Arkansas Administrative Code
Agency 122 - Board of Examiners in Counseling
Rule 122.00.07-001 - Rule II - Exemptions; Rule IV - Supervision

(a) Clergy appointed and/or endorsed by their local congregation/church, synagogue, denominational institution or agency to practice pastoral counseling as parts of their responsibilities or duties of their ministry assignments are exempt from licensure requirements. The assignment must be authorized and/or endorsed by their local congregation/church, synagogue, denominational institution or agency. International and National licenses/certifications and /or assignments do not supersede state law A.C.A. §17- 27-101 et seq.

(b) Any minister, clergy or pastoral counselor who has a private counseling or marriage and family therapist practice (full time or part time) outside of ministry assignment, accepts fees from any source, such as third party payments, clients, donations or the general public must be licensed by this board.

(a) Approval is documented by the organization or agency for which the service is rendered. Approval means a description of the assignment and designation of the person/persons responsible for supervising the volunteers (clergy, licensed professionals, etc). Documentation is by letter on the organization or agency letterhead, signed by the Arkansas organization or agency authority approving the service.

(b) Any fees to recover costs for materials and/or services rendered, whether assigned fees or donations, will be made payable and deposited to the agency, organization, church, or synagogue that has given the approval. Payment of any type, barter or cash, to the volunteer means the volunteer has entered the private sector and must be licensed according to A.C.A. § 17-27-101et esq.

(c) An organization or agency includes but is not limited to Arkansas churches, Synagogues, military assignments, and The American Red Cross crisis assignments, etc.

(d) The titles of the volunteers must not be Counselor or Therapist. Acceptable volunteer title examples follow: volunteer, disciple, mentor, lay clergy, shepherd, The American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health supervisor or technician.

(f) LAC/LAMFT options for Phase III

A LAC/LAMFT may acquire the required 1000 CCH hours in direct and indirect services with the minimum of 25 hours of supervision in the required ratio of one hour of supervision for each 40 hours of CCH. The indirect service hours may not exceed 300 CCH of the total 1000 CCH.

OR

The LAC/LAMFT may choose to take the NCMHCE option:

The National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE) option is available for the Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC) or Licensed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (LAMFT) who petitions for the Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) or the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) license upon completion of the required supervised Client Contact Hours (CCH) as a Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC) or Licensed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (LAMFT).

(g) Group supervision may not exceed half of the total Board specified supervision requirements. A supervision group is defined as consisting of two (2) to five (5) supervisees with the contracted supervisor.

(h) The contracted supervisor may not delegate supervision responsibility to any other individual. The contracted supervisor should have and emergency plan on file if he/she were to be unavailable.

(i) Post-master's course work may be applied toward supervised experience in accordance with the rules and regulations governing both Licensed Professional Counselors and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists. The Board may accept thirty (30) hours of graduate coursework acceptable to the Board for Phase III and then for Phase II. The maximum of 60 hours of graduate work may be substituted for face-to-face supervision. In no case may the Board waive the Phase I (1000 CCH at the 1:10 ratio) supervision requirements.