North Carolina Board of Licensed Professional Counselors (NCBLPC) is now renamed as North Carolina Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors (NCBLCMHC), it keeps eyes on the individuals who give counseling services to the public, regulating to ensure the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare. It was estimated in the State on July 24, 1993, under the provision of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Act, to learn more about this board, you may visit the webportal at ncblcmhc.org/.
North Carolina Board of Licensed Professional Counselors
For the counselling professional, NCBLCMHC uses national standards of counselor preparation and ethical codes. For the first one, preparation of professional counselors are found in two resources: National Board of Certified Counselors and Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. NBCE usually sets standards for the preparation and certification of counselors and CACREP is a corporate affiliate of the American Counseling Association.
The National Board of Certified Counselors has also developed a test named “National Counselor Examination”, which is used in most states of the United States of America, it is also used in North Carolina. North Carolina Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors had adopted the American Counseling Association’s code of ethics and standards of practice in 2014. Both of these resources are used by the NCBLCMHC to ensure that licensed counselors in Northern Carolina practice according to ethical standards.
NCBLCMHC Licensure
To practise counselling in North Carolina, it is mandatory to get a licence from Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors, there are three types are licences, which are
- Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate (LCMHCA)
- Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC)
- Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor (LCMHCS)
Let’s know a little about these licences:
Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor (LCMHCS): It is a restricted licence, using which under the supervision of a qualified mental health professional, an holder can gain clinical mental health counseling experience, and its licence number starts with A.
Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC): It is an independent i.e. unrestricted licence, an LCMGC licence holder has completed the 3000 supervised professional practice, with at 100 hours of supervision, and its licence number doesn’t have any letter, to get this licence it is mandatory to have completed licensure requirements.
Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor (LCMHCS): it is most independent and unrestricted licence, an holder if this licence can even provide clinical supervision to LCMHCA licence holder, having this licence, an individual can practise counseling, this type of licence are hold by those who have completed 5 to 8 years clinical mental health counseling experience.
How to apply for NCBLCMHC Licensure?
To get a licence to practise counseling, an individual will have to apply online for it, to do so it is required to pay $238, which includes $28 for Criminal Background Check, to get “Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate (LCMHCA)” for beginners an individual must have completed all requirements, which are as following:
- Application
- Education and Official Transcript(s)
- Exams
- Professional Disclosure Statement, including disclosure of supervision arrangements
- Criminal Background Check
- Verification of Graduate Counseling Experience
To apply online and get a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate (LCMHCA) licence, an individual will have to go through the step-by-step instructions below.
- Go to the official website of the North Carolina Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors at https://www.ncblcmhc.org/.
- In the header menu-bar, you will find an option of Applying for Licensure under the section of the Licensure, tap on it and get redirected to another page.
- Now, you will find an option of the “Apply Now”, tap on it and get redirected to another page.
- At the end, you have to register yourself, complete the application form, pay the required fee and submit it to get a licence.
To get detailed information regarding getting a Licence to practise counselling, you are requested to check the official website.