TPC-Journal-V1-Issue3

192 The Professional Counselor \ Volume 1, Issue 1 humanistic encounter between counselor and client. Additional theoretical approaches emerged in the post-Holocaust era, as many prominent European Neo-Freudian analysts and existentialists such as Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Eric Fromm, Erik Erikson and Victor Frankl immigrated to the United States, challenging leading humanistic theorists such as Maslow and Rogers (Nugent & Jones, 2009). The proliferation of diverse philosophical approaches and disparate organizations splintered the field resulting in various organizations representing the “guidance” movement. Finally, in 1952 four independent associations, The National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA), the National Association of Guidance and Counselor Trainers (NAGCT), the Student Personnel Association for Teacher Education (SPATE), and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) convened in Los Angeles for the purpose of building a stronger, unified coalition (Sheeley & Stickle, 2008). This meeting gave birth to the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA). APGA’s founding is usually referenced as the birth of the counseling profession, though as evidenced by the fact that “counseling” was absent from the title, it was an inauspicious start. APGA was primarily focused on high school academic and vocational counseling and training college student personnel (Aubrey, 1977). The fledging profession faced numerous obstacles: qualifications to become a “guidance” professional were ambiguous; there was no uniform program of study; no written code of ethics; no accreditation standards; and no credential such as licensure. Judging by contemporary standards, the early guidance movement was arguably a semi-profession (Etzoni, 1969). Despite challenges, the counseling movement demonstrated remarkable resilience during the period from the 1950s through the 1960s. Humanistic approaches spearheaded by Rogers and Fritz Perls became readily accessible to the general public through the group encounter movement (Corey, 2009). The phrase “third force” in psychology was coined to differentiate existential-humanistic approaches from psychoanalytic and behavioral ones (Nugent & Jones, 2009). In the late 1950s notables like Murray Bowen and Virginia Satir, members of related mental health professions, popularized family counseling (Gladding, 2009). The school counseling movement, buoyed by the Soviet’s launch of Sputnik, escalated from around 7,000 counselors to nearly 30,000 (Aubrey, 1977). All these various forces within and outside the counseling profession resulted in popularizing counseling with the general public. By the mid-1970s the counseling profession and counselor education programs had grown exponentially (Nugent & Jones, 2009). Despite counseling’s proliferation however, ethical standards, accreditation, and credentialing still lagged behind related mental health professions (Remley & Herlihy, 2007). The 1980s to 2000: The Post-Modern Era In the early 1980s counselor education leaders created the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs (CACREP) to provide standardization and accreditation (Hollis & Dodson, 2001). CACREP, which began as part of the Association of Counselor Educators and Supervisors (ACES), is now an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) to accredit masters’ degrees in six counseling specialties and doctoral programs in counselor education and supervision (CACREP, 2009). Although counselor education programs are not required to be accredited, CACREP’s curricular guidelines form the basis for most states’ licensure laws (Remley & Herlihy, 2007). During the same time frame as CACREP’s inception, the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) was created. NBCC established a national credential for professional counselors that preceded states seeking licensure. As of November 2009, all 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam have passed counselor licensure laws. Counselor certification, a credential offered by the National Board for Certified Counselors, has consequently transitioned from “licensure substitution” to identifying counseling specialty areas. The advantage of national certification over licensure, however, is that certification is a credential with uniform standards, unlike licensure where requirements vary from state to state. NBCC offers certifications in three professional counseling specialty areas (National Board for Certified Counselors, 2011). Though NBCC’s utility has been debated in the post-licensure era (Emner & Cottone, 1989; Weinrach & Thomas, 1993), Remley (1995) has argued that a license should be for general practice while national certification should identify specialty areas. NBCC also advocates for the counseling profession on a national level (J. S. Hinkle, personal communication, May 12, 2011). The field has moved towards Remley’s specialization model and NBCC credentials have become popular with professional counselors.