As part of the historic interstate Counseling Compact agreement, Tennessee is the latest state that can now start granting privileges to licensed professional counselors to practice across state lines. Currently, other states that can grant these privileges include Arizona, Minnesota, Ohio, Louisiana, Georgia, Indiana, Arkansas and Wyoming, with additional states expected to begin granting privileges in coming months.

The compact is a legislative agreement that functions much like a driver’s license — participating states agree to recognize the license of all eligible counselors from other compact states, allowing them a privilege to practice in person or via telehealth. Previously, counselors had difficulty transferring their licenses to another state because of independent jurisdictional licensing rules and regulations.

The American Counseling Association (ACA) — the world’s largest association exclusively representing an estimated 62,000 professional counselors — played a lead role in the creation of the compact, investing close to $2 million in the initiative.

To date, 40 states and jurisdictions have passed Counseling Compact legislation. They include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C.

A state’s passage of the Counseling Compact legislation is merely the legal adoption of the agreement authorizing a state or jurisdiction to participate in the compact. Once a state passes the legislation, the next step is to grant privileges to counselors from other compact states to practice across state lines.

(Newswise/MF)