Connecticut Counseling Association

Are there any exceptions to the requirement for licensure as a professional counselor to provide counseling in Connecticut?  

Connecticut law requires licenses for the following mental health professions in Connecticut: Counselors, MD Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (certified as a clinical specialist in adult psychiatric and mental health nursing with the American Nurses Credentialing Center).

Counseling exceptions to this licensure requirement as contained in the LPC law include: 

(1) A person who furnishes uncompensated assistance in an emergency;

(2) a clergyman, priest, minister, rabbi or practitioner of any religious denomination accredited by the religious body to which the person belongs and settled in the work of the ministry, provided the activities that would otherwise require a license as a professional counselor are within the scope of ministerial duties;

(3) a sexual assault counselor, as defined in section 52-146k;

(4) a person participating in uncompensated group or individual counseling; (5) a person licensed or certified by any agency of this state and performing services within the scope of practice for which licensed or certified;

(6) a student, intern or trainee pursuing a course of study in counseling in a regionally accredited institution of higher education, provided the activities that would otherwise require a license as a professional counselor are performed under supervision and constitute a part of a supervised course of study;

(7) a person employed by an institution of higher education to provide academic counseling in conjunction with the institution's programs and services; or

(8) a vocational rehabilitation counselor, job counselor, credit counselor, consumer counselor or any other counselor or psychoanalyst who does not purport to be a counselor whose primary service is the application of established principles of psycho- social development and behavioral science to the evaluation, assessment, analysis and treatment of emotional, behavioral or interpersonal dysfunction or difficulties that interfere with mental health and human development.