Education Issues in Counseling -- Frequently Asked Questions

Education Issues in Counseling

How do I become a Counselor?
Choosing a Counseling Focus area
Continuing Education at ACA
Does ACA offer courses for academic credit?
What courses are needed for a graduate degree in Counseling?
Does ACA provide members with educational materials?
How do I find an education program that's right for me?
How do I get a "first job" in counseling?
What jobs can I get with a bachelor's degree in counseling?
Do I have to have a teaching certificate to be a school counselor?

How do I become a Counselor?

First, there aren't any undergraduate counseling programs. If you're an undergraduate, choose any major that consists primarily of behavioral science courses. A major in Psychology or Education would be two suggestions. To become a professional counselor one must have earned a master's degree in counseling or a closely related field, but there are no undergraduate courses per se. The curriculum for counselor education programs is based on that fact.

As graduate school admission requirements differ somewhat from institution to institution you would be well advised to contact the Graduate Studies office at the University from which you want to earn your terminal degree and ask them about their admission standards. Then you can plan your undergraduate degree with the certainty of knowing you are meeting the expectations of that specific program and will not have remedial work once you finish your undergraduate work.

Second, if you are considering counseling as a profession you need to know that there are currently no credentialing bodies that will accept a degree that has been earned entirely through an external program. As I am sure you can understand, counseling, as a profession, requires a great deal of clinical application and close supervision during the degree program. There simply are not ways that are acceptable to do that other than a face-to-face supervision.

If you are seeking your advanced degree here in the United States, I encourage you to seek out a program that is professionally accredited (in addition to being academically or regionally accredited) through the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). There are many fully accredited programs from which to choose and you can access a list of them by going to www.cacrep.org/.

Once you have you Master's degree, you are eligible to apply for licensure as a Licensed Professional Counselor. This is done by contacting your State Licensing Board. You will need to complete approximately two years of supervised clinical experience after you have earned your master's degree and pass the licensure examination to become licensed. The total process will take you about 8 years (4 yrs. for BA or BS, 2 yrs, for MA or MS, and 2 yrs. of post degree supervision = 8 years).

Once you select programs that are of interest to you, correspond with the academic department heads of those programs and select the program that best seems to meet your special needs. While many Universities have Graduate Assistantships available, I would encourage you to explore scholarship or other financial support options as well.

Choosing a Counseling Focus area

The counseling profession has many different areas of specialty. Most of the major areas are represented by a Division of the American Counseling Association. The boundaries between these areas of specialty are often blurred and the emphasis is placed on the commonalities across groups rather than the differences between them. For example, the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) defines what it calls the "core curriculum" which all counseling students must take (approximately 36 semester credit hours) and then the "specialty area curriculum" which students entering a particular area of specialty must take (usually from 12 - 24 semester credit hours depending on the specialty area) in addition to the "core".

Career Counseling Focus
One of the areas covered in the counseling core courses is that of career development. If you were to choose to enter School Counseling, which is a specialty area, you would take the core curriculum which consists of a number of courses (e.g. Theories of Counseling, Career Counseling, Human Growth and Development, Ethics, Appraisal of the Individual, Group Counseling, etc.) and then take the specialty areas which would include courses such as Child and Adolescent Development, Career Development (age appropriate), Developing Classroom Guidance, Developing Individual Education Plans, The School Environment, etc. Please note that the exact titles of the courses will vary from University to University.

As for the requirements, you will be required to have a minimum of a Master's degree in Counseling. The remaining requirements vary from State to State and may include teaching experience and/or a teaching certificate, supervised school counseling experience, etc. Since each state regulates the various professions found in schools through the State Department of Education, you could write to your State's Department and get a list of requirements specific to that state.

For more information visit the websites for the National Career Development Association and the National Employment Counseling Association.

Substance Abuse Counselor Focus
Fairly typically, there are two ways to become a substance abuse counselor. The first is through the certification process, which varies somewhat from state to state. Eligibility requirements usually include a minimum of three years of sobriety and a minimal number of undergraduate credit hours in specific content areas. The good part about this approach is that you do not need a degree and can become certified much more easily than with the second approach. The down side is that salaries are usually very low and there is typically a very high turn over in the field.

The second method is to become a Licensed Professional Counselor (see "How do I become a Professional Counselor") and specialize in substance abuse. Again the positive side of this is that you are typically not limited to only serving clients with substance abuse issues. The down side is that you will need not only an undergraduate degree but a Masters degree which requires from 48 - 60 hours of graduate work.

For more information please visit the Website for the International Association of Addiction and Offender Counselors.

Marriage and Family Counseling Focus
The American Counseling Association has a Division of ACA that is called the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors who are licensed under the Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) credential in 46 states and the District of Columbia.If you are interested in exploring licensing requirements for professional counselors, you can go to our web site at www.counseling.org and click on "Counselors" and then on "Licensure and Certification".

Continuing Education at ACA

As a professional association, ACA offers professional development courses (post-degree for licensure or certification renewal credit). ACA is not accredited in the same manner that a University is. Once a person has their "formal", academic graduate degree in counseling which makes him or her eligible for licensure as a professional counselor in those 45 states that regulate the profession, he or she will need to earn continuing education credit in the field to renew their license and professional certification. This process recognizes that there are new approaches that are important for practitioners to know about and also, once we complete our formal education and enter the practice world, we tend to drift away from that education.

The credit for these "continuing education" courses is based upon an actual clock hour as opposed to an academic hour, which usually consists of about 15 clock hours per credit hour (i.e., the class meets for a period of 1 hour per week for each of 15 weeks in the semester).

We have a rather extensive continuing education or professional development program at ACA. We have a number of "products" that are designed to assist practitioners in their ethical responsibility of staying current in the field. At our Annual Conference, we offer 40 - 45 Learning Institutes that consist of 3 or 6-hour programs by experts in the field on topics that are relevant to practitioners. The proposals for these programs are given careful scrutiny to make certain that the content is timely, well founded, and that it will be presented in the best manner possible for maximum adult learning. In addition, we offer approximately 500 content sessions of varying format (3 hour, 90 minute, and 30 minute poster sessions) that are somewhat less closely scrutinized but constitute the "findings" of the presenters in the actual field of practice or research.

Recognizing that costs for conference attendance have increased significantly over the past few years, we also offer two distance-learning products. We have 16 topics offered through our Home Study program. These topics are selected through an informal needs assessment process and consist of audio, video, or text book presentation of content and a summative examination. They are sold to members at a discount and non-members at a break-even price.

The second and newest products are our on-line courses. We have eight courses that consist of video streaming material (i.e., video-taped presentation including lecture, demonstration and power point material) that are available for members and non-members (for a fee, of course) wherever they have access to a computer and the Internet. Everything, from registration through the examination and issuing of a certificate of completion, is handled electronically. Several agencies have encouraged employees to utilize this delivery system on the job.

Again, we are constantly looking for ways to deliver professional development opportunities to practitioners in the most convenient and affordable manner possible. Other products we have considered are to convert some of the on-line courses to CD's to be sold; again, the rationale is availability to practitioners and convenience of access.

Does ACA offer courses for academic credit?

In regard to whether the American Counseling Association offers any courses for academic credit. The short answer is "no". Let me attempt to explain.

As a professional association, ACA can only offer professional development courses (post-degree for licensure or certification renewal credit). ACA is not accredited in the same manner that a University is. Once a person has their "formal", academic graduate degree in counseling which makes him or her eligible for licensure as a professional counselor in those 45 states that regulate the profession, he or she will need to earn continuing education credit in the field to renew their license and professional certification. This process recognizes that there are new approaches that are important for practitioners to know about and also, once we complete our formal education and enter the practice world, we tend to drift away from that education. Some of the "drifting" is based on the experience we gain but some is due to the simple fact that we are human and tend to forget.

The credit for these "continuing education" courses is based upon an actual clock hour as opposed to an academic hour which usually consists of about 15 clock hours per credit hour (i.e., the class meets for a period of 1 hour per week for each of 15 weeks in the semester). As you can see the "hours" are calculated differently.

Having said that, a practitioner who wants "continuing education" credit can, with the advanced permission of the Licensure Board, take an academic, graduate level course and have the academic hours converted to "continuing education" hours. Unfortunately, one cannot convert continuing education credit into academic credit.

What courses are needed for a graduate degree in Counseling?

The entry level degree needed to become a professional counselor is a Master's degree in Counseling. These graduate programs are usually located in Colleges of Education on University campuses so if you have a particular university that you want to check on, you could go to either the Graduate School programs or College of Education on their website and you will discover whether they have what you are looking for. As you may or may not know, most counseling programs consist of a curriculum as opposed to a "group of courses". The difference being that the courses are offered in a particular sequence so that your knowledge base and application skills are developed simultaneously.

I would also recommend that you ask the faculty member with whom you speak, whether their program is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). This is the only professional accreditation that exists for counseling programs and about one in four programs are accredited. This is an important question as licensure laws in most states make reference to a CACREP or approved program. CACREP has set the standards for the profession and while other programs are approved in some states, you would need to know from the licensure board, which programs (other than CACREP) are approved.

Finally, if you go to the ACA website you will find a Directory of CACREP Accredited Programs and that may be a good way to select a graduate program if you are not limited geographically by a job or family connections.

Does ACA provide members with educational materials?

The ACA Librarian informed me that she can prepare a bibliography as a resource to find educational materials. There is a fee to cover the cost(s) of conducting the search. In the event that you do not have access to the references listed on the bibliography, we can also make copies and send them to you at a cost of $5 per article.

Another suggestion might be to visit the ACA Website's publication department. You will find the ACA catalog there with a number of books and other training materials that may be of service to you.

How do I find an education program that's right for me?

Perhaps the best source available is "Peterson's Guide to Four-Year Colleges" that should be available in your school or community library. It is published every year or so and has a wealth of information regarding what majors are offered at which colleges, what to do to prepare to get in to the school of your choice, some financial aid information and all sorts of other information that should be very helpful to you over the next couple years as you complete high school and consider colleges and majors.

The entry-level degree needed to become a professional counselor is a Master's degree in Counseling. These graduate programs are usually located in Colleges of Education on University campuses so if you have a particular university that you want to check on, you could go to either the Graduate School programs or College of Education on their website and you will discover whether they have what you are looking for. As you may or may not know, most counseling programs consist of a curriculum as opposed to a "group of courses". The courses are offered in a particular sequence so that your knowledge base and application skills are developed simultaneously.

I would also recommend that you ask the faculty member with whom you speak, whether their program is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). This is the only professional accreditation that exists for counseling programs and about one in four programs are accredited. This is an important question as licensure laws in most states make reference to a CACREP or approved program. CACREP has set the standards for the profession and while other programs are approved in some states, you would need to know from the licensure board, which programs (other than CACREP) are approved. CACREP can be reached at (800)347-6647 ext. 301.

There is the "Counselor Preparation 2002-2003: Programs, Faculty, Trends" directory that can be ordered to assist in developing your career. This is the only comprehensive directory specifically targeted towards counselor education programs across the United States. Call (800)222-1166 for more in-depth information.

Finally, if you go to the ACA website and you will find a Directory of CACREP Accredited Programs and that may be a good way to select a graduate program if you are not limited geographically by a job or family connections.

How can I get a "first job" in Counseling?

Finding employment as an LPC can be frustrating and it does take time and energy. I suppose the best single piece of "advice" I would give is; be persistent!

I would suggest going back to your alma mater, and asking for assistance through the University's Job Placement Office. Also, since the faculty there have contacts through Internship placements with agencies and other settings, I would make appointments with them to see if they are aware of any openings in the area.

In point of fact, you may need to broaden your search geographically, though that may be a last resort if you are unable to relocate. Geographic limitations can make a first job hunt very difficult.

If you were to design a "menu of services" you could provide under the heading of Employee Assistance Programs, you might be able to contract with several businesses for certain services for several hours per week. In a sense, you could become a vendor of counseling services. Other areas of interest might be working with the elderly in Nursing Homes or Retirement Centers and following the same format, or contracting with Schools for "x" hours per week and working with children. Many businesses and industries, agencies and institutions are interested in providing mental health services but cannot afford a full-time LPC.

Offering services through several churches would be yet another possibility. You may need to offer a couple of "free" presentations on parenting or marriage enrichment to show interested people what they could expect from private sessions with you but that could blossom into something very worthwhile as well.

Finally, ACA has a service at mailto:ACACareers@aol.com that is just getting started, but you may also get some helpful hints from Amy Connelly who handles that for us. Again, being limited geographically can cause some problems in a job hunt, but at this point, any helpful suggestions would be worth pursuing.

What jobs can I get with a bachelor' degree in counseling?

As you probably know, to become a professional counselor and provide counseling services either in a school setting or a clinical setting, a Master's degree is required. However, there may be positions at the paraprofessional level where a Bachelor's degree would be sufficient.

For example, I know that many "independent living" facilities hire people with BAs in Psychology. The client population would be those with mild mental retardation. Group homes for "children and adolescents at risk" might be another place to inquire. Nursing homes for the elderly would also be a place to look. You may also want to explore job placement businesses.

Perhaps the best advice I can offer is to go to the College or University where you earned your degree and ask them the question. If they have a career placement service, they may be able to help locate some prospective employers for you.

Do I have to have a teaching certificate to be a school counselor?

A number of states no longer require a teaching certificate to become a school counselor and that number seems to be increasing. The argument in favor of being a certified teacher with classroom experience prior to becoming a school counselor is that the individual becomes very familiar with the school environment and comes to a better understanding of the particular age group.

The argument against the requirement is two fold. First, by taking an extended Internship in Counseling that is now required in CACREP accredited Counselor Education programs (600 clock hours of supervised clinical experience in an setting appropriate for that area of specialty), one can become adequately sensitized to both the environment and the age group. Second, there is a real shortage of school counselors currently and educators are adequately pragmatic to recognize that perhaps the teaching certification is less important than once believed.