DIGEST-V8-i1

15 TPC Digest F or many years, counselor license portability, or the ability for a license to be easily carried elsewhere, has been an issue of discussion in the counseling profession. However, complex legislature processes and differing requirements have led to limited success. In recent years, the 20/20: AVision for the Future of Counseling initiative, a collaboration between the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the American Association of State Counseling Boards (AASCB), began to push for licensure portability. Even more recently, AASCB joined with the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), and American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) to create a Joint Statement on a National Counselor Licensure Endorsement Process. Although these are valued steps toward portability, little attention has been paid in the literature to examine the detailed differences in states’ requirements to become a licensed professional counselor. Understanding the various differences between state licensure requirements will be vital in the pursuit of portability. The purpose of this manuscript was to provide necessary detail by investigating the U.S. licensed professional counselor application forms. This included analyzing specific application requirements, such as historical disclosures (e.g., criminal history, drug use history, mental health history, ethical violations, malpractice proceedings) and educational prerequisites. Additionally, this manuscript identified common and uncommon requirements to become a licensed professional counselor and identified specific jurisdictional standards that may impact license portability. This study utilized a non-experimental descriptive design to provide a summary of data related to the following broad research question: What are the similarities and differences between state professional counseling licensure applications? From 2016–2017, the authors completed an extensive search for counseling licensure applications from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This included the capture of states with multiple counseling licenses. The results of this investigation determined that many states require coursework beyond CACREP standards, as well as many other prerequisites that licensing boards consider when endorsing an applicant as a licensed professional counselor. Required hours, examinations, and historical factors (e.g., mental health history, criminal history) were just some of the details that varied from one state to another. Therefore, the counseling profession needs to continue to take a more encompassing view of licensure requirements and be in the forefront of developing common standards–related education requirements, examinations, and historical factors. Further, we need to determine universal criteria related to what is acceptable and unacceptable related to applicants’ criminal history, comportment, drug use, mental health problems, malpractice history, and ethical standards. It is time for the counseling profession to take a more proactive stance and set the standards and a model for state licensure boards to utilize with confidence. Seth Olson, NCC, is an associate professor at the University of South Dakota. Kathleen Brown-Rice, NCC, is an associate professor at the University of South Dakota. Andrew Gerodias is a doctoral candidate at the University of South Dakota. Correspondence can be addressed to Seth Olson, 414 E. Clark Street, Vermillion SD, 57069, seth.olson@usd.edu . Read full article and references: Olson, S., Brown-Rice, K., & Gerodias, A. (2018). Professional counselor licensure portability: An examination of state license applications. The Professional Counselor , 8 , 88–103. doi : 10.15241/so.8.1.88 15 |