Last week, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) announced that they are pausing plans to require member boards to use the EPPP Part 2 as a condition of Psychologist licensure. They had faced fierce resistance to the mandate, including a recent Federal Trade Commission complaint and a coalition of states looking at developing an alternative exam.
Licensure
An AI therapist can’t really do therapy. Many clients will choose it anyway.
It just isnāt the same, I hear over and over, from psychotherapists shrugging away concern over artificial intelligence. An AI therapist canāt really empathize. It canāt truly understand. It canāt build a therapeutic relationship with depth and connectedness the way a human therapist can.
As a therapist myself, I agree with all of these statements. An AI therapist is not equivalent to a human therapist. Like many therapists, I tend to focus on the ways that AI falls short.
But for clients, in many ways, an AI therapist is better than a human one.
The Social Work Compact is bad public policy
The Social Work Compact is an interstate compact, or a form of agreement between individual states. If adopted by enough states, it will allow social workers in participating states to apply for a single, multi-state license that would give them practice privileges in all other participating states. As of January 15, 2024, only Missouri has adopted the compact. Several other states will consider legislation to join the compact this year. They should choose not to do so.
Therapy and coaching: Understanding the differences
Itās not unusual for private practice therapists to seek to expand their practices through coaching. Some clients will engage in coaching, but not therapy, because of the stigma they associate with therapy. At the same time, some therapists note that the unregulated nature of coaching means that anyone can call themselves a ācoach,ā regardless of qualifications. So ācoachingā sometimes carries stigma in the world of licensed therapists.
Setting aside stigma, though, what are the actual differences between coaching and therapy? How different do these practices need to be in order for therapists to engage in both?
Write a letter to the editor: Drop the ASWB exams
Some problems can have large impacts, and still go unnoticed by the public and policymakers. ASWBās racist exams for social work licensure are a great example. When people learn of the problems with social work exams, they tend to be rightly horrified. But most people donāt know about the problem.
A letter to the editor of your local newspaper can be a great way to raise awareness of this issue, especially in states actively considering alternate pathways to licensure. Hereās a quick guide to writing one.