Licensure Portability Through an Ethical Lens: Considering Multiple Stakeholders

Counselors have been licensed to practice in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia since 2009, but licensure portability (the ability to transfer a license from one state to another) remains elusive, due in large part to variations in educational and training requirements between states. In this article, we extend the American Counseling Association and American Mental Health Counselors Association counseling codes of ethics beyond the counseling relationship to consider license portability along ethical dimensions at the macro level. We apply an ethical decision-making model to demonstrate how lack of portability may have ethical implications related to both counselors and clients. We submit several considerations for how the profession can conceptualize and address these issues through an ethical lens.