What Hours Count Toward Licensure For Mental Health Professionals?

The Question

Last December, I was involved in several robust conversations with other clinical supervisors about what constitutes “contact hours” for supervisees who are pursuing a license as a Professional Counselor, Clinical Social Worker, or Psychologist.  While some states make it very clear what tasks are considered to be  acceptable, others do not.  And, as eager as supervisees are to get those hours behind them, there are also so-called “supervisors” willing to accept just about anything from reading a book to attending a class for those supervised hours.

The Answer

Here in Colorado, the current standard for licensing Professional Counselors is “applied counseling and psychotherapy.”  That translates into assessment, treatment, and discharge planning i.e. time spent with the client. Not reading and research on how to best work with your client , not attending workshops and lectures to further your education, not consulting with colleagues and experts about how to build a private practice, not networking for any purpose, not learning about resources in a particular community to support your client, and not the administrative stuff to keep you in line with your state’s laws. All of that may be necessary but it’s not what is required for clinical supervision.  Face time is what is required (by most states) . . . the actual application of the clinical skills that you have learned.

Suggestions for Getting “Extra” Hours In

Licensed Professional Counselor, Mary M. Foster, in Westminster, Colorado was kind enough to give permission for me to share her list of often overlooked ways supervisees might “earn extra credit” for those supervised hours. Here they are . . .

1. Find counselors who are already running groups and ask to sit in as a co-facilitator to apply your skills
2. Create Anxiety or Depression Screening Days when the annual events come around and apply your assessment skills.
3. Volunteer in the Career Counseling center of any local college to apply your guidance counseling skills.
4. Offer public support groups at local churches for free to apply your group counseling skills.  (These can range from everything from marital to depression, etc.)
5. Offer free premarital counseling groups at local churches to apply marriage and family counseling skills. (Tapping into a larger facility like a church brings in members from that facility.)
6. See if any local universities are conducting mental health research projects and need help doing intakes or other psychotherapy or counseling tasks.
7. Volunteer at Women’s shelters to apply counseling and guidance skills.

It’s a Journey

I know that this can be frustrating for those of you that are new graduates who are already exhausted from completing your graduate work.  And, it’s also frustrating for many of you who have been working in agencies for several years and have postponed obtaining your licenses until now.  I know!  I know!

If this seems a bit like the labor intensive tasks of job hunting or the actual marketing and recruiting of your clients for your own private practice, that fact is not lost on most of us who provide clinical supervision.  That is what these “extra” efforts equate to in many ways! Satisfying the requirements to get licensed is not easy . . . . It’s typically not something that materializes over night . . . .   And, yes, most supervisors know that you have (or at least want to have) a life beyond pursuit of your license.

For those of you who lean toward the glass-half-empty, you may well find your thoughts turning to “this sucks” and “this isn’t fair”  and “woe is me.”  For those of you who lean toward the glass-half-full, you may find your thoughts turning to “this could be fun” and “it’s an opportunity to meet new people, learn new things, and move closer to achieving my goals.”  Either way, the pursuit of your license really is a journey and you can make of it what you will.

Just know that if you are in pursuit of a slouch-of-a-supervisor who lets you slip and slide along by accruing hours in areas other than applied clinical work, his / her focus is most likely to be on collecting your money rather than meeting your needs as a new professional . . . . And, you deserve better.  (Not sure what good clinical supervision looks like?  I wrote about Clinical Supervision and ‘Money Gouging’ here.)

Have you had a fabulous experience with your own clinical supervisor?  If so, would you take a minute to tell us who that was (and where) and what made that one so special?  (And, then make sure s/he knows you said so by redirecting them to this post!)