Amended in Assembly August 22, 2013

Amended in Senate May 7, 2013

Amended in Senate April 29, 2013

Senate Bill No. 243

Introduced by Senator Wyland

February 12, 2013

An act to amend begin delete Sections end delete begin insert Section end insert 4999.20 begin delete and 4999.46of end delete begin insert of end insert 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 begin delete 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. end delete begin insert defines professional clinical counseling, in part, as the application of counseling interventions and psychotherapeutic techniques to identify and remediate specified problems. end insert 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 begin delete 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 end delete bill would begin delete also end delete begin insert instead end insert 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. begin insert The bill would expand the definition of professional clinical counseling to include the use, application, and integration of specified coursework and training. end insert

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 begin insert , and the use, application, and integration of the
coursework and training required by Sections 4999.32 and
4999.33 end insert . “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.

begin delete

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, 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.

end delete