Covenant Seminary’s Counseling Degree Receives CACREP Accreditation
Covenant Seminary is pleased to announce that our 75-credit hour Master of Arts in Counseling (MAC) degree has been given full accreditation by CACREP—the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs—and the accreditation is for the maximum term of 8 years.
This news means that current and future graduates of the program will have more options for licensing in states other than Missouri. The change affects not only students currently in the program, but also applies retroactively to the first class to graduate with the 75-credit version of the degree in 2022. The announcement is the culmination of a long process of preparation and review led over the last few years by Dr. Jeremy Ruckstaetter, Associate Professor of Counseling and Interim Co-Chair of the Counseling Department, and the Seminary’s Counseling faculty.
In the letter informing Covenant of the decision, the President and CEO of CACREP noted, “The Board based the above accreditation decision on an extensive review of the self-study documents, the site review’s team report, and the institution’s response to the site review team’s report. The Board makes a decision to accredit when it determines that a counseling specialty area is in full compliance with all applicable accreditation standards and practices.”
“We are very excited about this opportunity for our students,” said Dr. Ruckstaetter. “Our graduates have always been well equipped, and now CACREP has recognized and endorsed the quality of the counseling education that occurs here at Covenant Seminary. This accreditation will open more doors for our counseling graduates, including licensure in states where this accreditation is required. We’ll continue our work to train and equip counselors with a biblical foundation and the ability to bring God’s healing work to a variety of ministry and community-based settings.”
Created in 1993 under the directorship of Dr. Richard Winter (now Professor Emeritus of Counseling), Covenant’s MAC program is designed for those seeking formal licensure to work as counselors in public or church-related settings. The program has long been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and the Association of Theological Schools, the Seminary’s regular educational accrediting bodies. Until recently, however, the degree was built around criteria that primarily met the licensure requirements for the state of Missouri. Students intending to seek licensure in other states often had to do additional coursework or other training to meet requirements in those states.
A series of revisions made to the degree in recent years have culminated in accreditation by CACREP. These changes, while retaining the program’s conceptual framework rooted in Scripture and informed by clinical study, increase the overall credibility and portability of the degree for states outside of Missouri, providing access to many more counseling opportunities for graduates. The revised degree designates classes in either the Counseling Core or the Theology and Bible Core. New classes added to the Counseling Core include Clinical and Community Mental Health Counseling, Crisis and Trauma Counseling, Addictions, and Counseling and Faith. New classes added to the Theology and Bible Core include Outreach to Contemporary Culture, and Systematic Theology. The Seminary believes these changes will provide better training for handling the issues of today’s culture.
Rev. Dr. Tom Gibbs, President of Covenant Seminary, said, “We are excited and grateful for this news, and profoundly thankful for the leadership of Dr. Jeremy Ruckstaetter and the entire counseling faculty in shepherding this process to completion. We are grateful for God’s grace as He worked through the tireless and strategic efforts of this amazing team. And we are grateful for all the prayers, encouragement, and support for them as they ardently pursued this goal. We look forward to seeing how the Lord will work through this new phase of our MAC to bring hope and healing to people in a hurting world as he continues to build his Kingdom.”
Covenant Seminary’s counseling program has graduated almost 800 alumni who now serve in licensed private practice, clinical mental health facilities, churches, missions organizations, and other counseling-related fields. Of the 2022 Covenant MAC graduates who reported desiring counseling-related jobs, 100% were placed within six months of graduating.
