Hey this is really, really important to us!! They want to erradicate "registered counselors". Pass it on and SPEAK UP!!
- jen
-----------------------------------------------------
Hello Everyone,
I just sent the following letter out to about 180 people today. Please feel
free to use any or all of it in contacting your own support system, friends,
family, etc. The sooner we get the word out, the more letters we'll get
coming in to the legislators.
Blessings to all,
Miriam
Hello Dear Friends,
I am writing to ask for your support for myself and for other registered
counselors in Washington State. Last week legislation was introduced into
both the House (HB 1494) and the Senate (SB 5579) to completely eliminate
registered counselors by July 2009 and force about 7,000 registered
counselors in private practice to either go out of business or go back to
school to become mental health care professionals trained to work with
abnormal psychology and mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. As
most registered counselors work with a wellness model of personal growth and
the development of human potential, switching over to a medical model of
illness and treatment for illness is unacceptable on many levels. It
conflicts with many of the basic theories behind the modalities in which we
are skilled and it forces us into an area of practice that runs counter to
our gifts, talents, and professional goals. I know many of you very much
value the service that I and other human potential and personal growth
counselors in private practice contribute to the community. Your support at
this time, writing to your legislators and/or coming to Olympia to testify
before Health Committees, could be most important key to creating a real win
for all concerned.
Your personal expression of support and how you see my and other
non-licensed counselor's work as valuable is the most important thing you
can tell your legislators. They need to hear from real people about why this
matters to you and about what you would lose if we were no longer able to
practice and the kind of personal growth work we offer were no longer
available. And, if you are outside Washington state but have credentials
that might impress our legislators with your expertise on this matter,
please pull out all the stops and let them know your opinion. We can so use
every bit of support we can get. I'll outline some of the major talking
points below. Use what feels comfortable to you - there's no need to try and
mention everything in one letter.
I will also include the link to finding your legislators' contact
information. It would help me a great deal to get copies of any letters you
send, and please do let me know if you might be available to testify in the
next couple of weeks. We need to pack the Committee hearings with as many
supporters as we can and we have very little time to get the word out. If
you can pass this along to others in your community, that would be
enormously helpful as well. Thank you so much for your support!
In gratitude,
Miriam
Miriam Dyak, President, Washington Professional Counselors Association
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to contact your legislators:
Directions for contacting your legislators can be found at
<leg.wa.gov/legislature/> - click on "Find your district," enter you
address, and then click on the individual legislators for their contact
information. E-mailing legislators is just fine, but please write something
(even something very short) so that there is a record of your opinion. If
you are an "out of state expert," write to the chairwomen of the Health
Committees - Senator Karen Keiser and Representative Eileen Cody. Also, so
that we can have a sense of how we are doing in this effort, please send
e-mail copies of the letters you write to <miriam@waproca.org>. Thank you
so much!
Talking points:
Ask your representatives to oppose HB 1494 and your senator to oppose SB
5579
Tell them why you care about this issue. If you have worked with a
registered counselor, why was that important to you? If you think it's
important to be able to choose to work on personal growth, develop creative
responses to normal life stress, enhance wellbeing, develop resilience,
learn new life skills, and embark on a journey of self-reflection,
self-knowledge, and self-discovery, please let your legislator know. You
might want to emphasize that these are all goals that are pursued by normal,
healthy, high functioning people - for example, you don't need to be sick or
depressed or in need of medication in order to want to learn new ways of
communication, improve your decision making abilities, or be interested in
your dreams.
If you are a counselor or health care professional (registered or licensed),
inform them of your credentials and the work you do, and let them know your
professional support of your colleagues. (Also, many registered counselors
don't even know about this legislation - if you know people who may be
affected, please let them know what is happening.)
Point out that you are concerned about the reports of abuse of clients by
registered counselors, but the proposed legislation is targeting the wrong
people. This proposed legislation completely ignores what has been the most
serious problem with the registered counselor status, that of untrained,
unskilled people who register as counselors and get jobs in agencies. Last
April 24 The Seattle Times published an exposé on abuse of clients by
registered counselors. All but one of the cases cited in the article were
registered counselors without training who worked in agencies. Unfortunately
the proposed legislation does nothing to remedy this situation. In fact, it
allows this abuse to continue. And there has been no demonstration or
documentation that the 7,000 private practice counselors who would be put
out of business by this proposed legislation are in any way abusing clients
or that they are likely to do so in the future.
Registered counselors in private practice were not included in the process
of creating this proposed legislation. No RC's in private practice were
included on the Department of Health Task Force that met last summer. The
Task force was comprised of licensed mental health professionals, agency
employees, 2 legislators, and Department of Health representatives. RC's
were actively discouraged from attending the meetings and those of us who
did were allowed only 1 minute each to speak during a 15 minute period at
the end of each 3 hour session. We care deeply about our profession and
want to work with the Legislature, the Department of Health, and the
Governor in creating real solutions to real problems. We feel we could be
the best allies in creating a positive outcome to these problems, but so far
we have been excluded from the process.
Suggest that the best solution is to table the bill for this session in
order to allow time for the Washington Professional Counselors Association
(WAPROCA), a new organization of human potential and personal growth
counselors in private practice, to work with the legislature and the
Department of Health in crafting legislation that will actually create
solutions both to protect Washington citizens and allow us to choose the
kind of counseling we want and need. WAPROCA is working to create a new
category of non licensed counselors, "human potential and personal growth
counselors," that will meet a much higher standard of ethics training and
continuing education.
- jen
-----------------------------------------------------
Hello Everyone,
I just sent the following letter out to about 180 people today. Please feel
free to use any or all of it in contacting your own support system, friends,
family, etc. The sooner we get the word out, the more letters we'll get
coming in to the legislators.
Blessings to all,
Miriam
Hello Dear Friends,
I am writing to ask for your support for myself and for other registered
counselors in Washington State. Last week legislation was introduced into
both the House (HB 1494) and the Senate (SB 5579) to completely eliminate
registered counselors by July 2009 and force about 7,000 registered
counselors in private practice to either go out of business or go back to
school to become mental health care professionals trained to work with
abnormal psychology and mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. As
most registered counselors work with a wellness model of personal growth and
the development of human potential, switching over to a medical model of
illness and treatment for illness is unacceptable on many levels. It
conflicts with many of the basic theories behind the modalities in which we
are skilled and it forces us into an area of practice that runs counter to
our gifts, talents, and professional goals. I know many of you very much
value the service that I and other human potential and personal growth
counselors in private practice contribute to the community. Your support at
this time, writing to your legislators and/or coming to Olympia to testify
before Health Committees, could be most important key to creating a real win
for all concerned.
Your personal expression of support and how you see my and other
non-licensed counselor's work as valuable is the most important thing you
can tell your legislators. They need to hear from real people about why this
matters to you and about what you would lose if we were no longer able to
practice and the kind of personal growth work we offer were no longer
available. And, if you are outside Washington state but have credentials
that might impress our legislators with your expertise on this matter,
please pull out all the stops and let them know your opinion. We can so use
every bit of support we can get. I'll outline some of the major talking
points below. Use what feels comfortable to you - there's no need to try and
mention everything in one letter.
I will also include the link to finding your legislators' contact
information. It would help me a great deal to get copies of any letters you
send, and please do let me know if you might be available to testify in the
next couple of weeks. We need to pack the Committee hearings with as many
supporters as we can and we have very little time to get the word out. If
you can pass this along to others in your community, that would be
enormously helpful as well. Thank you so much for your support!
In gratitude,
Miriam
Miriam Dyak, President, Washington Professional Counselors Association
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to contact your legislators:
Directions for contacting your legislators can be found at
<leg.wa.gov/legislature/> - click on "Find your district," enter you
address, and then click on the individual legislators for their contact
information. E-mailing legislators is just fine, but please write something
(even something very short) so that there is a record of your opinion. If
you are an "out of state expert," write to the chairwomen of the Health
Committees - Senator Karen Keiser and Representative Eileen Cody. Also, so
that we can have a sense of how we are doing in this effort, please send
e-mail copies of the letters you write to <miriam@waproca.org>. Thank you
so much!
Talking points:
Ask your representatives to oppose HB 1494 and your senator to oppose SB
5579
Tell them why you care about this issue. If you have worked with a
registered counselor, why was that important to you? If you think it's
important to be able to choose to work on personal growth, develop creative
responses to normal life stress, enhance wellbeing, develop resilience,
learn new life skills, and embark on a journey of self-reflection,
self-knowledge, and self-discovery, please let your legislator know. You
might want to emphasize that these are all goals that are pursued by normal,
healthy, high functioning people - for example, you don't need to be sick or
depressed or in need of medication in order to want to learn new ways of
communication, improve your decision making abilities, or be interested in
your dreams.
If you are a counselor or health care professional (registered or licensed),
inform them of your credentials and the work you do, and let them know your
professional support of your colleagues. (Also, many registered counselors
don't even know about this legislation - if you know people who may be
affected, please let them know what is happening.)
Point out that you are concerned about the reports of abuse of clients by
registered counselors, but the proposed legislation is targeting the wrong
people. This proposed legislation completely ignores what has been the most
serious problem with the registered counselor status, that of untrained,
unskilled people who register as counselors and get jobs in agencies. Last
April 24 The Seattle Times published an exposé on abuse of clients by
registered counselors. All but one of the cases cited in the article were
registered counselors without training who worked in agencies. Unfortunately
the proposed legislation does nothing to remedy this situation. In fact, it
allows this abuse to continue. And there has been no demonstration or
documentation that the 7,000 private practice counselors who would be put
out of business by this proposed legislation are in any way abusing clients
or that they are likely to do so in the future.
Registered counselors in private practice were not included in the process
of creating this proposed legislation. No RC's in private practice were
included on the Department of Health Task Force that met last summer. The
Task force was comprised of licensed mental health professionals, agency
employees, 2 legislators, and Department of Health representatives. RC's
were actively discouraged from attending the meetings and those of us who
did were allowed only 1 minute each to speak during a 15 minute period at
the end of each 3 hour session. We care deeply about our profession and
want to work with the Legislature, the Department of Health, and the
Governor in creating real solutions to real problems. We feel we could be
the best allies in creating a positive outcome to these problems, but so far
we have been excluded from the process.
Suggest that the best solution is to table the bill for this session in
order to allow time for the Washington Professional Counselors Association
(WAPROCA), a new organization of human potential and personal growth
counselors in private practice, to work with the legislature and the
Department of Health in crafting legislation that will actually create
solutions both to protect Washington citizens and allow us to choose the
kind of counseling we want and need. WAPROCA is working to create a new
category of non licensed counselors, "human potential and personal growth
counselors," that will meet a much higher standard of ethics training and
continuing education.
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Seattle
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