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Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists

SUPERVISORS of REGISTERED INTERNS
GUIDELINES & REQUIREMENTS
The mission of the Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists is consumer protection by the regulation of licensed counselors and therapists and those persons working toward licensure.
 
Regulation of persons working toward licensure is accomplished by allowing applicants to register as interns while gaining the supervised work experience required for licensure. Registration requires the applicant to be working under an Approved Plan for Supervision. The Plan assures an adequate level of supervision by a trained supervisor, and allows the Board to monitor progress through Six-Month Evaluation Reports filed by the supervisor.
 
This guide is to assist those supervisors as they provide supervision to help an intern qualify for licensure.  Oregon Administrative Rules governing supervisor qualifications are contained in OAR 833, Division 130.   Registered intern administrative rules are contained in OAR 833, Division 50. 

 
PLAN APPROVAL
  • The Approved Plan is an agreement between the Board, the Supervisor, and Registered Intern. The purpose of this agreement is to enhance the applicant's professional development while meeting the licensing requirements, keeping in mind the responsibilities toward clients and the profession.  
  • The Board accepts supervisors from related fields: social work, psychology, and psychiatry.  Supervisors are required to become familiar with the requirements of this Board. 
  • Approved supervisors must hold at least a master's degree in a mental health field, have a current active Oregon license in a mental health field, and have at least 30 clock hours of clinical supervisor training. 

 
ELEMENTS OF SUPERVISION
  • Supervision encourages responsible provision of services, promotes the welfare and best interests of clients, fosters refinement of skills, and promotes personal and professional development.
  • Supervision must involve discussions case notes, charts, records, and available audio or video tapes. The review should evaluate the appropriateness of the services to clients and the supervisee's therapeutic skill. Supervision must occur in a professional setting, one on one with the supervisee, or privately with a small group of other supervisees. Supervision should include:
  • setting goals, responsibilities, practical arrangements
  • licensing requirements -- laws, rules
  • personal management of time
  • strategies of clinical decision-making prioritizing responsibilities
  • professional relationships, coordinating with other professionals and staff
  • ethical and cultural consideration
  • Evaluation of practice should include:
  • diagnosis, assessment and identification of presenting problems
  • application ethics
  • research methods
  • knowledge of human behavior and/or social environment
  • termination of clinical relationships
  • methods for maintaining clinical/professional boundaries
  • treatment planning
  • therapeutic interventions or treatment approaches

 
EXPECTATIONS
By signing the Plan for Supervised Clinical Experience, you have agreed to:
  • Provide supervision that meets the licensing standards for level and type of supervision
  • Share responsibility with intern for establishing and maintaining a good recordkeeping system, that will be available if requested by the Board.
  • File timely six month evaluation reports that include: total actual number of direct client contact hours, number of cch that were done by telephone; total number of hours of individual supervision, number of hours of individual supervision provided by phone; and number of hours of group supervision.
    • Reports need to be received by the board within 30 days following the reporting period.
    • Reports are to be submitted on forms provided to the intern for your use.
  • Seek clarification or consultation from the Board regarding requirements, conflicts coming out of the plan/supervision.
  • Notify the Board if your business address, phone number change, or license status changes.
  • Notify the Board in a timely fashion if the plan is changed, interrupted or is terminated.

 
HOURS
Client Contact Hours are defined as counseling/therapy hours, where the intern provides clinical counseling or therapy directly to a client (individual, couple, family, group). Distance counseling hours should be counted in the same way as face-to-face hours.
 
Related activities that are not considered direct client contact hours include: related client services or professional activities such as case management, advocacy, administration of programs, casual/social contact, casual client interaction in milieu therapy, research, receiving supervision; instruction or teaching; training; or participating in discussion groups, counseling by correspondence.
 
Group Supervision involves supervision of 2-6 individuals. The leader must maintain role.
 
Group supervision should not be claimed where: more than six supervisees are in the group, the group includes non-counselor staff members, is consultation from another mental health professional, or may be considered a quality review or peer review group.
 
Group supervision is counted the same as individual supervision -- one hour in group supervision equals one hour of supervision. 
 
Concurrent Supervision means the supervision must be taking place within the same general timeframe (week or two) of the client contact hours. Supervision should be regularly scheduled, not sporadic.
 
Level of Supervision. There must be a total of no less than two hours of supervision per month. At least three hours of supervision each month in which an intern accrued 46 or more direct client contact hours. If a supervision session is missed, then it should be made up or additional supervision time added to the next meeting to compensate. Failure to maintain the required level of supervision means the client contact hours for that month will not be accepted due to inadequate supervision.

 
CLIENT CONTACT HOURS

NUMBER AND DEFINITION OF CLIENT CONTACT HOURS
LPC Intern – 2,400 total hours:
· Up to 400 pre-degree CCH.

LMFT Intern Method – 2,000 total hours:
· All must be accumulated post-degree, per date on transcript.

At least 1,000 hours must be providing therapy to couples or families

 
CLINICAL EXPERIENCE SITE
The clinical experience work site may include community based agencies, institutions, schools, and private practice. Work experience may be either paid or unpaid employment.

 
OTHER INFORMATION
Supervision does not need to be on-site or come from within the same agency.  Interns may purchase appropriate supervision by contracting with a supervisor. 
 
Supervisors are accountable for the supervisee’s actions.
Supervisors are expected to know and abide by this Board’s Code of Ethics.  
 
A supervisor may not be a spouse, relative by blood or marriage, a person of close personal relationship, or former therapist. 

 
SUPERVISION TYPE & FREQUENCY
Effective January 1, 2009:
  •  At least 50% of the minimum required number of supervision hours must be individual supervision, 1-to-1.  
    • For example, if you have 45 client contact hours during a month, you must have at least 2 hours of supervision in that month.  Of that two hours, at least 1 hour must be individual supervision.  
    • If you have 46 or more client contact hours during a month, you must have at least 3 hours of supervision.  Of that 3 hours, at least 1.5 hours must be individual supervision.
  • You may have as many hours of supervision as you wish as long as you meet the minimum.  We encourage you to get as much supervision as available -- individual and group. 
  • Up to 75% of supervision may occur through electronic means such as videoconferencing.
 
Supervision must take place in the same calendar month as the client contact hours discussed.  Supervision meetings must be no less than one hour. If longer, they must be extended in half-hour increments.  Extra supervision hours from one supervisor may not be “carried over” for credit, either into the future or into another site where the supervision level was not adequate.
 
SUPERVISION AND CLIENT CONTACT HOURS ARE MEASURED ON A MONTHLY BASIS. IF THE LEVEL OF SUPERVISION IS NOT ADEQUATE DURING A MONTH, ALL CLIENT CONTACT HOURS ACCUMULATED DURING THAT MONTH ARE DISALLOWED