BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 243| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bill No: SB 243 Author: Wyland (R) Amended: 8/22/13 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 SENATE FLOOR : 34-0, 5/13/13 (Consent) AYES: Anderson, Beall, Berryhill, Block, Cannella, Corbett, Correa, De León, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Knight, Lara, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Monning, Nielsen, Padilla, Pavley, Roth, Steinberg, Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon, Gaines, Price, Walters, Vacancy, Vacancy ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 8/26/13 - See last page for vote 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 CONTINUED SB 243 Page 2 specified training and education; expands the definition of "professional clinical counseling;" and makes conforming changes. Assembly Amendments delete the requirement for direct counseling of couples or families for the 1,750 hours of direct counseling currently required of licensed professional clinical counselor (LPCC) applicants, as specified; and (2) expand the definition of professional clinical counseling to include the use, application and integration of specified coursework and training. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1. Establishes the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) under the Department of Consumer Affairs to license and regulate professional clinical counselors, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists and educational psychologists. 2. Defines "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. Expands the definition of "professional clinical counseling" to include the use, application, and integration of specified coursework and training. 2. Specifies that "professional clinical counseling" does not CONTINUED SB 243 Page 3 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. 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 CONTINUED SB 243 Page 4 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 the internship upon attainment of all supervised hours. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No SUPPORT : (Verified 8/27/13) 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 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, the 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 CONTINUED SB 243 Page 5 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 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." ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 8/26/13 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez NO VOTE RECORDED: Frazier, Vacancy, Vacancy MW:d 8/27/13 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED