To be admitted into PLNU's MACC program, you must have a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited institution, as evidenced by an official transcript from an institution indicating the completion of an undergraduate degree. You must also have an undergraduate cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. If you don’t meet the minimum GPA requirement, please contact your enrollment counselor regarding the exceptions process.

The program is designed for maximum flexibility for working adults. Many of our students work full- or part-time. To accommodate traditional work hours, courses are offered between 4-10 pm PST, Monday through Thursdays. In addition, the MACC Online program allows students to complete their coursework and practicum in as few as 2 years or as many as 4 years. Three- and four-year completion tracks allow for reduced course loads to accommodate students who must maintain part-time or full-time employment.  However, practicum placements may require up to 20 hours per week during the weekday, weekend, daytime and/or evening hours in addition to coursework. Students that select to complete their practicum over two years may have the possibility of fewer practicum hours during the week, as determined by individual practicum sites.

You will have the option to apply for a number of scholarships through our Student Financial Services office. This program qualifies for state and federal financial aid options. Contact your enrollment counselor for more information.

Students can complete their program in as few as two years or spread it out for up to four years. Please keep in mind that for students that choose to take fewer classes your financial aid will be impacted during semesters in which you take fewer than six units.

Synchronous classes meet one to three days per week via Zoom. Most core classes will be held on Mondays or Tuesdays, however, two classes (Professional Development Community and Pre-Practicum) will be held on either Wednesdays or Thursdays after 4 p.m. PST. Asynchronous classes will have weekly assignments, but the coursework can be completed at your convenience.

Different class formats have different needs:

• Asynchronous classes will generally be larger, 20-30 students. 
• Synchronous classes will be somewhat smaller to facilitate learning that is experiential and skills-focused. These classes are typically 8-20 students.

MACC Online program follows California educational requirements for licensure in the state of California. In certain states outside California, PLNU is not authorized to enroll students in online (distance education) courses and/or offer internships within that state.

Since student location is based on where a student is physically located while taking courses, if a student moves to another state after admission to a program and/or enrollment in an online course, continuation within the program and/or course will depend on whether PLNU is authorized to offer distance education courses in that state. It is the student's responsibility to notify PLNU of any change in their physical location, other than incidental travel.

If a student wishes to obtain a practicum placement outside California, they must select a state where it is permitted. If you are considering an academic program that leads to professional licensure or certification, it is strongly recommended that you seek guidance from the appropriate licensing agency in your state of interest BEFORE enrolling in the academic program at PLNU.

Federal regulations prevent PLNU from enrolling an online student into an academic program leading to professional licensure or certification unless PLNU’s program meets the educational requirements for licensure in the state where the student is physically located. However, our online educational requirements also meet the licensure requirements for LPCC in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Tennessee, and Virginia. Please follow this link to learn more about state licensure requirements and eligibility for practicum placements outside of the state of California.

Unfortunately, no. PLNU is not authorized to provide distance education internationally.

PLNU is a Nazarene school and our professors are Christian, but this program does not follow a specifically Christian curriculum. There is one class where faith integration is discussed explicitly, but it is not a core component of the curriculum. The curriculum is rigorous and designed to meet the high standards of CA-Board of Behavioral Sciences. Throughout the program, spiritual identity is addressed as a whole and from multiple perspectives (i.e., not only the Christian perspective) in order to prepare our students to be competent therapists capable of working with individuals of all spiritual identities.

Absolutely! When eligible, you will be working with actual clients in a practicum setting in your area.

No. This degree satisfies the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences' educational requirements for licensure as an LMFT and/or LPCC in the state of California. You must complete additional supervised clinical hours and pass the CA law and ethics exam (within one year of graduating) and the CA clinical exam (after completing all of your supervised clinical hours)before you will be qualified to apply for a license. This process is not administered by PLNU. 

See CA BBS’s website for specifics as both licenses vary slightly in how hours are structured.

LMFT’s and LPCCs perform many of the same types of work, in many of the same types of environments. Both types of professionals can provide counseling/therapy services to individuals, couples, families, and groups in hospitals, community-based mental health centers, private practice and schools. However, there are two major differences between the two professions: 1) the path to licensure and 2) the philosophies from which they view clients.

Licensure: Both LMFTs and LPCCs must complete supervised clinical hours post-graduation and take two state exams. The difference lies in how the post-graduation hours are accumulated. LPCCs must complete 280 hours of supervised work with clients before graduation. After graduation, LPCC are required to complete 3000 hours of supervised experience. For LPCCs any hours completed before graduation are not applied to the post-graduation requirement (i.e., when you graduate, your hours “reset” to 0). LMFTs must complete 150 hours of supervised work with clients before graduation. LMFTs can “carry over” up to 1300 hours of supervised experience that are gained before graduation toward their post-graduation collection of hours (i.e., if you gain 800 hours of supervised experience before graduation you keep them and begin your post-graduate hours at with 800 hours completed). 

Philosophy: In general, LPCCs are likely to view clients’ struggles as individual, with special emphasis on psycho-social development. LMFTs view their clients through the lens of their socio-cultural and relational systems. This isn’t to say that either field is mutually exclusive - LMFTs think about development and LPCC think about the impact of systems on the individual. It’s more about what they see first and how they make sense of what they see.  

See this helpful website to learn more.

Absolutely! Our program is designed to meet the educational requirements for both licenses. All students take the 63 program units, regardless of the license they hope to receive. The pre-degree (practicum) hours count toward the MFT license, up to 1,300 hours. The BBS does not allow pre-degree hours to count toward the PCC license. All students have to accrue a minimum of 700 training hours to be eligible to graduate (minimum of 300 direct client contact hours). The CA-BBS changes rules frequently, so students are encouraged to verify. Please note that the BBS will only count hours going six years back from the date your license application is postmarked. The only exception is for MFT applicants, who are able to count up to 500 pre-degree hours past the six-year mark.

Every state has unique licensing requirements. Point Loma Nazarene University is physically located in the state of California. If you are considering an academic program that leads to professional licensure or certification, it is strongly recommended that you seek guidance from the appropriate licensing agency in your state of interest BEFORE enrolling in the academic program at PLNU. Federal regulations prevent PLNU from enrolling an online student into an academic program leading to professional licensure or certification unless PLNU’s program meets the educational requirements for licensure in the state where the student is physically located.

Click here to see the states our MACC Online program meets the educational requirements for.

Many doctoral programs require a master’s degree in a related field. Our program addresses concepts of psychology, counseling and marriage and family therapy. However, each school has different requirements for admission, so you are strongly advised to research programs you are interested in before selecting a master’s program.

This program is geared toward students who want to conduct therapy. We would suggest considering a more research-based program if that’s your primary goal.

After you graduate it will be your responsibility to find a supervisor/job, but PLNU will use the connections it has established in its longstanding undergraduate Psychology department to connect our MACC alumni with employers.

Our program falls somewhere in the middle. For example, tuition at other local San Diego universities may be around $60,000. Overall, we are very reasonably and competitively priced for a private school.

PLNU will partner with you to acquire a practicum setting that meets CA and your state’s (where you reside) requirements for an approved practicum site. After identifying a site you are in which you are interested, our Director of Clinical Training will vet the site to determine suitability. Once approved, we will help you with the appropriate paperwork. While PLNU provides support, it is ultimately the student’s responsibility to connect with, interview for, and solidify their placement.

COAMFTE and CACREP are programmatic accreditations that align with MFT and PCC professional identities, respectively. In California, programmatic accreditation is not required for the degree obtained to be eligible for licensure. Our program and university have the most important accreditation, which is WSCUC. Our goal is to keep the program as dual licensure eligible without splitting it in two and each pursuing programmatic accreditation. The APA does not accredit master’s level programs, only doctorate programs.

Not for the LPCC license. For LMFT, please refer to this document here. However, in order to graduate from the MACC program, all students must accrue a minimum of 700 clinical hours.

Our program is not geared toward one particular theoretical orientation. Instead, we present commonly used theories and then support you in determining which orientation suits your unique style.

This depends on the requirements of your practicum site and how long you would like to take to complete your practicum. To complete the practicum in one calendar year, you should average 15-20 hours per week.

Yes. The MACC Online program is designed to be flexible so you can create a completion plan that honors your priorities  According to state regulations students in practicum must always be enrolled in a practicum class each semester you are enrolled in practicum. So while everyone will be enrolled in at least one class, you have the flexibility to choose a faster degree completion path that requires more classes during the practicum. For example, students completing their degree in two years typically have four classes in addition to practicum, while students completing their degree in three years typically have 3 classes in addition to practicum.

We want to get to know you - not just as a student but as a person! You will have a combination of small-group interviews and/or individual interviews with at least one faculty member. We will ask you some open-ended questions that will help you to tell us about yourself, why you want to be a counselor, and why you think PLNU is a good fit for you.