ACA has invested in a multiyear project that would finally allow professional counselors to move seamlessly from one state to another without jumping through hoops to secure a new license.
Tag: Professional Issues
Professional Issues
ACA members share personal stories of what they have done (and are currently doing) to stay fresh, inspired and energized over the long haul of a counseling career.
The question is not whether counselors will make mistakes and have missteps over the course of a career but what they will learn from them when they do.
This fall, approximately 10,000 licensed professional counselors (LPCs) participated in a grassroots campaign that thwarted an attempt to take away their ability to practice.
As counselors, we understand there are some limits to confidentiality. However, voice assistant technologies in cell phones and other devices have the capability to leak what clients and counselors once believed to be confidential information.
“Because the personal is professional and the professional is personal in our work, it can be hard to separate the two. This makes it difficult to prevent internalization during the grievance process. I felt like a bad counselor and, thus, a bad person.”
“Assume someone else — a judge, a jury, a licensure board member, an attorney — might someday see what you have written. Don’t write anything that you would be ashamed or embarrassed for someone else to see.”
“In our internet-driven and instant-knowledge society, many clients will desire to learn all they can about us before, during and after the counseling process. Getting out ahead of potential problems that could arise as a result may prove helpful for clients.”
To truly be effective at connecting with and helping clients, counselors must find a way to artfully blend the scientific and evidence-based with the interpersonal.
“What I am suggesting is that, at a minimum, we take the time to think about the potential ramifications of [client] diagnoses 10 or 20 years into the future. We can’t know every possible outcome, of course, but some things are predictable.”