Counseling Services to Strengthen

Individuals and Families

Professional Counselors as Providers of Mental Health Care

 Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC's) provide quality mental health and substance abuse care to millions of Americans and are recognized as an important provider of preventive behavioral health services and services in rural areas. Roughly 80% of managed behavioral health care companies either employ or contract with Licensed Professional Counselors (Business Insurance, 1999), and counselors comprise a large percentage of the workforce employed in community mental health centers, agencies, and organizations.

The practice of professional counseling includes, but is not limited to, the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders, including addictions; psycho-educational techniques aimed at the prevention of such disorders: consultation to individuals, couples, families, groups, and organizations; and research into more effective therapeutic treatment modalities. Counselors are trained in the provision of counseling and therapy, as well as the etiology of mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

What is Counseling?

The practice of professional counseling:  The application of mental health, psychological, or human development principles, through cognitive affective, behavioral or systemitic intervention strategies, that address wellness, personal growth, or career development as well as pathology.

Definition adopted by the ACA Governing Council,  October 17-19, 1997.