What can people get from you that they can’t get from anyone else? This is a vital question that many counselors want to answer. When I asked my fellow supervisors this question, their replies blew me away. So what does a clinical supervisor do? They help new counselors make crucial decisions under duress while no one is watching. In this episode, we talk all about what's required to become a supervisor in Texas. You may want to grow an additional stream of income, or brainstorm some ideas to start a non-profit with your associates. That's exactly what most of us want to do - we want to reach more Texans who need access to mental health services. I talk about basic requirements and how to make sure you are getting what you need to be successful. I love talking about this stuff so I cover even more ground in episode #5. Show notes and more at https://katewalkertraining.com/how-to-become-a-lpc-supervisor-in-texas/
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First and foremost: when can you become a supervisor? Well, in Texas, you must be fully licensed, hold that full LPC in your hand for five years. Now, there was a time – I guess it’s ten years ago now – when you could be licensed for only three years and submit for your supervisor designation. Also, it’s not a license; it’s a designation. You must hold the license – so the LPC Associate hours do not count toward that five years. Once you have the five-year mark, you have the certificate in your hand, you submit the certificate, the completed application, any fees, and it’s up to the LPC board if you get to have that supervisor designation. So any course that you take is simply a gigantic CE provider. They’re just giving you 40 CEs. Now, the CEs for LPC Supervisor training are dictated in the LPC rules, which I’ve looked at a lot of different states; it’s not always that way, but in Texas it is. The 40 hours, 12 must be in this, 12 must be in that, 12 must be in another thing, and then there are these littler ones, three, three, and three, which total nine, in these other areas. You have some wiggle room, because that doesn’t total up to 40 if I did that right, I think it’s 12-12, three, three, and three.
Long and short is you must realize that every 40-hour course in Texas must teach the same thing. If we deviate too far, your certificate might be worthless. So that’s the other important thing that’s encoded, is this idea that you must finish in 90 days, no extensions. Your certificate must have a date on it that indicates you finish in 90 days or less, otherwise the board may not honor that. Now, your course provider can give you extensions or they may charge you every time you fail the course, they’re like okay, give me another $600 and you can take it again. But nobody should be profiting off of your failure, right? So it behooves you to finish within that 90-days because even if the course provider is like, yeah, sure, extend it, we don’t know what the board is going to do because they have the ultimate jurisdiction. They have the ultimate say so. So five years, 90 days. One of the things that is encoded now that comes and goes is this idea that your 40-hour training certificate is good for two years. I was so happy when I saw that encoded in the rules again because now you can actually at your three-year mark fully-licensed, you can now take the course. You can take the course at three years and one day, the certificate is good for two years, and then the day that you are eligible, you can submit the fees, the CE, and application. Those things, send them off to the LPC board, and you’re good to go. Now, after that, your supervisor designation, should they grant that to you, renews right along with your license. You just pay a little extra fee, you go online, you renew your license, you click, yes, I’m a supervisor, they’ll go, well, instead of this much, you owe us this much. It's all fine and dandy, you just keep on trucking, that renewal happens – you don’t have to keep track of two things, in other words, so that’s good news.
The common misconception that I addressed this morning in Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses is this idea that you have to work with your associate. You do not have to work with your associate. You can have a practice, you can have a private practice, you can have a supervision practice standalone, no private practice. There are lots of different ways you can use supervision to level up your business and we’ll talk about that next week.