President's Message
“Dear ARCA Members, it is with great pride, humility, and honor that I introduce myself as your current President of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA), a division of the American Counseling Association (ACA)…” – Full Message
Daniel Balva, Ph.D., LMHC, NCC, CRC
ARCA President (2023-2024)
Public Policy, Legislation & Current Trends
- Current updates on Public Policy and Legislation
- Current trends in rehabilitation counseling (i.e., CORE/CACREP)
- Advocate for persons with disabilities
- Accreditation
- Certification
- Human Rights
Membership
Benefits
- Workshops and Trainings
- Conference Updates
- Legislative and Current Trend Updates
- Mentoring Program
- Awards
- Access to Professional Liability Insurance
- Start an ARCA Student Chapter
- And more, see full list here
Archived WEBINARS are available under the Resources tab.
Accrediting and Rehabilitation Counseling Webinar (video link)
May 25 2022 1:00 p.m. EST
ARCA Recommendations: 2024 CACREP Standards Revisions
Date: December 27, 2021
To: 2024 CACREP Standards Revisions Committee
From: The American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA) Board
Dear Standards Revisions Committee:The ARCA board would like to extend our gratitude to you for the work you are doing to revise the CACREP Standards. Please consider ARCA as a resource as you move forward with incorporating more disability-related competencies in the CACREP core standards. The ARCA-endorsed Disability-Related Counseling Competencies are available on the ACA website at https://www.counseling.org/knowledge-center/competencies.
Our recommendations are listed below. We hope that you will consider our feedback as you move forward with finalizing the 2024 revisions to the CACREP standards.
DISABILITY-RELATED COUNSELING COMPETENCIES
Approved by the ARCA Board of Directors on 5-29-18
Approved by the ACA Governing Council on 3-27-19
Having a disability is an experience that is shared by many individuals across every segment of the population. Therefore, it is highly likely that counselors of all backgrounds and specializations will, from time to time, work with persons with disabilities (PWDs). This set of competencies is intended to serve as a resource and provide aspirational guidelines to help shape best practices in counseling by expanding meaningful understanding and support of PWDs in contemporary American society. The goal of this document is to encourage counselors to pursue the competencies identified below to better understand and assist PWDs and is not intended as a mandatory list of standards that must be met in order to provide effective counseling to PWDs. It is recommended that counselors and counselor training programs support the attainment of these competencies among all counselors, in recognition of disability as a part of personal identity and cultural diversity and in affirmation of their professional commitment to social justice.
Understanding Rehabilitation Counseling
Rehabilitation counseling is a systematic process which assists persons with physical, mental, developmental, cognitive, and emotional disabilities to achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals in the most integrated settings possible through the application of the counseling process. The counseling process involves communication, goal setting, and beneficial growth or change through self-advocacy, psychological, vocational, social, and behavioral interventions
ACA Connect