The Australian Counselling Association: Meeting the needs of Australian counsellors

Abstract

The Australian Counselling Association (ACA) was formed in 1999 in response to concerns that national counselling representative bodies in Australia were becoming exclusive and elitist. Thus, the ACA was purposefully designed to be inclusive in its membership. As a result, since its inception the association has grown into the largest individual membership national peak body in Australia. The ACA is involved in a number of activities that support counselling in Australia. Due to space limitations, only four main ACA activities are reviewed in this article: membership services and benefits, counsellor registration efforts, counsellor training accreditation, and the promotion of counselling within Australia. These four activities demonstrate how the ACA supports and represents counselling in an inclusive manner across Australia for the benefit of a broad range of Australians. Specifically, the membership services and benefits provided by the ACA include a tiered and inclusive membership structure, encouraging all who engage in counselling to be involved in a professional organization and continuing education efforts; a journal that contains both practitioner and peer reviewed articles; information dissemination via an electronic mail service; and access to advertisements in local phone books. Moreover, the ACA is proud to work under a policy of ready access, which involves timely responses to communications from counsellors as well as the public and the availability of toll‐free calling. National and local continuing education efforts are also organized in the form of conferences and seminars. The ACA has also contributed to counselling regulatory efforts via the setting of training standards and the creation of a national register of counsellors. Moreover, the ACA has engaged in government and insurance lobbying efforts as well as various community projects, such as the rural counselling project.