practitioner/2023-psychologist-reach-limits
- Retrieved on November 14, 2024, from bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/substance-abuse-behavioral-disorder-and-mental-health-counselors.htm
- Based on a limited sample of self-reported data from alumni of Marquette University’s on-campus M.S. in CMHC from 2021-2022.