Board of Professional Counselors

Distance Counseling

The Board of Professional Counselors wants to provide direction for Licensed Professional Counselors who engage in the practice of technology assisted distance counseling.

The Board recommends the NBCC guidelines as a resource for technology assisted distance counseling.

• NBCC Guidelines
• ACA Code of Ethics, Section A12

Distance Counseling from outside the State of Alaska

From the minutes of the January 2011 Board of Professional Counselors' Meeting:

The Board's position is that to provide services to Alaskans, you should be licensed in Alaska. They support the AASCB stand that, if you have a patient in a state you should be licensed in that state.

Per our statutes we do not have practice protection, but one cannot represent oneself as a licensed professional counselor in Alaska without being LPC licensed in the State of Alaska.

08.29.100. Unlicensed use of title prohibited.

• (a) A person who is not licensed under this chapter may not
  • (1) profess to be a licensed professional counselor, a professional counselor, or a licensed counselor; or
  • (2) make use of a title, words, letters, or abbreviations that may reasonably be confused with the title of "licensed professional counselor," "professional counselor," or "licensed counselor".
• (b) Violation of this section is a Class B misdemeanor, except that a third or subsequent conviction for violating this section is a Class C felony.