UPCOMING EVENTS:
Thursdays, March 7 & 21, 2024
Pennsylvania Specialists in Group Work (PASGW) will host its monthly virtual graduate student support groups.
All graduate students are welcome to join our student-run support group. This group is designed to provide a space for students to reflect on their educational journeys and everything that goes along with it. Please reach out to Rachel Rectenwald with any questions (hmbdc@iup.edu).
To sign up, complete this form.
Friday, March 15, 2024
The Pennsylvania Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (PASERVIC) is hosting its monthly, peer-to-peer, grounding support group for counselors and therapists. The support group occurs on the third Friday of each month (dates listed below). GSG is free for PASERVIC members, $10 to register for PCA members, and $15 for non-PCA clinicians.
Please email pca.paservic@gmail.com for more information, to register, or for payment instructions. An email with the Zoom link will be sent to registrants before each date.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Associate Licensure in Pennsylvania
There have been great strides made at the state level in the last few months to provide a sustainable solution in response to the Highmark incident-to-billing notice released in the fall of 2023. PCA has advocated for an additional licensure opportunity to professional counselors who have not yet met all of the requirements for their Pennsylvania Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) status. Recently legislation was introduced and sponsored in both the PA House of Representatives and Senate, and with this remarkably quick turnaround, has been passed in both.
The Licensed Associate Professional Counselor (LAPC) status will be eligible to those who’ve completed their masters degree in a field that is also required for independent licensure (Counseling, Art Therapy, Marriage and Family Therapy, etc.) with a one-time fee of $75 when applying. LAPCs will be eligible to apply for LPC status after completing 3000 supervision hours and passing the required exams (an example of this would be the National Counseling Exam/NCE).
Please note, as with information regarding LPC applications/management, PCA refers specific questions and application requirement inquires to the State Board of Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists and Professional Counselors (Phone: 7177831389), Pennsylvania Department of State Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs (BPOA). More information regarding the LAPC will be released in the coming months.
We look forward to Governor Shapiro signing off on this new opportunity for counselors in the Commonwealth.
Ashley Deurlein, NCC, LPC (hers/her)
55th President
PCA has an official Discord server!
The server is now live, and we will be rolling out links to the server via an email from our marketing and outreach committee to the registered email address of our members. If you are not familiar with Discord, it’s a service that allows anyone to create a unique server. This server is then filled with interest channels (in our case, channels that are specific to our divisions, interest networks, and of interest to counselors generally), and members who have access to the server can move within these text and audio/video channels to interact with other members.
Here are some quick notes on how to make use of this new member benefit:
So, once you get the email from us with the link, here’s how to join:
This Discord server is meant as an answer to a long standing request from members. It is the ability to interact with PCA members across the state, in real time, just like we do in the conference or in the conference app, but all year rather than just during major get togethers. Hoping to see you all in Discord, where we can benefit from one another’s professional expertise and collegiality.
Best,
Dr. Steve Kuniak
PCA Marketing and Outreach Chair
PCA Past President 2020-2021