Long road to professional counselor
March 7, 2018
I am an Associate Professional Counselor. What that means is that I have met the criteria set out by the state of Georgia to be provisionally licensed as a Professional Counselor. After completing my degree I am required to take a test, find a job, and be supervised by another professional with another set of credentials for a period of not less than 90 hours in 36 months.
As confusing as that sounds it is far more complicated. Let me start from the beginning….
- Two year counseling program accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP).
- Complete an internship
- Pass Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Exam (CPCE)
- Pass National Counseling Exam (NCE) or the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Exam (NCMHCE)
- Find employment
- Find a supervisor who has been certified with either of the following credentials:
- Go to the state website to print out the associate license application
- Complete with notarized signatures, GA does not have online applications yet
- Do not print this out too early, the board wants the latest copy
- Wait until the board meets to approve it, which may take a month
- Work for 36 months
- 1800 clinical hours
- 90 supervision hours
- Go to the state website to print out the full license application
- Complete with notarized signatures, GA does not have online applications yet.
- Resubmit some forms that you have already submitted.
- Wait until the board meets to approve it, which may take a month.
From start to finish this process cannot be completed sooner than 5 years!!
Now, even with all of this I failed to capture the nuance. There are also continuing education requirements, 35 hours every 2 years.
Where I am in the process: If you look at the bottom of this page you will see a countdown with how many days I have left until I can submit my application for full license. I have a few hours left for supervision and less than 3 months until I can apply. Being fully licensed means I can practice independently and am no longer required to be supervised, so if I so choose I will be able to open a private practice.
This process has consumed me for almost 5 whole years, I guess we are going to have to talk about life after LPC. I wonder what other career paths take this long?