Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs

Essay by sdherinUniversity, Bachelor's June 2009

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Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) helps guide students in getting the education one needs to become a licensed counselor because CACREP's core curriculum are used as the foundation for the educational requirements of most state licensing regulations and eight areas of study that are the comprehensive foundation of the testing questions used in the National Counselor Exam for Licensure and Certification.

In collaboration with the American Counseling Association, CACREP was formed in 1981 to support the advancement of quality educational programs in training for counseling. In order for a program to become CACREP accredited, the program hosts a CACREP survey team of counselor educators who review the program to ensure that it meets the national standards in eight core areas of counseling: group dynamics/counseling, career development, human growth and development, the helping relationship, social/cultural foundations, appraisal, research, and professional orientation/issues. In addition to these eight core areas, the CACREP survey team reviews additional standards of instruction and supervised clinical experiences for the counselor specialty training that is offered by that particular counseling program.

CACREP assists in professional knowledge and abilities by making sure counseling programs offer what is required to be CACREP accredited, and that the programs demonstrate an ongoing commitment by providing quality instruction and clinical experiences for students. CACREP also analyzes the licensure process for the Licensed Professional Counselors (LCP). LPC laws in most states define the required coursework and clinical experiences by CACREP standards. Students who graduate from CACREP accredited programs are qualified to take the National Certified Counselor Exam, which is used by most states for licensure. CACREP accredited programs also meet the application preferences for doctoral programs in counseling and counselor education.

For one to be successful in the field of counseling, he or she needs to be motivated,