Soon, I will introduce legislation to update Pennsylvania’s Marriage and Family Therapist Practice law. 

 

Specifically, this legislation will do two things: 

 

1. Remove the provision of existing law that states that: “The applicant has, at a minimum, been actively engaged in the practice of marriage and family therapy for five of the last seven years immediately preceding the filing of the application for licensure by endorsement with the board.” 
 

Five years is excessive and social workers, another master’s level profession covered by the Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Professional Counselors Board, does not have such a requirement in licensure by endorsement. 

 

2. Remove the provision of existing law that states: “The applicant has completed a minimum of 3,000 hours of supervised clinical experience acceptable to the board,”
 

As written, this creates a barrier to those coming from states that measure supervision hours differently, such as measuring hours of direct client contact rather than total hours of supervised clinical experience. 

 

Please join me in support of this legislation which has the support of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.