Submissions

Thank you for your interest in writing for the Counseling Today.

From reading our content, you know that our articles cover a variety of issues related to all aspects of clinical work, research and practice. Please note that Counseling Today is not the appropriate place to submit academic research papers or theses. Instead, we’re interested in your personal stories as a clinician and articles that offer practical information counselors can use in everyday practice with their clients or in their own professional/personal development. Note: We do not pay for submissions we print.

We’re especially interested in submissions for the following: 

Case Study

Case Study articles are 500-1,000 words and are written in a narrative/storytelling style to describe a single clinical case that illustrates work around a specific issue or therapeutic challenge (such as using EMDR to help a client process traumatic loss). Your case study should:

Establish the clinical challenge or problem in the first few paragraphs.
Describe the clinical approach used with this client (and incorporate descriptive dialogue).
Reflect on what you learned or what the outcome means for the client or other mental health professionals.

Knowledge Share

Knowledge Share articles are written by presenters of education and poster sessions at ACA conferences. This article is 1,000 words in length and presents the information in a practical, informative way for our readers. You can submit a 100-word abstract of your presentation or an article draft for us to consider.

My Counseling Journey

Do you have an interesting career journey or personal story to share? The My Counseling Journey article highlights ACA members’ personal journeys into counseling and the professional work they do. This 500-word article focuses on a particular aspect of your work, career and life, and using a narrative format, answers the question, “How did I get here?” You can submit a brief 50-word proposal of your story or a draft of the article for us to consider.

Career Consultation

Do you have a career-related question that you want answered? Send it to us and you might be featured in an upcoming Career Consultation article.

Group Consultation

Do you have a question about clinical practice or a trending topic in the field? Send it our way and we may include the question with answers from experts in the field in an upcoming issue.

Online Exclusives

Online exclusives are 750- to 1,500-words articles that provide an in-depth look at mental health topics related to career development, clinical practice and other issues relevant to both counselors and the public. These are often staff-written pieces, but we will consider submissions on a case-by-case basis.

Counseling Today Blog

We accept blog posts from ACA members on topics relevant to other mental health colleagues. Blog posts submissions should be:

500-1,000 words in length
Written by a single author
Previously unpublished content
Informational and not contain commercial promotional content
Be organized with clear headers and subheaders to support ease of reading

We reserve the right to edit for style, length, clarity and readability. Please send submissions, author photo and brief author bio (no more than 50 words).

How do I submit an article?

Please email submissions to ct@counseling.org and include a brief 1-3 sentence author bio. Make sure your article falls within our word guidelines of 500-1,500 words (depending on the department).

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, it may take us between 6 and 8 weeks to review your article and contact you if we are interested. If you don’t hear from us after 10 weeks, please assume that we won’t be able to use your work. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide feedback on articles we are not able to use. If the article is accepted, the editing process usually requires one to two revisions.

What’s our style?

We write articles for mental health professionals (e.g., licensed counselors, counselor educators, social workers, psychologists) and those interested in learning more about mental health (i.e., the public). When you write, assume that your reader is either a knowledgeable peer or a future client.

When submitting an article, follow these writing guidelines:

Use a clear, concise, engaging and accessible style that’s free of jargon.
If referring to research findings, explain their significance in plain terms. We do not publish footnotes, citations or reference lists. Include any attribution within the natural flow of the article.
Write in a voice and style you would use if you were having a conversation with a close colleague about the topic.
Only submit original work written for Counseling Today, not something published elsewhere (including blogs or social media).
Please read as many examples of our content as possible to get a sense of the kind of writing we publish prior to submitting your article.

Counseling Today articles adhere to the Associated Press style (article authors do not need to be familiar with this style to submit an article but understand that articles accepted for publication will be edited to conform to Associated Press style).

For additional questions regarding submitting articles to Counseling Today, email us at ct@counseling.org.