Answers to Often Asked Questions
AUTHORITY OF THE BOARD
The Board has authority over the following:
- State Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC)
- State Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT)
- Applicants for LPC/LMFT license
- Counselors or therapists who claim to be licensed but are not
TYPES OF COMPLAINTS
- Title Violation (claiming to be licensed without active Oregon LPC/LMFT)
- Incompetence or Practicing Outside the Scope of Training and Ability
- Failure to Distribute a Professional Disclosure Statement
- Obtaining a License Fraudulently
- Inability to Practice as Result of Mental Illness, Physical Illness, Drug or Alcohol Abuse
- Failure to Report Child/Elderly Abuse
- Breach of Client Confidentiality
- Violation of Code of Ethics: e.g., having dual relationship or sex with clients, dishonesty, violating client rights, or other professional misconduct.
Oregon law does not require counselors or marriage and family therapists to be licensed in order to practice. Although the Board will open a complaint file and conduct a preliminary investigation, counselors and therapists who are not licensed or have not applied for a license are not subject to discipline.
COMPLAINT PROCESS
Submit a completed complaint form to the Board office in Salem. You will be asked to name the counselor and explain the behavior you think is in violation of the Board's law or rules. Complaint forms are available on the Board's website www.oregon.gov/oblpct .
The Board will log your complaint and open a complaint file.
- As part of its preliminary investigation, the agency will determine if the allegations indicate violations of the licensing law or rules.
- If your charges do not indicate violations or misconduct, the file will be closed. You will be notified only that the file has been closed without further action.
- You may be asked to participate in the investigation and be provided with the name and contact information of the person conducting the investigation. The counselor will be notified that his/her conduct is under investigation, will be provided with a summary of the complaint and asked to respond to the allegations in writing.
- Following investigation, a confidential report is filed with the Board. The report will be discussed in a session closed to the public.
- The Board will decide if it has "reason to believe" or reason "to suspect" a violation of law or rule took place. If it has no reason to suspect violation, then the complaint is dismissed. You will be notified that the file has been closed. The Board cannot disclose any information from the investigation. If it finds reason to suspect violation, then it decides appropriate disciplinary action. Discipline could include suspension, revocation, or denial of a license, a fine, supervision, training, probation, a letter of reprimand, or a combination.
- The Board will vote to dismiss or propose disciplinary action in public meeting. Case numbers instead of names will be used. If a majority of the Board votes to propose disciplinary action, the name of the licensee or applicant and the action that is being proposed becomes part of the public record.
- The Board will propose the action with a legal document called an "order". The proposed order is sent to the counselor, who has 30 days to formally answer the specific charges and request a hearing. If the counselor does not request a hearing, the disciplinary action will be implemented. If a hearing is requested, the Board will schedule one.
CONFIDENTIALITY
According to Oregon law, the existence of the complaint, any documents submitted as part of the complaint, and information identifying the complainant or the subject of the complaint is kept confidential. Although the Board will not make this information known, the person against whom you have filed a complaint may guess it was you. The investigation report filed with the Board is confidential. When listing allegations in notices of proposed disciplinary action, the Board will make every effort to protect involved parties, for example, initials may be used in place of names. Details and documents do not become part of the public record.
If the complaint involves your therapy, the Board will ask you to fill out a release of information form (available on the Board's website). That will give the counselor your approval to talk about and release your case records if they are needed for the investigation. If your complaint involves someone else as a client, then the Board will need to know the name and whereabouts of the client in order to obtain a release of information.
The process is not always fast. The Board has limited resources and meets every other month, so investigations and review of reports may take several months. Investigations involving multiple allegations and many witnesses or the licensee requests a hearing, it will take longer.
Rev. 10/08
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