ok, going to answer these as best as I can.. with the caveat that I know nothing about MA licensure in general. I did go to their website, as well as BU's, so here's what I can glean-
(and as I'm finishing this up, I realize it's becoming alphabet soup, so if anyone's getting confused, please ask!)
exactly. The MA LMHC seems to be the equivalent of the LPC/LCPC in other states. Both are governed via the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC).
From the looks of their curriculum, it doesn't look too drastically different than most of the counseling programs in my area. A more medical emphasis, sure.. but it seems like it's the equivalent of doing a general Masters in Counseling with all medically-related electives. Which is intriguing, I agree. It just makes me wonder if there are similar electives at other programs which may not be so pricey. Kind of a create-your-own if you will..
You asked a question essentially about scope/definition of practice for masters-level. From the MA website, here are the two primary masters-level licensure definitions of practice:
As you can see, they're pretty similar. I was surprised to see "organizations and communities" mentioned in the LMHC but not the LICSW as that's typically a social work-y thing, but then I realized that those things would not fall under "clinical" social work. Rather, there's a whole set of social workers with no interest in clinical/mental health work whatsoever who are wonderful at that stuff. Also interesting to see the medical exclusion under the LICSW definition.. makes me wonder who was doing something they shouldn't have been doing.
(I've never seen that before in a definition, and I've reviewed several states' licensing regs as I've considered moving states.)
I freely admit to strong bias toward the MSW.. interestingly, I've never met a social worker who said they wished they had done counseling instead.. but I've met several counselors who wish they would have chosen the social work route. Their reasons have been primarily due to job accessibility and security. (see below)
yes on both counts. SWs have their own regulatory boards in most states.
First things first:
The degrees are: BSSW/BSW, MSW
The licenses are: LSW/LBSW, LCSW/LICSW
and for counseling
no BS-level degree in counseling, no licensure available
Degrees: MA Counseling, Masters in Counseling, MEd Counseling, various others
Licenses: LPC, LCPC, LMHC (apparently)
In my (again, very biased) opinion, the MSW is a bit more of a known quantity, as the Council on Social Work Education accredits the programs and mandates a core curriculum. And one of the requirements of licensure in every state I've looked into has been that the degree be from a CSWE-accredited school. Plus, the ONLY degree which can obtain a LCSW/LICSW is a MSW. So as a general rule, if you're hiring a MSW and/or LCSW, you know what their background is. (Of course, electives, practica, and work experience are important as well.) It is my understanding- and if someone knows differently, please feel free to correct me- that the curricula at counseling schools tend to vary more as there are multiple similar degrees- MEd Counseling, MA Counseling, MCounseling, etc- which all sit for the LPC/LMHC exams. So there's a lot more variability going on, and an employer may not know exactly what they're getting. It's debatable whether that's of any actual importance as they are so similar, but.....
I would propose that this difference is part of the reasons why Medicare will reimburse LCSWs but not LPCs/LMHCs at this point. My theory is that because of the more cohesive background, the NASW has been able to advocate more strongly to get things passed while the NBCC is trying to pull together folks from several fields and hasn't gotten it done yet. They are working on it, though, but it's been several years.
This issue does come into play occasionally.. couple of anecdotes- I was working for a CMHC where a LPC in my department was running DBT groups and one of my clients would have really done well with that. Except she had Medicare and no ability to pay for the services out of pocket, so she couldn't go. Same agency- the state cut the budget for mental health services, leading to a slash in our funding. There was talk of laying off someone in our department (adult psychotherapy). I had the least seniority, but they were going to keep me (LCSW) and cut the person ahead of me (LPC) because I could generate revenue from the same resources as her, PLUS Medicare.
Complaints from some of my counseling friends include the Medicare thing, but also that they can ONLY do counseling jobs, whereas the MSW allows me to transition to do medical SW, or organizational, administration, advocacy, adoption, children/families... etc etc etc. So there have been several positions they wanted to apply for and were not able to do so.
Something to consider.
I've got other soapboxes sitting around, but I have to get up in 6 hours.
