Mason Hale
Tennessee Tech University alumnus, Mason Hale, graduated with his Ph.D. in Counseling and Supervision in July of 2024. This degree was another steppingstone for Hale to accomplish his academic and professional goals in the counseling field. He pursued a doctoral degree for three reasons: to be a better counselor, teach future counselors and conduct meaningful research in the mental health field.
“I wanted to have the opportunity to be involved in the training of counselors,” he continued. “To be invited in as a participant in the transformational process that counselors experience as they journey through a master’s degree in counseling is a humbling and privileged responsibility.”
Hale is currently a Licensed Clinical Pastoral Therapist, a Temporary Licensed Professional Counselor-Mental Health Service Provider, a National Certified Counselor, a Board Certified Counselor and a Board Certified-TeleMental Health Provider, and an Assistant Professor of Graduate Counseling at Trevecca Nazarene University.
Hale was a graduate assistant during his time at Tech, which aided both tuition remission and professional growth working closely with the professors in the program.
“Since my plan entering the program was to teach in counselor education programs, I was able to learn some of the role expectations of counselor educators by working with and alongside several of the counseling professors,” he appreciated.
Tennessee Tech was not an unknown university to Hale. In fact, it was highly recommended to him when choosing where to pursue his doctoral degree.
“Tech has a long-standing history of excellence that produces graduates that contribute to their communities well,” he explained. “I personally knew severally Tech grads whose character shined positive light on Tech as a quality institution.”
Tech’s Ph.D. in counseling and supervision launched in Fall 2020. The newness of this program caught Hale’s eye, and it would not be the first time he accepted the challenge of conquering a new program.
“I was accepted to participate in the second cohort in the program and was the third graduate from the program,” Hale revealed. “I felt comfortable navigating the environment of a new program because I had experience navigating a new master’s program at Freed-Hardeman University where I was the first graduate through their Master of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling.”
Another reason Tech stood out to Hale was a unique distinction Tech’s program offered a doctoral portfolio instead of a comprehensive exam.
“The reason I like the portfolio better than the exam is the portfolio requires practical tangible evidence that the students must show their competency in real life service and products for our profession,” Hale elaborated. “Instead of taking a test, we get the opportunity to exercise our knowledge therefore showcasing our strengths and competencies as future counselor educators.”
Hale encourages students considering graduate school to take the pressure of being perfect off and adjust in a way that works for each individual person.
“There is no right way to navigate graduate school and the normal and overwhelming stresses of life,” he said. “The life of a graduate student calls a person to embrace adaptability, flexibility, open communication with important people in one’s life, fortitude, grit, resilience, growth, optimism, realism, and more.”
Life comes with all kinds of challenges, and positivity is a mindset. Those struggles become a lot more bearable and even transformative when focusing on the good.
“You have to choose to participate in the growth, to face the tensions, to face the adversity, to be open to the change within you,” Hale encouraged.