About the Association for Creativity in Counseling

Where Healing and Connection Look Different.

The Association for Creativity in Counseling (ACC) is a professional home for counselors, educators, students, and practitioners who believe in reimagining mental health care.

Whether you’re incorporating play, poetry, movement, gaming, nature, or narrative into your work, you belong here.

ACC was created to support those who challenge convention, embrace difference, and use creativity as a pathway for healing. We promote relational, expressive counseling practices that center human connection and growth.

ACC champions diverse and unconventional approaches to counseling and counselor education. We promote creative methods of healing, foster authentic connection, and advocate for inclusive, relational mental health care across practice, supervision, education, and research.

Our Mission

The mission of ACC is to:

Promote greater awareness, advocacy, and understanding of creativity in counseling among members of the counseling profession and related helping fields.

Advance creative, diverse, and relational approaches to counseling services.

Identify conditions that enhance creativity in the work and lives of counselors, clients, and communities, and to use counseling skills, programs, and efforts to preserve, protect, and promote such creativity.

Develop, implement, and foster interest in counseling-related charitable, scientific, and educational programs designed to further creativity, diversity, and relatedness in the work and lives of counselors, clients, and communities.

Create scientific, educational, and professional materials with the purpose of raising the standards of practice for all who use creative, diverse, or relational approaches in counseling, psychotherapy, and mental health.

Our Values

The Values of ACC are:

ACC was established in 2004 as a forum for counselors, counselor educators, and counseling students interested in creative, diverse, and relational approaches to counseling.

We are especially interested in promoting counseling approaches that support mutually supportive, positive, growth-fostering relationships.

ACC is committed to researching and defining relational competencies that facilitate good will, empathic personal and professional connections, and the appropriate use of power.

Our History

In 2004, Dr. Thelma Duffey founded ACC with a vision to create a space for counselors who practice differently. Alongside early leaders like Dr. Sam Gladding and Dr. Stella Beatriz Kerl-McClain, she helped shape a vibrant, national community that honors creativity as a cornerstone of the counseling profession.

Over the past 20 years, ACC has become a home for those on the edges of traditional mental health care. This is where art therapists, trauma-informed yoga counselors, bibliotherapists, and unconventional healers have found validation, resources, and connection.

Dr. Thelma Duffey

Leadership in Action

Meet the Board

Dr. Patricia Kimball

Immediate Past President
Dr. Yvette R. Tolbert

President and Conference Co-Chair
Dr. Lacy C. Overley

President-Elect and Conference Co-Chair
Dr. Amanda DeDiego

Treasurer and Journal Committee Co-Chair
Dr. Ashton Keys

Secretary and Advocacy Chair
Dr. Ruth Ouzts Moore

ACA Advisory Council,
ACC Representative and Conference Co-Chair
Dr. Daisy Zhou

Trustee and Membership Coordinator
Dr. Lauren Hearn

Trustee and Volunteer Coordinator
Dr. Kimberlee Ratliff

Trustee
Dr. Ian Lértora

Journal Committee Co-Chair
Vy Nguyen

Doctoral Emerging Leader

Contact the Board >

Emerging Leaders,
Awards, & Grants

Each year, ACC honors exceptional work in creative counseling. ACC's awards recognize innovation, leadership, and service.

View past recipients:

2025
Vy Nguyen - Doctoral Emerging Leader (2025-2027)
2024
Alisha Jordan - Doctoral Emerging Leader (2024-2025)
2023
Janay Ward - Master's Emerging Leader (2023-2025)
Ashton Keys - Doctoral Emerging Leader (2023-2025)
Daniel Miller - New Professional Emerging Leader (2023-2025)
2022
Derya Sari - Master's Emerging Leader (2022-2024)
Lauren Hearn - Doctoral Emerging Leader (2022-2024)
Daisy Zhou - New Professional Emerging Leader (2022-2024)
2021
Chase McKinney - Doctoral Emerging Leader (2021-2023)
Antoinette ("Nettie") Cambria - New Professional Emerging Leader (2021-2023)
2020
Emily McCreary Horton - Doctoral Emerging Leader (2020-2021)

2025
Janita Daggy - Doctoral Student Award
Lauren Hearn - Professional Service Award
2024
Lauren Hearn - Doctoral Student Award
2023
Derya Sari - Master's Student Award
Wen-Chen "Winnie" Liu - Doctoral Student Award
Chase McKinney - Professional Service Award
Cameron Houin - Research Award
LoriAnn Stretch - The Samuel T. Gladding Motivation and Inspiration Award
Laura Wood - The Thelma Duffey Vision and Innovation Award
Ruth Ouzts Moore - The Lisa S. Sosin ACC Spirit Award
2022
Madelyn Duffey - Graduate Student Award
Lacy C. Overley - Professional Service Award
Viki Kelchner - The Samuel T. Gladding Motivation and Inspiration Award
Maya Georgieva - The Thelma Duffey Vision and Innovation Award
2021
Shoni Banks - Graduate Student Award
Amanda DeDiego - Professional Service Award
Lotes Nelson - The Samuel T. Gladding Motivation and Inspiration Award
LoriAnn Stretch - The Thelma Duffey Vision and Innovation Award
2020
Justina Wong - Graduate Student Award
Jenn Toof - Professional Service Award

2025
Ashton Keys - Student Research Grant
2024
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2023
Kailey Bradley - Student Research Grant
2022
Jennifer Nilies - Student Research Grant
Taheera Blount - Professional Research Grant
2021
Daisy Zhou - Student Research Grant
Rachel McRoberts and Jenna Epstein - Professional Research Grant
2020
Emily McCreary Horton - Student Research Grant
Lisa Sosin - Professional Research Grant