Section 1375.40  Professional Experience for Licensure as a Professional Counselor after December 31, 1998

a)         Persons applying for licensure as professional counselors after December 31, 1998, who hold a baccalaureate degree in human services or similar degree program that meets the requirements set forth in Section 1375.50, shall be required to complete 5 years of satisfactory supervised professional experience as follows:

1)         One year of experience shall be a maximum of 1680 clock hours obtained in not less than 48 weeks.  A total of 8400 clock hours is required.  No more than 1680 clock hours may be counted toward one year of experience. Part time experience shall be counted toward the experience requirement.

2)         15 semester hours or equivalent quarter hours of graduate courses related to counseling may be substituted one time for one year of work experience.

3)         Supervised experience shall be experience obtained under a qualified supervisor and entail the provision of services to individuals, couples, groups, families and organizations in any one or more of the fields of professional counseling defined in Section 10 of the Act.

4)         A qualified supervisor means any person who is a licensed clinical professional counselor, licensed clinical social worker, licensed clinical psychologist, or psychiatrist as defined in Section 1-121 of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code.  If supervision took place outside Illinois, the supervisor shall be a master's level or doctoral level counselor engaged in clinical professional counseling.  The supervisor shall hold a license if the jurisdiction in which the supervisor practices requires licensure.

5)         The supervisor shall have met with the applicant at least one hour each week.

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

7)         The supervisor may be provided at the applicant's place of work or may be hired by the applicant to provide supervision.

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

b)         An applicant may begin gaining the required experience 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 Department by the applicant's educational institution.

c)         A person holding a master's degree or doctorate in the field of counseling, rehabilitation counseling, psychology or similar degree program shall not be required to document experience to qualify for licensure as a professional counselor.

(Source:  Amended at 27 Ill. Reg. 15483, effective September 19, 2003)