Rehabilitation counseling

Rehabilitation counseling is focused on helping people who have disabilities achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals through a counseling process.

Rehabilitation Counselors can be found in private practice, in rehabilitation facilities, hospitals, universities, schools, government agencies, insurance companies and other organizations where people are being treated for congenital or acquired disabilities. Over time, with the changes in social work being more psychotherapy-oriented, rehabilitation counselors take on more and more community engagement work, especially as it relates to special populations. Some rehabilitation counselors focus solely on community engagement through vocational services, others in various states qualify as both a certified rehabilitation counselor (CRC) and a licensed professional counselor (LPC), enabling them to focus on psychotherapy.

Historically, rehabilitation counselors primarily served working-age adults with disabilities. Today, the need for rehabilitation counseling services extends to persons of all age groups who have disabilities. Rehabilitation counselors also may provide general and specialized counseling to people with disabilities in public human service programs and private practice settings.

Initially, rehabilitation professionals were recruited from a variety of human service disciplines, including public health nursing, social work, and school counseling. Although educational programs began to appear in the 1940s, it was not until the availability of federal funding for rehabilitation counseling programs in 1954 that the profession began to grow and establish its own identity.

Though no specific undergraduate degree is required, the majority of rehabilitation counseling graduate students have undergraduate degrees in rehabilitation services, psychology, sociology, or other human services-related fields. As a master's degree is required at a minimum, rehabilitation counselors are trained at the graduate level, with most earning a master's degree, and a few continuing on to the Doctoral level. The Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) accredits qualifying institutions, though not all programs meet accreditation requirements, prohibiting some graduates from professional certification/licensure. Rehabilitation counselors are trained in the following areas:

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