TPC Journal V8, Issue 1 - FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 1 41 an important finding, as the mean for finding importance in CACREP accreditation was the second highest (3.73) of the six Likert scale items measured in this study. The CACREP accreditation mean rests closer to being viewed as Moderately Important by independently licensed counselors. This outcome implied that consistently identifying as a counselor to others is not likely to correlate with finding value in CACREP accreditation. The outcomes from the five separate professional identity standards suggest that independently licensed counselors weakly support the work of organizations such as AASCB, ACA, CACREP, and NBCC in promoting counselor identity and the profession of counseling to achieve parity (Mascari & Webber, 2013). Limitations Social desirability bias can occur with self-report Likert scale–based surveys. We recruited participants from only eight state counseling boards across the United States. The $5 gift card could have altered participant answers or appealed to certain types of participants, and the topic may have drawn a certain type of participant. We included all independently licensed counselors regardless of dual licensure, the length of time with an independent license, the amount of time spent in postgraduate supervision, and the license of the individual who provided them postgraduate supervision. We developed and used a new survey instrument. Only one self-report item determined whether a participant was “consistently identifying as a counselor.” Lastly, we generated survey items by the recommendations of 10 experts accepting CACREP standards in counselor education who served on state or national counseling professional identity committees, which could possibly result in biased study questions. Implications and Future Research The results have several implications for the profession of counseling, as current inconsistencies in counselor professional identity have led to negative consequences for independently licensed counselors. There has been concern that independently licensed counselors do not support and therefore disconnect from counselor professional identity standards. Our results suggest that independently licensed counselors have some connection to counselor professional identity and see some value in the continued work to improve counselor professional identity (Gibson et al., 2010; Kaplan & Gladding, 2011; Mellin et al., 2011; Myers et al., 2002). The distinct values of the profession of counseling, the focus of scholarship, the understanding of the history of the profession, the philosophical foundations of counseling, and the credentials of those training and supervising clinical mental health counseling students held some importance to independently licensed counselors. However, opportunities still exist to tie independently licensed counselors to the profession of counseling. These implications impact teaching, supervision, practice, and research in the profession of counseling. Brott and Myers (1999), Weinrach et al., (2001), and Woo (2013) suggested that the counseling profession has a unique and distinguishing set of values, beliefs, and assumptions. Independently licensed counselors acknowledged this view by rating the training of clinical mental health students in counselor professional identity between Slightly Important and Moderately Important. Therefore, independently licensed counselors make some connections with the first two principles of 20/20: “sharing a common professional identity is critical for counselors” and “presenting ourselves as a unified profession has multiple benefits” (Kaplan & Gladding, 2011, p. 372). However, this weak connection does nothing to improve the current state of counselor professional identity. ACA, AASCB, and NBCC look to CACREP accreditation to address current issues such as licensure portability, equality in employment practices, appreciation of the counseling profession as separate