BILL NUMBER: SB 363 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Emmerson
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
An act to amend Sections 4980.36 and 4980.42 of the Business and
Professions Code, relating to marriage and family therapists.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 363, as introduced, Emmerson. Marriage and family therapists.
Existing law provides for the licensing and regulation of marriage
and family therapists by the Board of Behavioral Sciences. Existing
law specifies the education required for licensure, which includes a
requirement for a practicum that involves direct client contact.
Existing law authorizes trainees to perform activities and services
in certain work settings provided that these constitute part of the
trainee's supervised course of study and the person is designated as
a trainee. Existing law also authorizes trainees to gain hours of
experience outside the required practicum under certain conditions,
but requires trainees who gain experience outside the required
practicum to be enrolled in a practicum in order to counsel clients.
This bill would provide that trainees may also counsel clients
while not enrolled in a practicum if the period of lapsed enrollment
is less than 45 calendar days.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 4980.36 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
4980.36. (a) This section shall apply to the following:
(1) Applicants for licensure or registration who begin graduate
study before August 1, 2012, and do not complete that study on or
before December 31, 2018.
(2) Applicants for licensure or registration who begin graduate
study before August 1, 2012, and who graduate from a degree program
that meets the requirements of this section.
(3) Applicants for licensure or registration who begin graduate
study on or after August 1, 2012.
(b) To qualify for a license or registration, applicants shall
possess a doctor's or master's degree meeting the requirements of
this section in marriage, family, and child counseling, marriage and
family therapy, psychology, clinical psychology, counseling
psychology, or counseling with an emphasis in either marriage,
family, and child counseling or marriage and family therapy, obtained
from a school, college, or university approved by the Bureau for
Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education or accredited by
either the Commission on the Accreditation of Marriage and Family
Therapy Education or a regional accrediting agency recognized by the
United States Department of Education. The board has the authority to
make the final determination as to whether a degree meets all
requirements, including, but not limited to, course requirements,
regardless of accreditation or approval.
(c) A doctor's or master's degree program that qualifies for
licensure or registration shall do the following:
(1) Integrate all of the following throughout its curriculum:
(A) Marriage and family therapy principles.
(B) The principles of mental health recovery-oriented care and
methods of service delivery in recovery-oriented practice
environments, among others.
(C) An understanding of various cultures and the social and
psychological implications of socioeconomic position, and an
understanding of how poverty and social stress impact an individual's
mental health and recovery.
(2) Allow for innovation and individuality in the education of
marriage and family therapists.
(3) Encourage students to develop the personal qualities that are
intimately related to effective practice, including, but not limited
to, integrity, sensitivity, flexibility, insight, compassion, and
personal presence.
(4) Permit an emphasis or specialization that may address any one
or more of the unique and complex array of human problems, symptoms,
and needs of Californians served by marriage and family therapists.
(5) Provide students with the opportunity to meet with various
consumers and family members of consumers of mental health services
to enhance understanding of their experience of mental illness,
treatment, and recovery.
(d) The degree described in subdivision (b) shall contain no less
than 60 semester or 90 quarter units of instruction that includes,
but is not limited to, the following requirements:
(1) Both of the following:
(A) No less than 12 semester or 18 quarter units of coursework in
theories, principles, and methods of a variety of psychotherapeutic
orientations directly related to marriage and family therapy and
marital and family systems approaches to treatment and how these
theories can be applied therapeutically with individuals, couples,
families, adults, including elder adults, children, adolescents, and
groups to improve, restore, or maintain healthy relationships.
(B) Practicum that involves direct client contact, as follows:
(i) A minimum of six semester or nine quarter units of practicum
in a supervised clinical placement that provides supervised fieldwork
experience.
(ii) A minimum of 225 hours of face-to-face experience counseling
individuals, couples, families, or groups. Up to 75 of those hours
may be gained performing client centered advocacy, as defined in
Section 4980.03.
(iii) A student must be enrolled in a practicum course while
counseling clients , except as specified in subdivision (c) of
Section 4980.42 .
(iv) The practicum shall provide training in all of the following
areas:
(I) Applied use of theory and psychotherapeutic techniques.
(II) Assessment, diagnosis, and prognosis.
(III) Treatment of individuals and premarital, couple, family, and
child relationships, including trauma and abuse, dysfunctions,
healthy functioning, health promotion, illness prevention, and
working with families.
(IV) Professional writing, including documentation of services,
treatment plans, and progress notes.
(V) How to connect people with resources that deliver the quality
of services and support needed in the community.
(v) Educational institutions are encouraged to design the
practicum required by this subparagraph to include marriage and
family therapy experience in low-income and multicultural mental
health settings.
(2) Instruction in all of the following:
(A) Diagnosis, assessment, prognosis, and treatment of mental
disorders, including severe mental disorders, evidence-based
practices, psychological testing, psychopharmacology, and promising
mental health practices that are evaluated in peer reviewed
literature.
(B) Developmental issues from infancy to old age, including
instruction in all of the following areas:
(i) The effects of developmental issues on individuals, couples,
and family relationships.
(ii) The psychological, psychotherapeutic, and health implications
of developmental issues and their effects.
(iii) Aging and its biological, social, cognitive, and
psychological aspects.
(iv) A variety of cultural understandings of human development.
(v) The understanding of human behavior within the social context
of socioeconomic status and other contextual issues affecting social
position.
(vi) The understanding of human behavior within the social context
of a representative variety of the cultures found within California.
(vii) The understanding of the impact that personal and social
insecurity, social stress, low educational levels, inadequate
housing, and malnutrition have on human development.
(C) The broad range of matters and life events that may arise
within marriage and family relationships and within a variety of
California cultures, including instruction in all of the following:
(i) Child and adult abuse assessment and reporting.
(ii) Spousal or partner abuse assessment, detection, intervention
strategies, and same-gender abuse dynamics.
(iii) Cultural factors relevant to abuse of partners and family
members.
(iv) Childbirth, child rearing, parenting, and stepparenting.
(v) Marriage, divorce, and blended families.
(vi) Long-term care.
(vii) End of life and grief.
(viii) Poverty and deprivation.
(ix) Financial and social stress.
(x) Effects of trauma.
(xi) The psychological, psychotherapeutic, community, and health
implications of the matters and life events described in clauses (i)
to (x), inclusive.
(D) Cultural competency and sensitivity, including a familiarity
with the racial, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds of
persons living in California.
(E) Multicultural development and cross-cultural interaction,
including experiences of race, ethnicity, class, spirituality, sexual
orientation, gender, and disability, and their incorporation into
the psychotherapeutic process.
(F) The effects of socioeconomic status on treatment and available
resources.
(G) Resilience, including the personal and community qualities
that enable persons to cope with adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats,
or other stresses.
(H) Human sexuality, including the study of physiological,
psychological, and social cultural variables associated with sexual
behavior and gender identity, and the assessment and treatment of
psychosexual dysfunction.
(I) Substance use disorders, co-occurring disorders, and
addiction, including, but not limited to, instruction in all of the
following:
(i) The definition of substance use disorders, co-occurring
disorders, and addiction. For purposes of this subparagraph,
"co-occurring disorders" means a mental illness and substance abuse
diagnosis occurring simultaneously in an individual.
(ii) Medical aspects of substance use disorders and co-occurring
disorders.
(iii) The effects of psychoactive drug use.
(iv) Current theories of the etiology of substance abuse and
addiction.
(v) The role of persons and systems that support or compound
substance abuse and addiction.
(vi) Major approaches to identification, evaluation, and treatment
of substance use disorders, co-occurring disorders, and addiction,
including, but not limited to, best practices.
(vii) Legal aspects of substance abuse.
(viii) Populations at risk with regard to substance use disorders
and co-occurring disorders.
(ix) Community resources offering screening, assessment,
treatment, and followup for the affected person and family.
(x) Recognition of substance use disorders, co-occurring
disorders, and addiction, and appropriate referral.
(xi) The prevention of substance use disorders and addiction.
(J) California law and professional ethics for marriage and family
therapists, including instruction in all of the following areas of
study:
(i) Contemporary professional ethics and statutory, regulatory,
and decisional laws that delineate the scope of practice of marriage
and family therapy.
(ii) The therapeutic, clinical, and practical considerations
involved in the legal and ethical practice of marriage and family
therapy, including, but not limited to, family law.
(iii) The current legal patterns and trends in the mental health
professions.
(iv) The psychotherapist-patient privilege, confidentiality, the
patient dangerous to self or others, and the treatment of minors with
and without parental consent.
(v) A recognition and exploration of the relationship between a
practitioner's sense of self and human values and his or her
professional behavior and ethics.
(vi) Differences in legal and ethical standards for different
types of work settings.
(vii) Licensing law and licensing process.
(e) The degree described in subdivision (b) shall, in addition to
meeting the requirements of subdivision (d), include instruction in
case management, systems of care for the severely mentally ill,
public and private services and supports available for the severely
mentally ill, community resources for persons with mental illness and
for victims of abuse, disaster and trauma response, advocacy for the
severely mentally ill, and collaborative treatment. This instruction
may be provided either in credit level coursework or through
extension programs offered by the degree-granting institution.
(f) The changes made to law by this section are intended to
improve the educational qualifications for licensure in order to
better prepare future licentiates for practice, and are not intended
to expand or restrict the scope of practice for marriage and family
therapists.
SEC. 2. Section 4980.42 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
4980.42. (a) Trainees performing services in any work setting
specified in subdivision (e) of Section 4980.43 may perform those
activities and services as a trainee, provided that the activities
and services constitute part of the trainee's supervised course of
study and that the person is designated by the title "trainee."
Trainees
(b) Trainees may gain hours of
experience outside the required practicum but must be enrolled
in a practicum course to counsel clients, as set forth on
subparagraph (iii) of paragraph (B) of subdivision (d) of Section
4980.36, except as provided in subdivision (c) . Those
(c) Trainees may counsel clients while not enrolled in a practicum
course if the period of lapsed enrollment is less than 45 calendar
days.
(d) All hours of experience
gained pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) shall be subject to
the requirements of subdivision (b) and to the other requirements of
this chapter.
(b)
(e) On and after January 1, 1995, all hours of
experience gained as a trainee shall be coordinated between the
school and the site where the hours are being accrued. The school
shall approve each site and shall have a written agreement with each
site that details each party's responsibilities, including the
methods by which supervision shall be provided. The agreement shall
provide for regular progress reports and evaluations of the student's
performance at the site. If an applicant has gained hours of
experience while enrolled in an institution other than the one that
confers the qualifying degree, it shall be the applicant's
responsibility to provide to the board satisfactory evidence that
those hours of trainee experience were gained in compliance with this
section.