BILL NUMBER: SB 243 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 7, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 29, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Senator Wyland
FEBRUARY 12, 2013
An act to amend Section Sections
4999.20 and 4999.46 of the Business and Professions Code,
relating to healing arts.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 243, as amended, Wyland. Professional clinical counselors.
Existing law, the Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Act,
provides for the licensure and regulation of professional clinical
counselors by the Board of Behavioral Sciences. Existing law
requires an applicant for licensure as a professional clinical
counselor, in order to qualify to take the licensure examination, to
obtain supervised clinical mental health experience, including not
less than 1,750 hours of direct counseling, as specified, with
individuals or groups. Existing law also provides
that professional clinical counseling does not include the assessment
or treatment of couples or families unless the clinical counselor
has completed specified training and education in addition to the
minimum training and education required for licensure.
This bill would permit an applicant for licensure as a
professional clinical counselor, in order to qualify to take the
licensure examination, to obtain his or her direct counseling
experience by providing direct counseling, as specified, to
individuals, groups, couples, or families. The bill would
instead also provide that professional
clinical counseling does not include the assessment or treatment of
couples or families unless the clinical counselor has completed
specified training and education.
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 4999.20 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
4999.20. (a) (1) "Professional clinical counseling" means the
application of counseling interventions and psychotherapeutic
techniques to identify and remediate cognitive, mental, and emotional
issues, including personal growth, adjustment to disability, crisis
intervention, and psychosocial and environmental problems.
"Professional clinical counseling" includes conducting assessments
for the purpose of establishing counseling goals and objectives to
empower individuals to deal adequately with life situations, reduce
stress, experience growth, change behavior, and make well-informed,
rational decisions.
(2) "Professional clinical counseling" is focused exclusively on
the application of counseling interventions and psychotherapeutic
techniques for the purposes of improving mental health, and is not
intended to capture other, nonclinical forms of counseling for the
purposes of licensure. For purposes of this paragraph, "nonclinical"
means nonmental health.
(3) "Professional clinical counseling" does not include the
assessment or treatment of couples or families unless the
professional clinical counselor has completed all of the following
training and education:
(A) One of the following:
(i) Six semester units or nine quarter units specifically focused
on the theory and application of marriage and family therapy.
(ii) A named specialization or emphasis area on the qualifying
degree in marriage and family therapy; marital and family therapy;
marriage, family, and child counseling; or couple and family therapy.
(B) No less than 500 hours of documented supervised experience
working directly with couples, families, or children.
(C) A minimum of six hours of continuing education specific to
marriage and family therapy, completed in each license renewal cycle.
(4) "Professional clinical counseling" does not include the
provision of clinical social work services.
(b) "Counseling interventions and psychotherapeutic techniques"
means the application of cognitive, affective, verbal or nonverbal,
systemic or holistic counseling strategies that include principles of
development, wellness, and maladjustment that reflect a pluralistic
society. These interventions and techniques are specifically
implemented in the context of a professional clinical counseling
relationship and use a variety of counseling theories and approaches.
(c) "Assessment" means selecting, administering, scoring, and
interpreting tests, instruments, and other tools and methods designed
to measure an individual's attitudes, abilities, aptitudes,
achievements, interests, personal characteristics, disabilities, and
mental, emotional, and behavioral concerns and development and the
use of methods and techniques for understanding human behavior in
relation to coping with, adapting to, or ameliorating changing life
situations, as part of the counseling process. "Assessment" shall not
include the use of projective techniques in the assessment of
personality, individually administered intelligence tests,
neuropsychological testing, or utilization of a battery of three or
more tests to determine the presence of psychosis, dementia, amnesia,
cognitive impairment, or criminal behavior.
(d) Professional clinical counselors shall refer clients to other
licensed health care professionals when they identify issues beyond
their own scope of education, training, and experience.
SEC. 2. Section 4999.46 of the Business
and Professions Code , as amended by Section 65
of Chapter 799 of the Statutes of 2012, is amended to read:
4999.46. (a) To qualify for the licensure examination specified
by paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 4999.53, applicants
shall complete clinical mental health experience under the general
supervision of an approved supervisor as defined in Section 4999.12.
(b) The experience shall include a minimum of 3,000 postdegree
hours of supervised clinical mental health experience related to the
practice of professional clinical counseling, performed over a period
of not less than two years (104 weeks), which shall include:
(1) Not more than 40 hours in any seven consecutive days.
(2) Not less than 1,750 hours of direct counseling with
individuals or groups individuals, groups, couples, or
families in a setting described in Section 4999.44 using a
variety of psychotherapeutic techniques and recognized counseling
interventions within the scope of practice of licensed professional
clinical counselors.
(3) Not more than 500 hours of experience providing group therapy
or group counseling.
(4) Not more than 250 hours of experience providing counseling or
crisis counseling on the telephone.
(5) Not less than 150 hours of clinical experience in a hospital
or community mental health setting, as defined in Section 1820 of
Title 16 of the California Code of Regulations.
(6) Not more than a combined total of 1,250 hours of experience in
the following related activities:
(A) Direct supervisor contact.
(B) Client centered advocacy.
(C) Not more than 250 hours of experience administering tests and
evaluating psychological tests of clients, writing clinical reports,
writing progress notes, or writing process notes.
(D) Not more than 250 hours of verified attendance at workshops,
training sessions, or conferences directly related to professional
clinical counseling that are approved by the applicant's supervisor.
(c) No hours of clinical mental health experience may be gained
more than six years prior to the date the application for examination
eligibility was filed.
(d) An applicant shall register with the board as an intern in
order to be credited for postdegree hours of experience toward
licensure. Postdegree hours of experience shall be credited toward
licensure, provided that the applicant applies for intern
registration within 90 days of the granting of the qualifying degree
and is registered as an intern by the board.
(e) All applicants and interns shall be at all times under the
supervision of a supervisor who shall be responsible for ensuring
that the extent, kind, and quality of counseling performed is
consistent with the training and experience of the person being
supervised, and who shall be responsible to the board for compliance
with all laws, rules, and regulations governing the practice of
professional clinical counseling.
(f) Experience obtained under the supervision of a spouse or
relative by blood or marriage shall not be credited toward the
required hours of supervised experience. Experience obtained under
the supervision of a supervisor with whom the applicant has had or
currently has a personal, professional, or business relationship that
undermines the authority or effectiveness of the supervision shall
not be credited toward the required hours of supervised experience.
(g) Supervision shall include at least one hour of direct
supervisor contact in each week for which experience is credited in
each work setting.
(1) No more than five hours of supervision, whether individual or
group, shall be credited during any single week.
(2) An intern shall receive at least one additional hour of direct
supervisor contact for every week in which more than 10 hours of
face-to-face psychotherapy is performed in each setting in which
experience is gained.
(3) For purposes of this section, "one hour of direct supervisor
contact" means one hour of face-to-face contact on an individual
basis or two hours of face-to-face contact in a group of not more
than eight persons in segments lasting no less than one continuous
hour.
(4) Notwithstanding paragraph (3), an intern working in a
governmental entity, a school, a college, or a university, or an
institution that is both nonprofit and charitable, may obtain the
required weekly direct supervisor contact via two-way, real-time
videoconferencing. The supervisor shall be responsible for ensuring
that client confidentiality is upheld.
(h) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2014.