California BBS Requirements Towards Obtaining a Professional Clinical Counseling License
In this post I’m going to talk about everything I had to fulfill to get my Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (APCC) registration number and what requirements I have left to move onto the next step, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC). This will include all paperwork, fees, additional courses, etc. At the end of the post, I will include the approximate total of how much everything has/will cost me.
✔ = What I’ve completed so far
Information about the California Board of Behavioral Sciences’ (CA BBS) requirements per https://bbs.ca.gov/pdf/forms/lpc/lpc_app_oos_01012016.pdf
Application Fee for Associate Professional Clinical Counselor Registration was $100
Fee for LiveScan Fingerprinting $32. I think I paid $150 for something fingerprint related?! It’s been a year and I can’ even remember...I’ll find out eventually.
How much it cost me to get fingerprints done at my local county jail- $20
Physical transcripts mailed to the CA BBS 3x (I had to send it multiple times because the CA BBS told me they did not receive it) $36
✔ Master’s degree or higher that is counseling or psychotherapy- I earned my degree outside of CA, so my university’s Program Chair and I had to submit a Out-of-State Degree Program Certification form (in addition to some course syllabi).
For me, the cost of my degree was about $21,000 in student loans with ~5-6% interest per loan. The $21,000 was for graduate in-state tuition alone and this total was after factoring in approximately $10,000-worth in scholarships/stipends. I’m not calculating rent and living costs. Although, it was fairly cheap since I lived in Emporia, Kansas- a town with a whole lotta nothing (except for some kind, helpful mentors and peers).
✔ Courses to take in addition to having a Master’s:
Initially, I thought I would have to spend hundreds of dollars on courses offered at accredited colleges or universities. However, I found a cheap, online continuing education website called AspiraCE through the California Association for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (CALPCC) website. I bought a one-year subscription for $129.99. So over the course of a couple months I would plough through these additional courses during my work breaks and weekends. I haven’t found a cheaper option for these courses yet, but if I do I’ll post it in this blog.
✔ a) Suicide Risk Assessment and Intervention 6 hours of coursework or applied experience All applicants submitting an application on or after January 1, 2021 (otherwise will be required upon license renewal). See BPC section 4999.66
✔ b) Human Sexuality 10 hours Instruction must include the study of the physiological, psychological, and social cultural variables associated with sexual behavior, gender identity, and the assessment and treatment of psychosexual dysfunction. See BPC sections 25 and 4999.62 and Title 16, California Code of Regulations section 1807
✔ c) Spousal/Partner Abuse Assessment, Detection and Intervention 15 hours Instruction must cover spousal and partner abuse assessment, detection, intervention strategies, and same-gender abuse dynamics. See BPC section 4999.62 37A-642A (New 01/2020) 4 5. ADDITIONAL COURSEWORK LPCC OUT-OF-STATE APPLICANTS (continued) Course Length Content Required
✔ d) Child Abuse Assessment and 7 hours Instruction must include detailed knowledge of the Reporting in California California Child Abuse Neglect and Reporting Act (CANRA). It must also include assessment and methods of reporting of sexual assault, neglect, severe neglect, general neglect, willful cruelty or unjustifiable punishment, corporal punishment or injury, and abuse in out-of-home care. The training shall also include physical and behavioral indicators of abuse, crisis counseling techniques, community resources, rights and responsibilities of reporting, consequences of failure to report, caring for a child’s needs after a report is made, sensitivity to previously abused children and adults, and implications and methods of treatment for children and adults. See BPC sections 28 and 4999.62 and Title 16, California Code of Regulations section 1807.2
✔ e) Aging, Long Term Care and 10 hours Instruction must cover aging and long-term care, Elder/Dependent Adult Abuse including biological, social, cognitive and psychological aspects of aging, and instruction on the assessment and reporting of, as well as treatment related to, elder and dependent adult abuse and neglect. See BPC section 4999.62
✔ f) Mental Health Recovery Oriented Care and Methods of Service Delivery 45 hours or 3 semester units Instruction must cover principles of mental health recovery-oriented care and methods of service delivery in recovery-oriented practice environments, including structured meetings with various consumers and family members of consumers of mental health services to enhance understanding of their experience of mental illness, treatment and recovery. See BPC section 4999.62
✔ g) California Cultures and the Social 15 hours or Instruction must include an understanding of various and Psychological Implications of 1 semester California cultures and the social and psychological Socioeconomic Position unit implications of socioeconomic position. See BPC section 4999.62
✔ California Law and Ethics course (included in AspiraCE) - Counselors from other states must take the 18-hour course in California
APCC REGISTRATION ANNUAL RENEWAL COST- $100
EXPERIENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
3,000 hours of post-master’s supervised counseling experience. 1,750 have to be Direct Client Contact hours. I’ve completed 6% of my post-master’s hours as of last week. I would have been much further in my experiential hours, but it took almost a year to receive my APCC registration number. After going back and forth with the CA BBS, my hours officially began on March 9, 2020. I was working with patients at least 6 months prior to that, but unfortunately, I had to discount those hours.
I found a supervisor that would see me for $50 and another that would see me for free. While I was looking for a supervisor, I talked to people who were going to charge me $150 per hour of supervision. In my opinion, that is outrageous. I understand that as a qualified, accomplished supervisor, you’d want to charge for the quality of supervision. HOWEVER, if I was a supervisor, I’d do it as cheap as possible. Getting a license is super expensive and it’s rare to meet a trainee who doesn’t have student loans. Anyway, I’ve probably spent about $2,000 this past year on supervision. I know that seems like a bummer since much of it couldn’t count towards my clinical counseling hours, but my supervisor is also an art therapist so I just counted everything towards my art therapy certification. And YES! Hours can simultaneously count towards clinical counseling and art therapy (this is for another blog post).
EXAM REQUIRED
NCMHCE – taken after experiential requirements have been fulfilled. It costs $275 to register for the NCMHCE.
California Law and Ethics/Jurisprudence Examination– taken while acquiring supervision. I am trying to register for this, but #COVID. Also, the initial exam fee cost $100. It must me taken every year for APCC registration renewal and I believe it costs $100 to re-take it.
So, let’s talk about my overall cost. In-state tuition was approximately $31,000 (my total cost in student loans and scholarships/stipends). It cost me $467.99 to register as an APCC with the CA BBS. My first year of supervision costs $2,000. From graduate school to obtaining an LPCC, it would cost me about $39,042.99. For people who just want to know how much it may cost me to get licensed post-graduate school, it’ll be about $8,042.99. That’s on the cheaper end too because I’m pretty frugal.
After listing the requirements and costs, I’m thinking, is it all worth it? For me, I’ll say, “Sometimes no, but overall, yes!” I will answer my own question in the next blog post. Frankly, I’m exhausted from running these numbers.
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