Important Information for Applicants and Supervisors:  Written Plan for Professional Counseling Experience and Supervision

The purpose of the experience questions is to document and verify how much acceptable post-Masters experience in actual marriage and family counseling the applicant has already completed.  The supervisor must first document how much experience and direct supervision the applicant has already received. Then, both the supervisor and the applicant will know how much more experience and supervision he or she needs to get while licensed as an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist to later meet the requirements for licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist.   Post-Masters Marriage and Family Counseling Experience Requirements explains the required hours of experience.

The hours of experience and supervision that the applicant has not yet completed are documented on the Written Plan for Marriage and Family Therapy Experience and Supervision.  To ensure that both the applicant and the supervisor understand the plan, both must sign off on it.

When answering the experience questions on the application, it is important for both applicant and supervisor(s) to understand the following:

• The hours of direct supervision that the applicant has already completed plus the planned hours of direct supervision (as documented in the Written Plan) must total at least the mandatory 1,600 hours of professional direct supervision.  In addition…
  • The applicant’s completed hours of couple and family therapy plus the planned hours of couple and family therapy sessions must total at least 500 hours.
  • The applicant’s completed hours of individual therapy plus the planned hours of couple and family therapy sessions must total at least 500 hours.
  • The applicant’s completed hours of any combination of couple and family or individual therapy plus the planned hours of couple and family or individual therapy must total at least 500 hours.
  • The applicant’s completed hours of face-to-face clinical supervision with your approved supervisor(s) plus the planned hours of face-to-face supervision must total at least 100 hours.

• The hours of experience the applicant has already completed—whether or not under professional direct supervision—added to the hours of experience in the Written Plan must total the required hours for licensure.

• All of the required hours—whether or not supervised—must span a period of not less than two but no more than four years.

• When asked to enter hours of experience or supervision, you must calculate and enter an actual number of hours.  Answers such as “40 hours/week” will not be accepted.

• Unless the supervisor is an AAMFT “approved supervisor,” the Delaware Board must approve the supervisor.

Information on How to Apply for a License in DELPROS

Applications are processed in DELPROS (Delaware Professional Regulation Online Services). The online license application process is simple and provides you with clear instructions throughout each stage of the application process. We strongly recommend that you understand what the requirements are for the license you are pursuing. Then, request and gather the documents you need before you begin the application process. Most of the information and forms are on this website. For further clarification of requirements, refer to your profession’s License Law and the Rules and Regulations.

In order to apply for a license or service request, you must have a DELPROS account. To create a new account or log into an existing DELPROS account, follow the instructions at the beginning of the application process. As part of the final steps of the application process, DELPROS instructs you to either “attach” or “upload” the required documents directly to your application and/or to “acknowledge” that you will either send them in yourself or make arrangements for “third-party” documents/forms to be sent to the Board office. Examples of “third-party forms” are transcripts from schools, employment verifications from a supervisor, and license verifications from another state. Official license verifications and/or transcripts are acceptable when received electronically directly from the State Board or school/institution. Note that forms requiring a signature, seal, or notary must be MAILED to the Board office directly UNLESS the document specifically indicates to UPLOAD the document. All documents received by mail are scanned and attached to the appropriate license records.

In DELPROS, you have the ability to save your application and return to it to edit/update information or upload documents for up to six months. However, if you do not submit your application within six months, you will have to restart your online application process. The Board office begins processing applications shortly after submission in the portal. You may check the status of your application in the DELPROS system throughout the whole process and we will correspond with you by email. The requirements for this license type are provided in the following section(s).

Requirements

In addition to submitting the application and fee in DELPROS, you must submit:

• State of Delaware and Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal background checks (CBC). Follow the instructions on the Criminal History Record Check Authorization form to arrange to be fingerprinted. Submit the forms and payment to the State Bureau of Identification (SBI). Do not send these forms to the Board office.

• • Allow at least four weeks for the SBI to send criminal history records to the Board office.
• • A new criminal background check is required even if the person recently had a criminal background check done for some other reason.

• State/Jurisdiction Licensure Verification sent directly to the Board office from each state or jurisdiction in which you currently hold or have ever held a license.

• An official transcript sent directly from each college/university where you earned a Masters or doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy or any allied field.

• The COAMFTE Course Comparison Form if either of these situations applies to you:
  • Your graduate program of studies is not accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE), or
  • Your degree from a nationally accredited college or university is not in marriage and family therapy but in a related discipline such as counseling, social work, psychology, or psychiatry

• An official score transfer sent from the Interstate Reporting Service, www.amftrb.org if you have passed the AMFTRB examination.

• Proof that your supervisor passed the AMFTRB exam and has five years experience as a marriage and family therapist. (Only needed if any supervisor(s) was not a Delaware-licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.)

• A Verification of Supervision form completed and signed by your supervisor(s) that will verify how many hours of acceptable post-Masters experience in marriage and family therapy you have already accrued.
  • You must clearly state the total number of post-Master’s hours of marriage and family therapy that you have provided under professional direct supervision. Providing only the dates of your employment is not sufficient.
  • If you had more than one period under different supervisors, have the approved supervisor provide you a completed and signed form for each period during which he or she supervised you.

• A LAMFT Planned Direct Supervision form completed and signed by the supervisor(s) under whose supervision you will complete the hours. This document shows how many hours of post-Masters of marriage and family therapy experience under professional direct supervision that you still need to complete to meet the requirements for Delaware licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

• A LAMFT Planned Unsupervised Experience form completed and signed by the supervisor(s) to document the experience that you plan to finish while not under the professional direct supervision. This document shows
  how many hours of post-Masters of marriage and family therapy unsupervised experience you still need to complete to meet the requirements for Delaware licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

Remember to add the planned hours to the completed hours to make sure that the totals meet the requirements for eventual licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist.