Doctor of Philosophy in Education - Counseling

Old Dominion University offers a Doctor of Philosophy degree in education with a concentration in counseling that prepares professional counselors to provide leadership in the profession of counseling. Counseling leaders must be excellent counselors, supervisors, teachers, researchers, and scholars. The program is designed to enhance the counseling skills of doctoral students, prepare counselors for the roles of clinical and administrative supervision, develop the teaching skills of students, teach students to conduct research, and prepare students to become counseling scholars. The program prepares doctoral students to become university faculty members in counselor education programs and leaders in a variety of counseling specializations (e.g., clinical mental health counseling, school counseling).

Students who are admitted to the Ph.D. program in Counseling must have a master's degree from a program accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Program (CACREP) or the equivalent. Admitted individuals who do not have a CACREP-accredited master's degree in counseling must complete any missing master’s level coursework as part of their doctoral program of study as a part of their Ph.D. program. Upon reviewing application materials, counseling faculty will make a decision on each applicant’s potential for success and fit for the doctoral program. Then, selected applicants will be invited to participate in the following processes: Ethical Dilemma Writing Sample: Each individual applicant will be given an hour to respond to an ethical dilemma at a designated day and time. Live Interview: Applicants will attend a 30-minute online interview with faculty members and have an opportunity to interact with current doctoral students.