TPC Journal-Vol 9 Issue 3-FULL

264 The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 3 is moving to ahead of time in order to promote understanding of requirements needed in order to obtain licensure. All of these suggestions reduced the barriers experienced in the licensure process. State boards are encouraged to develop a flow chart outlining the licensing process. The authors suggest counselors organize their application materials behind a detailed cover letter to the board which delineates each enclosed item, and ensure the following are included: (1) previous license verification, (2) contact information for previous state board, (3) unofficial transcript with official one ordered to be sent directly to board, (4) CV or résumé, (5) the appropriate state application, and (6) application fees. Highlighting discrepancies that exist between state requirements or titles that might confuse board members also can help applicants successfully achieve licensure. Limitations and Future Research Participants were selected for the study based on acquiring an additional counseling license within an RMACES state. Although our participants ranged in gender, age, and number of years licensed, we offer a generally small, homogenous sample, who all identified as Caucasian. It would be advantageous to understand if there are different experiences with this process across other regions of the United States and for counselors from other cultural demographics. Explicit interview questions were established for this study; however, six different interviewers conducted the interviews. Variances in follow-up questions were noted during the analysis. This might have impacted the depth of the participant experiences captured by the interview process, representing our second limitation. Future research should include qualitative examinations of other regions’ challenges to licensure portability, as well as larger-scale quantitative surveys of licensure issues across the country. What remains to be addressed is the vast difficulty of states interacting with one another—getting state legislatures and governing organizations to coordinate activities. For example, ACA has not yet endorsed the joint portability statement. Greater than the need for describing the problem, as a profession we need to continue moving toward a unified solution. This requires collaboration and proactivity on the part of leaders within counseling. A more resounding message needs to reach the state boards regarding their role in the effectiveness of the current system. The joint portability statement is a step in the right direction; however, the profession needs to determine what specific actions come next. Conclusion Unification of the licensure process is imperative, and we see this research as illustrating the importance of prioritizing licensure portability. We have outlined the spectrum of challenges counselors face when obtaining an additional counseling license and offered recommendations for how to mitigate the inconsistent standards. Counselors should continue to advocate locally and nationally for unification of licensure standards across state lines in order to promote uniformity and consistency, and enhance counselor practice and well-being. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript.