The President’s Column
“Hopefulness, Acceptance, and a Belief in the Common Good.”
November 2025
Dear AHC Members,
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is moving forward with regulations that would no longer classify counselor education or counseling degrees as professional degrees, removing them from the list entirely, and before issuing a final rule ED will open a 30-day public comment period through a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. It is essential that counselors participate by sharing their experiences and highlighting their highly specialized training, as mental health counselors must earn a master’s degree, complete extensive postgraduate clinical hours, and pass a licensure exam to practice.
Across cities, towns, and rural regions, communities are struggling under the weight of rising mental health concerns, fractured families, burnout, and social division. Yet counseling, one of the most effective and evidence-based means of fostering healing, connection, and resilience, remains inconsistently recognized, underfunded, and absent from key public institutions such as the Department of Education. This omission is not a minor oversight. It is a profound systemic failure that leaves individuals and families without the relational and emotional support they need to thrive.
From a humanistic perspective, every person holds inherent worth and an innate capacity for growth. Counseling honors that truth by offering empathy, understanding, and a safe space for transformation. When counseling is inaccessible, the consequences ripple through every layer of society: rising substance use, family instability, unaddressed trauma, burnout, and overloaded emergency systems. Our communities are not faltering because people are unwilling to seek help, but because the help they need is out of reach.
Recognizing counseling within the Department of Education and across community systems is not merely a policy reform, it is an act of social responsibility. Counselors serve students, parents, caregivers, frontline workers, and elders alike. They are the quiet scaffolding behind stronger families, safer workplaces, and more resilient communities. Research consistently affirms that access to counseling reduces crises, strengthens emotional well-being, and fosters social cohesion.
Without formal recognition, degree pathways, and sustainable funding, counseling remains treated as a private luxury instead of a public necessity. This most deeply harms those in rural, low-income, and marginalized communities and keeps those who would benefit most from accessible care.
If we want safer neighborhoods, healthier families, and a more compassionate, cohesive society, we must invest in counseling as essential infrastructure. This is not an optional service; it is a foundational human need. To build a thriving and humane future, counseling must be recognized, funded, and integrated across all systems that serve the public good.
Click here for more information: https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/DM4eey2RDR6_srP6_o9GcA
With purpose and conviction,
Dr. Christie Jenkins, PhD, LPCC-S, NCC
President, Association for Humanistic Counseling - 2025-2026