Neumann University’s M.S. in Pastoral Clinical Mental Health Counseling has just been ranked ninth in the Northeast among most affordable master’s degrees in counseling by Best Counseling Degrees, a website that studies and ranks counseling degrees throughout the country. More than 75 schools in the Northeast met the criteria for this distinction.

Neumann Pastoral Clinical Mental Health Counseling program emphasizes a personal and professional integration of clinical psychology along with pastoral, theological, and spiritual issues. This 60-credit degree is accredited through the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).

Students in this program learn to integrate counseling theory and spirituality in working with individuals at all levels of intervention from outreach to assessment to treatment. As a pastoral counselor, graduates are prepared to work with diverse populations of individuals in a range of clinical settings.

“I think this is an affirmation of our program. While we are a CACREP school, we are also working to keep our program affordable for our students, most of whom are working adults with families,” said Sr. Suzanne Mayer, IHM, Ph.D., director of the Pastoral Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program.

Graduates of this program are eligible for licensure as a professional counselor in the Tri-State area and are ready to sit for the National Counselor Examination.

The reviewing organization that deemed Neumann’s program ninth considered all graduate schools in the Northeast including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.

According to Mayer, the Pastoral Clinical Mental Health Counseling program was the first master’s program offered by Neumann University. It was launched in 1983.

The counseling program recognition came just a few weeks after Neumann’s master’s degree program in Organizational and Strategic Leadership was ranked #8 in a list of the Top 10 Master in Management Programs in Pennsylvania, published by Top Management Degrees. According to the editors: “This accelerated, cohort-based graduate program has been designed to offer students flexibility through online and on-campus courses while allowing them to complete all coursework in as few as 18 months. Rankings were based on accreditation, affordability, average salary of graduates, and prestige (U.S. News and World Report and The Princeton Review rankings).