Assumption College Continuing Education for Mental Health Counselors

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Continuing Education for Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC)

By LifeStance Health on February 18, 2022

As a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), you are treating many different kinds of mental, behavioral, and emotional challenges every day. LPCs make up a large percentage of the mental health workforce, and have a variety of clients who require different kinds of knowledge and insights to treat—particularly in the midst of the pandemic.

Whether you are seeking out education for knowledge enhancement, license or certificate renewal, career development, or to increase your job opportunities, the need for continuing education is at a critical point for counselors. And because we are dealing with an unpredictable ability to meet in person, planning for and taking courses has also become a challenge, so we have assembled a list of resources for you that can help you get the education you need, how and when you need it.

Requirements for licensing vary by state, as well as the number of courses that can be taken online, though these requirements have been adjusted to account for COVID. It is important to know your state board requirements, and to know how many LPC CE units are allowed to be obtained from online LPC CE providers. For a list of requirements by state click here, and to find the licensing agency for each state click here.

Educational Resources

Free and Low-Cost Courses:

• National Association for Social Workers
  • The NASW also offers free CEUs as well as CEUs for counselors at a discounted rate to help you meet your licensing requirements.
• CE4Less
  • This website offers free ethics CE courses as well as an unlimited course option for a yearly fee.
• Counseling.Org
  • The American Counseling Association has courses for license or certificate renewal, and professional development.
• CE-Credit.Com
  • CE-Credit offers courses from experts in the field and aims to keep them free from biasing factors like affiliations, sponsorships, or financial support.
• National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC)
  • The NBCC offers a variety of courses including college/university courses, seminar/workshop conferences, home study CE, publication/presentations/new program development, dissertation courses, supervision/consultation courses, and leadership courses.

Paid Courses:

• The American Counseling Association (ACA) has affordable, quality continuing education courses that can be taken at your convenience. Courses are presented by experts in a variety of subject areas, and professional counselors can learn from the best, either online or in person. The ACA has a yearly conference and expo, a professional development center, and offers its members 12 free online courses each year.
• Aspira Continuing Education offers courses in all mental health practice areas. Whether you are completing CEUs for your certification or to maintain your license, their online continuing education courses provide fast, low cost, and convenient ways to fulfill CEU requirements. They offer courses in a wide range of subjects covering everything from treating patients to running a practice. A sample of their class offerings:
  • Advanced Social Work Practice Behaviors to Address Behavioral Health Disparities
  • Telebehavioral Health – What Every Provider Needs to Know
  • Business Planning
  • Self-Care In Social Work

In Person and "Live" Education:

Many courses are now being taught as live webinars, qualify as in person learning, and eliminate the expense and inconvenience of travel.

• TZK Seminars offers a variety of courses for counselors and provides a reference chart for acceptance of live webinars by state.
• CEYou has a varied list of webinars and conferences that are live, happen in real time, and are interactive.
• E Care Behavior Health Institute offers over 40 live session courses with certificates sent by email upon completion.

At LifeStance we see the benefits that continuing education has for our counselors and their clients every day. We are proud to be able to facilitate mental health services in a safe and secure environment, and to help everyone to continually adapt to the challenges we are all facing. We hope that you get some value from this post and that you will continue to look to us as a resource for enhancing your career.

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Source: https://careers.lifestance.com/lpc-continuing-education/

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