Becoming a Mental Health Counselor, Permanently or Temporarily: Examining Potential Barriers for International Students Enrolled in Mental Health Counseling Master’s Program

Nouna Jalilzadeh, Pace University

Abstract

The United States is a leading destination for international students due to its renowned education quality, diversity, and global employment opportunities (Batalova & Israel, 2021). The enrollment of international students, particularly in mental health counseling master's programs, has been steadily rising (Lertora & Croffie, 2020). Despite this growth, the unique needs and expectations of international counseling students, who contribute significantly to the field, remain underexplored (Qi et al., 2019). This dissertation aimed to investigate the lived experiences of international students in the U.S. with marginalized identities enrolled in a Mental Health Counseling Master’s program, employing a transcendental phenomenological qualitative approach. Through in-depth 60-90-minute semi-structured interviews with 10 participants representing diverse races, ethnicities, religions, and cultures, the study identified three overarching themes: 1) Getting into Counseling, 2) Present MHC Experience, and 3) Reflection and Future Prospects. The research addressed two central questions: 1) What are the lived experiences of international students in the U.S. Mental Health Counseling Master's program? and 1a) What challenges and needs may supervisors and counselor educators be unaware of when working with this population?

Subject Area

Counseling Psychology|Psychology|Mental health

Recommended Citation

Jalilzadeh, Nouna, "Becoming a Mental Health Counselor, Permanently or Temporarily: Examining Potential Barriers for International Students Enrolled in Mental Health Counseling Master’s Program" (2023). ETD Collection for Pace University. AAI30819967.
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/dissertations/AAI30819967

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