Licensure in Massachusetts

[treckingon]

Hello,

I am a grad student at OSU and would like to head back to Boston eventually. I am going into my last year before internship and am trying to figure out what classes i should take before leaving campus.

I have heard that the licensing board in MA can make it very difficult to get licensed there. Have any of you been through this process in MA? If so, what breadth requirements and issues do they get particularly hung up on in your experience?

Thank you!

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[AryaStark]

http://www.mass.gov/ocabr/docs/dpl/boards/py/99pyap.pdf

 

[HomeworkHelper]

I would love it if anyone has advice on this as well. I've already gone through the link that AryaStark posted, but I know that programs like OSU that house multiple areas of psychology (e.g., social) can have courses that likely fit requirements for licensure but don't have nice, neat names that a licensing board would be easily able to tell fit within a certain category. I'm hoping in those cases a syllabus will be helpful.

 

[PHD12]

It's unfair to early career psychologists who are already struggling to make ends meet and have already shelled out over $1,000 for the licensure process. Several states have made the licensure process really cumbersome to the point that it takes folks from good programs 2+ years to get licensed (e.g., some require oral exams that have long wait lists and low pass rates, extra courses that are not offered by any APA program). I know a few people who attended great APA programs/internships and then had to wait sometime until they could get licensed in Massachusetts due to course work.

I understand that there need to be regulation. However, If attended an APA program, APA internship, post-doc, and already spend 8 years in training, you should be able to get licensed anywhere in the US. MD's don't have to take extra classes to meet the state's requirements once they graduate. This is another drawback to being in an overly saturated field I suppose.

 

[docma]

MA is one of the states with a slew of very specific requirements and you are wise to look ahead. It is best to email them directly and hopefully find someone in the licensing office to whom you can ask specific questions. They do have a number of required courses which are not always offered pre-Ph.D or required by other states for licensure and they have very specific requirements about weeks of length in the internship,etc. APA accreditation may cover most requirements but you always need to read the fine print. That said,I know a number of grads (even without APPIC/APA internship) that have successfully been licensed there so it IS do-able.

 

[KillerDiller]

You will need to take a course in racial and ethnic bases of behavior for Massachusetts. If you have a cultural diversity class and can retain a syllabus that shows fairly extensive coursework in racial diversity, that may suffice.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I understand that there need to be regulation. However, If attended an APA program, APA internship, post-doc, and already spend 8 years in training, you should be able to get licensed anywhere in the US. MD's don't have to take extra classes to meet the state's requirements once they graduate. This is another drawback to being in an overly saturated field I suppose.

This actually has little to do with the over-saturation (which is still a problem) and everything to do with the piss poor lobbying and advocating at the federal level. The ball was dropped decades ago when the states were given too much control over whatever idiosyncratic requirements they wanted to employ. License portability for psychologists is a joke (even w. ABPP and related orgs that have setup some reciprocity between states). The ball was also dropped when degree conferral was not moved to BEFORE the internship year in response to the growing funding problems associated with not being able to get PAID for the work done during the intern year.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

This actually has little to do with the over-saturation (which is still a problem) and everything to do with the piss poor lobbying and advocating at the federal level. The ball was dropped decades ago when the states were given too much control over whatever idiosyncratic requirements they wanted to employ. License portability for psychologists is a joke (even w. ABPP and related orgs that have setup some reciprocity between states). The ball was also dropped when degree conferral was not moved to BEFORE the internship year in response to the growing funding problems associated with not being able to get PAID for the work done during the intern year.

This is actually what I was going to say as well--as much as over-saturation is a problem, the licensure issues seems to be due more to poor lobbying and advocating (as T4C mentioned) along with significant variability in training quality and standards across programs.

Although looking at the physician system, I believe it's actually also left up to each individual state, at least to some extent...they just have much better concordance with respect to what's required (i.e., all adhere to the same agreed-upon national standard). I could be wrong, though, so someone please correct me if I am.

 

[ishiguro78]

*bump*. Does anyone else have tips on licensure in Massachusetts (aside from what's already listed on the mass.gov website)?

 

[notfullyfathomd]

A classmate of mine emailed someone on the board with a question about coursework, and she replied that they are moving away from specific coursework requirements and will be accepting the coursework of anyone who has completed an APA-accredited program. I believe our DCT has followed up to confirm. Since this change isn't reflected on the website yet, I think it's worth an email to ask about it before making decisions about your own coursework. I, for one, was very very excited to hear about this because it's significantly reduced the number of courses I have to squeeze in before internship!

 

[beastmaster5000]

If you visit http://www.asppb.org/HandbookPublic/handbookreview.aspx and select "jurisdictional handbook" and then "massachusetts" you'll see a nice list of all the current requirements. Seems as though an APA-accredited program and an internship that is up to APA standards (but not necessarily APA) would do the trick, but you may want to dig deeper.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

If you visit http://www.asppb.org/HandbookPublic/handbookreview.aspx and select "jurisdictional handbook" and then "massachusetts" you'll see a nice list of all the current requirements. Seems as though an APA-accredited program and an internship that is up to APA standards (but not necessarily APA) would do the trick, but you may want to dig deeper.

That site is a great resource for relatively easily reviewing the licensure requirements of various states, yep. I'm not sure exactly how often they update it, but it seems to be fairly regularly.

Speaking to the post a couple above mine--I know of at least a few states, I believe, where the class-specific requirements are waived if the individual graduated from an APA-accredited doctoral program. I can only imagine how much of a pain it must be to have to gather and submit syllabi for every class taken in grad school if those requirements aren't waived...

 

[ishiguro78]

Really helpful information - thanks everyone for your input! Great to know about the possible change in coursework requirements, though it seems like an even tougher requirement is Health Service Provider certification, which you apparently need - in addition to licensure! - in order to practice independently in MA.

http://www.mass.gov/ocabr/licensee/dpl-boards/py/forms/health-service-provider-certification.html

 

[KillerDiller]

Really helpful information - thanks everyone for your input! Great to know about the possible change in coursework requirements, though it seems like an even tougher requirement is Health Service Provider certification, which you apparently need - in addition to licensure! - in order to practice independently in MA.

http://www.mass.gov/ocabr/licensee/dpl-boards/py/forms/health-service-provider-certification.html

I think I may be missing something, but the requirements outlined for the HSP certification don't seem to be any different from what I have heard the licensure requirements are--1600 pre-doc interhsip hours, 1600 post-doc hours. I don't really understand the distinction.