Join a prestigious, worldwide group

of accredited centers

Not sure your center is ready or qualified?

IACS is happy to respond to questions or concerns, suggest solutions, and help you achieve quality standards—even prior to starting the application process. 

Request a Free Consultation

Earning and maintaining accreditation distinguishes your center with a commitment to excellence and a causative role in making the gold standard in student mental health care common practice. While IACS Standards for Accreditation are professionally demanding, we believe most counseling centers dedicated to achieving high quality will ultimately be able to meet them.

You’ll find the review process is:

  1. Constructive—promotes healthy self-appraisal and reveals areas for potential improvement.

  2. Non-contentious—includes effective suggestions and expert insights on how to meet criteria in areas identified as below standards.

  3. Comprehensive—includes interviews during site visit with staff in all departments that may have interaction with the counseling center.

  4. Informative—is conducted by current and past center directors experienced in achieving and maintaining accreditation standards and a detailed report is shared with the center.

  5. Valuable—provides the benefits of an external perspective, including validation for what you’re doing well, new approaches to challenges, and innovative ideas from other centers.


We invite you to join us in making the gold standard common practice. A good place to start is reviewing the IACS Standards

  • “I think that the IACS field visitor’s information gathering was concise and sharp. Their comments on improving our services were realistic and reasonable, from immediate to long-term challenges… I believe that site visitors increased the perception of stakeholders about the importance of counseling centers.”


    —Akira Takano, Ph.D., Director

    Counseling Center

    The University of Tokyo

  • “Applying for and achieving IACS accreditation was one of the most important things I did in my early years as director of counseling services at Temple University. By carefully approaching our self-study and digesting the results of our first site visit, the standards and expectations within the department were quickly raised. Beyond that, IACS accreditation increased the stature of the counseling center in the university, since departmental accreditation supports the university’s accreditation. It helped me to advocate for additional staff, more competitive salaries, and additional space.”


    —John L. DiMino, Ph.D., Director

    Tuttleman Counseling Services

    Temple University

  • “The IACS site visit did help reinforce the strengths of the center and what we needed to continue working on in the future - including strategies for gaining higher administrative support.”


    —Mark J. Forest, Ph.D. 

    Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs - Health and Wellness

    Director, Counseling and Psychological Services

    The College of New Jersey

  • “At key times, IACS officers also provided expert consultation on a variety of issues in a respectful and professional manner. That enabled me to communicate in a more nuanced and effective way to other university stakeholders, which, in turn, led to improvement in the counseling center’s relationship to a number of other departments. I highly recommend seeking and maintaining IACS accreditation.”


    —John L. DiMino, Ph.D., Director

    Tuttleman Counseling Services

    Temple University