Ala. Admin. Code r. 536-X-1-.01 - ALABAMA BOARD OF EXAMINERS IN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY ADMINISTRATIVE CODE
(1)
Marriage and Family Therapy in the State of Alabama is
a professional practice which affects the public safety and welfare and
requires appropriate regulation and control in the public interest. The
practice of marriage and family therapy is the process of providing
professional marriage and family therapy to individuals, couples, and families,
either alone or in a group. The practice of marriage and family therapy
utilizes established principles that recognize the interrelated nature of the
individual problems and dysfunctions in family members in order to diagnose,
assess, and treat emotional, mental, and behavioral disorders within a marriage
and family therapy treatment context. Marriage and family therapy includes,
without being limited to, individual, group, couple, sexual, divorce therapy,
psychotherapy, and family therapy, whether the services are offered directly to
the general public or through organizations, either public or private, for a
fee or other compensation. Marriage and family therapy is a specialized mode of
treatment for the purpose of resolving emotional, mental, and behavioral
disorders and modifying intrapersonal and interpersonal dysfunctions. Marriage
and family therapists do not practice beyond their scope of training in the
areas of assessing, diagnosing, and treating clients. The terms "diagnose,"
"assess," and "treat," as used in this subdivision, when considered in
isolation or in conjunction with the rules of the board, shall not be construed
to permit the performance of any act which marriage and family therapists are
not educated and trained to perform, including, but not limited to,
administering and interpreting psychological tests, intellectual,
neuropsychological, personality, and projective instruments, admitting persons
to hospitals for treatment for the foregoing conditions, treating persons in
hospitals without medical supervision, prescribing medicinal drugs, authorizing
clinical laboratory procedures or radiological procedures, or use of
electroconvulsive therapy. In addition, this definition shall not be construed
to permit any person licensed pursuant to this chapter to describe or label any
test, report, or procedure as "psychological," or as a "psychological
evaluation." A licensed marriage and family therapist may diagnose and develop
treatment plans, but shall not attempt to diagnose, treat, or advise a client
with reference to problems or complaints falling outside the boundaries of
marriage and family therapy services. Nothing in this chapter shall be
construed to authorize persons licensed under this chapter to practice
medicine.
(2)
Allied
Mental Health Field operationalized as a degree in which at least
one of the courses for that degree meets the marriage and family studies,
marriage and family therapy, or human development Board course
requirements.
(3)
Board is the Alabama Board of Examiners in Marriage
and Family Therapy.
(4)
COAMFTE Program is a master's degree, doctoral degree,
or post-graduate degree clinical training program in marriage and family
therapy that is recognized by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and
Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) as either having accreditation or candidacy
status. The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) is the
parent organization of the COAMFTE.
(5)
CACREP Program in Marriage,
Couple, and Family Counseling (MCFC) is a master's degree, or
doctoral degree clinical training program in marriage and family counseling
that is recognized by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related
Educational Programs (CACREP) as either having accreditation or candidacy
status. The American Counseling Association (ACA) is the parent organization of
the CACREP.
(6)
Direct
Client Contact Hour is face-to-face contact with individuals,
couples or families.
(7)
Group Supervision may consist of no more than six (6)
supervisees, regardless of the number of supervisors. Group supervision
provides the opportunity for the supervisees to interact with other supervisees
and offers a different learning experience than that obtained from individual
supervision.
(8)
Individual Supervision is face-to-face contact between
one (1) supervisor and up to two (2) supervisees.
(9)
MFT Work
Experience includes direct client contact hours and supervision
hours, along with other professional tasks such as a preparation of the case
notes, phone contacts, court appearances, administrative supervision, and other
appropriate tasks involved in the professional practice of marriage and family
therapy.
(10)
Raw Data
Supervision includes live supervision (supervision in which the
supervisor observes the case live and has the opportunity to provide
supervisory input during the session), audio or video supervision (supervision
in which the supervisor reviews and provides feedback during the supervision
session on audio or video tapes of the supervisees clinical work), and
supervision of co-therapy cases (supervision outside the session on cases in
which the supervisor is a co-therapist).
(11)
Regional Educational
Accrediting Body is an institution accredited by one of the
following: Middle State Association of Colleges and Schools, New England
Association of Schools and Colleges, North Central Association of Schools and
Colleges, the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges, Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools, and Western Association of Schools and
Colleges. It signifies that the institution meets established standards for
higher education.
(12)
Supervision of marriage and family therapy is expected
to have the following characteristics:
(a)
Face-to-face interaction with the supervisor, typically in periods of
approximately one (1) hour each on at least a weekly basis for a period of two
(2) years;
(b) The face-to-face
supervision hours may be conducted via electronic communications by an AAMFT
Approved Supervisor, AAMFT Supervisor Candidate, ABEMFT Approved Supervisor, or
ABEMFT Supervisor Candidate. Acceptable electronic communication is defined as
communication that is simultaneously interactive both visually and
orally.
(c) Based on an integration
of marriage and family therapy clinical and supervision constructs;
(d) A contract for supervision is required
for all MFT candidates who are under supervision for MFT licensure; The
contract for supervision requires sufficient detail for review and approval by
the Board. Specific topics to be addressed in the contract for supervision
include, but are not limited to the following:
1. The purpose and goals of the supervisee
for this particular supervision relationship;
2. The professional development of the
supervisee, addressing issues related to the development of supervisee
knowledge and skills; and
3. The
supervision protocol established to ensure ethical behavior by supervisees when
treating vulnerable populations; (e.g. addictions, sex therapy, children, and
inpatient treatment).
4. This
contract must be signed by both the supervisor and supervisee. This plan must
be submitted with LMFT Associate and/or LMFT designation application.
(e) Without approval of the Board,
a supervisee may not have more than two (2) supervisors.
(f) The following characteristics are not
acceptable as clinical supervision:
1. Peer
supervision, i.e., supervision by a person of equivalent, rather than superior,
qualifications, status and experience;
2. Supervision by current or former family
members or any other person where the nature of the personal relationship
compromises the professional relationship;
3. Administrative supervision (i.e., clinical
practice performed under administration rather than clinical supervision of a
director or executive director);
4.
A primarily didactic process wherein techniques or procedures are taught in a
group setting, classroom, workshop or seminar; and Consultation, staff
development or orientation to a field program, or role playing of family
interrelationships as a substitute for current clinical practice in an
appropriate clinical.
(13)
Teletherapy/Technology-assisted services refers to the
scope of marriage and family therapy practice of diagnosis, evaluation,
consultation, intervention and treatment of behavioral, social, interpersonal
disorders through synchronous or asynchronous two-way electronic communication
including but not limited to telephone, videoconferencing, email, text, instant
messaging, and social media.
(14)
Telesupervision refers to the practice of supervision
by a licensed (teletherapy) supervisor through synchronous or asynchronous
two-way electronic communication including but not limited to telephone,
videoconferencing, email, text, instant messaging, and social media for the
purposes of developing trainee marital and family therapists, evaluating
supervisee performance, ensuring rigorous legal and ethical standards within
the bounds of licensure, and as a means for improving the profession of marital
and family therapy.
(15)
Asynchronous Communication is not synchronized or
occurring simultaneously (Reimers, 2014).
(16)
Digital
Competency - Marriage and family therapists ensure that they are
well trained and competent in the use of all chosen technology-assisted
professional services. Careful choices of audio, video, and other options are
made in order to optimize quality and security of services and to adhere to
standards of best practices for technology-assisted services. Furthermore, such
choices of technology are to be suitably advanced and current so as to best
serve the professional needs of clients and supervisees. (AAMFT Code of Ethics,
2015).
(17)
Electronic
Communication - Using Web sites, cell phones, email, texting,
online social networking, video, or other digital methods and technology to
send and receive messages, or to post information so that it can be retrieved
by others or used at a later time.
(18)
Encryption - A
mathematical process that converts text, video, or audio streams into a
scrambled, unreadable format when transmitted over the internet. (Trepal,
Haberstroh, Duffey, & Evans, 2007).
(19)
HIPAA Compliant
- HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, sets the
standard for protecting sensitive patient data. Any company that deals with
protected health information (PHI) must ensure that all the required physical,
network, and process security measures are in place and followed. This includes
covered entities (CE), anyone who provides treatment, payment and operations in
healthcare, and business associates (BA), anyone with access to patient
information and provides support in treatment, payment or operations.
Subcontractors, or business associates of business associates, must also be in
compliance.
(20)
Synchronous - Communication which occurs
simultaneously in real time. (Reimers, 2013).
Notes
Author: The Alabama Board of Examiners in Marriage and Family Therapy
Statutory Authority: Code of Ala. 1975, ยงยง 34-17A-1 thru 34-17A-26.
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