Psychology, Board of

Psychology, Board of

Chapter 5: Licensure Requirements

Effective Date: 03/01/2001 to 02/10/2010

Rule Type: Superceded Rules & Regulations

Reference Number: 068.0001.5.03012001

CHAPTER 5

LICENSURE REQUIREMENTS

Section 1. General Requirements. No license as a psychologist or school psychologist shall be issued until the applicant has provided adequate evidence to the Board that the applicant:

(a) Is of good moral character and has a reputation for honesty, trustworthiness, integrity and competence and either:

(b) Has met the educational and supervised experience requirements and has passed the examination requirements as described below; or

(c) Possesses a current Certificate of Professional Qualification in Psychology (CPQ) in good standing issued by ASPPB. An applicant under this section shall complete a brief application as required by the Board.

Section 2. Educational Requirements. All applicants for licensure as a psychologist or school psychologist must possess a minimum of three (3) years of full-time graduate study, or its equivalent at a regionally accredited university. This study must culminate in the awarding of a doctoral degree in clinical or counseling psychology or school psychology for a school psychologist's license. In the following requirements, the term psychology shall refer to clinical, counseling, or school psychology, as appropriate. The term psychologist shall refer to either a clinical, counseling or school psychologist for the purposes of licensure of school psychologists, and shall refer to a clinical or counseling psychologist for the purposes of licensing psychologists.

(a) In determining whether an applicant's academic program was appropriate, the Board shall employ the following criteria:

(i) A program which, at the time the applicant was enrolled and graduated, was accredited by the APA, or

(ii) A program which meets all of the criteria listed below;

(A) The training in psychology must be in a doctoral program offered in a regionally accredited institution of higher education;

(B) The program, wherever it may be housed administratively, must be clearly identified as a psychology program;

(C) The program must be an integrated, organized sequence of study in psychology;

(D) The psychology program must stand as a recognizable, coherent, and organized entity within the institution;

(E) There must be a clearly identified authority with primary responsibility for the core and specialty areas, whether or not the program cuts across administrative lines;

(F) There must be an identifiable psychology faculty and a psychologist formally responsible for the program;

(G) The program must have an identifiable body of students who are matriculated in that program for a degree.

(H) The program must specify in pertinent institutional catalogs and brochures its intent to educate and train professional psychologists who will engage in the professional practice of psychology.

(I) The curriculum as represented in the transcripts shall meet the prevailing professional guidelines for education and training promulgated by APA.

(b) The doctoral program, whether APA-approved or not, must include a supervised, organized internship experience involving direct applied practice meeting the following criteria:

(i) A pre-doctoral internship program which, at the time the applicant participated, was accredited by the APA, or;

(ii) A pre-doctoral internship program which provides for systematic intensive training in the application of psychological principles and skills to human problems through direct applied experience and which meets all of the following criteria at a minimum:

(A) For psychologists, a full-time experience for one calendar year or a half-time experience for two calendar years.

(B) For school psychologists, a full-time experience for one academic year or a half-time experience for two academic years, 600 hours of which shall be in a school setting;

(C) A professional psychologist or school psychologist with extensive experience in training who is clearly designated as responsible for the integrity and quality of the internship training program;

(D) Supervised experience in an organized sequence of activities with exposure to a variety of human problems. Two hours per week of formally scheduled face-to-face supervision related to the trainee’s applied supervision will be provided by a licensed doctoral-level psychologist or school psychologist;

(E) Documentation of the nature of the supervised experiences and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of supervisors must be provided;

(F) Written verification that the internship experience was accepted by the doctoral degree program.

(iii) For those individuals who obtained a doctoral degree prior to 1950 the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience, pre- or post-doctoral.

(c) When the board is unable to ascertain from the documents submitted that the applicant meets all of the above criteria, it will request from the applicant whatever additional documentation or information is necessary to enable the Board to make that decision. The Board may also request the applicant to appear before the Board at a regularly scheduled meeting to clarify issues relating to that individual's qualifications.

Section 3. Examination Requirement. The examination accepted by the Board to determine eligibility for licensure shall be the current EPPP provided by the PES for licensure as a psychologist or as a school psychologist or the current NSPE provided by the ETS for licensure as a school psychologist.

(a) To be considered for examination, the applicant shall submit a completed application form and accompanying documentation. The applicant shall be notified in writing whether the application has been approved for examination.

(b) Every applicant for licensure must achieve a passing score on the examination. For licensure as a psychologist or school psychologist, a passing score on the EPPP is that which is recommended by ASPPB at the time the applicant took the EPPP. For those applying for licensure as a school psychologist by taking the NSPE, a passing score on the NSPE is one which equals or exceeds the cutting score determined by NASP for achieving the NCSP credential at the time the applicant took the NSPE.

(c) In the case of applicants who are not licensed in another state, but who have taken the EPPP within a five (5) year period preceding receipt of the application for licensure, the Board may waive retaking of the examination if the applicant achieved a passing score as defined above.

(d) The NSPE shall be administered by ETS. The EPPP shall be administered under the direction of PES. General information pertaining to the administration of the examinations will be given to applicants.

(e) Following approval by the Board to take the EPPP, the applicant shall follow the instructions provided by PES in their letter of authorization. If an applicant does not take the EPPP as instructed by PES, the applicant shall be permitted to take the examination upon written notification to the Board and payment of the rescheduling fee, the examination fee, and other appropriate administrative fees.

(f) Applicants failing the EPPP are, upon payment of a new examination fee and administrative fees, eligible for re-examination. Re-examination must occur in accordance with PES rules.

(g) Upon receipt of test scores from the PES or ETS, the candidate's application will then be presented to the Secretary for further action regarding licensure. The Secretary shall communicate these scores to the Board at the next meeting.

(h) Eligible for licensing without examination may be:

(i) Any psychologist licensed and certified in any other state, province, territory or possession if the requirements for such licensing in such state, territory, or possession are substantially equivalent to licensing requirements in Wyoming.

Section 4. Experience Requirement. One year post-doctoral experience practicing psychology or school psychology under supervision is required. The applicant shall have a minimum of 1500 clock hours of supervised experience obtained in such a manner that the hours are reasonably and uniformly distributed over not less than 12 months or more than 24 months and that meet the following criteria:

(a) A post-doctoral training program registered with the Association of Psychology Post-doctoral and Internship Centers; or

(b) Post-doctoral work experience that meets the following criteria:

(i) Two hours of supervision for every 40 clock hours of work experience, one hour of which is individual face-to-face supervision with a psychologist. Other supervision shall be provided by a psychologist or a licensed mental health practitioner. These hours must be reasonably distributed over a minimum of 12 months in a manner consistent with the accrual of post-doctoral experience.

(ii) The supervisor shall have practiced for a minimum of two years and shall demonstrate adequate training, competence and skill to render competently any psychological services the supervisee undertakes. The Board may evaluate the qualifications of any supervisor and take appropriate action.

(iii) The supervisor shall allow the supervisee to perform only those functions for which the supervisee has training and experience.

(iv) When the post-doctoral work experience occurs in Wyoming, a Supervision Agreement form provided by the board shall be submitted by the individual to the Board for approval specifying the nature of the supervision arrangements and the name, address and telephone number of the supervisor. Any changes in the agreement must be submitted in writing within ten (10) days to the Board for approval.

(A) The supervisor shall keep records that will verify the training and evaluation of the applicant for licensure, including the exact nature and number of hours of supervision and the exact nature and number of hours of acceptable post-doctoral work experience.

(B) The title “Psychological Resident” may be used only after course work and plans for supervised experience towards licensure have been formally approved in writing by the Board and may be used only in conjunction with activities and services that are part of supervised training in order to fulfill the experience requirements for licensure. The use of the title “Psychological Resident” is limited to a maximum of two years unless issued a provisional license in which case it may be used for a maximum of three years.

(C) The term “Psychologist” may not be used by these individuals, and their names may not appear in public listings of psychologists (e.g., Yellow Pages of the telephone book).

(D) Psychological residents shall inform clients in writing of the supervised nature of their work and provide the name, address, and telephone number of their supervisor.

(E) The approved supervisor must co-sign reports and correspondence of a professional nature intended for distribution outside the office or agency, including correspondence with this Board. The holder of a provisional license is exempt from this sub-section.

(F) With the approval of the supervisor, these individuals may send announcements of their supervised practice, may have business cards, and may bill directly. However, the supervisory relationship must be indicated and the supervisor's name, address and telephone number must appear on all these documents.

(G) All applicants shall submit a completed Supervision Verification Form as provided by the Board, signed by the supervisor(s) and mailed directly to the Board which attests to the nature and quality of the supervisee's post-doctoral work experience and the satisfactory completion of that work experience by the supervisee.

(H) The Board may limit the number of psychological residents that a supervisor may reasonably supervise at any one time

(v) Any individual who obtains the post-doctoral work experience outside the State of Wyoming must demonstrate that the post-doctoral work experience was substantially equivalent to the supervised post-doctoral work experience required in the State of Wyoming.

(vi) The Board will evaluate on an individual basis the supervised post-doctoral work experience obtained by those individuals receiving their doctoral degrees prior to 1991 and who are currently licensed or certified at the doctoral level as psychologists in other states or provinces and are currently in good standing.

Section 5. Provisional License. The purpose of the provisional license is to allow mental health centers in rural Wyoming to employ psychologists who have had an internship and obtained the appropriate doctoral degree but have not yet completed the post-doctoral work experience or examination requirement.

(a) The applicant shall meet the following qualifications:

(i) The applicant is to be employed full-time by a community mental health center where there is no other psychologist employed.

(ii) The applicant has met all qualifications for licensure except for one year of supervised post-doctoral work experience and the applicant may or may not have taken the EPPP.

(b) The requirements for the one year of supervised post-doctoral work experience are identical to those found in Chapter V, Section 4(b) with the following exceptions:

(i) The required supervised work experience may be completed in three (3) years; and (ii) Up to 20% of the total documented supervision hours may be by telephone.

(c) The EPPP or NSPE, as appropriate must be successfully completed prior to the completion of the supervised post-doctoral work experience.

(d) The provisional license shall be renewed annually in accordance with the guidelines specified in Chapter VIII.

(e) The provisional license shall be terminated at the end of three (3) years.