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A Brief History of Clinical Counseling with VCA

Clinical Counselors have a long and important place and history within the broader counseling association. Advocacy and networking with all counselors in Virginia are the overarching themes for Clinical Counselors within VCA.

Clinical Counseling and VCA leadership have a long history working together as trailblazers advocating for and supporting legislation that advances the profession. As reported in The Clinician: A Newsletter of the Virginia Clinical Counselors Alliance (2003), “Three of the most notable achievements have been successfully advocating and lobbying for the creation of Virginia counselor licensure in 1975, mandated insurance reimbursement for Licensed Professional Counselors in 1987, and the 1993 revision of the Code of Virginia to reflect the contemporary practice clinical counseling [in] Virginia” (p. 3).

Virginia led the way in the movement for Counselor Licensure throughout the country. Through VCA and VACC advocacy work, Virginia became the first state to grant Licensure to Professional Counselors. The work to secure licensure included five members testifying before the legislature and shepherding the counselor licensure bill through to the finish line. We know that Fred Adair, Carl Swanson, and George Pratt were among the five who testified. Today, licensure for clinical counselors is a reality in all 50 states. It has been noted that before Virginia engaged in licensure advocacy “there was no model for clinical counseling advocacy . . , but what is now VACC was born of two major influences: The American Mental Health Counselors Association and the Virginia Counselors Association” (VACC Website: About, 2015)

Over much of the history of the Virginia Counselors Association (VCA) clinical counselors have been represented by two organizations within the larger organization. The Virginia Association of Clinical Counselors (VACC) was born around the time Professional Counselors were granted licensure and formally became a division within VCA in 1980, but they elected to separate from VCA in July of 2003. Within a year of the separation, leaders within VCA gathered and began to form a new organization to serve and represent Clinical Counselors within VCA.  The VCA Board of Directors officially recognized the Virginia Clinical Counselors Alliance (VCCA) at the June 2004 board meeting. Both organizations exist today. VCCA exists within VCA, which is the state branch of the American Counselors Association (ACA). VACC continues to be  independent of VCA and is the official State Branch of the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA).

Initial organizational meetings for VACC began in 1978 and were generally in conjunction with VCA events. Russel Bigney was the first elected president of VACC, which was then generally referenced as the Virginia Mental Health Counselors Association. The “History” section of the current VACC website states that “Much of the early work of the organization was done by a small group of dedicated, vibrant individuals who would meet in each other’s offices and send out for pizza while setting the agenda of the fledgling organization that would shape not only the counseling profession in Virginia but in America.  The reader must remember the climate of the time: professional counselors could not receive third party payments . The early work was largely that of organization and the pursuit of legitimacy.”

The group of leaders who formed VCCA designated that the new alliance would seek “to advance the specialization of clinical counseling and promote public confidence in the counseling profession” (The Clinician, July 2003, p. 3). Along the way the alliance encountered some sparse time with leaders moving out of state for employment reasons and professional lives evolving in new directions. VCCA began its rebirth over lunch at the VCA convention at Williamsburg in 2009.  In April of 2011 a new “committed group of counselors met in Richmond to begin the process of rebuilding and strengthening VCCA” (VCCA Website: History Section, 2012).  VCCA has stated the vision of their alliance to be, “to work collaboratively with other divisions of VCA to advance Clinical Mental Health and other counseling specializations in Virginia” (VCCA Website: Vision Section, 2012).  You can find the VCCA legacy website here.