ACA and 28 other participating organizations have endorsed the Building Blocks to Portability licensure title and licensure scope of practice, as developed through the 20/20: A Vision for the Future of Counseling project.
To further the likelihood of national portability, this project included recommendations to all state licensing boards on a consistent title (e.g., Licensed Professional Counselor) and scope of practice for professional counselors, which currently reads as follows:
“The independent practice of counseling encompasses the provision of professional counseling services to individuals, groups, families, couples and organizations through the application of accepted and established mental health counseling principles, methods, procedures and ethics.
Counseling promotes mental health wellness, which includes the achievement of social, career, and emotional development across the lifespan, as well as preventing and treating mental disorders and providing crisis intervention.
Counseling includes, but is not limited to, psychotherapy, diagnosis, evaluation; administration of assessments, tests and appraisals; referral; and the establishment of counseling plans for the treatment of individuals, couples, groups and families with emotional, mental, addiction and physical disorders.
Counseling encompasses consultation and program evaluation, program administration within and to schools and organizations, and training and supervision of interns, trainees, and pre-licensed professional counselors through accepted and established principles, methods, procedures, and ethics of counselor supervision.
The practice of counseling does not include functions or practices that are not within the professional’s training or education.”
The last goal of the project has not yet been reached: there is no consensus on education requirements that could be suggested to state licensing boards. While much progress has been made with the title and licensure scope of practice, the lack of unified consensus remains a stumbling block for our profession to obtain licensure portability.
Learn more about the endorsement
here.
Learn more about 20/20: A Vision for the Future of Counseling project
here.