Good news and bad news, I suppose, from today’s meeting of the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. The most important good news surrounds the 90-day rule for supervised experience between graduation and registration as an associate. Good stuff first!
California’s six-year rule for AMFTs, APCCs, and ASWs: An explainer
Discussions about California’s “six-year rule” for associate marriage and family therapists (AMFTs), clinical counselors (APCCs), and clinical social workers (ASWs) often turn confusing. There’s a simple reason for that. When people refer to California’s “six-year rule,” they actually might be referring to either one of two different rules, both of which have six-year timeframes. Here’s a breakdown of both six-year rules.
Podcast episode 3: Student loan debt
No point mincing words here: Student loan debt is crushing the mental health professions. Perhaps it’s crushing you, too. According to a 2014 American Psychological Association study, the average recent graduate of an accredited PsyD program finishes their studies with $200,000 in student loan debt. Social workers similarly decry their debt loads, with at least one going so far as to declare the entire social work profession “untenable.”
In this episode of the podcast, we talk about student loan debt, and how it’s impacting those coming into the mental health professions. We review how $200,000 in debt can easily wind up being more than $700,000 by the time it’s finally paid off.
How did we get here? Part 2: Educational requirements
In a previous post, we discussed the required hours of supervised experience for psychotherapist licensure and the history of that requirement. In this post, we examine the ever-growing educational requirements for a master’s degree that leads to licensure as family therapist, clinical social worker, or counselor.
Podcast episode 2: Kim Madsen, California BBS, on license exams
For the opening episode of our podcast, we talked about why license exams don’t work, but we should keep them anyway. In this follow-up, we talk with Kim Madsen, the Executive Officer of the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. The BBS licenses marriage and family therapists (LMFTs), clinical social workers (LCSWs), and professional clinical counselors (LPCCs). You may be surprised at what she has to say about the license exam process.