Missouri Revised Statutes § 337.025 - Educational and experience requirements for licensure, certain persons

337.025. Educational and experience requirements for licensure, certain persons. — 1. The provisions of this section shall govern the education and experience requirements for initial licensure as a psychologist for the following persons: (1) A person who has not matriculated in a graduate degree program which is primarily psychological in nature on or before August 28, 1990; and (2) A person who is matriculated after August 28, 1990, in a graduate degree program designed to train professional psychologists. 2. Each applicant shall submit satisfactory evidence to the committee that the applicant has received a doctoral degree in psychology from a recognized educational institution, and has had at least one year of satisfactory supervised professional experience in the field of psychology. 3. A doctoral degree in psychology is defined as: (1) A program accredited, or provisionally accredited, by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), or the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS); provided that, such program includes* a supervised practicum, internship, field, or laboratory training appropriate to the practice of psychology; or (2) A program designated or approved, including provisional approval, by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards or the Council for the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, or both; or (3) A graduate program that meets all of the following criteria: (a) The program, wherever it may be administratively housed, shall be clearly identified and labeled as a psychology program. Such a program shall specify in pertinent institutional catalogues and brochures its intent to educate and train professional psychologists; (b) The psychology program shall stand as a recognizable, coherent organizational entity within the institution of higher education; (c) There shall be a clear authority and primary responsibility for the core and specialty areas whether or not the program cuts across administrative lines; (d) The program shall be an integrated, organized, sequence of study; (e) There shall be an identifiable psychology faculty and a psychologist responsible for the program; (f) The program shall have an identifiable body of students who are matriculated in that program for a degree; (g) The program shall include a supervised practicum, internship, field, or laboratory training appropriate to the practice of psychology; (h) The curriculum shall encompass a minimum of three academic years of full-time graduate study, with a minimum of one year's residency at the educational institution granting the doctoral degree; and (i) Require the completion by the applicant of a core program in psychology which shall be met by the completion and award of at least one three-semester-hour graduate credit course or a combination of graduate credit courses totaling three semester hours or five quarter hours in each of the following areas: a. The biological bases of behavior such as courses in: physiological psychology, comparative psychology, neuropsychology, sensation and perception, psychopharmacology; b. The cognitive-affective bases of behavior such as courses in: learning, thinking, motivation, emotion, and cognitive psychology; c. The social bases of behavior such as courses in: social psychology, group processes/dynamics, interpersonal relationships, and organizational and systems theory; d. Individual differences such as courses in: personality theory, human development, abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, child psychology, adolescent psychology, psychology of aging, and theories of personality; e. The scientific methods and procedures of understanding, predicting and influencing human behavior such as courses in: statistics, experimental design, psychometrics, individual testing, group testing, and research design and methodology. 4. Acceptable supervised professional experience may be accrued through preinternship, internship, predoctoral postinternship, or postdoctoral experiences. The academic training director or the postdoctoral training supervisor shall attest to the hours accrued to meet the requirements of this section. Such hours shall consist of: (1) A minimum of fifteen hundred hours of experience in a successfully completed internship to be completed in not less than twelve nor more than twenty-four months; and (2) A minimum of two thousand hours of experience consisting of any combination of the following: (a) Preinternship and predoctoral postinternship professional experience that occurs following the completion of the first year of the doctoral program or at any time while in a doctoral program after completion of a master's degree in psychology or equivalent as defined by rule by the committee; (b) Up to seven hundred fifty hours obtained while on the internship under subdivision (1) of this subsection but beyond the fifteen hundred hours identified in subdivision (1) of this subsection; or (c) Postdoctoral professional experience obtained in no more than twenty-four consecutive calendar months. In no case shall this experience be accumulated at a rate of more than fifty hours per week. Postdoctoral supervised professional experience for prospective health service providers and other applicants shall involve and relate to the delivery of psychological services in accordance with professional requirements and relevant to the applicant's intended area of practice. 5. Experience for those applicants who intend to seek health service provider certification and who have completed a program in one or more of the American Psychological Association designated health service provider delivery areas shall be obtained under the primary supervision of a licensed psychologist who is also a health service provider or who otherwise meets the requirements for health service provider certification. Experience for those applicants who do not intend to seek health service provider certification shall be obtained under the primary supervision of a licensed psychologist or such other qualified mental health professional approved by the committee. 6. For postinternship and postdoctoral hours, the psychological activities of the applicant shall be performed pursuant to the primary supervisor's order, control, and full professional responsibility. The primary supervisor shall maintain a continuing relationship with the applicant and shall meet with the applicant a minimum of one hour per month in face-to-face individual supervision. Clinical supervision may be delegated by the primary supervisor to one or more secondary supervisors who are qualified psychologists. The secondary supervisors shall retain order, control, and full professional responsibility for the applicant's clinical work under their supervision and shall meet with the applicant a minimum of one hour per week in face-to-face individual supervision. If the primary supervisor is also the clinical supervisor, meetings shall be a minimum of one hour per week. Group supervision shall not be acceptable for supervised professional experience. The primary supervisor shall certify to the committee that the applicant has complied with these requirements and that the applicant has demonstrated ethical and competent practice of psychology. The changing by an agency of the primary supervisor during the course of the supervised experience shall not invalidate the supervised experience. 7. The committee by rule shall provide procedures for exceptions and variances from the requirements for once a week face-to-face supervision due to vacations, illness, pregnancy, and other good causes. (L. 1977 H.B. 255 § 4, A.L. 1989 H.B. 738 & 720, A.L. 1998 H.B. 1601, et al. merged with S.B. 732, A.L. 2017 S.B. 501, A.L. 2018 H.B. 1719 merged with S.B. 660 merged with S.B. 718 merged with S.B. 951) *Word "include" appears in original rolls of S.B. 951, 2018.