CSULB prepares counseling psychology grads to meet the mental health shortage

Erica Curry '18 was hired at the family therapy site where she was interning before she even graduated from Cal State Long Beach.

"I didn't even have to look anywhere, because my practicum site was like, 'We want you,'" said Curry, who was working at Richstone Family Center in Hawthorne while finishing a master's degree in counseling psychology from The Beach. Now she's running her own private therapy practice.

Curry is one of many graduates of CSULB's Counseling Psychology program who are excelling in her chosen field - one that has grown since her time at The Beach. The majority of graduates - more than 95% - find jobs in their field immediately after Commencement, according to the department chair.

In fact, the demand for therapists and mental health professionals in California and the nation couldn't be higher, said Bita Ghafoori, chair of the Department of Advanced Studies in Education and Counseling. Since the COVID pandemic, CSULB's Counseling Psychology program went from 300 applicants per year to over 1,000 applicants. And the program has doubled its cohort size, increasing from 25 students to 50 students to meet the demand.

"There is a shortage of mental health professionals - in the area, in the state, in the nation," said Ghafoori, who's also director of the CSULB Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center. "There are not enough therapists to take care of people's mental health issues."

When CSULB students complete the two-year Counseling Psychology program and graduate with their Master of Science degrees, they are sought after by various community agencies, therapy companies, hospitals and schools.

"We have field placements in Kaiser Permanente, local agencies, at school districts, where they want mental health professionals to serve students," Ghafoori said. "When we did this, our field placements were extremely happy with being able to get more CSULB students. The program is definitely well liked and well received."

CSULB's Counseling Psychology program - housed in the College of Education - is expanding on the faculty side too. They're in the process of hiring two full-time lecturers and a new tenure-track faculty member.

Real-life experience

One draw for faculty and prospective students is the on-site community clinics where students can train and get real-life experience. The Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center and Community Clinic for Counseling and Educational Services both serve the public and are run out of the same clinical office in ED (Education)-2. The Trauma Recovery Center sees clients for free, while the community clinic offers services for fees that are lower than the general marketplace.

"The clinic(s) are a big factor in the students' competency," Ghafoori said. "That's a special feature of CSULB. A lot of universities don't have an on-site clinic, but we do."

Curry says she learned a lot about becoming a professional therapist during her time at CSULB, including sessions at one of the clinics.

"Cal State Long Beach did a really good job of making sure we understood the important stuff, like the limitations of confidentiality," she said. "Stuff that we need to know, like protecting a client adequately. They did gold star on that stuff."

Curry now runs her own private practice, providing therapy to athletes and ex-athletes. She used to be a Division 1 diver in college, so she knows the pressures of being an athlete herself.

"It gave me a really good springboard into where I'm at now," she said of her education and training at The Beach.

Recently, she was discussing with another CSULB clinical psychology alumna how well their fellow alumni are doing now.

"We just ended up reflecting on how amazing every clinician is that we went to school with," she said. "We've all found the lane that we're really passionate about. All of us started private practice around the same time. We all really spread our wings, trust each other, and can have really awesome referral sources."