TPC Journal V7, Issue 2 - FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 2 201 level to descriptions of their occupational role to others. Results also demonstrated that counselor professional identity articulations have not improved over time. We rated counselors who graduated before 2000 at a Formula 2 and those graduating 2000 and after between Formula 1 and Formula 2. There was no statistical difference between the two groups. Additionally, this study identified that all ACA regions performed on average between a Formula 1 and Formula 2. Researchers and the major professional counseling organizations agree that counselor professional identity centers on distinguishing the counseling profession’s unique philosophy and values from other mental health professions (Calley & Hawley, 2008; Choate et al., 2005; Puglia, 2008; Remley & Herlihy, 2014; Weinrach et al., 2001; Woo, 2013). Mellin and colleagues (2011) reported that counselors naturally distinguish the counseling profession from other mental health professions by being grounded in a developmental, preventive and wellness orientation despite practicing in different counseling subspecialties. It would appear that the profession and its members have agreement on the counseling profession’s distinct hallmarks of prevention, advocacy, wellness, empowerment and normal human development. However, results from our study indicated that only 11% of participants alluded to one or more of the counseling profession’s distinct hallmarks when articulating their occupational role to others. It does not appear that independently licensed counselors are communicating how the counseling profession’s unique values and philosophy shape their professional practice (Sweeney, 2001). Clearly the ACA Code of Ethics, the NCE and the 2016 CACREP Standards are all guided by these five hallmarks of the profession of counseling. However, independently licensed counselors are not connecting consciously to the philosophy and values of the counseling profession. Once they evolve into clinical practice, independently licensed counselors severely struggle to articulate not only a counselor professional identity, but also to clearly articulate their services. Although this is a problem for the profession of counseling, this is a greater potential problem for the counselor who cannot clearly articulate why they should be hired, why a client should choose their services, why a legislator should listen to their point of view or why an individual from another health profession should make a referral. The majority of participants (65%) used ambiguous terms to describe clients or techniques used in their counseling practice. Further, over half of the participants (54%) did not offer any title when discussing their occupational role to others. A few participants (5%) used a title that did not mention the word “counselor.” Roughly 8% of participants used their job title, which did not include the word “counselor.” Approximately 5% titled themselves only as a “counselor” while 17% titled themselves a “professional counselor” or a “mental health counselor.” About 11% identified themselves by their state counseling license. This study supports the premise that being licensed as a counselor does not guarantee a strong counselor professional identity (Cashwell et al., 2009; Mascari & Webber, 2006). Within each of the six distinct formulations independently licensed counselors used to discuss their occupational role with others, there was a pattern of progression from the ambiguous to the specific. This progression happened in two ways; titling as well as describing clients and techniques. First, the profession of counseling in many respects “owns” the words counselor and counseling . In the ACA Code of Ethics, the word counselor or counseling occurs over 600 times. It should, as counselors are licensed at the state level as counselors and receive specialized training in providing counseling. This is a major reason that there is a license at the state level for counselors as opposed to being licensed at the state level as a psychologist or social worker. The word counseling appears in the NASW Code of Ethics four times and the APA Code of Conduct five times. It is extraordinarily problematic that 54% of participants never even used the generic terms counselor or counseling . Further, it is troubling that only 29% of participants gave themselves at least the generic “title” of professional counselor . Additionally, it is troubling how often counselors did not describe the