Counseling Minor

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Make a positive impact on the lives of others. Develop fundamental skills for helping professions.

Why Study Counseling?

Helping people navigate challenging life events is important in today’s ever-changing world. Job loss, death, divorce, academic stress, or managing mental health can be difficult.

Helping others is a fundamental skill set for career success in a variety of fields, even those not related to counseling.

Why Study Counseling at Luther?

Luther’s counseling minor helps prepare you to be a counselor, serve in a variety of helping professions, or pursue other careers.

If you’re a psychology or social work major, it prepares you for entry-level positions. The minor also equips you for graduate programs in counseling and social work.

You can also pair the minor with another major at Luther. This lets you focus on a subject that’s of greatest interest to you. A counseling minor adds the ability to learn about behaviors and communicate with others.

What You’ll Learn

Luther’s counseling minor complements any major at the college. The minor also provides preparation for helping professions.

The counseling minor at Luther consists of a blend of courses from the psychology, social work, and counseling curriculums.

Psychology courses cover topics including social processes, personality, emotional disorders, development, thinking, testing, learning, motivation, perception, psychobiology, and animal behavior.

Counseling courses explore how and why helping professions are increasingly driven by demands for accountability. They focus on evidence-based practices and help you prepare for future workplace expectations.

Social work courses center on human behavior and social environments.

Curriculum

Careers and Outcomes

Research indicates there is a viable market for counselors and related professions. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020) predicts a “much faster than average” employment rate in the next ten years in this category. A counseling minor provides ideal preparation for helping professions. You can also combine the minor with a variety of majors in preparation for other fields/careers.

Career Fields

Art (art therapist)
Biology (animal-assisted therapist)
Business (financial counselor)
Education (guidance counselor or school psychologist)
Environmental studies (ecotherapist)
Identity studies (dance therapist)
Medical (pre-medicine)
Music (music therapist)
Religion (pastoral counselor)

Caring Faculty

“As a professor, I hope to challenge students to question more than they want to, and to accomplish more than they think they can,” says Susan Schmidt, assistant professor of social work.

Read Professor Schmidt's Story