Licensed Professional Counselor

Definitions and Acronyms

• BBHL       =      Oklahoma State Board of Behavioral Health Licensure
• LPC          =      Licensed Professional Counselor
• CACREP   =      Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs
• CCE          =      Center for Credentialing & Education

General

Neither the Board nor Board’s staff can provide academic advisement. Applicants with questions related to coursework availability, enrollment requirements, or qualifying coursework transfers, and all other program specific questions must contact an advisor at a qualifying degree program for additional information.

All applicants for licensure must submit a complete application to the Board to qualify for an academic review. The Board must receive an official transcript to verify that academic requirements have been met. Applicants may arrange for either of the following:

• The university bursar sends an electronic, password-protected transcript to info.behavioralhealth@bbhl.ok.gov; or
• A sealed transcript is mailed directly to the BBHL office.

If an official transcript is not yet available at the time of application, an applicant may apply using an unofficial transcript together with a Verification of Academic Standing. The following sequence then applies:

1. The applicant submits an unofficial transcript and a Verification of Academic Standing in place of the official transcript.
2. The Board may grant a conditional, Board-approved exam eligibility period on that basis.
3. The applicant must submit an official transcript before the application is deemed complete.

The regional accreditation requirement applies to all graduate degree programs and the regional accreditation requirements must be met for all academic pathways described below. All graduate coursework applied toward licensure must be accrued from a college or university that holds regional accreditation recognized by one of the following regional accrediting associations (or their predecessors or successors):

• New England Commission on Higher Education (NECHE)
• Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSCHE)
• Higher Learning Commission (HLC)
• Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU)
• WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC)
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC)

LPC applicants must possess at least a master's degree in counseling, or a mental health related graduate degree deemed substantially content equivalent.

Core Requirements and Knowledge Areas:

To qualify as a "content-equivalent" degree, a graduate transcript must document as a part of the required sixty (60) semester credit hours or ninety (90) quarter credit hours of graduate curriculum, one (1) or more courses of at least three (3) semester credit hours or four (4) quarter credit hours per course in each of the following core counseling areas: 

• Human growth and life span development – course which deals with the process stages of human intellectual, physical, social and emotional development of any of the stages of life from prenatal through old age.
• Abnormal human behavior and diagnostic processes – course which offers a study of the principles of understanding dysfunction in human behavior or social disorganization.
• Appraisal/assessment techniques – course which deal with the principles, concepts and procedures of systematic appraisal, assessment, or interpretation of client needs, abilities, and characteristics, which may include the use of both testing and non-testing approaches.
• Counseling Practice and Relationships – course which surveys the major theories and/or techniques of counseling, interviewing, attending, and listening skills in the counseling process, counseling strategies and techniques, application of technology to counseling, and/or critical thinking and reasoning strategies for clinical judgment.
• Professional counseling orientation and ethical practice – course which deals with the objectives of professional counseling organizations, codes of ethics, legal aspects of practice, standards of preparation and the role of persons providing direct counseling services, history and philosophy of the counseling profession, professional counseling credentialing, legislation and regulatory standards, and/or the role and process of the professional counselor.
• Research and program evaluation – course in the methods of social science or mental health research which includes the study of statistics or a thesis project in an area relevant to the practice of counseling.
• Practicum/internship – course of an organized practicum or internship with at least three hundred (300) clock hours in counseling with planned experiences providing classroom and field experience with clients under the supervision of college or university approved counseling professionals.
• Group counseling and group work - course that provides both theoretical and experiential understandings of group purpose, development, dynamics, theories, methods, skills, and other group approaches in a culturally diverse society, including issues of group counseling leadership, stages, skills, methods, and ethics issues.
• Career development - course that provides an understanding of career development and related life factors, as well as an overview of career development theories, program planning, educational planning, assessment techniques, and applied career counseling processes, including those applicable to specific populations in a global economy.
• Social and cultural identities and experiences - course that provides an understanding of the cultural context of relationships, issues, and trends in a culturally diverse society, including an overview of social and cultural theories, strategies, and roles to be applied by the pluralistic counselor to establish an environment for optimal client wellness and successful counseling outcomes.  

Additional Knowledge Areas:

The remaining courses needed to meet the sixty (60) semester or ninety (90) quarter graduate-hour requirement shall be in any of the core counseling areas listed above or any of the additional knowledge areas listed below. Courses must be at least three (3) semester credit hours or four (4) quarter credit hours.

• Personality theories - course that examines contemporary and alternative personality theories that provide the student with models to conceptualize client presentation and that help the student select appropriate counseling interventions, including an examination of models of counseling that are consistent with current professional research and practice in the field of counseling.
• Crisis intervention - course that provides an overview of crisis and disaster intervention strategies for the professional counselor that addresses areas including, but not limited to, crises of suicide, homicide, disability due to a mental illness, domestic violence, school violence, post-traumatic stress disorder, and vicarious trauma.
• Marriage/family counseling - course that provides an overview of the knowledge, skills, and practices necessary to address a wide variety of issues in the context of relationships and families, including historical, theoretical, and developmental issues in systems counseling, in addition to examining the basic skills of marriage, couple, and family counseling.
• Addictions counseling - course that provides an overview of assessment and treatment methods available for clients and their family members struggling with substance-related disorders or behavioral/process addiction issues.
• Rehabilitation counseling - course that provides an overview of the history, philosophy, and legal basis of rehabilitation programs, the roles of the rehabilitation counselor, and the process of rehabilitation, including the organizational structure of public and private rehabilitation systems, societal trends in rehabilitation, and professional issues related to the role of the rehabilitation counselor.
• Gerontology - course that provides a conceptual system for understanding the phenomenon of aging and the counselor’s role in working with an aging client population, including practical counseling skills necessary for meeting the demands of coping with aging in a culturally diverse society.
• Human sexuality - course that focuses on sexual development and educational issues as applied to the field of professional counseling with emphases placed upon becoming comfortable with one’s own sexuality, assisting parents with providing sexual education to their children, providing education with regard to sexual matters, and diagnosing and treating sexual dysfunction.
• Counseling with children/adolescents - course that provides instruction in the theories and techniques used in counseling children and adolescents, including instruction on the conceptualization of childhood and adolescent problems with an emphasis on age and developmentally-appropriate interventions.
• Clinical supervision - course that serves as a didactic and experiential learning experience for counselors who wish to assume the role of clinical supervisor, including the assimilation and application of major theoretical/conceptual models and approaches to clinical supervision in a variety of settings.
• Psychopharmacology - course that provides an overview of commonly prescribed psychotropic medications for psychiatric disorders to assist the counselor in understanding his or her role in working with medical professionals in the concurrent treatment of mental health issues using an interdisciplinary approach.
• Consultation - course that provides the knowledge and skills necessary for the delivery of counselor consultation, including basic models of consultation, the content and procedural process for implementing consultation, and characteristics of an effective consultant-consultee relationship.
• Physical and emotional health - course that deals with the overlap of physiological and psychological health models, examining the neural and hormonal bases of learning, memory, motivation, emotions, mental disorders, and other behaviors.
• Grief counseling - course that addresses the mental health, social, and cultural manifestations of grief counseling, including, interventions and the coverage of characteristics of grief throughout the life cycle. 

The Board of Behavioral Health Licensure provides four pathways for the review of academic requirements for licensure:

• Pathway 1 — National Accreditation
• Pathway 2 — Licensure by Endorsement
• Pathway 3 — Board Pre-Approved Degree Program (In-State Only)
• Pathway 4 — Designated Credentialing Agency Review

Pathway 1: National Accreditation

The Board accepts all programs certified by CACREP for LPC applications. Programs accredited by CACREP do not require any additional academic review.

Pathway 2: Licensure by Endorsement

An application for licensure by endorsement does not require an additional academic review. However, the degree earned must be primary source verified through receipt of an official transcript.

Pathway 3: Board Pre-Approved Degree Program (In-State Only)

The Board has pre-approved certain in-state graduate degree programs intended for licensure, along with the coursework offered as part of those programs. To qualify for this pathway, a program must demonstrate that it is intended for licensure by meeting all the following criteria:

1. Provided by an in-state college or university.
2. Follows a planned, sequenced mental health program of study, reflected in the university catalog and approved by the college or university's governing authority.
3. Has a primary focus that is clearly to prepare the applicant for a career in counseling or therapy.
4. Is listed in the college or university catalog.

Requests for curriculum review are submitted to the license-appropriate licensure committee for initial review. All committee recommendations must be adopted by the full Board at an open Board meeting.

Degrees from pre-approved programs are accepted as qualifying without additional review of the degree requirements themselves. Current pre-approved curriculum apply to applicants who earned their degree on or after August 28, 2015. However, Board staff will complete an academic review of the official transcript to confirm that all academic knowledge area requirements have been met.

A list of Board pre-approved coursework from pre-approved in-state degree programs is maintained below.

Pathway 4: Designated Credentialing Agency Review

If an applicant's degree is from a program that is not nationally accredited by CACREP, has not been deemed equivalent or pre-approved by the Board, the applicant must apply for review by the Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE). The CCE academic review must be completed before applying to the Board. 

Application procedures and any additional considerations will be addressed in accordance with the terms outlined in the contract between CCE and the Board.

*Applicants with degrees earned from institutions outside the United States must provide an acceptable comprehensive evaluation of the degree performed by a foreign credential evaluation service that is acceptable to the Board’s designated credentialing agency, and any other requirement(s) the Board deems necessary.

• CCE Academic Review Application and Instructions