Kristina Crafton
Eng 102-10Z7
Mrs. Wendt
February 7, 2012
Psychoanalyzing the Professionals I’ve always been interested in becoming a counselor so the website I chose is ACA, short for American Counseling Association. This site is fairly user friendly and has any kind of information about counseling you can think of. They offer a wide variety of different things you can do on this site, such as learn about the association, become a part of the organization, see the different publications that the professional’s have published, read about other’s experiences in the different fields of psychology, and much more. You can even take classes and participate in conferences to further your education in psychology. The American Counseling Association website provides education and entertainment to those how are interest in becoming or already are a counselor. When I first came upon the site, I was a little concerned that this site would be dull. There are not many pictures and mostly ever thing on this site is paragraphs of writing. After reading some of the things, I realized that this site is meant for those that are serious about this career of choice. The website looks extremely professional in a way that there are not any typos, glitches, or other mishaps that many websites normally have. It is kind of a plain website that most would find ‘boring’, but for those that are interested in counseling, it is a very helpful website. The website has many different links and even provides a site map and a site search bar in case one was to get lost, or just can’t find what they are looking for. The ACA website has a sign in or sign up box on the home page. This is meant for students, counselors, and others to become a member. Members have access to classes, videos, different communications with others, and more. I, personally, am not a paying member (yet!), so I cannot really divulge on the other perks of being a paying member would have. If you do become a paying member, you can select one out of 5 different membership plans. The one that I would choose would be the Student membership, which is $93 for one year. Each of the 5 plans tells a little about it, so that you would know which one to choose. The Student one talks about being enrolled in college, so I know that one would be meant for me. Although I’m not a paying member, I still gain access to a lot of different material. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of different links on this website. Toward the top of the home page, there are eight links that take you to the different paths they have on this site. If you were looking for the books that this site has to offer, you’d click the first link, Publications. If you were wondering when the next conference the ACA has would be, you could click on the last link, Conference. Each link takes you to more information concerning the link you have clicked on. Each of these pages has text, links, and offer the content in which you are looking for in that category. The ACA was created in 1952 and have provided for those needing guidance since. They are a non-profit organization and they teach the code of ethics, update the bylaws, and offer so much to those who want to be a professional counselor. They have an About page that tells all about the Association and has their mission statement. You can find the About page by clicking the link at the top of any page, below the site’s search bar. This site is fairly user friendly because it can become kind of confusing when you’re not sure what you are looking for. If it wasn’t for the site map and the search bar, it would be much harder to navigate. Having these features make everything run smooth and helps