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April 17, 2018

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Dr. Stephanie Burns’ article Evaluating Independently Licensed Counselors’ Articulation of Professional Identity Using Structural Coding, which was published in 2017 in , has been chosen as The Professional Counselor's 2017 winner for the Research category of Outstanding Scholar Award. Burns is an assistant professor in the Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology department in the College of Education and Human Development at ɫɫ�� Michigan University. 

The winners are selected each year from the articles published in that year’s volume. The editorial board committee examines the articles published each year and selects winners based on the following criteria: scholarly style, innovative and inventive material, and relevance to the counseling profession. Authors do not apply for consideration. The winner of each award receives a certificate of recognition and an honorarium. The article was coauthored by Dr. Daniel Cruikshanks of Aquinas College and found that “independently licensed counselors rarely accurately self-evaluate their occupational role communications…” and “rarely establish the counseling profession’s identity when discussing their occupational role.” From the study, a model was created to help counselors evaluate and improve their communication about professional identity. 

Burns and Cruikshanks recently published another article in The Professional Counselor titled Independently-licensed Counselors’ Connection to CACREP and State Professional Identity Requirements which focuses on the value in a consistent and clear professional identity for independently-licensed counselors. Many professional counseling organizations act to strengthen counselor professional identity to achieve the same parity for counselors that is afforded to social workers and psychologists. A random sample of 494 independently-licensed counselors from state counseling licensure board lists answered five questions about CACREP and state professional identity requirements required for clinical mental health counseling students. These professionals rated supervision pre- and post-graduation by an independently-licensed counselor, counselor educators licensed and trained as counselors, the unique philosophy of the profession of counseling taught in counselor education programs, and the importance of CACREP accreditation for clinical mental health programs between Slightly and Moderately Important. Results suggested that independently-licensed counselors see some value in a consistent and clear professional identity as a means to help current concerns experienced by independently-licensed counselors.