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Rehabilitation Counseling

Rehabilitation counseling is a process that is designed to assist people with disabilities in accomplishing their goals and in achieving independence and full participation in all aspects of community life. Rehabilitation counseling is also a recognized counseling profession, with a long history and established professional cre-dentialing procedures. It is variously conceptualized as a specialty within counseling, as a specialty within rehabilitation, and as a separate profession.

The historical roots of rehabilitation counseling date back to the early 1900s. During World War I, many military personnel returned home with disabilities, and rehabilitation programs were established to assist them in returning to productive civilian roles. The Soldier Rehabilitation Act (Public Law 65–178) was enacted in 1918. Simultaneously, efforts were under way in several different states to assist workers who had been injured in industrial accidents in returning to work, the roots of contemporary worker's compensation programs. Finally, the Smith-Fess Act of 1920 (Public Law 66–236) established a vocational rehabilitation program for civilians with disabilities. All of these initiatives evolved into the extensive network of government, private-nonprofit, and private-for-profit agencies and programs to assist people with disabilities. Rehabilitation counseling plays a central role within these agencies and programs, providing assessment, counseling, and coordination of rehabilitation services.

Definitions of Rehabilitation Counseling

As is true with other professions and specialties, a variety of definitions of rehabilitation counseling have been advanced by individual scholars and practitioners and by professional organizations. An official definition of rehabilitation counseling is provided by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC), the national credentialing body for rehabilitation counselors, in their “scope of practice statement”:

Rehabilitation counseling is a systematic process which assists persons with physical, mental, developmental, cognitive, and emotional disabilities to achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals in the most integrated setting possible through the application of the counseling process. The counseling process involves communication, goal setting, and beneficial growth or change through self-advocacy, psychological, vocational, social, and behavioral interventions.

This official definition emphasizes that rehabilitation counseling focuses specifically on the needs of people with all different types of disabilities; that counseling is central to the process; and that integrated settings are emphasized in the pursuit of career and independent living goals.

Rehabilitation and Disability

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation counseling is a part of the broader overall rehabilitation process. Medical dictionaries define rehabilitation as restoration or return to function following illness or injury. Rehabilitation is further defined as a process to facilitate independence and a return to full participation in life activities following the occurrence of disability, including employment as a core life activity. This definition is clearly encompassed within the official CRCC definition of rehabilitation counseling. When injury or illness occurs, acute care interventions are pursued to treat, manage, and stabilize the resulting medical condition. However, long-term consequences of illnesses and injuries, including disabilities, will sometimes remain after all available treatments have been pursued, and rehabilitation interventions may then be required to facilitate maximum function, full participation in life activities, and high quality of life. In addition to those disabilities that occur later in life, some occur at birth or during the early developmental years. In these cases, the same principles of assisting individuals in achieving independence, full participation, and quality of life apply. A variety of professions participate in rehabilitation programming, including physical, occupational, speech and language, and recreation therapy, rehabilitation psychology, social work, and rehabilitation counseling.

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