Addressing the Sticky Issue of How to Consolidate Rehabilitation Counseling Professional Associations

Although the idea of consolidation has seemed to enjoy relative unanimity, the questions of who and how to consolidate have always proved a greater challenge. In this article, we describe rehabilitation counseling professionals’ thoughts about these more challenging questions. More specifically, we sought greater understanding about whether private rehabilitation counseling providers and educators would like to see their specializations represented in a consolidated association. We also sought participant perspectives about how to consolidate through a combination of quantitative and qualitative inquiry. Results suggest that most participants desired to see a more inclusive consolidated association. Opinions were more mixed on how to consolidate the existing associations, with the greatest frequency of participants being undecided. Implications and recommendations grounded in the business and professionalization literature offer insights into how the discipline can proactively move forward in an effort to sustain our preeminence among human service providers in the provision of counseling and vocational services to people with disabilities.