Nearly a year ago, I began the process of changing my Ohio LPC (licensed professional counselor) to the state of Michigan. Looking back I should have researched more but at the time I was knee deep in wedding planning in the midst of a pandemic and my priorities were all over the place. At the same time, I don’t think I would have ever been able to prepare for the craziness that was about to erupt.
I left my job in Ohio in September of 2020 and then spent the next few months wedding planning and enjoying the first month of married life. By December, I was motivated to hit the ground running with the job search. The first step was to gather the paperwork necessary to obtain the Michigan license from LARA. This consisted of an official transcript from a CACREP certified masters program, a letter from the university stating program completion, verification of licensure from the previous state, and a professional disclosure statement. The transcript was the first and easiest thing to mark off the list. After requesting the other items, I began the job searching process as I knew all of these steps would take time especially due to the change in processes during the pandemic.
My first misstep was the type of jobs I was applying for. In Ohio, the dependent counseling licensure was referred to as an LPC and the independent, LPCC. Thus, I began searching for LPC positions and was able to secure several initial interviews. During the first of many zoom interviews with potential employers, I learned that my certification in the state of Michigan had a different title. In Michigan the dependent licensure is called LLPC (limited licensed professional counselor) and the independent license is called LPC. I so appreciate the interviewers that took the time to explain this very important fact to me.
At that point, I began to retrace my steps and contacted the Michigan licensure agency, LARA, to confirm the process as I moved forward. The only information they were able to share was that I needed to pursue the LLPC license and complete all required paperwork, fingerprinting, and payment. When I was working on the professional disclosure statement, I noticed that one of the requirements was to include the name and contact information of my current supervisor. I thought that seemed odd because I did not have a supervisor as I was not currently employed. So, I simply left that part blank and submitted all documents to the state. A week and a half later, I received confirmation that my license could not be officially processed until I had a supervisor to list. This left me in a conundrum: I could not get a job without a license and I could not get a license without a supervisor. At this point I continued to do job interviews and reached the 4th round of the process for a few different opportunities. In each case I never got a final response, even after requesting a response and feedback. I even contacted a clinical mental health counseling program at a university in the state of Michigan to gather more insight but was unable to get concrete information. By this point, it was the spring of 2021 and I decided to step back from job searching to reflect and take care of a few medical concerns. In hindsight, this was a much needed reprieve and helped me discern what I wanted to do moving forward.
In late July 2021, I felt ready to jump back into operation find a job with the goal of doing everything I could to complete all the hours I needed to become an independently licensed counselor. I applied for several LLPC positions and was fortunate enough to get an interview with a private practice. The initial interview went well and I moved on to a second interview with the clinical director. During the interview, we reviewed my resume and I explained that I had included my certification LPC because that was the only current license I held from the state of Ohio and was in the process of securing a Michigan license once I was employed. At that moment, the interviewer paused. She let me know she was concluding the interview. At that point, she graciously took the time to explain parts of the process that I did not understand fully. She explained there is no way to get a job without a license. She also informed me that I was required to have two supervisors. One of these supervisors would supervise my license. I would need to contact this person on my own and pay them for my supervision as I work toward my independent licensure. Once I have this supervisor I would be able to complete my professional disclosure statement and officially obtain an LLPC license through the state of Michigan.
Getting to this point of understanding was extremely difficult as it was very different from the process in Ohio. I do realize that this seems complicated mostly because I was taught in the Ohio system and this process may feel completely natural to those trained in the state of Michigan. Still, I feel that there needs to be more continuity to this process between states. Before I started this journey, I knew it was going to be convoluted. I recall during my graduate program, there was a therapist who relocated to Ohio and had to take a few courses and redo internship hours to get her license transferred. The main issue is not the fact that each state has different protocol, but that this information is not readily available and requires some serious sleuthing to figure out. I also feel a lot of the confusion in my specific situation was due to the pandemic and the fact that everything has been taking longer than it had in the past.
In the coming weeks, I will be sharing more of this process including tips and insight for others, so stay tuned!
