38-2133. Marriage and family therapist; certification; qualifications.

(1) A person who applies to the department for certification as a marriage and family therapist shall be qualified for such certification if he or she:

(a) Provides evidence to the department that he or she has a master's or doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy from a program approved by the board or a graduate degree in a field determined by the board to be related to marriage and family therapy and graduate-level course work determined by the board to be equivalent to a master's degree in marriage and family therapy;

(b) Provides evidence to the department that he or she has had at least three thousand hours of experience in marriage and family therapy under a qualified supervisor following receipt of the graduate degree. The three thousand hours shall include at least one thousand five hundred hours of direct-client contact during the five years preceding application for certification. During the course of completing the client-contact hours, there shall be at least one hundred hours of supervisor-supervisee contact hours with a qualified supervisor and supervision shall be provided at least one hour per week or two hours every two weeks; and

(c) Completes an application and passes an examination approved by the board.

(2) For purposes of this section:

(a) Actively engaged in the practice of marriage and family therapy may include (i) services and activities provided under the direct supervision of a person with at least a master's degree in marriage and family therapy from a program approved by the board or (ii) services and activities that are classified by title or by description of duties and responsibilities as marriage and family therapy practice;

(b) Qualified supervisor means (i) a licensed mental health practitioner, a psychologist licensed to engage in the practice of psychology, or a licensed physician who holds a designation of approved supervisor from an association which establishes standards for marriage and family therapy in conformity with accepted industry standards; such standards shall be specified in rules and regulations approved by the board and adopted and promulgated by the department or (ii) a marriage and family therapist who has practiced for five years and has completed a five-hour supervision course that may be provided by an association which establishes standards for marriage and family therapy in conformity with accepted industry standards; such standards shall be specified in rules and regulations approved by the board and adopted and promulgated by the department; and

(c) Supervision means face-to-face contact between an applicant and a qualified supervisor during which the applicant apprises the supervisor of the diagnosis and treatment of each client, the clients' cases are discussed, the supervisor provides the applicant with oversight and guidance in treating and dealing with clients, and the supervisor evaluates the applicant's performance. In order for a supervised period of time to be credited toward the time of supervision required by subsection (1) of this section, it shall consist of the following:

(i) Focus on raw data from the applicant's clinical work which is made directly available to the supervisor through such means as written clinical materials, direct observation, and video and audio recordings;

(ii) A process which is distinguishable from personal psychotherapy or didactic instruction; and

(iii) A proportion of individual and group supervision as determined by the rules and regulations of the board.

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