Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CACREP) – Washington
Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
Washington requires that applicants for this licensure have a master’s or doctoral degree in mental health counseling or a master’s or doctoral degree in a behavioral science field relating to mental health counseling from an approved school. Fields recognized as relating to mental health counseling include counseling, psychology, social work, nursing, education, pastoral counseling, rehabilitation counseling, or social sciences. Any field of study qualifying as related to mental health counseling must satisfy course work equivalency requirements included in WAC 246-809-221. An official transcript must be provided as evidence of fulfillment of the course work required.
This core of study must include seven of the content areas listed in (a) through (q) of this subsection. Five of the content areas must be from (a) through (h) of this subsection:
- Assessment/diagnosis
- Ethics/law
- Counseling individuals
- Counseling groups
- Counseling couples and families
- Developmental psychology (may be child adolescent, adult or life span)
- Psychopathology/abnormal psychology
- Research and evaluation
- Career development counseling
- Multicultural concerns
- Substance/chemical abuse
- Physiological psychology
- Organizational psychology
- Mental health consultation
- Developmentally disabled people
- Abusive relationships
- Chronically mentally ill
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