TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 3-FULL ISSUE

304 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 3 and mentoring relationships is critical in the persistence of African American female faculty in the academy. Mentors provide support, guidance, information, and advice to their mentees who may be struggling with career advancement. A mentor can serve as a support system for a faculty member by providing protection, coaching, and even validation for them through acceptance, friendship, and role modeling. I believe in the importance of mentoring counselors, students, and faculty. While recruitment is important, retention efforts are even more crucial. I have spent countless hours focusing on the recruitment and retention of African American students and faculty. Additionally, I enjoy speaking locally, nationally, and internationally about issues that affect people of color, including those with varying disabilities. While licensed professional clinical counselors are trained to work with people with mental and emotional conditions, they often lack knowledge to effectively assist people with physical disabilities. I have been fortunate to fill the gap by providing trainings in this area. 4. What three challenges to the counseling profession as it exists today concern you most? Despite the fact that counseling has been a helping profession for decades, it still lags behind social work and psychology in terms of recognition as a profession. If the counseling profession aspires to obtain the same status as other helping professions such as social work and psychology, we must utilize our specialty areas as one cohesive profession. Social workers have done this successfully for decades through being known by the profession first, and then by their specialty areas. For example, someone may seek out a medical social worker that works in a hospital setting. In essence, the setting determines the specialty area of the social worker; counseling should consider adopting the same process. Counselor training is frequently viewed as not being on par with psychology. Therefore, adopting a standardized curriculum for training counselors will aid in eradicating this myth. Another challenge is the lack of access to billing for Medicare on the part of counselors. Part of the reason for this disparity is that counselors are not viewed as having the appropriate training to serve as professional helpers similar to social workers and psychologists. While the need for trained professionals continues to increase, counseling has not been embraced by the mainstream. Efforts are underway to achieve parity that will allow counselors to bill Medicare—to date, this has not happened. Again, adopting a standardized curriculum will increase the likelihood of counselors serving as vendors for Medicare. A third area of concern is the looming financial crisis that many institutions of higher learning face. Declining enrollments and increasing tuition costs make recruiting and retaining quality students and faculty a challenge. More attention should be given to offering alternatives to traditional classroom settings as a way to reach more students. Developing and implementing a curriculum that appeals to a broader audience is one way to attract diverse faculty and students. Institutions that offer welcoming environments and appreciate differences will be at the forefront of any future growth. 5. What needs to change in the counseling profession for these three concerns to be successfully resolved? I think it will be important for the counseling profession to take the time to respect diversity in all forms, not only in language but also in action. More unification is necessary between disciplines. Embracing an approach that demonstrates that we are ALL counselors first will be an important first step toward unification of the profession. Professional conferences should be inclusive of all specialty