Professional Associations, Counseling

Sandy Magnuson & S. Allen Wilcoxon & Ken Norem

The American Counseling Association (ACA) is the primary organization to which professional counselors belong. The association includes 19 divisions, 56 branches, and 5 professional partners (i.e., affiliated organizations). Approximately 45,000 counselors from the United States and 50 other countries belong to ACA. The headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia. According to the association's bylaws, their mission is to “enhance quality of life in society by promoting the development of professional counselors, advancing the counseling profession, and using the profession and practice of counseling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity.” Members of the association actively advocate for social justice as well as the promotion of the profession. Although the organization was incorporated in 1952, its history can be traced to the turn of the 20th century, when the association's first division, the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA), was established independently in 1913. Eleven years later, in 1924, the American College ...

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