Certification of Specialties: Not If,But How

The guest editorial and featured articles have established the fact of counseling specialties and also that counselors have no clear or consistent scheme to recognize professional specialization. If counselors expect external recognition of and respect for their credentials, the credentials first must be recognized and understood by counselors. The experiences of other professions suggest strategies, but counselors must determine their own way of recognizing specialties without denying counselors' common identity. The profession and practice of counseling will be strengthened if all counselors have a minimum foundation of counseling knowledge and competencies and build accepted specializations on that foundation. The counseling profession must distinguish among work settings, professional interests, and specializations as a prerequisite to a coherent scheme of recognizing specialties.     

A Proposed Alternative to the Licensing of Specialties in Counseling

Counseling specialties are a natural result of a complex field. Regulation of the counseling profession has been sought and accomplished in most states. Whether the public is protected best by state regulation of the practice of counseling specialties is a question facing the profession. An alternative to governmental regulation of specialties is offered.     

The Evolution of Specialties in the CACREP Standards: CACREP's Role in Unifying the Profession

This article explores the evolution of the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs’ (CACREP's) accreditation of program area specialties and how CACREP's decision to accredit specialties as separate programs has affected the counseling profession's ability to view itself as a single profession. The article links the development of CACREP and its accreditation structure to other historical and political events occurring within the profession and includes documentation of CACREP's efforts to self‐correct through policy development that emphasizes counseling first and specialties second.     

Unified Ethical Standards: A Challenge for Professionalism

Multiple codes of ethics exist for counseling professionals. This situation creates confusion for consumers and professionals and is counterproductive to the efforts of counseling to establish itself as a true profession. This article describes the relationships among ethics documents of the American Counseling Association and its divisions, national voluntary certification boards, state licensure boards, and counseling specialties; discusses problems inherent in having multiple codes; and suggests actions that might be taken toward the establishment of a single, generally accepted code that would support the goal of becoming a unified profession.     

Transforming a Past into a Future: Counseling Psychology in South Africa

Cet article décrit une analyse SWOT de la profession de psychologue du counseling en Afrique du Sud. Deux sources d'information constituent la base de cette investigation: une revue de la littérature sur la profession et l'analyse thématique d'une enquête réalisée auprès de psychologues du counseling pratiquants ou en formation. Il apparaît que cette profession cherche à se constituer une identité pertinente qui serait en prise avec les problèmes spécifiques relevant de l'histoire sociopolitique et socioéconomique de l'Afrique du Sud. On envisage différentes pistes esquissant une vision d'avenir de la profession aussi bien dans un contexte national qu'international.
This article describes a SWOT analysis of the counseling psychology profession in South Africa. Two sources of information formed the basis for the analysis: An examination of the literature on the profession and a content theming of a survey conducted with practising counseling psychologists and those in training. The analysis suggests that the counseling profession is struggling to establish a relevant identity that will address the inherent problems created by South Africa's sociopolitical and socioeconomic history. Several suggestions are made for creating a future vision for the profession within both a national and an international context.     

Helping Teenage Parents: The Independent and Collaborative Roles of Counselor Educators and School Counselors

In recent years, the leadership of the American Counseling Association (ACA) has posed an earnest and urgent challenge to the counseling profession to develop and apply collaborative approaches to solve the complex problems of society. Teenage parenthood is one example of a major societal concern requiring cooperative, professional interventions. The purpose of this article is to recommend independent and collaborative roles for counselor educators and school counselors in addressing the many needs of teenage parents. In addition, this article serves as a model of how the counseling specialties can work together to resolve other critical social issues.     

Employment of Gerontological Counseling Graduates: A Follow-Up Study

Twenty-five counselor education departments offering specializations in gerontological counseling were asked to survey their graduates who had completed course work or a specialization in aging. Implications are presented concerning employment opportunities for counseling graduates wanting to work with older people.     

Consequences of the Postmodernist Vision: Diversity as the Guiding Value for the Counseling Profession

The counseling profession has strongly identified with the multicultural movement. Nevertheless, postmodernism, which is the ideological foundation of multiculturalism, has had relatively little impact on other segments of the profession. The author argues that many realms of the counseling profession are locked within modernism and could be significantly enriched by a foundational shift to postmodernism. Two of these realms, professional identity issues and the helping relationship, are elaborated, and conclusions for counseling practice are discussed.     

Reflections on uncomplemented philosophies,integrated curriculums and words that bind and separate in counseling and clinical psychology

Should counseling psychology remain a distinct specialty or should it merge with clinical psychology? Recently, a growing amount of attention has been directed toward the increasing similarities between the counseling and clinical specialties, and musings about integrating them into a generic training model have emerged. This position paper considers some problems with the current divisions existing between counseling and clinical psychology. Three basic points are examined: (a) the effects of language systems on the counseling and clinical specialties; (b) the normal-abnormal dimension of behavior as a weak justification for distinct specialties; and (c) the fostering of distorted views of human behavior through counseling and clinical training programs.     

Inner Subjective Experiences and Social Constructionism: A Response to Rudes and Guterman (2007)

In an earlier article, the author argued that there had been a devaluation of inner subjective experiences by the counseling profession over the last several decades (J. T. Hansen, 2005). In their reply to this article, J. Rudes and J. T. Guterman (2007) advocated for a social constructionist position for the counseling profession. In the current article, 2 fundamental premises that are inherent in the reply of J. Rudes and J. T. Guterman are examined. Disagreements with 1 of these premises are elaborated, and implications for the counseling profession are discussed.     

How special are the specialties? Workplace settings in counseling and clinical psychology in the United States

How special are the specialties? Although clinical and counseling psychology each have distinctive origins, past research suggests their potential convergence across time. In a survey of 5666 clinical and counseling psychologists, the similarities and differences between their workplace settings were examined during early-, mid-, and late-career phases to explore the distinctiveness of the two specialties. Overall, clinical and counseling psychologists reported markedly similar workplace settings. However, some significant differences remained; a greater proportion of counseling psychologists reported working in counseling centers, while a greater proportion of clinical psychologists reported working in medical settings. In addition, during late-career, substantially more counseling and clinical psychologists worked in independent practice contexts than in community mental health centers, medical settings, academia, or university counseling centers. Findings are discussed in relation to the ongoing distinctiveness of the two specialties and the implications of this for training and service in the field of professional psychology.     

Accreditation,Credentialing, Professionalization: The Role of Specialties

This article provides an overview of standards development, accreditation, and credentialing with particular attention to specialties. There is much to celebrate with regard to progress and successes. On the other hand, even a cursory review of the history of counseling and its current status leaves questions begging for answers. A number of unresolved issues are considered, and the pros and cons of specialties in the professionalization of counseling are presented.     

20/20: A Vision for the Future of Counseling: The New Consensus Definition of Counseling

With the promulgation of the 20/20: A Vision for the Future of Counseling consensus definition of counseling, there is finally profession‐wide clarity as to what it means to engage in professional counseling. This article describes the development and discusses the implications of the definition: “Counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals.” This consensus definition has been endorsed by 29 major counseling organizations.     

The Value of Social Constructionism for the Counseling Profession: A Reply to Hansen

The authors reply to J. T. Hansen's (2005) call for the profession to revalue the inner subjective experiences (ISE) of clients. Hansen argued that social constructionism has influenced the decline of the counseling profession by obscuring its unique focus on ISE. The authors maintain that social constructionism is a useful framework for counseling, and they articulate a social constructionist position for counseling. Hansen's reasons for arguing that ISE must be revalued are discussed along with future directions for social constructionism and counseling.     

Examining Spirituality and Sense of Calling in Counseling Students

This study explored the link between counseling students’ spiritual well‐being and sense of calling to the profession. A final sample of 415 counseling students demonstrated significant spiritual well‐being (religious and existential) and a strong sense of calling to the counseling profession. Results also indicated that spiritual well‐being was predictive of students’ sense of calling to the profession. Implications for counselor training are discussed.     

The Counseling Profession in Russia: Historical Roots,Current Trends,and Future Perspectives

Psychology was established in Russia before the Communist era. The social work profession was created in 1991 for a society in turmoil after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2011, the counseling profession officially emerged as a branch of social work called social psychological help. Professional counseling associations are in the formative stage. Concern about mental health issues, particularly substance abuse, suggests that the counseling profession could continue to grow in Russia.     

Professional Counseling in Nigeria: Past,Present, and Future

The events that circumscribed the parameters of today's counseling in Nigeria are many and varied regarding their influence in shaping the development of the profession in the country. The authors review these events and the current status of counseling in Nigeria, including the challenges faced in the profession. Future trends and suggestions for strengthening the profession are emphasized.     

Should Counseling Be Considered a Health Care Profession? Critical Thoughts on the Transition to a Health Care Ideology

The counseling profession has increasingly identified with health care ideology. The logical justifications for this transition are critically examined. Ideological and practical consequences of the health care transition are also considered. The author concludes that the usual ways of justifying the transition to health care are insufficient and that this transition has generally had negative consequences for the counseling profession.     

Is the Best Practices Movement Consistent With the Values of the Counseling Profession? A Critical Analysis of Best Practices Ideology

The counseling profession has increasingly embraced a medicalized vision of counseling processes. The latest manifestation of this vision is the best practices (BP) movement. This movement is critically examined to determine if it is consistent with the traditional values of the counseling profession. The author concludes that BP ideology is inconsistent with the value the counseling profession has traditionally placed on the counseling relationship and diversity.     

The Conciliator in College Counseling

The conciliative techniques for assisting in the management of dissonance conditions are suggested for counseling the troubled student. Ecologically induced problems are cited for the typical student Conciliative modes are then proposed as ways of construing the counseling relationship. Thus, conciliating means reinforcing desires for relief, assisting in more carefully discriminated definitions, creating a sense of sharing in the counselee, and modifying crucial self-images. The conciliator is identified as the counselor who interacts with the motive-dissonant student in promoting more peaceful interpretations of frustration and intra-personal conflict.