Department of Professional Counseling

About the Department

Welcome to the Department of Professional Counseling. As a department, we adhere to the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics, which includes honoring our diverse voices, providing equitable access for all students, and integrating inclusive pedagogical practices across the curriculum.

As students, you are expected to behave in ways consistent with our code of ethics, including but not limited to standards expressed in its non-discrimination section. While our department believes in modeling mutual respect for a range of personal values aligned with our professional mission, we also expect that standards set forth by the code of ethics, including the need to become aware of and bracket personal values be consistently demonstrated and upheld.  For instance, counselors and counseling students do not base therapeutic decisions on their own religious and/or personal values and are not permitted to privilege their own religious and/or personal value system in the therapeutic and academic settings. Counselors and counseling students are therefore required to promote the values of the counseling profession and behave in ways congruent with those values, even if those values are discrepant with the counselor’s own values or religious beliefs. Counselors and counselors-in-training are expected to be engaged in personal and professional growth to facilitate both the bracketing of personal values and the ability to promote the values of the counseling profession.

These department values are integrated into how we promote knowledge of our profession, facilitate self-awareness of our intersecting identities, and support the acquisition of skills relevant to culturally-diverse, underrepresented, and/or marginalized populations.