The movement to license professional counsellors in Nova Scotia

This study chronicles the movement to license professionally qualified counsellors in Nova Scotia. The impetus for the licensure movement is discussed and the results of a study surveying the opinions of Nova Scotia counsellors on the licensure issue are reviewed. By chronicling these events, this study may serve to assist counsellors in other provinces who have been looking at the issue of licensure, but have as yet been unclear as to how to proceed. The study also looks at the licensure issue from an historical perspective, reviewing the events that have taken place in the United States which have led to 42 states passing credentialing laws. This study may serve to help other professional counsellors understand the issues that they will face if they choose to pursue licensing as a means of protecting their title and their right to practice professional counselling in their home province.