How Regina Camacho Found Her Purpose in North Park’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program
| 5 Min Read
Regina Camacho didn’t set out to become a counselor by following a straight-line plan. She got there through curiosity, careful observation, and an open house conversation that changed everything. Today, she works as a clinical counselor at Youth Outreach Services in Chicago, where she supports children and teens navigating some of the most turbulent years of their lives. She credits her master’s in clinical mental health counseling from North Park University with giving her not just a credential, but a strong foundation of skills that she uses every day.
Drawn to the Complexity of People
Regina’s path into counseling started with a simple but deeply held conviction. “What drew me to counseling was always this sense that humans are just incredibly complex and different from one another,” she said. “I wanted to learn how to understand people better, to be more empathetic, more helpful.”
She was equally motivated by what she didn’t want. “I liked learning about people,” she said, “but not in a way where I had to sell them something or profit off of them. Counseling felt much more aligned with what I actually wanted to do.”
The COVID-19 pandemic brought Regina’s calling into sharper focus. Watching how unevenly the crisis landed on different communities, some people getting a break while others kept working to make ends meet, deepened her commitment to support work. “I knew I wanted to be in a role where I could work with people one-on-one and support them through whatever they were facing.” When she discovered there was an entire professional field built around that impulse, she knew she needed to learn more. The next step was finding the right program to make it real.
A Faculty Invested in Student Success
Before Regina enrolled in North Park’s MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, she attended an open house, an experience she now recommends to anyone considering graduate school. “Talking to the professors at the open house was the turning point,” she said. “They made me feel so comfortable being open and honest with them right away, and I thought, if I already feel this way before I’m even in the program, I can’t wait to actually be in the classroom learning from them.”
Regina appreciated that the faculty was attentive to students as a whole, not just graduate learners working toward a credential. “They would ask things like: Where are you in life right now? How might this topic be challenging for you personally? That personal level of engagement made the content stick in a way that purely academic instruction couldn’t,” she said.
That approach extended to helping students develop the kind of self-awareness that is essential for effective counseling work. As Regina puts it: “It made us think, I need to do some of my own work in order to truly help other people. I’m not sure every program does that, but I’m really grateful North Park did.”
Flexibility for Working Professionals
When Regina enrolled in the online program, she was balancing a full-time job and a second job on weekends. The program’s flexible online format allowed her to fit coursework around her responsibilities, making it possible to earn her degree without putting her life on hold. She also credits the support structures around her, both from the program and the people in her life, for sustaining her through the demanding two-year journey. The faculty modeled the self-care practices taught in class, consistently checking in to ask what students planned to do to take care of themselves.
“The professors would regularly end class by asking, ‘What are you going to do to take care of yourself this weekend?'” Regina said. “That’s stuck with me even now. When I’m exhausted after a long week with clients, I catch myself asking: ‘What’s my self-care practice this weekend?’ It really helped me build that habit early, and it’s carried through into how I show up in my work.”
Where the Degree Leads
Since graduating, Regina has been putting her training to work with a population she is deeply committed to serving: teenagers. “I’m currently working as a clinical counselor for a nonprofit called Youth Outreach Services. I have the opportunity to apply what I learned every single day,” she said. “Teens are really misunderstood and often judged, which is a big part of why I chose this population. Working with them is genuinely a practice of patience and empathy, constantly reminding myself what it was like to be a teenager, so they feel a little more understood.”
She also has longer-range ambitions. Regina is exploring the submission of an abstract for a conference poster, something she describes as a new kind of professional confidence she didn’t anticipate the degree would cultivate. Looking further ahead, she can picture opening her own clinic that takes a holistic approach with counseling alongside physical health services, dental care, and fitness. “I’ve realized that mental health doesn’t happen in isolation,” she said. “I’ve always been drawn to that integrated approach.”
When she reflects on what earning an advanced degree has meant to her professionally and personally, her assessment is clear. “The connections I made, the advice I received, the mindset I developed—all of that has stayed with me. I wouldn’t be here without this degree.”
Get Started with the MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at North Park University
North Park University’s online master’s in clinical mental health counseling prepares graduates to assess, diagnose, and treat clients across a wide range of settings. Delivered fully online with a two-year completion path, the 60-credit-hour program is designed to fit the schedules of working adults while providing rigorous clinical preparation.
The program prepares graduates for Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) licensure pathways. Coursework blends online flexibility with hands-on clinical experience, giving students the practical confidence to work with diverse client populations from day one.
Learn more or request information today!