American Counseling Association
member organization of professional counselors in the United States
The American Counseling Association (ACA) is a membership organization representing licensed professional counselors (LPCs), counseling students, and other counseling professionals in the United States. It is the world's largest association exclusively representing professional counselors.
Its stated mission is to "enhance the quality of life in society by promoting the development of professional counselors, advancing the counseling profession, and using the profession and practice of counseling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity".
The association's headquarters are located in Alexandria, Virginia.
History
The group was founded in 1952 as the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA), formed by the merger of the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA), the National Association of Guidance and Counselor Trainers (NAGCT), the Student Personnel Association for Teacher Education (SPATE), and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA). The American Personnel and Guidance Association changed its name to the American Association of Counseling and Development (AACD) in 1983.
On July 1, 1992, the association adopted its current name.
Divisions, regions and branches
There are 20 chartered divisions within the American Counseling Association. They are listed here with their founding date:
Association for Adult Development and Aging (AADA) (1986)
Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) (1965)
Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling (ACAC) (2010)
Association for Creativity in Counseling (ACC) (2004)
American College Counseling Association (ACCA) (1991)
Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) (1940)
Association for Humanistic Counseling (AHC) (1931)
Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) (1972)
American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA) (1958)
Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC) (1974)
Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW) (1973)
Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ) (1999)
International Association for Resilience and Trauma Counseling (IARTC) (2021)
International Association of Addictions and Offender Counselors (IAAOC) (1972)
International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (IAMFC) (1989)
Military and Government Counseling Association (MGCA) (1984)
National Career Development Association (NCDA) (1913)
National Employment Counseling Association (NECA) (1966)
Society for Sexual, Affectional, Intersex, and Gender Expansive Identities (SAIGE) (1975)
Affiliate: Association of Counseling Sexology and Sexual Wellness (ACSSW) (in or before 2018)
The ACA also has multi-state regional bodies, and branches for various US states and territories. There is also a "Europe" branch.
The public source identifies “American Counseling Association” as member organization of professional counselors in the United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around American, Counseling and Association.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “American Counseling Association”, the useful work is to connect “member organization of professional counselors in the United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q463805. VIAF identifies the subject as 132193822. The Library of Congress control number is n92079013. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952, 1983, 1992 and 1986.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “American Counseling Association”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow American Counseling Association primary sources, American Counseling Association archive and American research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “American Counseling Association”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “American Counseling Association” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.