Advocacy for Professionals and Its Importance
Advocates for counselors work to promote the profession, with a focus on removing or minimizing obstacles that prevent them from providing services. Professional advocacy has received less attention over the past two decades, as compared to efforts related to client and social issues advocacy, and has therefore made little progress. Counseling is a mission-based profession, which means that each of us chose it for a reason. Having the opportunity to make a difference for a particular population or setting was something we wanted to accomplish. All counselors felt the role of the counselor as a change agent. We advocate for and alongside our clients as part of our ethics codes and professional competencies. Therefore, we seldom consider our professional mission when we think about advocacy. To practice our profession effectively, we must care about parity (being paid the same as mental health professionals with comparable training), public recognition, accurate representation, and emplo...