We have known Jane Myers and Tom Sweeney for over 20 years. During this time we have written projects that relate to a common passion: promoting the well-being of all people.
When Jane died of cancer in 2014, it was a great loss for us personally and for the entire consulting profession. We recently felt moved to interview Tom about Jane and her key contributions to the development of the consulting profession.
Tom and Jane are the only [husband and wife] couple who were both Presidents of the American Counseling Association. They made a significant difference in their time as presidents, but they were as influential as active members of the ACA government structure.
Before we turn to the interview we did with Tom, we would like to address a few areas in which Tom and Jane helped shape the profession. During our interview, Tom told a few stories related to several of these accomplishments.
The origins of ACA's name: What we know today as the American Counseling Association began in 1952 as the American Personnel and Guidance Association. The name has occasionally been mocked by some (“Guidance is for Missiles”). , but it stayed until 1983 when I (Allen Ivey) introduced an alternative: the American Association of Counseling and Development (AACD). I thought the name spoke for the goals of the advice and implied a wellness / health orientation. The club therefore changed its name and acted as AACD until 1992. Nevertheless, the concept of "development" was largely unclear to the public at that time. Finally, Jane and Tom helped propose our identity as simply the American Counseling Association. This three-word title succinctly defines who we are to the public.
Social Justice: Jane and Tom remained advocates of social justice throughout their careers. Tom, the son of Scottish immigrants, grew up in a racially and multicultural community. As early as 1968, he planned and headed the first of a series of fully integrated six-week summer institutes for 50 consultants from 13 southern states who live together in a dormitory at a former state university. These and other programs were funded by the General Electric Foundation's Educators in Industry program.
Jane's brother had developmental disorders. Her mother, a special education teacher, showed Jane a real love and respect for people with disabilities. Jane's career as a consultant began as a state consultant for occupational rehabilitation. According to her own report, Jane's administrator thought she was too strong a social justice lawyer on behalf of her clients. So Jane did her doctorate in a counseling session and got to know the needs of older adults. This is how their efforts in gerontological advocacy, research and teaching began.
One of Jane's gerontology students once told her when this student entered Jane's classroom, a colleague of Jane said, "Don't go in there. This area is irrelevant." After all, we see these clients as central to our work as consultants.
License: Tom took the first step towards becoming a consultant license in 1974 when he proposed a license for consultants in an article entitled "License in the helping professions: anatomy of a problem". (More on this topic in the interview.)
Accreditation : Preparation standards form the basis for the area of activity and the ethics of the consultants. Accredited educational programs are vital to professional credibility. The clear definition of standards has a direct impact on the curriculum and staff. Tom (1981-1987) and Jane (1994-1996) were both chairs of the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP). In addition, Jane almost single-handedly helped create a gerontology curriculum, competencies, and a CACREP specialty through grants to manage aging. She also received approval from the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) for national certification in gerontology counseling. Unfortunately, none of these specialties exist within CACREP or NBCC today.
Chi Sigma Iota (CSI): In 1985, Tom and Jane founded the first chapter of the Consulting Honor Society (Alpha) at Ohio University. Both were President and CEO of CSI. CSI has more than 130,000 initialized members, has chartered more than 400 university chapters, and is the third largest active membership organization in the consulting profession.
Since its inception in 1985, CSI has returned over $ 1.7 million to university chapters and members through discounts, awards, and grants. Its goal is to "promote a strong professional identity through members who contribute to the realization of a healthy society by promoting wellness and human dignity."
CSI's leadership style is based on Robert Greenleaf's philosophy of servant leadership – d. H. One serves the welfare of others rather than self-interest.
Wellness : Jane and Tom started their work in the field of wellness in the 1980s. Through their research, writing, and teaching, they have helped create a foundation and focus that are increasingly defining what it means to be a professional advisor.
A gallery of portraits of Presidents of the American Counseling Association is located in a hallway at ACA headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Jane Myers can be seen in the middle row, second from the right. Photo by Bethany Bray / Advice Today
An excerpt from an interview with Tom Sweeney
Allen Ivey: Can we turn to the basic important struggles you had in the early days?
Tom Sweeney: Looking back, I had unfortunately thought that we could be both collegial, professional advisors and psychologists. As a background I have a minor in counseling psychology, belonged to the department for counseling psychology 17 [of the American Psychological Association until the mid-1970s] and was a licensed psychologist since we did not yet have an Ohio counseling license. I worked early and even as President of ACES (Association for Counselor Education and Supervision) and ACA to build collaboration and dialogue with Department 17, AAMFT (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy) and other groups. Jane was also successful during her tenure as ACA president. No collaboration was foreseen, and psychologists have consistently struggled to stop or restrict counseling practices. Many still do it today.
ACA supported the launch of NBCC because we knew the struggle would be long and tough. All states now have a consultant license, but the fighting in the market continues.
Mary Bradford Ivey: She and Jane were central to the management and support of state licenses, CACREP and Chi Sigma Iota. These are great posts that have made counseling a full profession. How did it all start for you?
Tom: The short answer is: I learned in my doctorate that counseling is a "job", not a job. From my early years in leadership, I tried to bring advisors into the family of helping careers by providing counseling cards, preparation, ethics and accreditation standards.
When I wrote the first article for the APGA journal about "Licensing in the helping professions: anatomy of a problem" (1974), we were far behind psychologists. The Ohio State Psychological Board was new and aggressive in enforcing its authority. The next year, I was asked to write the position paper on the consultant license approved by the APGA Governing Council. I chaired the first SACES (Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision) licensing committee (1972) and the APGA licensing committee (1975-77). As a result, I have networked with counselors across the country who have been affected by the efforts of psychologists to advance the practices of their members. I traveled, spoke and occasionally testified at hearings.
I can still reflect the aggressive actions of psychology licensing bodies. The most notable case for me was the State of Ohio Psychological Board with an African American Ed.D. Adviser charged with crime for delivering ratings to parents whose children could not be tested for specific internships. I got personally involved and we (APGA) sent a friend of the court. The judge dismissed the case but made no decision.
Another case in Virginia was judged positive by the judge, and Virginia was the first state to receive an advisory license. A member of our license committee, Carl Swanson, was instrumental in both cases. Each state that received a license was different after that, and literally hundreds of advisors made it possible.
Allen: And then there is CACREP, a necessary basis for our profession. She and Jane were the focus here.
Tom: As the elected president of APGA / ACA, I knew that licensing efforts would be even more difficult without accreditation. I am pleased to say that I have submitted the APGA application to adopt the ACES standards for consultant training for the first time ever. Until then, there were no recognized APGA-recognized standards.
As President, I wrote the position paper on the founding of CACREP. Joe Witmer was the first managing director of CACREP and I was the first chairman for the first six critical years of CACREP. Many stories associated with those early years. The college deans were open to us.
One of our most important tasks was the revision of standards in those early years. CACREP is accountable to professionals and the public we serve to review and implement standards. The change in higher education is slow due to tradition, costs and the reluctance to have unintended consequences. I don't think we are unique as a profession in this regard. Lately, some could argue that change has gone too fast in some ways, especially in the context of online education and its entrepreneurial rise to power in higher education. Not only in our field, but also in the field of medicine and others.
Nevertheless, the role of CACREP as the basis for defining our area of activity is of crucial importance. In a way, CACREP helps us to define what is meant by "professional advice".
Mary: Why was NBCC started?
Tom: NBCC was founded because those of us who were immersed in licensing efforts knew that it would take a long time to create professional advisor cards in every state. The Federal Trade Commission has pursued other professions with membership, accreditation and national certification bodies too closely intertwined. We therefore decided to keep CACREP and NBCC away from ACA, although ACA (APGA) supported each startup with funding and office space.
As President of the APGA at the time, I remember my subcommittee of the Governing Council that wanted to cut a budget to continue these efforts. I intervened and resumed by running a poll asking the members what they think. It got the biggest result of an email survey of everything AGPA had tried before – and members wanted their membership association to support their accreditation and attestation bodies.
Mary: What does NBCC do for us professionally?
Tom: When we first imagined what was then known as the National Service Provider Register, we thought it would serve as proof of eligibility for those members who have had no prospect of one for years state license had come. After the license had been established in all jurisdictions as before, we thought that the national eligibility would fade.
I am probably not the one to ask for it, since my engagement in the past few decades has been limited to a collaboration between the CSI and NBCC. Led by Tom Clawson, NBCC's advocacy and outreach programs went far beyond what we could have imagined in 1982. As with Carol Bobby's CACREP leadership, they have further developed advice as an important partner in promoting professional advice at home and abroad.
Allen: And together with all of this, you and Jane founded the honor society of our profession, Chi Sigma Iota.
Tom: Yes, Jane had founded the honor society for rehabilitation counseling Rho Chi Sigma. It was small, humble numbers, of course, but she made these students feel special because of their mentoring style. When I say that she was a mentor a few years ago, the winter issue of the Journal of Counseling & Development (JCD) contained articles by six Jane graduates. Last year received five different national awards. We all learned from the best! This is the kind of mentoring that helped her model in CSI.
When I saw the spirit of Jane & # 39; s honor society, I saw its potential for the whole profession. Many faculties in other programs struggled for professional identity, so I decided to give students, faculties, and graduates the opportunity to claim their professional identity through an honor society dedicated to all counseling specialties, all degrees, etc. We sent a letter of invitation to counselor educators across the country and we never had to send one again.
Nowadays, programs that strive for CACREP accreditation also want CSI chapters because we are known as co-curriculum partners within adviser training programs. For example, the CSI Executive Council recently assumed a leadership and advocacy position for the identity and well-being of advisors that will find its way into all of our chapters and beyond.
Mary: I clearly remember Jane's presidential address in 1990 about wellness across life span. It was exciting when I was a physical education teacher in schools in Madison, Wisconsin, where health was central to my work. And when I heard Jane's address, I immediately understood what had to be done to support her direction. My work with everyone about therapeutic lifestyle changes was reinforced by their ideas.
Tom: Yes, Jane was a visionary. As President-elect (1989-1990), she received a resolution that unequivocally stated that the AACD "supports the position of the consultancy and development profession as an advocate of a goal for optimal health and well-being in our entire society". At about this time, our wellness research was just beginning. Together with our colleague Mel Witmer from Ohio University, we developed the WEL inventory and started collecting data for Jane's database.
Allen: Tell us more about your and Jane's solid research and work on wellness and assessment tools.
Tom: With the help of a world-famous statistician, John Hattie, we used Jane's database with several thousand subjects to design an empirically derived indivisible self-wellness model (ISWEL) and the five-factor to create wellness inventory (5F-Wel). With Jane's help, I was able to use Adlerian theory to provide practitioners and researchers with concepts and tools to advance their clinical and scientific work based on practical theory and a solid empirical model. The instrument has been translated into over a dozen languages.
An article in JCD (2020) with Laura Shannonhouse as lead author confirms the usefulness of the adult 5F world. After rigorously screening over 100 studies up to 59 that met their criteria, the authors again confirmed that it is suitable for both research and clinical practice. There have not yet been enough reports for teenagers and elementary readers.
I continue to receive Jane's correspondence from across the country and from abroad in the areas of counseling, education, psychology, nursing and medicine. Our instruments and the empirically based model of indivisible self-well-being are cited far beyond our area of expertise.
Mary: The four of us had the pleasure of writing a book that brought advice, wellness and development into one integrated package. At the end of our discussion it could be helpful if we talk about the "how" of a development / wellness-oriented consultation and therapy practice.
Tom: Like you, Jane and I were convinced that holistic well-being is a better construct for defining counseling goals and results.
Our indivisible self-model contains 17 factors (e.g. positive humor, thinking, nutrition, etc.) that practitioners can incorporate into each client's treatment plan regardless of the issues at hand. Instead of just focusing on problems, we focus on the strengths of the customers and what they can do now to optimize the quality of their lives as much as possible.
Consulting has long been a wellness and development profession. Both development counseling and therapy (DCT) and Adlerian practice focus on the strengths that are found in all clients. Both are fully aware of the social influences in the session. Wellness is of central importance for both and has its own proven system to promote verifiable changes in the therapeutic lifestyle. You don't have to consider all of Adlerian or DCT's principles to effectively implement a wellness counseling approach, but if you do, it will certainly help.
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Allen and Mary Bradford Ivey have been writing, keynotes and presenting workshops worldwide for almost 40 years. Allen is a respected university professor (emeritus) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Mary has been recognized nationally as one of the top 10 counseling programs in the United States. Both were honored as fellows of the American Counseling Association. Allen and Mary were also the founders and former president and vice president of Microtraining Associates, an educational publisher focused on counseling and therapy skills, and the first in the nation to present educational videos on multicultural approaches to counseling and therapy. Contact them at [email protected].
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