FEATURE ARTICLE
July 2004

Licensure Update: Where We Are and What You Can Do
By Rita Horn

As of summer 2004, the CCCL (California Coalition for Counselor Licensure) efforts are proceeding with a crucial deadline looming: as of November, the contract with the Sacramento lobbying firm who will represent our cause must be signed and paid for. To date, $30,000 has been raised. Major national organizations including ACA, NBCC and AMHCA have made generous contributions. Now each member organization is being asked to contribute at least $2500 for CCCL to reach its goal of raising the additional $30,000 needed. It’s this simple: no money, no lobbyist, no legislation, no license. The effort will be dead, and unlikely to be resurrected again for a very long time, if ever. Each member organization of the CCCL, of which CCDA is one of 13 charter member associations, has committed to: 1) publicly support professional counselor licensure; 2) assist with fundraising; and 3) provide consistent representation at CCCL board meetings.

You may be wondering about the very issue of licensure. Why bother? Why now? Why me? All valid and significant questions. Not everyone in CCDA may be interested, or even eligible to be licensed. But for those who have attained an accredited master’s degree in counseling (or some related fields to be specified in the legislation) it can serve you well in significant and potentially far-reaching ways. Consider the following, and ask yourself how much you value each:

• Professionalism
  
• Status and stature among peers
  
• Income potential
  
• Assess to employment opportunities
  
• Insurance reimbursement
  . . . and, from a national perspective, the very key issue of
  
• PORTABILITY
  
  

For those native and otherwise loyal Californians and those not ever contemplating residing anywhere else, portability of one’s license may not seem important. In fact, it may not even be recognizable as an issue at all. But, for LPCs (Licensed Professional Counselors) in 47 other states, it is crucial. Their hard-earned licenses are meaningless in California, and their ability to function with the full scope of their training and skill is drastically diminished. They may even have to start all over and get another degree, either an MFT or an MSW, neither one of which, interestingly enough, addresses or encompasses the career counseling specialization. Counselors leaving California also have no recognizable credential that would allow them to readily continue their work in other states, without seeking the appropriate and required license there.

All eyes are on California. Hawaii has a bill on its governor’s desk awaiting signature. Nevada is poised to introduce legislation, and no opposition is expected.

Right now the coalition is compiling a statewide database of counselors that will be key to identifying who your legislators are. It will be used to send you important "calls to action" when the time is right to ask for your help in contacting your legislators by mail or phone. Please email the following information (which will be held in confidence and only used by the CCCL to contact you for these stated purposes) to Jodi Jaques (email: jdjaques@calpoly.edu) your name, home address, and email address. Or, you may register in the CCCL database at www.CCCL.org or via the CCDA website (see CCDA’s homepage).

If the lobbyists can sign on in November, we will have an attainable target: introducing legislation in the Spring 2005 legislative session. And then a whole new phase of the campaign commences.

Stay tuned, and please, if you haven’t already, do contribute today by sending a check payable to "CCCL" to: Jan Cummings, Treasurer, CCCL, P.O. Box 5421, Fullerton, CA 92838. Your contribution goes directly to CCCL. Please send any questions to: info@caccl.org.

California counselors have never been this close to achieving licensure. Let’s not let this opportunity slip away!