BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 243
Author: Wyland (R)
Amended: 5/7/13
Vote: 21
SENATE BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS & ECON. DEV. COMM. : 9-0, 5/6/13
AYES: Price, Emmerson, Block, Corbett, Galgiani, Hernandez,
Hill, Padilla, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Yee
SUBJECT : Professional clinical counselors
SOURCE : California Association of Licensed Professional
Clinical
Counselors
DIGEST : This bill clarifies 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, and makes conforming changes.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Establishes the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) under the
Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to license and regulate
professional clinical counselors, clinical social workers,
marriage and family therapists and educational psychologists.
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2. Defines the following terms: "professional clinical
counseling" as 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; and "practice of
professional clinical counseling" as a person who performs or
offers to perform or hold himself/herself out as able to
perform this service for remuneration in any form including
donations.
3. Specifies that professional clinical counseling does not
include the assessment or treatment of couples of families
unless the professional clinical counselor has completed
additional training and education, beyond the minimum
training and education required for licensure.
This bill:
1. Specifies that "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:
(1) Six semester units or nine quarter units
specifically focused on the theory and application
of marriage and family therapy.
(2) 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.
2. Requires applicants, in order to qualify for licensure
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examination, to complete clinical mental health experience of
not less than 1,750 hours of direct counseling with
individuals or groups or couples or families in a specified
setting using a variety of psychotherapeutic techniques and
recognized counseling interventions within the scope of
practice of LPCCs.
Background
On October 11, 2009, California became the 50th state to license
professional counselors making LPCCs the newest of the four
licensure groups regulated by the BBS. LPCCs provide a variety
of mental health services including individual, group, marriage
and family therapy. LPCCs may practice in a variety of settings
including, but not limited to, community mental health, private
practice and hospital settings.
LPCC students are required to complete graduate coursework in a
Master's program approved by the BBS. During their graduate
program, students also complete clinical internship rotations.
In addition, the student must complete a minimum of 3,000
post-degree hours of supervised experience by an LPCC, licensed
marriage and family therapist, licensed clinical social worker,
licensed psychologist or licensed physician and surgeon, who is
certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and
Neurology, over a period of not less than two years, including
not less than 1,750 hours of direct counseling with individuals
or groups in a clinical mental health counseling setting and 150
hours in a hospital or community mental health setting. Under
existing law, in order to provide marriage and family therapy
upon licensure, the student must complete education and training
requirements beyond the minimum education requirements outlined
by their educational program.
In order to be licensed as an LPCC, applicants must complete
their graduate training, clinical internship and post-degree
supervised hours and receive a passing score on the National
Clinical Mental Health Counselor Examination (NCMHCE) and the
California Law and Ethics Exam. The Law and Ethics Exam should
be taken in the first year of the applicant's clinical
internship and the NCMHCE should be taken at the completion of
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the internship upon attainment of all supervised hours.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/7/13)
California Association of Licensed Professional Clinical
Counselors (source)
American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, this
is a clean-up bill regarding the interpretation of previous
legislation that established the profession for licensed
professional clinical counselors (LPCCs). This bill clarifies
the interpretation of required education, training and hour
requirements for LPCCs, and specifically deletes language that
indicates that training and education requirements must be,
"beyond the minimum training and education required for
licensure."
The bill's sponsor, California Association of Licensed
Professional Clinical Counselors, write, "[Current] scope of
practice prevents LPCCs from seeing families and couples, unless
they have additional education and training in marriage and
family therapy beyond the requirements for LPCC licensure. This
means that this additional optional education must be above and
beyond the degree requirements for the LPCC license, and that
the couples and family supervised hours must be above and beyond
the 3,000 post-degree hours required for the LPCC license. The
reason that we would like to make this amendment as soon as
possible is that the universities are already offering the two
MFT courses to LPCC students, who want to be able to counsel
couples and families. They are concerned that the BBS won't be
able to accept these courses if they are taken as part of the
required degree program, and students will need to repeat the
courses post-degree."
The American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
state, "While we pushed for the additional training and
experience to be mandated for LPCCs who wish to work with
couples and families, and still believe these to be vital
requirements for LPCCs wishing to do such work, it was never our
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intent (nor, we believe, the intent of the law) to force these
units to be done outside the qualifying degree program or the
experience to be outside of the 3,000 hours of supervised
experience needed for licensure. It is our understanding that a
further amendment will be offered to section 4999.46, clarifying
that qualifying hours of supervised experience for licensure may
be gained with individuals, couples, families, or groups. This
is consistent with the change to 4999.20 already in the bill,
and with the intent described above."
The California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
write, "Although the law says the education and experience must
be in addition to, and not part of, what is required for
licensure, this was not the intent of the legislation. This
legislation will fix this confusing language and allow for the
education and experience to be acquired as part of their 3,000
hour requirement, as intended by the original legislation."
MW:d 5/7/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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