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Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
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About Us
About Us

Richmont is a fast-growing, Christian graduate school providing master’s-level training in clinical mental health counseling, as well as ministry, in Atlanta, Chattanooga and online.

In 1973, a group of Christian mental health professionals who explored integrating Christian faith and professional counseling founded the Atlanta Clinical College. After opening a counseling center, they partnered with Georgia State University a major state university to offer advanced professional training and research within a Christian context at what became known as the Religious Consultation and Research Society before being incorporated as the Psychological Studies Institute (PSI).

For more than 25 years, PSI offered a diploma in Christian counseling through its partnership with Georgia State. In the fall of 1998, PSI began offering its own Master of Arts in Professional Counseling degree after receiving authorization from the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

In August of 2000, Richmont opened a second campus in Chattanooga. Three years later, PSI received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). In 2008, Psychological Studies Institute changed its name to Richmont Graduate University and soon after purchased a new Atlanta campus.

In 2014, Richmont received accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), the gold standard for clinical mental health education programs.  Today the University offers 10 certificate programs in numerous specializations, a School of Ministry with three degree programs to train church leaders, and dozens of continuing education offerings each year.

Presently, Richmont’s mental health counselors serve around the world, working in private practices, behavioral health centers, homeless shelters, addiction rehabilitation facilities, churches, and other community-based programs that serve disadvantaged populations.

Richmont’s training occurs within the context of a structured curriculum and supervisory relationships and is designed to equip graduates to facilitate spiritual growth, mental health, and relational healing. Our graduate education programs culminate in the following degrees:

School of Counseling

Degree Programs

Graduate Certificates

School of Counseling Application Requirements

  • School of Counseling application form with a $50 nonrefundable application fee (payable online)
  • One official transcript from each college attended
  • One official copy of the GRE or MAT (Miller Analogies Test) scores
  • Three completed reference forms. These include one character, one pastoral, and one former professor/recent employer.
  • A professional essay (download the application checklist for details)
  • A resume of vocational experience

Application Checklist – School of Counseling

School of Ministry

Degree Programs

Graduate Certificates

School of Ministry Application Requirements

  • School of Ministry application form with a $50 nonrefundable application fee (payable online)
  • One official transcript from each college attended
  • One completed ministry reference form
  • An autobiographical statement
  • A resume of vocational experience

Application Checklist – School of Ministry

Application Checklist – Graduate Certificate in Spiritual Direction

The mission of Richmont Graduate University is to provide Christ-centered education and research that advances God’s work of

healing, restoration, and transformation in the lives of individuals, churches, and communities.

Richmont Graduate University is founded on principles that adhere to the National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith appearing below. This statement has been affirmed by more than seventy denominations and thus represents a broad evangelical consensus. All faculty members affirm this statement, and students who attend Richmont will be taught from a Christian perspective.

  • We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
  • We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
  • We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
  • We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whom the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
  • We believe God’s redemptive purpose will be consumated by the return of Christ to raise the dead, judge all people and establish His glorious kingdom.
  • We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

About Us