Here’s a quick and easy lifehack for California mental health professionals working under supervision: Get automatic email notifications if your supervisor’s license lapses or changes status.
This has been available for a few years, and I’m surprised how few people seem to know about it. If a supervisor’s license lapses, any hours you gain while that license isn’t active will not count toward your own licensure. Unfortunately, I’ve known several folks who lost hours for precisely this reason. It’s imperative — and really easy! — to make sure your supervisor’s license remains current and active while you’re under their supervision.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Go to https://www.breeze.ca.gov and sign in or register for an account
This is the licensure database site run by the California Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees both the Board of Behavioral Sciences and the Board of Psychology. You may already have an account, if you are registered with your board and created an account as part of your registration renewal process. If you already have an account, sign in. If not, create an account. This step is important: You can’t subscribe to anyone’s license status without an account.
2. Select “License notification subscriptions”
If you’re on a laptop or desktop computer, this option is buried a bit — it’s on the bottom right.
3. Select “Add”
There’s no limit to how many people you can subscribe to. You can see here, I have four subscriptions currently. If you work with multiple supervisors, you should subscribe for updates on each of them.
4. Choose how you want to search
For this example, I’ll use the process that happens when you select “Search by license number.” But if you don’t have the supervisor’s number in front of you, you can always search by name instead.
5. Input the supervisor’s information
It’s weird, but if you search by license number, the BBS is listed as “California Board of Behavioral Sciences” while the BOP is just “Board of Psychology.” Regardless of which search method you use, once you have entered their information, click “Search.”
6. Next to their license, click “Add.”
That’s all! It’s really that easy. Once you’re subscribed, if that person’s license status changes, you’ll be automatically notified.
Obviously, this process relies on a couple of important pieces. 1, Your own email address in your Breeze account needs to be current. Double-check while you’re logged into your account. And 2, Those automatic emails need to be able to get through your spam filters. You should whitelist no-reply-breeze@dca.ca.gov and no-reply-breeze-online@dca.ca.gov. (If your system allows, whitelist *anything* coming from a dca.ca.gov, psychboard.ca.gov, or bbs.ca.gov address.)
The whole process can take less than two minutes — and could save you a lot of hours and stress down the line. Go do it now.