TPC Journal-Vol 9 Issue 3-FULL

256 The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 3 Although research exists examining aspects of counselor licensure portability, there appears to be a gap in the literature of studies conducted that address the experiences and challenges counselors face when relocating. We were aware of some logistical and economic barriers counselors experienced when attempting to obtain an additional counseling license (Kaplan, 2012). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to increase understanding of counselors’ experiences of obtaining licensure in another state. We interviewed 12 licensed counselors who sought licensure in one of the RMACES region states of CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, and WY, after obtaining licensure in any other state throughout the country. We sought to answer the following research question: What are the experiences of obtaining clinical licensure in counseling after moving from one state to another within the RMACES region of the United States? Researcher Positionality Because the researchers each held a state-issued license to provide mental health services, we brought our individual experiences into the development of this research. Some of the authors had personal experiences of obtaining a license in more than one state, ranging from a fairly simple process to one that took over a year to complete. The researchers were all trained counselor educators ranging from a doctoral candidate to assistant, associate, and full professors. The researchers were intentional to rely on the participants’ views of their experiences obtaining a counseling license and not their own anecdotal stances on the issue. Method We sought to understand licensed counselors’ experiences of obtaining a counseling license after moving to one of the RMACES states. We wished to focus on participants’ perspectives to understand the logistics and challenges associated with the interstate portability of counseling licenses. The constructivist approach of qualitative research provides opportunities for participants to report meaningful experiences and allows for multiple perspectives and participant realities (Hays & Wood, 2011). Qualitative content analysis is a method based on naturalistic inquiry with rigorous coding to systematically categorize data to describe “the meaning of qualitative material” (Schreier, 2012, p. 1). Data were collected from recollections of personal experiences obtaining a state counseling license. We used both a deductive and an inductive content analysis approach to draw themes directly from the data and analyzed experiences using qualitative content analysis to classify data into categories of experiences with similar meanings (Cho & Lee, 2014; Schreier, 2012). Participants We obtained the required human participants research approval from the institutional review boards of our respective institutions. We used purposeful and snowball sampling to recruit subjects who were licensed counselors in one state and then obtained an additional license in the states of CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, and WY. We looked for people who met the criteria of involvement and had a willingness to describe their experiences. Each state has different procedures and qualifications for licensure; therefore, we wanted to include at least two participants’ experiences from each RMACES state. The involvement inclusion criteria were people who (1) have been licensed as a professional counselor or equivalent in another state in the United States, (2) have subsequently moved into an RMACES state and applied for a counseling license, and (3) were granted the counseling license. The resulting sample consisted of 12 participants (seven women and five men). Participants ranged in age from 33 to 68 years and all identified as Caucasian.