RCBM Applauds New Law Supporting Licensed Professional Counselors
Gov. Whitmer signs House Bill 4325 into law, enabling Michigan’s licensed professional counselors to continue to diagnose and treat clients
The Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine joins licensed professional counselors (LPCs) and their advocates across the state in applauding a new law signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer that enables LPCs to continue to diagnose and treat patients as they have done successfully for decades.
This fall, an effort to by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs threatened to change the rules that govern the profession preventing licensed professional counselors from diagnosing and treating clients in a clinical setting. This effort would have impacted an estimated 100,000 counselors and 150,000 patients across the state.
“We are happy to report that Governor Whitmer signed House Bill 4325,” said Joel L. Young, MD, Medical Director and Founder of RCBM. “This fortifies the future of licensed professional counselors. This is a great victory for RCBM counselors and a positive move to improve access to mental health services for patients in need.”
RCBM representatives were among those who spoke out in Lansing against the proposed regulatory changes expressing anger and frustration.
“In 1991, LARA (the government agency that oversees health professional licensing) promulgated rules that indicated that counselors treat mental illness through diagnosis and psychotherapy,” said Richard Powell, JD, MA, LPC, NCC, a board certified counselor at RCBM. “They did so because without being able to practice psychotherapy and diagnose, counselors cannot provide effective or ethical mental health care services. Diagnosing in mental health is an important part of a therapist’s conceptualization of the problem and the diagnosis is refined session to session as the therapist observes and listens to the patient. A diagnosis in mental health does not come from blood work or objective tests, although objective tests may assist a therapist in coming to a diagnosis.”
Without the freedom to utilize scientific and health care understandings of the patient in front of them by diagnosing, counselors would not be allowed to exercise independent judgment and their patients would be deprived of having a provider that can freely utilize all information available to help them, Powell explained. He added that the primary way mental health care professionals treat patients is through psychotherapy.
“Being barred from psychotherapy would leave counselors as ineffective providers of mental health care,” he said.
Counselors have similar training and expertise to other masters-level mental health providers. When in graduate school, they take the same classes regarding theories of psychotherapy, practice of psychotherapy and clinical diagnosis, with a few exceptions and additions for specializations and different degrees.
All counselors must go through extensive pre and post-graduation including practical courses (required 100 hours of professional practice with clients), internships (required 600 hours) and extensive post-graduation supervised experience (3,000 hours of supervised practice). Most master’s in counseling programs in Michigan take 2-3 years to complete coursework prior to beginning practicum and internship.
All of us at RCBM support the licensed professional counselors on our team and appreciate the important role they play in providing potentially life-saving treatment to our clients. We thank the governor for signing House Bill 4325. Read a summary of the legislation here.
