Gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion and age: what the exam asks
Last reviewed September 2026 by Dr. Andrew Wichterman · Aligned to the current NCE blueprint. Valid for exams through June 30, 2027.
AI-narrated overview made with Google NotebookLM. The written lesson below is by Dr. Andrew Wichterman.
The exam also tests knowledge about particular groups: the terms, the relevant laws and position statements, and the counselor behaviors the profession expects. This lesson collects them.
Try to answer each from memory first, even if you have to guess. Guessing before reading makes the answer stick; reveal only after you have tried.
Gender and feminist therapy
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender. Feminist therapy developed in response, with principles that the personal is political, that the counseling relationship should be egalitarian, that women's experience is valued, and that the goal includes social change as well as individual change. Techniques include gender-role analysis, power analysis, assertiveness training and bibliotherapy. Gender identity is one's internal sense of gender; cisgender means it matches the sex assigned at birth, transgender means it does not. Gender dysphoria is a diagnosis of distress, not a synonym for being transgender.
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is a pattern of attraction and is independent of gender identity. Heterosexism is the assumption that heterosexuality is normal and superior. The ACA opposes conversion or reparative therapy and expects affirmative counseling, which validates rather than pathologizes LGBTQ+ identities. Meyer's minority stress model explains elevated mental health risk in sexual minorities through stigma, discrimination, concealment and internalized stigma rather than through the identity itself. Coming out is a process, not an event, and clients may be at different points with different people.
Disability
Ableism is discrimination based on disability and the assumption that typical ability is the norm. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination in employment, public services, accommodations and telecommunications and requires reasonable accommodation. People-first language, a person with a disability, is standard, though some communities prefer identity-first language, such as autistic person or Deaf; follow the client. Counselors attend to accessibility of the setting and materials and to the client's own definition of the disability's meaning.
Religion and spirituality
Religion refers to organized beliefs and practices; spirituality to a personal search for meaning and connection that may or may not include religion. ASERVIC, the Association for Spiritual, Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling, publishes competencies for addressing spirituality: assessing its role, respecting the client's beliefs, recognizing when it is a resource and when it is a source of distress, and integrating it only with the client's consent. The exam expects counselors to be able to talk about spirituality without either imposing or avoiding it.
Age and other statuses
Ageism is prejudice based on age, most often toward older adults; assumptions about cognitive decline, sexuality and capacity for change are common forms. Classism is prejudice based on socioeconomic status and includes barriers to service such as fees, hours and location. Immigrants chose to move; refugees were forced to flee and carry different legal statuses and trauma histories. Historical trauma refers to cumulative wounding across generations from events such as colonization and slavery. In every case, the exam's counselor behavior is the same: assess the client's own experience rather than assuming, and address systemic factors as well as individual ones.
Without scrolling up, write everything you remember from this lesson. Then check yourself against the key terms. Recalling the whole lesson once, right after reading it, does more than reading it twice.
Ten questions from this domain, with an explanation after each answer.
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