A Vision for Rehabilitation Counseling: Appreciative Inquiry Through the Eyes of Our Legacy Leaders

Abstract

Rehabilitation counseling (RC), which grew out of vocational rehabilitation legislation in 1920, has quietly developed and expanded its range of services for people with disabilities. As a smaller specialty of counseling, RC has faced challenges to being recognized and valued for its diverse expertise within the counseling field, as well as the broader social service and allied health fields. With a changing landscape of accreditation, state licensing, and service reimbursement requirements, there is now a need for guidance, leadership, and collaborative planning to preserve the vitality of the profession. The purpose of this project was to capture the positive history of the profession through its leaders, utilizing an appreciative inquiry framework, to become more aware of strengths and opportunities, to begin drafting a blueprint for the future of RC. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 leaders in rehabilitation counselor education and research. Four main themes emerged: (a) formative influences, (b) threats, (c) current assets, and (d) future direction. Focusing on the influence of threats to the RC profession, a solution-focused response model is presented toward a vision of the future of RC practice, education, and research.