LPCC Internship

Registering as a LPCC Intern is part of the Traditional Path to licensure. Following is an overview of the requirements for Professional Clinical Counselor Interns (PCCIs).  See sections 4999.42 - 4999.48 in the LPCC Law for more detail.

1.  The LPCC license requires 3,000 hours of post-degree supervised experience as a registered Professional Clinical Counselor Intern (PCCI) with the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS).  Pre-degree supervised hours do not count toward these 3,000 hours.

2.  Registration as a PCCI requires completion of all of the LPCC education requirements, including all the core content courses and the additional continuing education hours and the two semester-unit university credit  psychopharmacology course.  Those who begin graduate study August 1, 2012 and after will include these continuing education topics and the psychopharmacology course within their degrees.

3.  The 90-day rule:  Recent graduates, who apply for an intern registration number within 90 days of the granting of the qualifying degree, can start counting post-degree supervised hours before they receive a registration number from the BBS. Under the 90-day rule, interns will have 12 months, from the date of their deficiency letter, to make up deficiencies.  For those who do not come under the 90-day rule, hours begin to count from the date the BBS issues the intern registration number.

4.  The supervised experience must take place in a setting that lawfully and regularly provides mental health counseling or psychotherapy and provides oversight for the PCCI.  A counselor cannot work in a private practice until registered as an intern. 

5.  The PCCI must be supervised by an Approved Supervisor, who has documented two years of clinical experience as a California LPCC, LMFT, LCSW, licensed clinical psychologist, or physician who is certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. The supervisor must have been licensed for at least two years in California, have received professional training in supervision and his or her license must be current and valid.

6.  Supervision must include at least one hour if direct supervisor contact in each week for which experience is credited in each work setting.  Note that the BBS has proposed legislation which would exclude professional enrichment activities (workshops, training sessions, etc.) from this requirement, but that law would not likely take effect until January 2014. 

7.  A PCCI must be a employee or volunteer and not an independent contractor.  PCCI's cannot accept any remuneration from clients and shall only be paid by their employers.  Interns can have no proprietary interest in the employer's business.

8.  The 3,000 supervised hours shall be achieved in no less than two years and no more than six years.

9.  The LPCC supervision requirements include 150 hours of clinical experience in a hospital or community mental health setting.

10.  Counselors who would like to practice marriage and family therapy and/or supervise Marriage and Family Therapist Interns (MFTIs) should include 500 hours of supervised practice with couples, families and children in their internship. In addition, LPCCs must have six units of marriage and family therapy theory and practice. See 4999.20 LPCC Scope of Practice in the LPCC Law.