Rehabilitation counselor life care planners: a qualitative analysis of values and traits

This study is a descriptive qualitative analysis of the values and traits of rehabilitation counselor life care planners. Using the theoretical foundation of the Person-Environment fit theory, it reviews the available literature on rehabilitation counselor life care planners and fills in a missing sub-category of research on Person-Group fit within the private rehabilitation field and life care planning. It contains a review of rehabilitation counselor identity in order to provide context to how rehabilitation counselor life care planners view themselves as practitioners, particularly the role of income in career fit given ethical concerns surrounding money in the practice of life care planning. The primary traits resulting from this study are emotional differentiation, counselor as educator/performer, desiring intellectual excellence, detail oriented, and financial awareness. The primary values resulting from this study are recognition of humanity, integrity, objectivity, freedom in work, and social and financial responsibility. These results are discussed within the social culture of rehabilitation counseling to better understand their development.