Counseling Psychology

About the program

The Counseling Psychology program at Iowa State University offers a comprehensive, graduate education designed to train scientist-practitioners with the theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and research expertise needed to become effective counseling psychologists. Through coursework and clinical, research, and teaching experiences, students are prepared to work in college and university settings, industry, and as licensed psychologists.

Our program has been accredited since 1973, having received our most recent 10 year reaccreditation in 2018. (Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation, American Psychological Association, 750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002 / Phone: (202) 336-5979 / Email: apaaccred@apa.org  / or visit the APA website).

Prospective students

The application deadline for Fall 2026 was December 1, 2025. After initial review of applications, we conduct videoconference interviews in early February. The first round of offers typically goes out by the beginning of March. All decisions for admission are completed by April 15. Graduate students admitted to the graduate program in psychology typically receive funding (tuition plus stipend) for five years as long as they remain in good standing. More information about admissions, the application process to the graduate program in psychology, and common FAQs may be found on the graduate admissions page.

Names of recruiting faculty members will be listed here on or around September 1.

If you have questions about the Counseling Psychology program or admissions, please contact the Counseling Training Director, Dr. David Vogel.

Admissions, Outcomes and Other Data

The Counseling Psychology Program is completed by students in an average of six years, which has been consistent since 2013. In the past 10 years, almost 80% of our students have obtained professional licensure within one year of completing the program. As required by APA, you can view our most recent Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data.

Research training

Located in a research-focused psychology department, the Counseling Psychology program emphasizes continuous collaborative involvement in research endeavors with faculty and students. Education and training in research is sequential, multidimensional, and integrated throughout the curriculum. Further, training is based on an interactive faculty-student mentoring model. The mentoring of students is a high priority for all faculty, and faculty generally only have two to five graduate advisees at any one time, so they can carefully work with each advisee. In the last ten years, graduate students in the program have authored or co-authored well over 100 publications.

The program has excellent resources available for graduate students that support and foster students’ research endeavors, including travel and dissertation support. Additionally, students have the opportunity to earn the Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Psychology. This certificate equips you with expertise in data analysis techniques, including multivariate analysis, survey sampling, psychometrics, and advanced statistical modeling. For more details on the certificate program and admission requirements, please contact Dr. Marcus Credé.

Counseling training

The counseling psychology faculty highly value psychotherapy training and provide collaborative involvement of faculty as instructors, supervisors, and occasionally as co-therapists. The purpose of psychotherapy training is to help students integrate and apply their academic knowledge and to develop the skills necessary to understand and help clients. Students typically follow this progressive structure:

• First year: The initial work with clients occurs in the department during the first semester of the first year and involves seeing carefully selected clients under close supervision provided by faculty and advanced graduate students.
• Second Year: In the second year, students to move to the ISU Student Counseling Service (SCS), where they work with clients under the supervision of SCS psychologists and postdocs in a multifaceted campus mental health agency.
• Third year: Students then move to a comprehensive community mental health agencies in Ames or nearby areas that provide opportunities for individual therapy for a range of concerns, including substance use disorders, group therapy, and assessment.
• Fourth and fifth year: By their fourth year, students typically are placed in off-campus practica at a variety of community agencies such as community hospitals, outpatient clinics, and group private practice settings.

Advanced students also have a number of opportunities to gain additional counseling, supervision, and consultation experiences through several graduate assistantship positions on campus including clinical positions at the Student Counseling Services, Dean of Students Office, Student Accessibility Services, and the Student Wellness Center.

A 12-month pre-doctoral internship is a required component of our program. The internship typically occurs in the fifth or sixth year of the doctoral program. Internship acquisition is a nationally competitive process, and our students have been highly successful in obtaining select APA-approved internships located in a variety of settings throughout the country. Students from this program have been quite successful in national internship selection and match processes (100% placement rate over the last 10 years). Doctoral students from this program typically receive one of their top internship choices and recent doctoral candidates have been placed in prestigious university counseling centers (Colorado, Georgia State, Nevada-Las Vegas, Nevada-Reno), major veterans administration medical centers (LA, Milwaukee, Minnesota), hospitals (Cambridge Health, Harvard; University of Kansas Medical Center) and well-respected regional mental health service centers (Iowa, New Jersey).

Faculty

Program FAQs

Affiliated and Emeritus faculty:

• Sundé Nesbit
• Jessica Pfeiffer
• Warren Phillips
• Karen Scheel

• Fred Borgen (Emeritus)
• Carolyn Cutrona (Emeritus)
• Douglas Epperson (Emeritus)
• Norm Scott (Emeritus)
• Meifen Wei (Emeritus)