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Ohio Administrative Code (Last Updated: January 12, 2021) |
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4757 Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board |
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Chapter4757-13. Licensing of Counselors |
4757-13-01. Education requirements for admission to the examination for licensed professional counselor
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The requirements for licensure as a licensed professional counselor are set forth in section 4757.23 of the Revised Code. All "Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs" "CACREP" accredited clinical mental health programs, clinical rehabilitation counseling programs, or addiction counseling programs are deemed to be approved programs per division (B)(3)(c) of section 4757.23 of the Revised Code. "CACREP" accredited mental health program degrees conferred prior to January 1, 2018 are accepted as meeting the educational standards of this rule per division (B)(3)(b) of section 4757.23 of the Revised Code. Applicants from other accredited counseling programs shall meet the following standards per division (B)(3)(d) of section 4757.23 of the Revised Code.
(A) Pertaining to the educational requirements, a "graduate degree in counseling" means a degree that meets all of the following criteria:
(1) The degree and/or the official transcript of course work shall clearly indicate that the degree awarded is a degree in counseling. Graduate degrees in other human service areas such as psychology, social work and marriage and family therapy are not considered degrees in counseling.
(2) The program shall be clearly identified as a counseling program. Such a program shall specify in pertinent institutional catalogues and brochures its intent to educate and train professional counselors.
(3) The counseling program shall stand as a recognizable organizational entity within the institution and have a counseling faculty who identify with the counseling profession.
(4) The counseling program shall be an organized sequence of study that includes at least one graduate course in each of the following eleven areas of counselor training.
(a) Counseling theory: Includes a study of basic theories, principles of counseling and philosophical bases of the helping relationship;
(b) Counseling techniques: Includes individual counseling practices, methods, facilitative skills, and the application of these skills;
(c) Practicum: includes a supervised training experience, acceptable to the board, consisting of the provision of counseling to bona fide clients, and/ or groups seeking services from counselors.
(i) A practicum consists no less than one hundred hours of which forty hours are direct service that conforms to "CACREP" 2009 standards for the required number of practicum hours, if those standards exceed one hundred hours.
(ii) Students, who have not completed their master's degree requirements prior to September 30, 1997, and have been enrolled in a practicum of less than one hundred hours prior to September 30, 1997, may use that course to fulfill the practicum requirement.
(d) Internship: Includes an on-the-job experience in professional counseling acceptable to the board.
(i) The supervised internship shall be no less than six hundred hours of which two hundred forty hours shall be in direct services, which include the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders and conditions.
(ii) Students who have not completed their master's degree requirements by September, 30, 1997, who have begun an internship of less than six hundred hours prior to September 30, 1997, may use that internship experience to fulfill the internship requirement. Any internship begun after September 30, 1997, shall comply with the requirements in paragraph (A)(4)(d)(i) of this rule.
(iii) First time applicants from non-CACREP accredited programs who are intending to use the internship experience to meet the educational requirements of the board shall document their internship experience on a form prescribed by the board. The form shall be completed by the supervisor or supervisors and shall document the student's competency in all areas designated on the form.
(e) Human growth and development: Includes studies that provide a broad understanding of the nature and needs of individuals at all developmental levels. Emphasis is placed on psychological, sociological, and physiological approaches, human behavior, (normal and abnormal), personality theory, and learning theory.
(f) Social and cultural foundations: Includes studies of change, ethnic groups, subcultures, changing roles of women, sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, urban and rural societies, population patterns, cultural mores, use of leisure time, and differing life patterns.
(g) Group dynamics, processing and counseling: includes the study of group dynamics, group processes, practices and methods of group counseling, supervised practice, supervised facilitative skills, and theory and types of groups.
(h) Life-style and career development: includes vocational-choice theory, relationship of career choice to life-style, sources of occupational and educational information, approaches to career decision-making processes, and career development exploration techniques.
(i) Appraisal of the individual through: testing includes the development of a framework for understanding the individual, methods of data-gathering and interpretation, case study approaches, individual and group psychological and educational testing and the study of individual differences with consideration of ethnic, cultural and gender factors.
(j) Research and evaluation: Includes statistics, research design, the development of research and demonstration proposals, as well as the development and evaluation of program objectives.
(k) Professional, legal, and ethical: includes the study of professional counseling organizations, codes of ethics, legal considerations, standards of preparation, certification and licensure including the Ohio licensure law, and the professional role identity of counselors.
(5) In addition, either as a part of the applicant's master's degree or after the award of the degree, graduate coursework shall include training in the following areas of instruction acceptable to the board:
(a) Evaluation of mental and emotional status: includes the use of assessment procedures in diagnosis and treatment planning. Focuses on the administering and interpreting individual and group standardized tests of mental ability, and personality and measurement.
(b) Diagnosis of mental and emotional disorders: includes the appropriate use of the current edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders," and an understanding of the "International Classification of Diseases." Focuses on conducting mental status examinations, and on the development and recognition of a framework for identifying symptomology, etiology and psychodynamics of mental and emotional disorders. Includes the study of clinical psychopathology, personality, and abnormal behavior, personality disorders, and psychopathological conditions specific to developmental phases throughout the life span, and their application to counseling practice.
(c) Methods of intervention and prevention of mental and emotional disorders: includes studies of the:
(i) Psychological and educational methods of intervention, such as client-centered, psychoanalytic, hypnotherapy, rational-emotive therapy, and reality therapy.
(ii) Culturally sensitive intervention techniques used with diverse populations such as minorities, children, substance abusers, gay and lesbian individuals and individuals who are physically or mentally challenged.
(iii) Intervention strategies used in different situations such as marriage and family problems, crisis situations, bereavement, sex therapy, rehabilitation, child abuse and multicultural counseling.
(d) Treatment of mental and emotional disorders: includes developing and implementing a treatment plan, reporting and assessing progress of treatment, appropriate referral procedures, formulation of timelines for treatment and knowing the effect on client behavior and the interaction of psychotropic medications and mood altering chemicals in the treatment of mental and emotional disorders.
(B) Applicants who are denied admission to the examination shall be afforded an opportunity for a hearing pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised Code.
(C) Program requirements for counseling programs are defined in rule 4757-13-07 of the Administrative Code. Applicants from approved programs shall be considered to have met the educational requirements of this rule.