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 Referrals
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If you or someone you know could use the clinical services of a
mental health practitioner,
professional counselors are out there to
help. Simply click on the link next to the relevant specialist:
Notes:
The clinical qualifications of professional counselors are equivalent
to those of social workers and psychologists. But if you'd prefer
a social worker referral anyway, visit the Web site for the
Academy of Certified Social Workers, or for a psychologist referral, the
American Boards
of
Professional Psychology (the coalition of psychology specialty
boards).
Or if all you need right now is a medical referral,
log on to the Web site for the
American Boards
of Medical Specialties (the coalition of medical specialty boards
that includes the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology).
You'll first be asked to complete a quick registration. Upon doing
that, you can perform a physician search by name or city. Try to
limit your search to physicians who specialize in psychiatry.
CRITICAL REMINDER: If it's an emergency, go to your
closest emergency room, or dial 911!
If the person in need of clinical services is a child or adolescent,
your first stop should be the school counselor's office. Today's school
counselor is very different than what used to be called the "guidance
counselor." That is, school-based
professional counselors, especially those who have completed
a Council for Accreditation
of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP)-accredited program and are
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)-board-certified in the specialty
of school
counseling, are mental health professionals who just happen to
practice in an educational setting,
like school-based psychologists and social workers. No longer are
they the class schedulers or the cafeteria monitors who only see
students, in a counseling capacity, on rare occasions.
The school counselor can make an assessment to determine the problem,
then either work with your child or adolescent or refer you to a
clinically-based colleague if the problem is not negatively impacting
the child or adolescent's progress in school, or if the problem requires
longer-term treatment.
College students typically have access to
professional counselors
who specialize in one of three specialties: career counseling, mental
health counseling, and substance abuse counseling. Virtually all colleges and universities have a
campus office called the "career services center" (or something similar
to that), and this is where you'll find career counselors practicing, as
well as counseling psychologists. Similarly, most colleges
and universities have an on-campus counseling center that provides
clinical services for a variety of emotional problems. Mental health
counselors and substance abuse counselors, in addition to clinical
psychologists, behavioral psychologists, group psychologists, and
clinical social workers, practice
there.
Like school counselors, the college-based professional
counselor can provide a referral to a clinically-based colleague if the
problem requires longer-term treatment.
Once you've been referred, ... -
Double-check that the
professional
counselor (or social worker or psychologist) that you
were referred to has at least a master's-level (M.A., M.S., M.Ed. [or
M.S.W.]) academic degree, and that it's in
professional counseling (or social work or psychology), or what is
sometimes referred to as "counselor education" (if your referral
came from one of the three professional counseling specialty certification boards at the
top of the
page, he/she will have a master's since that is a prerequisite
for their board certifications); we mention this because there are many
individuals out there delivering mental health services who call
themselves "counselors" or "psychotherapists" but are really only
paraprofessionals, i.e., bachelor's degree or less, or have a degree in a
non-mental health profession such as theology, religious studies,
teaching, sociology, etc.; doctoral-level (Ph.D., Ed.D.) professional
counselors (and social workers and psychologists) don't have additional
clinical skills, but rather, they've acquired advanced research/teaching skills
and clinical supervision skills; for a more detailed explanation of
professional counseling's credentials, please visit our
Professional Counseling
Credentials
page.
-
Ask the professional counselor if that
master's degree came from either a
Council for Accreditation of
Counseling & Related Educational Programs
(CACREP)-
or
Council on Rehabilitation
Education (CORE)-accredited program; these accreditations
are just as critical as the Liáison
Committee on Medical Education accreditation
is for your physician!; for a more detailed explanation of professional
counseling's credentials, please visit our
Professional Counseling
Credentials
page.
-
Inquire about
about his/her board certification (CCMHC, NCSC, MAC, CRC,
CFT) status,
which should come from one of the three professional counseling
specialty certification boards listed
above, depending on the specialty
(unfortunately,
professional counselors who specialize in career counseling and
geriatric counseling do not have a board certification available to them
at this time); for a more detailed explanation of
professional counseling's credentials, please visit our
Professional Counseling
Credentials
page.
- Ask the professional counselor about
his/her state
licensure status; professional counselors who
practice outside of schools have the option of obtaining
the LPC state license issued by the
PA Dept. of State's state board of social work/professional
counseling; but keep in mind that the LPC
state license, just like social work's LCSW state license (but unlike
psychology's
Psychologist state license), is
optional--a professional counselor may have very
legitimate reasons for not obtaining it; on the other hand,
school-based professional counselors must hold the state's
Educational Specialist license issued by the
PA Dept. of Education's state
board of education; for a more detailed explanation of
professional counseling's credentials, please visit our
Professional Counseling
Credentials
page.
- Inquire about theoretical orientation;
does the professional counselor (or psychologist or social worker) work
from a psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral,
humanistic-existential, or systems perspective?; he or she should be
able to answer this question and to explain what it means; if the
response you get is something like, "I'm eclectic," or, "It depends on
the client," ask if he or she is referring to theoretical orientation or
techniques (a very important distinction!); working with a variety of
techniques is acceptable, and probably even desirable, whereas working
from a variety of--and usually contradictory--theories on human behavior
is not.
- Ask the professional counselor (or
psychologist or social worker) if
he/she is
being clinically supervised by a colleague; "clinical supervision"
is the mental health practitioner's version of the physician's residency, but
unlike a residency, clinical supervision can be a career-long process,
and it can potentially benefit both the practitioner and the client;
clinical supervision is, in fact, a requirement for obtaining any of
professional counseling's five board certifications (CCMHC, NCSC, MAC,
CRC, CFT) and its Pennsylvania state license for practicing outside the
school setting (LPC) (for a more detailed explanation of professional
counseling's credentials, please visit our
Professional Counseling
Credentials page).
- Request to see a disclosure statement; this
important document should answer some of the questions just
mentioned, as well as tell you about the professional
counselor's (or psychologist or social worker's)
background, what professional associations he/she
belongs to, how to learn more about the
ACA
Code of Ethics (or APA Ethical Principles or NASW Code of Ethics),
what's confidential and what's not, and what to do in the event of an
emergency (in order to view the ethics code, you'll need to use the
[free]
document reader).
- Ask for another referral if any of your questions was not
answered to your satisfaction for any reason, or even if you just
don't feel comfortable with him or her (that happens sometimes; mental
health professionals are used to handling that); the professional
counselor (or psychologist or social worker) will be more than willing
to oblige (it's also an ethical obligation for him/her to do so) ...
or ... return to whichever of the three professional counseling (or
psychology or social work) specialty certification
boards listed
above
that gave you the first referral and request another one.
If medication is called for as part of the treatment plan--and it
often is--the
professional counselor (or psychologist or social worker)
will collaborate with a physician, preferably one who specializes in
psychiatry.
For additional information or clarification, please don't hesitate to contact the PCA Public Relations & Advocacy
Committee at pr@pacounseling.org
or at (412) 983-7734 (outside the U.S.: country code is "+1").
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