Texas Administrative Code › Title 22 - EXAMINING BOARDS › Part 35 - TEXAS STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS › Chapter 801 - LICENSURE AND REGULATION OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS › Subchapter A - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 801.2 - Definitions

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter,
					 have the following meanings unless the context indicates otherwise.
(1) Accredited institutions or programs--An
				  institution of higher education accredited by a regionally accrediting agency
				  recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the Texas Higher
				  Education Coordinating Board, or the United States Department of
				  Education.
(2) Act--Texas
				  Occupations Code, Chapter 502, the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
				  Act.
(3) Board--The Texas State
				  Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists.
(4) Client--An individual, family, couple,
				  group, or organization who receives or has received services from a person
				  identified as a marriage and family therapist who is either licensed by the
				  council or unlicensed.
(5)
				  Council--The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council.
(6) Council Act--Texas Occupations Code,
				  Chapter 507, concerning the Texas Behavioral Health Executive
				  Council.
(7) Council rules--22
				  Texas Administrative Code, Chapters 801 and 881 to 885.
(8) Direct clinical services to couples or
				  family-- professional services provided to couples or families in which a
				  clinician delivers therapeutic services with two or more individuals
				  simultaneously or two or more individuals from the same family system within
				  the same therapeutic session. Individuals must share an ongoing relationship
				  beyond that which occurs in the therapeutic experience itself. Examples of
				  ongoing relationships include family systems, couple systems, enduring
				  friendship/community support systems, and residential, treatment or
				  situationally connected systems.
(9) Endorsement--The process whereby the
				  council reviews licensing requirements that a license applicant completed while
				  under the jurisdiction of an out-of-state marriage and family therapy
				  regulatory board. The council may accept, deny or grant partial credit for
				  requirements completed in a different jurisdiction.
(10) Executive director--the executive
				  director for the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council.
(11) Family system--An open, on-going,
				  goal-seeking, self-regulating, social system which shares features of all such
				  systems. Certain features such as its unique structuring of gender, race,
				  nationality and generation set it apart from other social systems. Each
				  individual family system is shaped by its own particular structural features
				  (size, complexity, composition, and life stage), the psychobiological
				  characteristics of its individual members (age, race, nationality, gender,
				  fertility, health and temperament) and its socio-cultural and historic position
				  in its larger environment.
(12)
				  Group supervision--Supervision that involves a minimum of three and no more
				  than six marriage and family therapy supervisees or LMFT Associates in a
				  clinical setting during the supervision hour.
(13) Independent Practice--The practice of
				  providing marriage and family therapy services to a client without the
				  supervision of an LMFT-S.
(14)
				  Individual supervision--Supervision of no more than two marriage and family
				  therapy supervisees or LMFT Associates in a clinical setting during the
				  supervision hour.
(15)
				  Jurisprudence exam--An online learning experience based on the Act, Council
				  Act, and council rules, and other state laws and rules relating to the practice
				  of marriage and family therapy.
(16) License--A marriage and family therapist
				  license, a marriage and family therapist associate license, a provisional
				  marriage and family therapist license, or a provisional marriage and family
				  therapist associate license.
(17)
				  Licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT)--As defined in §502.002 of
				  the Occupations Code, a person who offers marriage and family therapy for
				  compensation.
(18) Licensed
				  marriage and family therapist associate (LMFT Associate)--As defined in §
										502.002 of the
				  Occupations Code, an individual who offers to provide marriage and family
				  therapy for compensation under the supervision of a supervisor approved by the
				  executive council. The appropriate council-approved terms to refer to an LMFT
				  Associate are: "Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate" or "LMFT
				  Associate." Other terminology or abbreviations like "LMFT A" are not
				  council-approved and may not be used.
(19) Licensee--Any person licensed by the
				  council.
(20) Licensure
				  examination--The national licensure examination administered by the Association
				  of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards (AMFTRB) or the State of
				  California marriage and family therapy licensure examination.
(21) Marriage and family therapy--The
				  rendering of professional therapeutic services to clients, singly or in groups,
				  and involves the professional application of family systems theories and
				  techniques in the delivery of therapeutic services to those persons. The term
				  includes the evaluation and remediation of cognitive, affective, behavioral, or
				  relational dysfunction or processes.
(22) Month--A calendar month.
(23) Person--An individual, corporation,
				  partnership, or other legal entity.
(24) Recognized religious practitioner--A
				  rabbi, clergyman, or person of similar status who is a member in good standing
				  of and accountable to a legally recognized denomination or legally recognizable
				  religious denomination or legally recognizable religious organization and other
				  individuals participating with them in pastoral counseling if:
(A) the therapy activities are within the
				  scope of the performance of regular or specialized ministerial duties and are
				  performed under the auspices of sponsorship of an established and legally
				  recognized church, denomination or sect, or an integrated auxiliary of a church
				  as defined in 26 CFR §
												1.6033-2(h) (relating to
				  Returns by exempt organizations (taxable years beginning after December 31,
				  1969) and returns by certain nonexempt organizations (taxable years beginning
				  after December 31, 1980));
(B) the
				  individual providing the service remains accountable to the established
				  authority of that church, denomination, sect, or integrated auxiliary;
				  and
(C) the person does not use the
				  title of or hold himself or herself out as a licensed marriage and family
				  therapist.