Certifications and Licenses
Counseling credentials can be hard to make sense of from the outside since they come from different organizations, mean different things, and aren't interchangeable. Here's a plain explanation of the three I hold and why each one matters for the work I do.
If you'd like the short version: I'm a licensed therapist in Oregon (LPC), a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), and a Certified Career Counselor (CCC). The mix is unusual, and it shapes the kind of practice I've built, where I keep one foot in mental health (relationships, anxiety, depression, communication), one foot in career.
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
Certified Career Counselor (CCC)
Issued by the National Career Development Association - (NCDA).
Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC)
Issued by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification - (CRCC).
LPC is my state license to practice psychotherapy. In Oregon, it's issued by the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists - (OBLPCT). It's the credential that lets me work as a therapist with individuals and couples, diagnose and treat mental health conditions, and provide superbills clients can submit to insurance.
Getting and keeping an LPC isn't a one-time thing. It required a master's degree in counseling (mine is from Portland State University), thousands of supervised clinical hours after graduation, a national exam, and ongoing continuing education to renew. The state also holds licensees to an ethics code, which is part of why I do things like avoid soliciting client reviews and stay careful about confidentiality.
The LPC is the foundation of everything else I do. Whether the presenting concern is anxiety, depression, a relationship in trouble, or a career that no longer fits, the therapy itself is what the license covers.
CCC is a national certification specifically for career counseling. NCDA created it to distinguish counselors with formal training in career development from the broader and largely unregulated world of career coaching.
To earn it, I had to demonstrate graduate-level training in career counseling, document supervised experience in the work, get two attestations from other career professionals/supervisors, and meet NCDA's ethics standards. It's not the same as a license since there's no “state board of career counseling,” but it's the closest thing the career counseling field has to a recognized professional standard.
This is the credential most relevant to the career counseling side of my practice. Career counseling and career coaching often get used interchangeably, but they're not the same thing. Coaching is typically forward-focused and skill-based. Counseling brings in the deeper questions: identity, meaning, grief over a career that didn't work out, job loss, fear of disappointing people, the way old family scripts show up in vocational choices. Both are useful; they're just different tools.
Holding the CCC alongside the LPC is a small part of why people sometimes find their way to me when they've outgrown what a coach can offer.
Or conversely, sometimes people seek me out because their LPC (or other type of therapist) can’t provide concrete structure and guidance around career development and job search.
CRC is a national certification for counselors who work with people navigating disability, chronic illness, injury, or significant life disruption — especially as it intersects with work, identity, and independence. It came out of the field of rehabilitation counseling, which has roots in helping veterans and injured workers return to meaningful lives.
To earn it, I completed coursework in disability and rehabilitation, a supervised practicum in the field, and passed the CRC national exam. Like the LPC, it requires ongoing continuing education.
What it means in practice: I've trained specifically to think about how health, ability, and circumstance shape someone's working life — and how the working life, in turn, shapes mental health. That comes up more often than people might expect. A back injury that ended a trade. A chronic illness that's reshaping what's possible. A neurodivergent client trying to find work that fits how their brain actually works. These aren't separate from therapy; they're often right at the center of it.
The CRC is part of why I'm comfortable holding both the mental-health side and the career side of a client's life in the same conversation.
Why this matters:
Most therapists don't do much career work. Most career professionals aren't trained to do therapy. The middle of that Venn diagram is small, and it's where a lot of my practice actually lives — folks in their thirties through fifties whose work life and inner life have become tangled up with each other and need to be worked on together.
If you'd like to talk about whether any of this fits what you're looking for, you can book a free 20-minute consultation.