Published September 6, 2026

NCE Study Guide by CACREP Area: Nine Printable Checklists

By David Zimmerman · 9 min read · Study strategy

This is the NCE in nine printable checklists, one per CACREP core area[1], each with the NBCC domain the points land in[2] and the names and concepts the exam expects you to recognize. It is the outline of CaseSavvy’s 227-topic NCE library; each bullet is one or more topics with a summary, a cheat sheet, and a question. Print it, cross off what you already know, and study the rest in the order the domain map suggests. The standard review references are Rosenthal and the theory texts[3].

Professional Counseling Orientation & Ethical Practice

32 topics · scores mainly under Professional Practice and Ethics (19%)

  • ACA Code sections A–I and the NBCC Code; the five ethical principles (autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, fidelity) plus veracity
  • Licensure (state, practice/title) vs. certification (NCC, CCMHC) vs. accreditation (CACREP)
  • Supervision models (developmental, discrimination model); consultation vs. supervision
  • Confidentiality exceptions; privileged communication; Tarasoff; subpoena vs. court order
  • History: Parsons (1909), Rogers, the 1958 NDEA, ACA (1952 as APGA), NBCC (1982), CACREP (1981)
  • Advocacy competencies; professional identity; wellness

Social & Cultural Diversity

23 topics · scores mainly under Core Counseling Attributes / Counseling Skills

  • MSJCC (Ratts et al., 2016): self-awareness, client worldview, relationship, interventions
  • Acculturation models (Berry: assimilation, integration, separation, marginalization); racial/cultural identity development (Cross, Helms)
  • Etic vs. emic; individualism vs. collectivism; high- vs. low-context communication
  • Privilege, oppression, microaggressions; cultural humility; broaching
  • Culturally responsive assessment (norming, language, idioms of distress; the CFI)

Human Growth & Development

29 topics · scores mainly under Counseling Skills / Areas of Clinical Focus

  • Erikson's eight psychosocial stages (trust → integrity); Freud's psychosexual stages
  • Piaget (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, formal); Vygotsky (ZPD, scaffolding)
  • Kohlberg (preconventional, conventional, postconventional); Gilligan's ethic of care
  • Attachment (Bowlby, Ainsworth: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized)
  • Levinson's seasons; Havighurst's tasks; Kübler-Ross; Maslow's hierarchy
  • Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems; nature vs. nurture; resilience

Career Development

21 topics · scores mainly under Treatment Planning / Counseling Skills

  • Holland RIASEC: congruence, consistency, differentiation; SDS, Strong
  • Super: life-span stages, life roles, rainbow, career maturity
  • Krumboltz (planned happenstance), Gottfredson (circumscription/compromise), SCCT (self-efficacy), Roe, Ginzberg, Schlossberg's 4 S's, Savickas
  • Instruments: interest vs. aptitude vs. personality vs. values; O*NET

Counseling & Helping Relationships

45 topics · scores mainly under Counseling Skills and Interventions (33%)

  • Person-centered (core conditions), psychodynamic (transference, defense mechanisms), Adlerian (inferiority, lifestyle, birth order, early recollections)
  • CBT/REBT (Beck, Ellis; distortions, ABC), behavioral (reinforcement schedules, systematic desensitization), DBT
  • Existential (Frankl, Yalom, May), Gestalt (Perls: empty chair, here-and-now), reality/choice (Glasser: WDEP)
  • Solution-focused (miracle question, scaling), narrative (externalizing), feminist, MI (OARS, change talk), stages of change
  • Family systems: Bowen (differentiation, triangles), Minuchin (structural), Haley (strategic), Satir, Whitaker
  • Crisis models; suicide risk; telehealth ethics; the alliance and rupture repair

Group Counseling & Group Work

13 topics · scores mainly under Counseling Skills and Interventions

  • Tuckman (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning); Corey stages
  • Yalom's eleven therapeutic factors
  • Leader skills: cutting off, drawing out, linking, blocking; co-leadership
  • Group types (task, psychoeducational, counseling, psychotherapy); ASGW standards
  • Screening, informed consent, confidentiality limits in groups; group size and duration norms

Assessment & Testing

20 topics · scores mainly under Intake, Assessment, and Diagnosis (16%)

  • Reliability and validity types; standard error of measurement
  • Norm- vs. criterion-referenced; standardized scores (z, T, IQ, stanine, percentile)
  • Test categories: intelligence (WAIS, Stanford-Binet), achievement, aptitude, interest, personality (objective vs. projective: MMPI vs. Rorschach/TAT)
  • MSE; DSM-5-TR structure; screening vs. diagnostic instruments (PHQ-9, GAD-7, C-SSRS, MoCA)
  • Ethics of testing: competence, informed consent, culturally fair assessment (ACA Section E)

Research & Program Evaluation

18 topics · scores mainly under Professional Practice and Ethics

  • NOIR scales; central tendency; normal curve (68/95/99.7)
  • Designs: true experimental, quasi, single-subject (ABAB), correlational; qualitative approaches
  • Internal vs. external validity; threats (Campbell & Stanley)
  • Type I/II errors; alpha; power; effect size; which statistic for which question
  • Formative vs. summative evaluation; needs assessment; IRB and research ethics

Areas of Clinical Focus

26 topics · scores mainly under Areas of Clinical Focus (18%)

  • Mood and anxiety differentials with DSM-5-TR durations
  • Trauma (ASD vs. PTSD), OCD, eating disorders, substance use (criteria counts, ASAM, MOUD)
  • Psychotic spectrum durations; personality disorder clusters
  • Neurodevelopmental (ADHD, autism), child and adolescent presentations
  • Evidence-based treatments matched to each presentation

How to use the checklist

A name you cannot define in one sentence is a topic to study. A name you can define but cannot attach to a client sketch is a topic to practice. The NCE asks the second kind far more than the first.

Every bullet above is a topic in the library

227 topics with summaries, cheat sheets, and a question each, weighted by the NBCC blueprint. Free sample topic; full library $19/month, $49 per semester, $89/year.

See NCE prep

Related

Sources

  1. CACREP — Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs
  2. NBCC — National Counselor Examination (NCE) overview, candidate handbook, and content outline
  3. Rosenthal, H. (2017). Encyclopedia of Counseling (4th ed.). Routledge.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free NCE study guide?

This page: nine checklists by CACREP core area with the names and concepts the NCE tests, printable, linked to deeper posts, and mirroring the 227-topic NCE library on CaseSavvy.

Which CACREP area matters most for the NCE?

Counseling and helping relationships, because it feeds the Counseling Skills and Interventions domain, about a third of the exam, followed by professional orientation and ethics.

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