Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and John Barrasso (R-WY) have introduced legislation to establish Medicare coverage of licensed professional counselors and marriage and family therapists. The bill--S. 562, the “Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2013”--would cover only medically-necessary outpatient mental health services, and would reimburse licensed professional counselors and marriage and family therapists at the same reimbursement rates, and under the same terms and conditions, as clinical social workers. Counselors should contact their state's U.S. Senators to ask them to cosponsor S. 562.

The Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program, Safe Schools Healthy Students Initiative, and Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems are three programs that have been approved by Congress and support the work of school counselors. Contact your Congress members and help get these successful programs funded!

The Student Support Act amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and creates matching grants of at least $1 million to states for allocation to local educational agencies so that additional school-based mental health and student service providers may be hired, thereby reducing the student-to-counseolr ratios in elementary and secondary schools.

One of my first advocacy experiences occurred in 2007 when I contacted Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-Oh) office to discuss his supporting and cosponsoring Medicare legislation that included counselors. This was one of my first experiences advocating for the profession of counseling. I placed the call to his local office and...

Stories about bullying in schools have been making headlines across the country for a number of years. The results from an anonymous student survey detailing the rates of bullying incidents in our school prompted our building to implement Olweus last year.

Laura Gallo, a school counselor at Linn-Mar High School in Marion, Iowa recognizes firsthand the complexities in her profession. She has worked in challenging situations, such as with students who have abusive parents but refuse to leave their homes in order to care for their younger siblings.