Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1007/s10447-026-09648-0

Publication Title

International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling

Volume

48

Issue

2

Pages

27

Abstract

The widespread implementation of telebehavioral health (TBH) services, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, created an urgent need for standardized competencies in counselor education. Many practitioners report minimal formal training, leading to significant variability in competence and a concerning gap between their confidence and actual preparedness. This article issues a call to action for counseling programs to adopt the interprofessional TBH competency framework from the Coalition for Technology in Behavioral Science (CTiBS). This structured, evidence-based roadmap outlines knowledge and skills for competent, ethical TBH practice across seven domains and three progressive levels: novice, proficient, and authority. Adopting this framework will enhance counselor development, align training with the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards and reimbursement policies, and ensure practitioners are prepared for modern service delivery. This approach fosters ethical, culturally responsive care and prepares counselors to meet future demands in an era of rapidly evolving technology.

Rights

© 2026 The Authors.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. 

Data Availability

Article states: "No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study."

Original Publication Citation

Suggs, B. G., Bice-Urbach, B. J., Maheu, M. M., Drude, K. P., Ford, D., Novella, J., Felker, B., & Hilty, D. M. (2026). Call to action: A telebehavioral health framework for counselor development. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 48(2), Article 27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-026-09648-0

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