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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