Here in the State of Ohio, professional counselors and professional clinical counselors can administer and score psychological tests in which they received training. PCC's can diagnose and treat mental health disorders and conditions independently and PC's can also diagnose and treat while under the supervision of a PCC. Counselors have received licensure in all 50 states but still seem to be looked down upon by other mental health professions. In all states, individuals who are licensed as counselors need at minimum a Masters degree plus multiple years of supervised training before earning independent licensure status.

The counseling profession's lobbying body (ACA) is not nearly as strong as psychiatrists, psychologists, or social workers and I believe this leads to counselors being compartmentalized and marginalized by other clinical professions, agencies, State Governments and the Federal Government. Counselors have been granted licensure status since the 1970's and just last year California came on board, as the last state in the union, granting license for counselors.

So I put my question out there for clinical and non-clinical readers:
How do other clinical professionals (i.e. psychiatrists and other medical physicians, psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, etc…) look upon those licensed as professional clinical counselors (or comparable independent licensure in their state) as fellow colleagues?

Josh Andrews is a counselor at a behavioral health agency working with children, adolescents, and families. His professional interests include the spiritual side of humankind, cognitive behavior therapy, reality therapy, and advancing the knowledge and practice of professional counseling.