BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1012
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1012 (Wyland)
As Amended August 7, 2014
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :37-0
BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS 14-0
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|Ayes:|Bonilla, Jones, | | |
| |Bocanegra, Campos, | | |
| |Dickinson, Eggman, | | |
| |Gordon, Hagman, Holden, | | |
| |Maienschein, Mullin, | | |
| |Skinner, Ting, Wilk | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Increases from five to six the number of hours which a
marriage and family therapist (MFT) trainee or intern, and a
professional clinical counselor (PCC) intern, may count towards
their weekly supervision requirement. Specifically, this bill :
1)Increases the number of hours from five to six which a MFT
trainee or intern may count towards his or her weekly
supervision requirements, and permits those supervision hours
to be gained on or after January 1, 2009, rather than 2010 as
existing law permits.
2)Prohibits a MFT trainee from getting credit for more than six
hours of supervision, whether in an individual or group
setting, towards his or her weekly supervision requirements.
3)Increases the number of hours from five to six which a PCC
intern may count towards his or her weekly supervision
requirements.
4)Prohibits a trainee from being credited with supervised
experience in a private practice owned by a licensed
professional clinical counselor (LPCC) or a professional
corporation of a LPCC.
FISCAL EFFECT : None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
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COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the bill. This bill increases from five to six the
number of supervised hours that an applicant for licensure as
an MFT or PCC can count towards his or her weekly supervised
hour requirement, in an effort to accelerate the licensure
process and get more professionals into practice. This bill
also clarifies that both MFT trainees and interns are eligible
to accumulate the six hours of weekly direct supervisor
contact, and that this bill retroactively applies this number
to individuals who gained hours on or after January 1, 2009.
This bill is sponsored by the author.
2)Author's statement. According to the author, "MFT trainees
must receive an average of at least one hour of direct
supervisor contact for every five hours of client counseling
in each setting, and MFT interns must receive at least one
additional hour of direct supervisor contact for every week in
which more than 10 hours of client counseling is gained in
each setting. Additionally, 'one hour of direct supervisor
contact' is defined as one hour per week of face-to-face
contact on an individual basis with a supervisor or two hours
per week of face-to-face contact in a group.
"There are many cases [in which] interns are acquiring more
hours than they can count toward the requirement, as they work
at multiple counseling sites. LMFTs [licensed marriage and
family therapist] must obtain 3,000 hours of experience in
order to gain licensure, and no more than 1,000 of the
required hours can be gained from direct supervisor contact.
However, in a given week many trainees and interns accumulate
more than the 5-hour cap on supervised hours. This bill will
allow LMFT [and LPCC (licensed professional clinical
counselor)] trainees and interns to be able to count an
additional supervised hour each week toward their licensure."
3)Marriage and Family Therapists. MFTs are employed in clinics,
counseling centers and private practice. They use counseling
or psychotherapeutic techniques to assist individuals,
couples, families, and groups with a focus on marriage and
family relationship issues. The minimum educational and
experience requirements for MFTs include a master's degree in
an area such as marriage, family, and child counseling,
marriage and family therapy, couple and family therapy,
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psychology, clinical psychology, or counseling psychology from
an accredited school.
In addition, MFTs must complete supervised work experience of at
least 3,000 hours within a period of two years. In order to
accumulate supervised hours, a person must register with Board
of Behavioral Sciences (BSS) as an intern or function as a
trainee. Trainees are individuals who have been enrolled in
MFT graduate programs and have completed at least 12 semester
or 18 quarter units of coursework. Interns have earned the
appropriate graduate degree and registered with BBS, but have
not taken the examination. In 2013, there were over 32,000
MFTs and more than 15,000 MFT interns. This bill explicitly
authorizes MFT trainees to accumulate the same number of
direct supervision hours as interns.
4)Professional Clinical Counselors. PCCs apply 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. LPCCs are
required to meet specific educational standards including a
master's degree in an approved subject, and are required to
obtain supervised work experience as an intern amounting to at
least 3,000 hours.
Because PCCs are largely comparable to LMFTs, SB 146 (Wyland),
Chapter 381, Statutes of 2011, amended code sections so that
the same substantive provisions and requirements would apply
to LPCCs and MFTs.
5)Supervision requirements for trainees and interns. Current
law requires both interns and trainees to obtain 3,000 hours
of supervised work experience within a period of at least two
years. Not more than 1,300 hours of supervised experience may
be obtained prior to completing the master's or doctoral
degree, and not less than 1,700 hours of experience may be
completed subsequent to the granting of the qualifying degree.
MFT Interns are not permitted to receive more than 1,000 of
the required hours of experience from direct supervisor
contact.
Direct supervisor contact is defined as one hour per week of
face-to-face contact in individual supervision or two hours
per week of face-to-face contact in a group supervision
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setting. Interns are permitted to receive an additional hour
of direct supervision for every week in which more than 10
hours of client contact is gained in each setting and no more
than five hours of supervision, whether individual or group,
can be counted per week. Trainees must receive an average of
one hour of direct supervisor contact for every five hours of
clinical work with clients. Interns must receive at least one
additional hour of direct supervisor contact for every week in
which more than 10 hours of client counseling is gained.
This bill seeks to increase the number of hours from five to
six that an MFT and PCC intern or MFT trainee can count
towards his or her required hours of supervision. Because
individuals have up to six years to obtain the required hours
of direct supervision, this bill would authorize individuals
who gained experience on or after January 1, 2009, to be able
to count six hours of direct supervision towards the hour
requirement.
Because MFT and PCC applicants have six years to complete the
supervised hour requirements, it is necessary to retroactively
apply this bill to 2009, in order for any hours earned prior
to 2015, to not be counted differently, which could slow down
the evaluation process and create licensing delays.
6)Chaptering out issue. This bill adds the provision pertaining
to the prohibition of supervised experience being credited in
a private practice owned by a LPCC or a professional
corporation of a LPCC with the intent to address chaptering
out issues with SB 1466 (Business, Professions, and Economic
Development Committee) of the current legislative session.
7)Arguments in support. According to the California Association
of Marriage and Family Therapists, "The purpose of this bill
is to remove the arbitrary limitation on the number of
supervisor contact hours [MFT] trainees and registered interns
may be credited toward licensure during a single week.
Increasing this limitation is to allow [MFT] trainees and
registered interns to count more of the supervisor contact
hours they actually obtain, which will result in many of these
applicants being able to complete their hours of experience in
a timelier fashion."
8)Arguments in opposition. There is no opposition on file.
SB 1012
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Analysis Prepared by : Elissa Silva / B., P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301
FN: 0004353