Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology

at Golden Gate University USA

Golden Gate University's Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) program provides working professionals with knowledge of public affairs, policy, and administration through a challenging and cutting-edge curriculum taught by instructors who are also professionals in the field.

GGU's EMPA program differs from other public administration programs in that it offers accelerated, real-world content intended for experienced professionals. Students can earn an EMPA in as little as 18 months in an entirely online format or through innovative, hybrid cohorts in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

GGU is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and has been an institutional member of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) since 1973.

Who Should Enroll

• The typical EMPA student has five or more years of experience in public or community service, and wants to build skills to move into a supervisory or leadership role.
• Students are highly motivated and diverse in both their experiences and backgrounds. Veteran students can draw upon extensive military benefits, including GGU's participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program.

Concentrations

• General Concentration
• Law Enforcement & Security
• Urban Innovations
• Declaring Concentrations

The Master of Science in Project Management delivers focused graduate study that prepares students for careers in the growing discipline of project management. It is anticipated that by 2020, as many as 11 million project-management jobs will be added by the United States and its 10 major trading partners.

Students will graduate with project management skills emphasizing an integrated relationship with an organization's functional areas. Our degrees and certificates in project management provide formal training that prepares graduates to manage local, outsourced and global projects. Students' improved communication skills will enable them to succeed in multiple diverse communities within an organization.

Faculty with extensive practical experience and who have earned the PMP® designation teach all of our courses. Students are eligible to receive 35 Professional Development Units (PDU) or contact units when each of the following courses is completed: PM 340, PM 342, PM 343, PM 344, PM 346, PM 348.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the Master of Science in Project Management program will be able to demonstrate:

• Managerial and leadership skills, e.g., leadership, planning, problem solving, communication, staffing and budgeting.
• The ability to use technology to manage relationships across projects and with business function units, as well as analyze data.
• Project-management skills, including planning, scope management, stakeholder analysis, quality assessment, risk management, team building and scheduling.
• Program and portfolio management skills, including understanding issues in project selection, vendor relationships, outsourcing, finance, purchasing and contract negotiations, as well as regulatory and compliance issues.
• The ability to integrate and apply the above understanding and knowledge into the development of a major applied capstone or internship project.

The Master of Science in Information Technology Management program is designed for business professionals who want to advance their careers in positions such as Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and IT Manager. Classes are taught by professionals who also work in the field at major companies in the Bay Area. A dynamic classroom environment helps to teach real-world skills for the strategic application of IT — including cutting-edge applications of technologies such as business analytics, mobile, cloud services, and social media.

Thrive in a Changing Tech Environment
Contemporary Information Technology (IT) managers are organizational leaders who bridge and integrate the worlds of business and IT. They engage business leaders in the ongoing and innovative application of information technologies that enable business success and have the skill sets to function in a complex discipline with many facets.

Build High-Level Skills
The Master of Science in Information Technology Management (MS ITM) program was designed by faculty with experience in leading-edge technologies to develop professionals suited for the top positions in the IT management field. The degree meets the needs of the modern management-level technology professional responsible for the planning, budgeting, design, integration, and deployment of strategic enterprise technologies and programs that contribute to the business organization's success.

Gain Cutting-Edge Leadership Skills

Golden Gate University’s breakthrough leadership programs are based on extensive input from corporate partners, industry groups, leading scholars, and leverage the university’s decades-long successes in developing high achieving leaders in the innovative crucible of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Learn From Instructors Who Teach What They Do

Courses are taught by instructors who also work in some of the Bay Area’s largest and most successful organizations. They bring cutting-edge knowledge from the field to the classroom, teaching skills that are immediately applicable to the real world.

Future-Proof Your Career

The pace of change across industries is quickening. New technologies are disrupting established businesses at an accelerated rate. We are operating in an ever interconnected global world. Jobs once performed by professionals will soon be automated or outsourced. What was certain today well may be uncertain tomorrow. Are you prepared for how management and leadership will evolve as a result?

Organizational Behavior and Development Concentration

This concentration is designed for the student who must be able to apply data analytics tools and techniques to information that the organization can use for strategic decision-making. Students taking this concentration will be introduced to specialized analytics tools and technologies.

In the MSADA and certificate programs, students can gain essential skills that in-demand accounting professionals need in today's data-rich environment. The MSADA offers concentrations in CPA applied accounting, advanced analytics for accountants, essentials of leadership, or taxation. The Advanced Analytics for Accountants Concentration is a STEM-designated degree program.

Plus, graduate certificates are available in Accounting Data & Analytics, Accounting Foundations, Advanced Analytics for Accountants, and CPA Applied Accounting.

This MSADA program satisfies the 150-hour education requirement to become a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and the CPA Applied Accounting Concentration offers live instruction to guide students through the CPA exam.

Taxation Concentration

A customizable graduate degree concentration designed to prepare CFP-certificated students for success in taxation.

Students who undertake the concentration in taxation will gain expert knowledge of taxation practices and policies. Paired with tax courses are a number of finance classes, which will provide students with a solid base in financial analysis and planning. Paired together, these course offerings allow graduates a firm grasp of both finance and taxes, so that they can implement a financial plan and understand exactly how taxation factors into all the varied aspects.

The Master of Science in Human Resource Management degree program is recognized as being fully aligned with the curriculum guidebook of the Society for Human Resource Management. Our students learn how to consider the perspectives of employees and employers, the ways to effectively manage people, and the importance of employee engagement and development. Students study trends that managers and employees are likely to face in the future, and learn about legal requirements in dealing with employees.

Some students in the program choose to take an internship in Human Resources Management, in lieu of one course, which allows them to gain meaningful "hands-on" HR experience. In some cases, these internships parlay into a job offer upon completion of the degree.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the Master of Science in Human Resource Management will be able to:

• Craft strategic solutions that align stakeholders, HR practices and business needs for successful organizational performance.
• Build ethical, sustainable and scalable partnerships with organizational business units that support enhanced employee satisfaction, efficiency and effectiveness.
• Identify and apply relevant federal, state and local laws and regulations to prevent and solve problems and ethically minimize risk.
• Assimilate, manage and analyze demographic and business data and metrics using Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) to enable effective human-capital recommendations and decision-making.
• Promote and facilitate inclusion and employee engagement as a means of expanding and improving people’s contributions.

Gain Cutting-Edge Leadership Skills

Golden Gate University’s breakthrough leadership programs are based on extensive input from corporate partners, industry groups, leading scholars, and leverage the university’s decades-long successes in developing high achieving leaders in the innovative crucible of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Learn From Instructors Who Teach What They Do

Courses are taught by instructors who also work in some of the Bay Area’s largest and most successful organizations. They bring cutting-edge knowledge from the field to the classroom, teaching skills that are immediately applicable to the real world.

Future-Proof Your Career

The pace of change across industries is quickening. New technologies are disrupting established businesses at an accelerated rate. We are operating in an ever interconnected global world. Jobs once performed by professionals will soon be automated or outsourced. What was certain today well may be uncertain tomorrow. Are you prepared for how management and leadership will evolve as a result?

Influence and Conflict Management Concentration

This concentration is designed for students who would like to further develop knowledge and skills in influencing and conflict management. Research suggests that the ability to manage conflict differentiates leaders who are most effective from those who are not.

Golden Gate University is located at the nexus of finance and technology in San Francisco's business district. As the finance industry rapidly invents new paradigms in the face of economic change, GGU prepares students to be leaders in the global business world. The Masters of Science in Financial Analytics degree will equip you with the business analytics skills you need to address the challenges of today’s technology-intensive finance industry.

The MS in Financial Analytics is a specialized, technical program that provides in-depth exposure to principles and practices of corporate finance and business analytics. You’ll learn programming, data analysis, business valuation and financial modeling. You’ll leave the program with a highly developed and practiced ability to make strategic decisions using the latest tools in technology, data analysis, business and finance.

Our hands-on faculty are leading practitioners in the fields of business, finance, and technology from the Bay Area and beyond. Our current roster of adjunct faculty hold day jobs at Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan, Facebook, BridgeBio, RGB Spectrum, and B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the MS in the Financial Analytics degree program will have the knowledge and skills to:

• Evaluate and explain financial decisions regarding the firm’s investment and long- and short-term financing strategies by applying financial theory, quantitative decision-making tools, and analytical methods.
• Apply economic analysis to the firm’s decision-making, considering the impact of markets, institutions, and international trends on these decisions.
• Define and measure business and financial risk. Describe the relationship between risk and return, and distinguish between expected and required returns. Explain how risk affects the valuation of real and financial assets, and describe techniques for managing risk.
• Interpret and analyze individual business problems using data, selecting the best analytic approach and appropriate tools for extracting value from the data available. Use visual outcomes of analytics to communicate effective messages and recommendations for management teams.

The Master of Science in Business Analytics presents students with an understanding of the many possibilities for applying data analytics to business problems. Data analytics, and the implications of this strategic discipline, give practitioners new opportunities for discovering insights that can support the strategic goals and decision making of the organization. The discipline has grown so fast that it is impossible to address all of its elements, so this degree should be viewed as a "toolkit" of statistical and analytic theory, processes, tools, and techniques, which can be integrated into the business depending on the discipline and needed outcomes.

The MSBA is relevant to multiple audiences, including: the business manager charged with using data analytics to derive value from data and/or leveraging analytics teams to get that value; the subject matter expert (SME) in a business discipline charged with using analytics on the job; the budding business analytics data scientist requiring understanding of a myriad of data analytics tools from which to draw, and the IT professional responsible for supporting the analytics infrastructure and addressing issues of data security, privacy and ethics. Students completing the MSBA will have earned 39 units including three units of graduate statistics.

The Master of Science in Business Analytics presents students with an understanding of the many possibilities for applying data analytics to business problems. Data analytics, and the implications of this strategic discipline, give practitioners new opportunities for discovering insights that can support the strategic goals and decision making of the organization. The discipline has grown so fast that it is impossible to address all of its elements, so this degree should be viewed as a "toolkit" of statistical and analytic theory, processes, tools, and techniques, which can be integrated into the business depending on the discipline and needed outcomes.

The MSBA is relevant to multiple audiences, including: the business manager charged with using data analytics to derive value from data and/or leveraging analytics teams to get that value; the subject matter expert (SME) in a business discipline charged with using analytics on the job; the budding business analytics data scientist requiring understanding of a myriad of data analytics tools from which to draw, and the IT professional responsible for supporting the analytics infrastructure and addressing issues of data security, privacy and ethics. Students completing the MSBA will have earned 39 units including three units of graduate statistics.

Marketing Concentration

The Marketing concentration is designed for aspiring and current marketing professionals who are charged with using data analytics to derive value from data and for leveraging analytics to achieve that value

This degree program provides students with the academic and clinical training required to practice relationally informed clinical work and to prepare alumni for employment in a variety of mental health settings, including community mental health agencies, hospitals, schools, and private practice. Our students learn to practice from a stance of cultural humility and to maintain ethical and best practice standards.

Golden Gate University offers a license-eligible Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology. The program maintains a strategic partnership with the Psychotherapy Action Network, an organization that aims to organize, formulate initiatives, and collectively advocate for mental health policy that is based on the complexity of the individual and not simply on the identification of discrete symptoms. This is consistent with our program philosophy, which envisions psychotherapy as a complex process of individual growth and change and the therapeutic relationship as a key element in successful treatment.

Traineeship is an integral part of our program, providing an opportunity for students to apply the skills learned in class to the clinical encounter. Students are required to complete 300 face-to-face clinical hours under clinical supervision and to concurrently attend our practicum seminar over the course of at least three trimesters.

Our curriculum meets the MFT licensure requirements as set forth by section 4980.36 of the California Business and Professions (Cal. B&P) code. The program satisfies all the educational requirements set by the California Board of Behavioral Science Examiners and provides some hours of supervised experience fulfilling part of the practical experience requirements. Our curriculum also meets the educational requirements for Licensed Professional Clinical counselor (LPCC) licensure as required by section 4999.33 of the California Business and Professions (Cal. B&P) code. The curriculum also meets the educational requirements for MFT and/or LPCC licensure in some other states. If you intend to pursue licensure outside the state of California or are completing the program, including the traineeship, outside the state of California, speak with a faculty member in the Department of Psychology to discuss the licensure requirements in your state of interest prior to beginning the program.

Learning Outcomes
Graduates of the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology will possess the skills and knowledge to:

• Demonstrate comprehensive and integrative knowledge of the field of counseling psychology relevant to mental health professionals, including human development, psychopathology, and group, family, couple, and individual dynamics.
• Demonstrate knowledge of ethical and best practice standards that exist for professionals in their field.
• Demonstrate the capacity and willingness to practice psychotherapy from a stance of cultural humility.
• Demonstrate the capacity to practice individual, couple, family, and group psychotherapy from a relational and systemic lens.
• Demonstrate knowledge of research designs and parameters of psychological research, particularly within the field of counseling psychology, and the capacity to critically assess psychological research.