Section 1375.130  Professional Experience for Licensure as a Clinical Professional Counselor

Supervised clinical professional counseling experience shall be obtained as set forth in this Section:

a)         A person holding a master's degree in counseling, rehabilitation counseling, psychology or similar degree program shall have completed the equivalent of 2 years of full-time satisfactory supervised experience working as a clinical counselor in a professional capacity under the direction of a qualified supervisor subsequent to obtaining the degree.

b)         A person holding a doctorate in counseling, rehabilitation counseling, psychology or similar degree program shall have completed the equivalent of 2 years of full-time satisfactory supervised experience working as a clinical counselor in a professional capacity under the direction of a qualified supervisor at least one year of which is subsequent to obtaining the degree.  Internships required as part of the doctoral degree may count toward professional experience.

c)         A qualified supervisor means any person who is a licensed clinical professional counselor, licensed clinical social worker, licensed clinical psychologist, licensed marriage and family therapist, or licensed psychiatrist as defined in Section 1-121 of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code.  (Section 10 of the Act)  If supervision took place outside Illinois, the supervisor shall be a master's level or doctoral level counselor engaged in clinical professional counseling, clinical social work, clinical psychology, marriage and family therapy, or psychiatry.  The supervisor shall hold an active license if the jurisdiction in which the supervisor practices requires licensure.  Supervised experience obtained while the clinical counselor applicant is situated in Illinois must be supervised by an Illinois licensed qualified supervisor in accordance with this subsection (c).  An Illinois licensed clinical professional counselor must complete the supervision CE required in Section 1375.220 to be a qualified supervisor.  When a clinical counseling applicant is obtaining supervised experience while physically located in Illinois, the qualified supervisor must be licensed in Illinois, even if the services are being provided to persons located outside of Illinois via telehealth.

d)         One year of supervised clinical professional counseling experience shall be 1680 clock hours obtained in not less than 48 weeks.  At least 50% of those hours must consist of direct face to face service to clients, which includes using telehealth methods where there is synchronous audio-visual communication with the client.  Part time experience shall be counted toward the experience requirement.

e)         For purposes of this Section, supervised clinical professional counseling experience shall be experience obtained under a qualified supervisor as defined in Section 10 of the Act and subsection (c) and entail the provision of clinical professional counseling as defined in Section 10 of the Act.

1)         The supervisor shall have met face-to-face, as defined in Section 10 of the Act, with the applicant at least one hour each week.  The supervision means the review of counseling and case management.

2)         The experience shall have been evaluated by the supervisor as satisfactory or better.

f)         Supervision may be on an individual or group basis.  When group supervision is provided the number of supervisees may not exceed five.

g)         The clinical professional counseling activities must be performed pursuant to the supervisor's order, control, oversight, guidance and full professional responsibility.

h)         A qualified supervisor may be provided at the applicant's place of work or may be hired or contracted by the applicant to provide clinical supervision. (See Section 10 of the Act.)

i)          The following activities are not acceptable clinical supervision:

1)         Peer supervision.

2)         Administrative supervision.  For example, clinical practice performed under administrative rather than clinical supervision of an institutional director or executive.

3)         A primarily didactic process wherein techniques or procedures are taught in a classroom, workshop or seminar.

4)         Consultation, staff development, or orientation to a field or program, or role-playing of family interrelationships as a substitute for current clinical practice in an appropriate clinical situation.

j)          Supervised clinical professional counseling experience may be earned upon completion of the degree requirements.  Verification of the date of completion of the degree, when different from the date of graduation, shall be certified to the Division by the applicant's educational institution.

k)         Supervised clinical professional counseling experience may be gained as a volunteer, as defined in Section 10 of the Act, when the volunteer holds a licensed professional counselor license.

l)          When providing clinical professional counseling services as set forth in Section 10 of the Act a licensed professional counselor who is obtaining the required supervised clinical professional experience shall always operate and represent themselves as a designee, supervisee or an employee of the qualified supervisor and may not work as an independent contractor as defined by Internal Revenue Service regulations (see 26 CFR 31.3121(d)-1).  The licensed professional counselor may not hold an ownership interest in the business organization providing the clinical counseling services.

(Source:  Amended at 48 Ill. Reg. 8776, effective June 4, 2024)