SB 33 — Marriage and family therapy: licensure and registration.

Summary

Existing law provides for the licensure or registration and regulation of marriage and family therapists and interns by the Board of Behavioral Sciences and requires that applicants for licensure or registration, among other requirements, possess a doctor's or master's degree from a specified school, college, or university, containing no less than 48 semester or 72 quarter units of instruction in specified areas. Existing law requires that the doctor's or master's degree program contain no less than 6 semester or 9 quarter units of supervised practicum, as specified, and requires that the practicum include a minimum of 150 hours of face-to-face experience counseling individuals, couples, families, or groups. Existing law also requires the degree program to satisfy certain criteria in order to meet the educational qualifications for licensure. This bill would limit the application of these requirements to applicants for licensure or registration who begin graduate study before August 1, 2012, and would impose additional requirements on applicants who do not complete that study on or before December 31, 2018, on applicants who graduate from a degree program that meets those requirements, and on those who begin graduate study on or after August 1, 2012. The bill would require that these applicants, among other things, possess a doctor's or master's degree containing no less than 60 semester or 90 quarter units of instruction in certain areas, including, but not limited to, co-occurring disorders, multicultural development and cross-cultural interaction, and the effects of socioeconomic status on treatment and available resources, as specified. The bill would require that these units include 6 semester or 9 quarter units of practicum that provides training in specified areas and includes a minimum of 225 hours of face-to-face experience counseling individuals, couples, families, or groups. The bill would additionally, with respect to these applicants, revise the requirements needed for the degree program to meet the educational qualifications for licensure, as specified. The bill would make other conforming changes and enact related provisions. Existing law requires that applicants for licensure have at least 2 years of experience that complies with certain requirements. This experience may consist of, among other things, no more than 1,000 hours of experience in direct supervisor contact and professional enrichment activities, no more than 125 hours of experience providing personal psychotherapy services via telemedicine, and no more than 250 hours of experience providing counseling or crisis counseling on the telephone. This bill would instead limit the applicant to no more than 1,250 hours of experience in direct supervisor contact, client centered advocacy, and professional enrichment activities, as specified, and no more than 375 hours of experience providing personal psychotherapy, crisis counseling, or other counseling services via telemedicine. The bill would also delete the limit on the number of hours of experience in providing counseling or crisis counseling on the telephone and would make other related changes. Existing law requires that all applicants, trainees, and registrants be at all times under the supervision of a supervisor and requires that supervision include at least one hour of direct supervisor contact, as defined, in each week for which experience is credited in each work setting. Existing law requires that supervised experience be gained by interns either as an employee or as a volunteer. This bill would revise the definition of one hour of direct supervisor contact and require that this one hour be conducted within the same week as the hours claimed. The bill would require that group supervision be provided in segments lasting no less than one continuous hour and would authorize an intern working in a governmental entity or a nonprofit and charitable institution, among others, to obtain the required weekly direct supervisor contact via videoconferencing, as specified. The bill would also require that, upon application for licensure, employed interns provide the board with copies of the corresponding W-2 tax forms and that volunteering interns provide the board with a letter verifying that volunteer work, as specified. The bill would make other related changes. Existing law authorizes the board to issue a license to a person who has held for at least 2 years a valid license issued by a board of marriage counselor examiners, or corresponding authority of any state, if, among other requirements, the education and supervised experience requirements are substantially equivalent. Existing law requires the board to accept experience gained outside of California toward the licensure requirements if it is substantially equivalent and the applicant has gained a specified number of hours of supervised experience in direct counseling within California while registered with the board as an intern. Existing law also requires the board to accept education gained outside of California toward the licensure requirements if it is substantially equivalent, as specified, and the applicant completes certain coursework or training. If an applicant's education does not contain the content or units required to obtain a license, existing law authorizes the board to accept the applicant's education as substantially equivalent if, among other requirements, the applicant remediates the deficiency by completing the course content or units required to obtain a license. This bill would instead specify that the applicant remediate the deficiency by completing the content and units required to obtain a license. The bill would also repeal the provisions relating to licenses, experience, and education gained outside California on January 1, 2014, and would revise the requirements applicable to persons applying for a license after that date. Among other things, the bill would revise the requirements needed for a person's education to be substantially equivalent, as specified. Existing law prohibits a person from advertising himself or herself as performing the services of a marriage, family, child, domestic, or marital consultant without a marriage and family therapist license and prohibits licensed psychologists and licensed clinical social workers from advertising that they hold a marriage and family therapist's license. Existing law defines the term "advertise" for purposes of that provision to include, among other things, business solicitations communicated by radio or television broadcasting. This bill would revise the definition of the term "advertise" to include the dissemination of a communication by means of mail, television, radio, motion picture, newspaper, book, list or directory of healing arts practitioners, Internet, or other electronic communication.

Bill Text

• Chaptered 08/06/09 - Chaptered Current pdf August 06, 2009
• Enrolled 07/17/09 - Enrolled pdf July 17, 2009
• Amended 06/08/09 - Amended Assembly pdf June 08, 2009
• Amended 02/10/09 - Amended Senate pdf February 10, 2009
• Introduced 12/08/08 - Introduced pdf December 08, 2008
• SB33 View text html

Action History

1. August 06, 2009

   Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 26, Statutes of 2009.

2. August 05, 2009

   Approved by Governor.

3. July 27, 2009

   Enrolled. To Governor at 11:30 a.m.

4. July 16, 2009

   Senate concurs in Assembly amendments. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 1758.) To enrollment.

5. July 09, 2009

   In Senate. To unfinished business.

6. July 09, 2009

   Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 74. Noes 0. Page 2448.) To Senate.

7. July 06, 2009

   Read second time. To Consent Calendar.

8. July 02, 2009

   (Heard in committee on July 1.)

9. July 02, 2009

   From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.)

10. June 16, 2009

    (Heard in committee on June 16.)

11. June 16, 2009

    From committee: Do pass, but first be re-referred to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

12. June 08, 2009

    From committee with author's amendments. Read second time. Amended. Re-referred to Com. on B. & P.

13. May 21, 2009

    To Com. on B. & P.

14. May 11, 2009

    In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.

15. May 11, 2009

    Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 823.) To Assembly.

16. April 28, 2009

    Read second time. To third reading.

17. April 27, 2009

    From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8.

18. April 22, 2009

    Set for hearing April 27.

19. April 21, 2009

    From committee: Do pass, but first be re-referred to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0. Page 580.) Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

20. March 27, 2009

    Set for hearing April 20.

21. March 10, 2009

    Hearing postponed by committee.

22. March 05, 2009

    Set for hearing March 23.

23. February 10, 2009

    (Corrected February 12.)

24. February 10, 2009

    From committee with author's amendments. Read second time. Amended. Re-referred to Com. on B., P. & E.D.

25. January 29, 2009

    To Com. on B., P. & E.D.

26. December 09, 2008

    From print. May be acted upon on or after January 8.

27. December 08, 2008

    Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

Sponsors

• Correa · Primary

Votes

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