Clinical Mental Health Counselors: Who We Are, What We Do, Where We’ve Been, and Where We’re Going

Description: 

The American Counseling Association declares that “a counselor is a counselor is a counselor.” However, within the boarder counseling profession there are multiple counseling specialties, such as rehabilitation counselors, vocational/career counselors, school counselors, and clinical mental health counselors (CMHCs). What’s a CMHC? What makes a CMHC similar or different from other mental health professionals? This training focuses on the unique professional identity of CMHCs. It exposes several myths about our profession, celebrates our long and fruitful journey towards excellence, and conveys a passionate vision for our professional future and a roadmap to professional advocacy.

CE Broker Tracking #: 20-850868

This is an event sponsored by FMHCA. This course is approved by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling, LMHC, LMFT, LCSW – FMHCA CE Broker #: 50-748

Learning Objectives:

1. Define clinical mental health counseling and the CMHC's scope of practice.

2. Describe the history of the clinical mental health counseling profession, clarifying related myths about the profession.

3. Identify emerging issues in the CMHC profession, the few “professional disparities” between clinical mental health counseling and allied therapeutic professions (i.e., clinical psychology, clinical social work, marriage and family therapy, psychiatry/psychiatric nursing) and how to overcome them.

About the Presenter:

Aaron Norton is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy serving as Executive Director of the National Board of Forensic Evaluators, Adjunct Instructor at the University of South Florida, Southern Regional Director for the American Mental Health Counselors Association, and President of the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association. He has nearly 20 years of clinical experience at Integrity Counseling, Inc., was awarded Mental Health Counselor of the Year by the American Mental Health Counselors Association and Counselor Educator of the Year by the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association in 2016, Research of the Year by Florida Mental Health Counselors Association in 2020, and has been published in several social science journals and professional magazines in clinical mental health counseling.