Michigan llpc guide to tracking supervision hours
Michigan has some pretty funky rules when it comes to the supervision of LLPC’s as they work toward their full licensure. The Bureau of Professional Licensing specifies that applicants for a full LPC license must submit the following regarding worked hours and supervision hours:
A completed Counseling Work Experience form must be submitted directly to this office from your supervisor. An applicant must have completed counseling experience under the supervision of a licensed professional counselor. All supervised experience obtained in Michigan must be completed after the limited counselor license has been issued. Supervised experience gained prior to obtaining the limited license cannot be counted toward licensure. Individuals with a master's degree must accrue 3,000 hours of post-degree counseling experience in not less than a two-year period with at least 100 hours accrued in the immediate physical presence of the supervisor. Individuals who have completed 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours of graduate study in counseling beyond a master's degree must accrue 1,500 hours of post degree counseling experience in not less than a one-year period with at least 50 hours accrued in the immediate physical presence of the supervisor.
Ok - specific, yet vague. 3,000 hours of counseling experience - direct with clients? Indirect time? Do CE’s count? Does the time spent doing paperwork count? Research? The application for full licensure includes a Counseling Work Experience form that must be submitted to the State directly from your supervisor. If you’ve seen this form, you know there is not much to it. It’s a one pager, your supervisor fills in the dates you were under their supervision, the total number of counseling experience hours you completed under their supervision, and the total number of supervision hours you completed with them. The form is signed by both of you, and mailed to the State by the supervisor. Who is responsible for keeping track of this information over the course of the 2 years (possibly more) that you’re working under their guidance? What if you and your supervisor disagree on the number of accrued hours? What if you’ve changed supervisors during the time you were limited licensed? ..I could go on and on with the what if’s.
All of these questions lead me to this - the state, nor your supervisor really, is responsible for keeping track of the hours you’ve accrued. You are. And to protect yourself - it’s smart to keep written proof of your logged hours and have your supervisor sign off each time you meet for supervision. Think of it this way - you change jobs, you change supervisors - that supervisor may not be available for you when you’re ready to submit your application for LPC. As a LLPC supervisor who has seen first hand, supervisee’s who completed hours and hours of supervised work only to have to start over because there is no written proof - trust me - you don’t want to be in this position.
Until Michigan is able to create a better, more up to date system for tracking supervised working hours for LLPC’s it’s on us to work around the challenges, and find solutions. My recommendation? Use something like an excel spreadsheet to track your work hours each week (you’re needing 3,000 total hours). You and your supervisor can discuss what was completed and sign each time you meet for supervision. Something similar can be used for tracking your direct supervision hours (the 100 hours that must be accrued)
The acceptance of such a log by the State with an application for full licensure is not a sure thing, I’ve had supervisee’s who stopped supervision with me for various reasons create something similar prior to ending our time together - just in case. Having something like this shows you’ve been responsible, careful and thoughtful over your supervised hours - and as a certified supervisor - I’m more likely to accept something like this myself as proof that the work actually happened. However you keep track, know that YOU need to keep track.
