Counselor Education and Supervision: The Development of the CACREP Doctoral Standards

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) has accredited doctoral programs for more than 25 years. As a result, the CACREP-accredited doctoral degree in counselor education has been established as an essential component in defining counselor identity within the helping professions. Although there has been much deliberation and research on CACREP-accredited programs, very few articles distinctively reviewed and summarized the development and progression of the CACREP doctoral standards since their inception (West, Bubenzer, Brooks, & Hackney, 1995). The purpose of this article is to illuminate the unique features of the professional guidelines and accreditation standards that shaped doctoral preparation in counselor education. Current issues that have an impact on advanced training in counselor education and implications for future doctoral standards revisions are also presented. * The Emergence of Doctoral Preparation in Counselor Education Scholars in counselor education credit the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 for having a galvanic effect on the development of doctoral preparation in counseling (Stripling, 1965; Sweeney, 2001; West et al., 1995; Yep& Locke, 2001). This legislation was important to the counseling profession because it increased the number of guidance programs in the schools and provided money to universities to improve, expand, or develop programs that would train counselors. The NDEA also provided fellowships to recruit professionals to earn advanced degrees in counseling with preference given to those who were interested in becoming faculty members (NDEA, 1958). The federal government granted fellowships that today would amount to the equivalent of paying a person approximately $25,000 per year to attend graduate school, above and beyond covering the tuition costs and additional stipends for dependents (Bradley, Mills, & Powell, 2005). The 1960s brought another federal initiative that affected the field of counseling. The Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 provided $150,000,000 over 3 years for the construction of community mental health centers. As a result, master's-level counselors were then able to establish careers in clinical settings, employment sites that had often been solely reserved for psychologists. In addition to increased employment opportunities and the concomitant need for training programs, this shift in employment opportunities for counselors generated discussion within the counseling literature regarding the identity of professors and students in counselor preparation programs and the legitimacy of the doctoral degree in counselor education. For example, Foster (1977) argued that the counseling profession had been characterized as having flexible standards and an ambiguously defined focus of practice, which, in turn, made it problematic for students to compete for jobs. He also noted that a large number of counselor educators described themselves as counseling psychologists. Sweeney and Witmer (1977) also highlighted the impact of the psychology profession on establishing identity and licensure for counselors. They advocated for counselor licensure and specific counseling training standards to ensure accountability to those whom the counseling profession serves. * The Development of the Doctoral CACREP Standards Years Prior to the Establishment of CACREP In 1976, Tom Sweeney, the president of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), appointed a national committee to begin the development of standards that could be applied to doctoral preparation. Sweeney appointed Robert Stripling to chair the ACES Committee that was responsible for writing the doctoral standards (Sweeney, 1992). After input from school counselors, local and state administrators and supervisors, graduate students in counselor education, and counselor educators, the first draft of the doctoral standards was developed in 1976 (Stripling, 1978). …