Rule 30-2201-4.2 - Requirements to Become a Provisional-Licensed Professional Counselor (P-LPC)A. A P-LPC license will be issued once all of the following are completed and approved by the Board: Application, general requirements, Official Transcript(s), Background check, Verification of a passing score on the Jurisprudence Exam, Online Supervision agreement, Supervision Contract, and Declaration of Practices.B.Education Requirements:The following is a list of education requirements that all Applicants must meet in order to be licensed:
Either sixty (60) semester hours or ninety (90) quarter hours of graduate study.
For degrees conferred after January 1, 2017, the Board will only accept sixty (60) semester hours or ninety (90) quarter-hour master's degree programs. Those programs shall be either
1. CACREP degree programs or degree programs with the word counseling in its title and meet the structure of CACREP as it specifically pertains to the twelve (12) courses specified, as part of sixty (60) semester hours or ninety (90) quarter hours that are required for completion of the degree or2. An earned doctoral or educational specialist degree primarily in a counseling, guidance, or related field, which meets similar standards as specified above.Please note that all references to hours of college credit are for semester hours. Quarter hours may be converted to semester hours using the standard formula (Number of quarter hours X .67 = Semester hour equivalent). Semester hours must total sixty (60) hours.
A graduate program related to counselor education is defined as one that contains course work in all of the following areas. Each Applicant must have completed a three (3) hour semester course or its equivalent in each of the following areas:
1. Human Growth and Development - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of the nature and needs of individuals at all levels of development, normal and abnormal human behavior, personality theory, life-span theory, and learning theory within cultural contexts. Emphasis is placed on psychological approaches used to explain, predict, and modify human behavior.2. Social and Cultural Foundations - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of societal changes and trends in human roles, societal subgroups, social mores, interaction patterns, and multicultural and pluralistic trends in differing lifestyles, and major societal concerns including stress, person abuse, substance abuse, discrimination, and methods for alleviating these concerns.3. Counseling and Psychotherapy Skills - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of philosophic bases of helping processes, counseling theories and their applications, basic and advanced helping skills, consultation theories and their application, client and helper self-understanding and self-development, and facilitation of client or consultee change.4. Group Counseling - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of group development, dynamics, and counseling theories; group leadership styles; basic and advanced group counseling methods and skills; and other group approaches.5. Lifestyle and Career Development - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of career development theories; occupational and educational information sources and systems; career and leisure counseling guidance and education; lifestyle and career decision-making; career development program planning resources and effectiveness evaluation.6. Testing and Appraisal - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of group and individual educational and psychometric theories and approaches to appraisal, data, and information gathering methods, validity and reliability, psychometric statistics, factors, influencing appraisals, and use of appraisal results in helping process. Additionally, the specific ability to administer and interpret tests and inventories to assess interests and abilities and to identify career options is important.7. Research and Evaluation - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of different types of research, basic statistics, research-report development, research implementation, program evaluation needs assessment, publication of research information, and legal considerations.8. Professional Orientation to Counseling or Ethics - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of professional roles and functions of counselors, professional goals and objectives, professional counseling organizations and associations, professional history and trends, ethical and legal standards, professional standards, and professional credentialing.9. Theories of Counseling Psychotherapy and Personality - Course work includes studies in basic theories, principles and techniques of counseling, and their application to professional counseling settings.10. Marriage and/or Family Counseling/Therapy - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of marriage and family theories and approaches to counseling with families and couples. This includes appraisal of family and couples systems and the application of these to counseling families and/or couples in premarriage, marriage and/or divorce situations.11. Abnormal Psychology and Psychopathology - Course work includes studies that provide a broad understanding of individuals' current mental/emotional states consistent with accepted classifications such as those provided in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as published by the American Psychiatric Association; and the most recent edition of the ICD and the development of planned, diagnostic - relevant interventions, including the goals of counseling, methods of treatment, and means of monitoring progress.12. Internship - Supervised, planned, practical, advanced experience obtained in a clinical setting observing and applying principles, methods, and techniques learned in training and/or educational settings.C. Official Transcripts: Official transcripts from an approved educational institution of all graduate work verifying educational qualifications must be submitted to the Board. Official transcripts shall be submitted through an online transcript verification service such as Parchment, Credentials Solutions or The National Student Clearinghouse or mailed or delivered to the Board office in a sealed envelope signed across the envelope's seal by the transcript clerk.
1. Only graduate-level transcripts are required.D.Examination Requirements:Applicants must have a passing score on the Mississippi Jurisprudence Exam. This required exam is administered through an entity determined by the Board. The Applicant must pay any fees related to taking the exam. Mississippi Board approval is not required. Individuals making initial application for provisional licensure must include in their application packet the certificate indicating a passing score on the Mississippi Jurisprudence Exam.
E.Supervision Requirements:1. An online agreement and written contract between the Applicant and an LPC-S and the Declaration of Practice must be submitted as part of the online application process.2. Post-master's supervised experience begins once the P-LPC is issued and must be documented using the online portal.3. A P-LPC must remain under supervision until the individual is licensed as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC).4. The supervisor must be a Mississippi Board qualified supervisor (LPC-S).5. An applicant for licensure in Mississippi can only accrue supervised hours in Mississippi. For out of state applicants, the Board may accept hours supervised by an LPC-S or equivalent.6. In order to receive supervision by a Mississippi LPC-S (Board qualified supervisor), a P-LPC may practice in a clinical setting at a site that is governed by either federal, state, county, or municipality. For other sites of practice, the P-LPC may practice under the supervision of an LPC-S as long as an LPC or an individual licensed to provide psychotherapy services independently in Mississippi is available on the premises. In such case, the affiliation between the P-LPC and the on-site licensed provider must be documented in the Declaration of Practice. Proof of his/her/their licensure (such as copy/photo of license, wall certificate, or online verification) must be submitted to the Board. The LPC-S is responsible for verifying the independent practice setting and the onsite licensed practitioner.7. The P-LPC shall neither practice independently nor hold oneself out as a counselor in independent practice.F. Pay the nonrefundable Application Fee of $50.00 in the form of check, money order, or via the online process for payment. Checks and money orders should be made payable to the Mississippi Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors.G. The P-LPC shall be renewable for not more than four (4) years. Licensees may appeal to the Board for an extension.H. Upon yearly renewal, the LPC-S shall submit the online evaluation of the P-LPC.30 Miss. Code. R. 2201-4.2
Miss Code Ann. § 73-30-7(6) & 73-30-9 (Rev. 2018)