The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have
the following meanings unless the context indicates otherwise.
(1)Accredited institutions or programs--An institution
of higher education accredited by a regionally accrediting agency
recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, or the United States Department
of Education.
(2)Act--Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 502, the Licensed
Marriage and Family Therapist Act.
(3)Board--The Texas State Board of Examiners of Marriage
and Family Therapists.
(4)Client--An individual, family, couple, group, or
organization who receives or has received services from a person identified
as a marriage and family therapist who is either licensed by the council
or unlicensed.
(5)Council--The Texas Behavioral Health Executive
Council.
(6)Council Act--Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 507,
concerning the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council.
(7)Council rules--22 Texas Administrative Code, Chapters
801 and 881 to 885.
(8)Direct clinical services to couples or family--
professional services provided to couples or families in which a clinician
delivers therapeutic services with two or more individuals simultaneously
or two or more individuals from the same family system within the
same therapeutic session. Individuals must share an ongoing relationship
beyond that which occurs in the therapeutic experience itself. Examples
of ongoing relationships include family systems, couple systems, enduring
friendship/community support systems, and residential, treatment or
situationally connected systems.
(9)Endorsement--The process whereby the council reviews
licensing requirements that a license applicant completed while under
the jurisdiction of an out-of-state marriage and family therapy regulatory
board. The council may accept, deny or grant partial credit for requirements
completed in a different jurisdiction.
(10)Executive director--the executive director for
the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council.
(11)Family system--An open, on-going, goal-seeking,
self-regulating, social system which shares features of all such systems.
Certain features such as its unique structuring of gender, race, nationality
and generation set it apart from other social systems. Each individual
family system is shaped by its own particular structural features
(size, complexity, composition, and life stage), the psychobiological
characteristics of its individual members (age, race, nationality,
gender, fertility, health and temperament) and its socio-cultural
and historic position in its larger environment.
(12)Group supervision--Supervision that involves a
minimum of three and no more than six marriage and family therapy
supervisees or LMFT Associates in a clinical setting during the supervision
hour.
(13)Independent Practice--The practice
of providing marriage and family therapy services to a client without
the supervision of an LMFT-S.
(14)[(13)] Individual supervision--Supervision
of no more than two marriage and
family therapy supervisees or LMFT Associates in a clinical setting
during the supervision hour.
(15)[(14)] Jurisprudence exam--An
online learning experience based on the Act, the
Council Act, and council rules, and other state laws and rules
relating to the practice of marriage and family therapy.
(16)[(15) ] License--A marriage
and family therapist license, a marriage and family
therapist associate license, a provisional marriage and family
therapist license, or a provisional marriage and family therapist
associate license.
(17)[(16)] Licensed marriage
and family therapist (LMFT)--As defined in §502.002
of the Occupations Code, a person who offers marriage and family
therapy for compensation.
(18)[(17)] Licensed marriage
and family therapist associate (LMFT Associate)--As
defined in §502.002 of the Occupations Code, an individual
who offers to provide marriage and family therapy for compensation
under the supervision of a supervisor approved by the executive council.
The appropriate council-approved terms to refer to an LMFT Associate
are: "Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate" or "LMFT Associate."
Other terminology or abbreviations like "LMFT A" are not council-approved
and may not be used.
(19)[(18)] Licensee--Any person
licensed by the council.
(20)[(19)] Licensure examination--The
national licensure examination administered by the Association of
Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards (AMFTRB) or the State
of California marriage and family therapy licensure examination.
(21)[(20) ] Marriage and family
therapy--The rendering of professional therapeutic
services to clients, singly or in groups, and involves the professional
application of family systems theories and techniques in the delivery
of therapeutic services to those persons. The term includes the evaluation
and remediation of cognitive, affective, behavioral, or relational
dysfunction or processes.
(22)[(21)] Month--A calendar
month.
(23)[(22)] Person--An individual,
corporation, partnership, or other legal entity.
(24)[(23)] Recognized religious
practitioner--A rabbi, clergyman, or person of similar status who
is a member in good standing of and accountable to a legally recognized
denomination or legally recognizable religious denomination or legally
recognizable religious organization and other individuals participating
with them in pastoral counseling if:
(A)the therapy activities are within the scope of
the performance of regular or specialized ministerial duties and are
performed under the auspices of sponsorship of an established and
legally recognized church, denomination or sect, or an integrated
auxiliary of a church as defined in 26 CFR §1.6033-2(h) (relating
to Returns by exempt organizations (taxable years beginning after
December 31, 1969) and returns by certain nonexempt organizations
(taxable years beginning after December 31, 1980));
(B)the individual providing the service remains accountable
to the established authority of that church, denomination, sect, or
integrated auxiliary; and
(C)the person does not use the title of or hold himself
or herself out as a licensed marriage and family therapist.
(25)[(24)] Supervision--
(A)Supervision for licensure--The guidance or management
in the provision of clinical services by a marriage and family therapy
supervisee or LMFT Associate, which must be conducted for at least
one supervision hour each week, except for good cause shown.
(B)Supervision, Council-ordered--For the oversight
and rehabilitation in the provision of clinical services by a licensee
under a Council Order, defined by the Order and the Council-Ordered
Supervision Plan, and must be conducted as specified in the Council
Order and Supervision Plan (generally in face-to-face, one-on-one
sessions).
(26)[(25)] Supervision hour--50
minutes.
(27)[(26)] Supervisor--An LMFT
with supervisor status meeting the requirements
set out in §801.143 of this title (relating to Supervisor
Requirements). The appropriate council-approved terminology to use
in reference to a Supervisor is: "Supervisor," "Licensed Marriage
and Family Therapist Supervisor," "LMFT-S" or "LMFT Supervisor." Other
terminology or abbreviations may not be used.
(28)[(27)] Technology-assisted
services--Providing therapy or supervision with
technologies and devices for electronic communication and information
exchange between a licensee in one location and a client or supervisee
in another location.
(29)[(28)] Therapist--A person
who holds a license issued by the council.
(30)[(29)] Waiver--The suspension
of educational, professional, or examination
requirements for an applicant who meets licensing requirements
under special conditions.
The agency certifies that legal counsel has
reviewed the proposal and found it to be within the state agency's
legal authority to adopt.
Filed with the Office
of the Secretary of State on September 8, 2023
TRD-202303315 Darrel D. Spinks
Executive Director
Texas State Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists
Earliest possible date of adoption: October 22, 2023
For further information, please call: (512) 305-7706
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