BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON
BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 620 Hearing Date: April 13,
2015
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|Author: |Block |
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|Version: |April 6, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Sarah Huchel |
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Subject: Board of Behavioral Sciences: licensure requirements.
SUMMARY: Streamlines the supervised experience hour requirements for
licensed marriage and family therapists and licensed
professional clinical counselors, and revises certain experience
hour requirements for licensed clinical social workers for
consistency.
Existing law:
1)Establishes the Board of Behavioral Sciences (Board) to employ
its resources for each and all of the following functions:
a) The licensure of marriage and family therapists,
clinical social workers, professional clinical counselors,
and educational psychologists.
b) The development and administration of licensure
examinations and examination procedures consistent with
prevailing standards for the validation and use of
licensing and certification tests.
c) Enforcement of laws designed to protect the public from
incompetent, unethical, or unprofessional practitioners.
d) Consumer education. (Business and Professions Code (BPC)
§§ 4990 and 4990.18)
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2)Establishes requirements for the licensure of marriage and
family therapists, clinical social workers, and professional
clinical counselors. (BPC §§ 4980 - 4989, 4990.10 - 4998.7,
4999.10 - 4999.129)
This bill:
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
1)Expands the definition of "experience" by replacing
"professional enrichment activities" with "direct counseling
and nonclinical practice."
2)Prohibits a student from gaining experience hours through
personal psychotherapy prior to completing either 12 semester
units or 18 quarter units of graduate instruction.
3)Eliminates the ability for one hour of personal psychotherapy
to qualify for three experience hours.
4)Eliminates the ability for one hour of treating couples and
families in conjoint therapy to qualify for two experience
hours.
5)Replaces specified hour restrictions with the requirement of a
minimum of 1,750 experience hours of direct counseling with
individuals, groups, couples, or families.
6)Replaces specified hour restrictions with the requirement of a
maximum of 1,250 experience hours be in nonclinical practice,
which may include direct supervisor contact, administering and
evaluating psychological tests, writing clinical reports,
writing progress or process notes, client-centered advocacy,
and workshops, seminars, training sessions, or conferences
directly related to marriage and family therapy that have been
approved by the applicant's supervisor.
7)Permits an individual who submits an application for
examination eligibility between January 1, 2016, and December
31, 2020, to alternately qualify under the LMFT experience
requirements that were in place on January 1, 2015.
Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW)
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8)Permits a clinical social worker student to count direct
supervisor contact, workshops, seminars, training sessions,
and conferences directly related to clinical social work
towards the 1,200 experience hours requirement.
9)Permits an individual who submits an application for
examination eligibility between January 1, 2016, and December
31, 2020, to alternately qualify under the LCSW experience
requirements that were in place on January 1, 2015.
10)Increases from five to six the number of supervision hours,
whether individual or group, that may be credited to an
associate during any single week. This applies only to
supervision hours gained on or after January 1, 2010.
11)Requires supervision to include at least one hour of direct
supervisor contact during each week for which experience is
gained in each work setting. Supervision is not required for
experience gained attending workshops, seminars, training
sessions, or conferences.
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (LPCC)
12)Replaces "clinical mental health experience related to the
practice of professional clinical counseling" with
"experience," relative to the type of training necessary to
achieve the minimum 3,000 post-degree supervised experience
hours.
13)Deletes specified hour restrictions and requires instead a
maximum of 1,250 hours of nonclinical practice, which may
include direct supervisor contact, administering and
evaluating psychological tests, writing clinical reports,
writing progress or process notes, client-centered advocacy,
and workshops, seminars, training sessions, or conferences
directly related to professional clinical counseling that have
been approved by the applicant's supervisor.
14)Permits an individual who submits an application for
examination eligibility between January 1, 2016, and December
31, 2020, to alternately qualify under the experience
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requirements that were in place on January 1, 2015.
FISCAL
EFFECT: Unknown. This bill has been keyed "fiscal" by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose. This bill is sponsored by the Board of Behavioral
Sciences . According to the Author, SB 620 streamlines the
supervised experience hour requirements for LMFT and LPCC
applicants by requiring 3,000 total experience hours, 1,750 of
which must consist of direct counseling with individuals,
groups, couples, or families, and the remaining 1,250 hours
may be non-clinical experience including direct supervisor
contact, writing clinical reports, or attending workshops or
conferences. For consistency, SB 620 also allows LCSW
applicants to apply direct supervisor contact, workshops,
seminars, training, and conferences toward their experience
hours. SB 620 will also provide a five year transition period
during which applicants can choose to apply under this
simplified process or current requirements.
2.Background. The Board regulates the practice of LMFTs, LCSWs,
and LPCCs. These individuals have different training that
focuses on particular aspects of human interaction.
LMFT. The practice of marriage and family therapy means
a service performed with individuals, couples, or groups
wherein interpersonal relationships are examined for the
purpose of achieving more adequate, satisfying, and
productive marriage and family adjustments. This practice
includes relationship and pre-marriage counseling.
LCSW. The practice of clinical social work is defined
as a service in which a special knowledge of social
resources, human capabilities, and unconscious motivations
is directed at helping people to achieve more adequate,
satisfying, and productive social adjustments. The
application of social work principles and methods includes,
but is not restricted to, counseling and using applied
psychotherapy of a nonmedical nature with individuals,
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families, or groups; providing information and referral
services; providing or arranging for the provision of
social services; explaining or interpreting the
psychosocial aspects in the situations of individuals,
families, or groups; helping communities to organize, to
provide, or to improve social or health services; or doing
research related to social work.
LPCC. Professional clinical counseling is 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 the use,
application, and integration of the required coursework and
training. It also 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 and rational decisions.
1.Arguments in Support. The American Association for Marriage
and Family Therapy, California Division writes, "The current
required hours for becoming licensed as an MFT are broken into
no less than nine different categories with confusing and
arbitrary minimums and maximums, in stark contrast to similar
graduate level licenses issued by the [Board]?.
"The current structure has created unnecessary obstacles in
the path to licensure for hundreds of potential MFTs. The
[Board] reports that applications for exam eligibility are
significantly more difficult to evaluate than those for LCSW
exam eligibility due to the complexity created by so many
different categories with equally abstruse minimums, maximums,
incentives, and combinations. Even tracking these hours is so
complex that it has given rise to a successful for-profit
business, whose process is essentially a complicated
spreadsheet that keeps track of all the different requirements
in all the different categories.
"[SB 620] is a necessary and welcome simplification of
existing law."
2.Recommended Author's Amendments.
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a) The terms "supervisor" and "approved supervisor" are
defined in code, but "qualified supervisor" is not.
Committee staff suggests the following technical amendments
to provide code consistency and clarity:
Page 4, line 17, delete "qualified" and in line 18
after "supervisor," insert "that meets the qualifications
as defined in Section 4980.03"
Page 9, line 29, insert "supervised" before
"experience," and in line 30, delete "qualified."
Page 12, line 36, replace "a qualified" with "an
approved."
a) The Author's office has agreed to clarify the parameters
of the term "nonclinical practice" to ensure certainty.
While the bill states that "nonclinical practice includes
direct supervisor contact, administering and evaluating
psychological tests, writing clinical reports, writing
progress or process notes, client-centered advocacy, and
workshops, seminars, training sessions, or conferences
directly related to marriage and family therapy that have
been approved by the applicant's supervisor," it is not
exhaustive. The Board has expressed a willingness to
ensure license portability in another context, and defining
this term could exclude any practices that may not be
considered qualifying experience elsewhere.
Page 5, line 1, delete "including" and insert
"consisting of"
Page 13, line 10, delete "including" and insert
"consisting of"
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:
Support:
Board of Behavioral Sciences (Sponsor)
California Association for Licensed Professional Clinical
Counselors
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American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, California
Division
Opposition:
None received as of April 7, 2015.
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