Championing Success and Growing Advocates: An Interview with the Texas Counseling Association

In an ever-evolving legislative landscape, the importance of active and effective advocacy for the counseling profession cannot be overstated. NBCC is committed to empowering counselors with the knowledge and skills needed to engage confidently with policymakers. Through sharing success stories and practical tips, this article aims to inspire and equip counselors to take a proactive role in shaping policies that protect and advance their profession. 

The Texas Counseling Association (TCA) has achieved meaningful victories in a state fraught with challenges and threats. Noah Jones, Public Policy Analyst, has been an important leader of and contributor to that work. Jones works to promote the legislative agenda of TCA within the halls of the Texas state legislature. TCA’s experience underscores the vital importance of strategic legislative engagement in ensuring the future of counseling and the well-being of the clients counselors serve. 

Can you describe the composition and structure of your advocacy team? How do different members contribute to your overall advocacy goals?

TCA’s Public Policy team is headed by Shannon Noble and myself, Noah Jones, TCA’s public policy analyst. Shannon is a lobbyist who has worked with TCA for over 20 years. She is an excellent partner and resource on all things mental health. TCA is the professional home for all Texas counselors. We rely heavily on our members for insight and direction during the legislative session, particularly our Public Policy Committee and our division leadership to perform analysis and conduct member outreach. 

What strategies or approaches did your advocacy team find most effective in achieving success during this legislative session (SB 646, SB 1401, HB2, SB 207)?

Shannon and I conduct the day-to-day operations of our advocacy efforts. We draft legislation and amendments, create handouts on key legislation, meet with legislative staff, identify professional counselors to testify before legislative committees and testify ourselves when witnesses are not available, write testimony, and work with other mental health organizations and coalition partners to push the legislation important to professional counselors. TCA is a statewide organization with members across Texas, and we have worked hard for many years to coach them in local and grassroots outreach. Legislators listen to their constituents, so we mobilize our members on important votes and bills.

What were some of the biggest challenges your advocacy team faced this session, and how did you work to overcome them?

Legislative sessions are full of ups and downs. Two of our most important bills, SB 1401, which creates a mental health professions pipeline program between community colleges and universities, and SB 646, which adds school counselors and LPC Associates to the Mental Health Professionals Loan Repayment Program, faced surprising opposition late in the session. Misrepresentations were made by legislators about these bills and about the roles of professional counselors. In situations like these, we work with our members, friendly legislators, and our coalition partners to quickly dispel misinformation and turn nays to ayes. Luckily, both of those bills passed. 

How does TCA collaborate with other organizations or stakeholders to amplify your advocacy efforts?

TCA is the largest professional organization for counselors in Texas, but we are just a piece of the mental health landscape. Collaboration is key to accomplishing big things in the Texas legislature. For over 20 years we have worked closely with NASW-TX, the Texas Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and other professional mental health organizations, as our goals and policy agendas are similar. That collaboration helped us create the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council, where the mental health licensing boards are housed, several sessions ago. In addition, we are one of over 30 organizations in the Texas Coalition for Healthy Minds, a collaborative in which we all work together to improve mental and behavioral health in Texas. 

What role does member engagement play in your advocacy initiatives, and how do you mobilize members to participate in advocacy activities?

TCA’s members are its strongest asset. Our professional counselors are dedicated and see firsthand the issues that affect the profession. The members determine TCA’s public policy agenda, and they play an active role before, during, and after each legislative session. We send a weekly public policy update during the session as well as targeted alerts when action is needed. We also recruit professional counselors to testify whenever possible, and TCA holds three advocacy days at the Texas Capitol, in March, April and May of each session. 

Based on your recent advocacy efforts, what advice would you give to other state counseling associations looking to improve their advocacy impact? And for associations that do not have a focus on advocacy, what would you advise them when getting started?

Strength comes in numbers. I would recommend joining with other organizations with similar goals and working together to achieve them. Each of our bills that passed this session had the support of at least one other organization. It is also critical to identify legislators who are either mental health professionals themselves or whose family members are. There may also be people in the legislature who have been personally affected by their own or a family member’s or a friend’s mental health challenge, which a professional counselor helped them overcome. Finding these legislators and building a relationship with them takes time, and our counselor members are vital to our legislative approach. Never forget the power, insight, and experience of your association’s members in advocating for their fellow professional counselors. 

How does TCA tailor its advocacy messages to resonate with policymakers, educators, and the community?

The most important part of messaging is the “why?” Why should you support our bill? Texas has large geographic areas designated as mental health workforce shortage areas, which have limited access to mental health providers. These disparities help make the case for expanding access to qualified professional counselors. Texas also has a very conservative legislature, and messages have to be carefully tailored for those politicians who may not embrace mental health services or who have unwavering misconceptions about what professional counselors can ethically do under their code of conduct. We can’t reach all of them, but thankfully we reached a majority when our important bills were voted on. 

In what ways has your advocacy work evolved over the past few years, especially considering changes in policy, technology, or public awareness?

The pandemic changed advocacy work for many organizations, and TCA is no different. Digital communications are our main method of updating and mobilizing our membership on important issues. Members receive our weekly updates, which provide important information on how bills are progressing and what they can do to get involved in the legislative process. Our social media presence has grown as well. We predominantly use Facebook and Instagram to ensure our members and the public are informed about TCA’s advocacy efforts. In addition, most of the coalition meetings we participate in are via Zoom, which is a huge benefit for time and logistics.

What metrics or indicators does your association use to measure the success of its advocacy campaigns?

I would never measure success only by the number of bills your organization helps pass each session. Obviously, one goal is to pass the bills on TCA’s agenda. However, there are many factors that are out of our control each session that impact the likelihood of bills passing. We also measure success by member involvement and how much awareness of mental health and counseling we can create in Texas. We often face an uphill battle in passing our priority bills, so moving the conversation forward is a large indicator of success that we can build upon in the future. Another, sometimes more important, measure of success is in stopping harmful legislation. In these unpredictable times, sometimes being able to say ‘it could have been much worse,’ can be counted as a win. 

What are some common mistakes you believe are made by new advocates, and what actions should counselors take to avoid those mistakes?

We are in polarized times, and I think sometimes there can be an urge to go for “gotcha” moments or be confrontational in an effort to make change happen. I think, more often than not, that approach will alienate whoever you are working with and shut you out of important conversations in the future. Instead, I would recommend meeting with your elected officials in their home districts to find common ground. You may end up becoming a resource on mental health, especially in areas with few providers. New advocates particularly may be discouraged by the difficulty they encounter in working on these issues. At least in Texas, most mental health provider associations and other non-profits do not have political action committees to pave the way and give them access to policymakers. We have to sell legislation the old-fashioned way—on its merits. Again, it takes time to build relationships and to pass bills. Texas has an anecdotal “three session rule,” and it is not unusual for a bill to actually take three sessions to pass. Patience and perseverance are the keys. 

Is there any additional information you would like to share with counselors?

Professional counselors are trained to advocate for their clients and often have difficulty making the shift to advocating for themselves and their profession. TCA has held in-person advocacy trainings over the years, including mock office visits and practice testimony, so our members feel empowered when they come to Austin. This session, we also held “What to Expect from Advocacy Day” webinars before each of our advocacy days, with logistical as well as public policy briefings to prepare professional counselors ahead of time. 

NBCC would like to thank Noah Jones, Public Policy Analyst with the Texas Counseling Association, for sharing insight into effective state legislative engagement. We urge all NCCs to get involved in their state advocacy efforts. NBCC is committed to the counseling community and will continue to work on behalf of NCCs and all counselors in the halls of government. It takes the efforts of a variety of organizations and individuals to make change, and we need counselors to get involved and stay involved in order to protect and promote access to mental health care, counseling, and opportunities for counselors. One way we are doing that is through the NBCC Ambassador Program. Please reach out if you would like to learn more at govtaffairs@nbcc.org.