TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 3-FULL ISSUE

302 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 3 Dr. Robinson’s awards and honors include the 2008 and 2014 Ohio University College of Education Distinguished Faculty Graduate Teaching Award; the 2009 Sylvia Walker Multicultural Education Award; and the 2010 Visiting Scholar to South Korea Award, through which she taught global communication at the Kyungpook National University. She was a presenter at the 2012 International Conference on Education in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a speaker at the 2017 4th Biennial Bhutan International Counseling Conference held in Thimphu, Bhutan. Dr. Robinson has been the recipient of the 2014 Ohio University College of Education Distinguished Faculty Outstanding Outreach Award, the 2016 and 2017 Ohio University Faculty Newsmakers Award, the 2017 Virgie Winston-Smith Lifetime Achievement Award, and a 2018 National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns FellowAward. Dr. Robinson was an invited speaker at the University of Botswana in 2017 and 2019 for the Ultimate Motivational Speaker Competition. Lastly, she was the keynote speaker for the Seminar on Guidance and Counseling Conference held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in October 2019. In this interview, Dr. Robinson shares insights on growth and change within the counseling profession, her experience as a woman of color in counselor education, and her outlook on the future development of the profession. 1. As a rehabilitation counselor educator, how has the merger between the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) and CACREP impacted your role and the counseling profession? For me personally, I am pleased to see the merger finally come to fruition. In the past, I worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor and a licensed professional clinical counselor, so I certainly see the value of both specialty areas. I view myself as a counselor with a specialty area in clinical rehabilitation counseling. I am fortunate to work in a program that has historically integrated clinical mental health counseling, rehabilitation counseling, and school counseling at the master’s level. Holding accreditation with both CORE and CACREP meant we had to go through the accreditation process twice. However, since the merger occurred, we now have one accreditation cycle and our students can obtain credentialing under CACREP for both clinical mental health and rehabilitation counseling. With respect to the counseling profession, I continue to be involved in discussions regarding the merger, including the revisions to the 2023 CACREP standards, particularly as they relate to clinical rehabilitation counseling. For the purpose of clarification, I think it is noteworthy to mention that rehabilitation counselors receive the same general training as clinical mental health counselors with the exception of diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders. Traditional rehabilitation counselor training focuses on vocational rehabilitation, specifically as it relates to assisting people with physical and mental disabilities in obtaining meaningful employment and/or independent living opportunities that improve their quality of life. Clinical rehabilitation counselor training would continue to focus on vocational rehabilitation with the inclusion of a clinical mental health counselor curriculum that focuses on treating mental and emotional disorders that lead to licensure as a professional clinical counselor as well as certification as a certified rehabilitation counselor. Over the years, I presented at national conferences regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the merger. One of the main points of contention in the field of rehabilitation counseling centers around the lack of coursework necessary to treat and diagnose mental and emotional disabilities, including completing an internship in a setting that treats and diagnoses mental and emotional conditions. I firmly believe that the counseling profession as a whole will benefit from the merger with the infusion of clinical rehabilitation standards. This is a first step toward standardization so that all counseling