Deciphering the Alphabet Soup of Credentials

Written by Kelsie Goller, MA, LPC-S, RPT, EMDR Certified

Clinical Director, KPS

For anyone outside the counseling profession (and even those inside of it), all of the letters that we put after our names can be mystifying! Take my own signature, for example. I sign my name Kelsie Goller, MA, LPC-S, RPT, EMDR Certified. In our office, we have PhDs, LPA-IPs, and a PMHNP-BC, just to name a few! The letters are confusing but they also indicate different types of training, expertise, and job skills.

Let’s start with the most well known: Dr. Kranz, founder of Kranz Psychological Services, has a PhD, which means she has completed a doctorate program in psychology. She is a licensed psychologist, so she performs psychological evaluations, and she had to pass a difficult test to obtain that license. I think the most frequent mix-up I hear is the difference between psychiatrists and psychologists. So here is the main difference: psychiatrists prescribe medications for mental health challenges, and psychologists perform psychological evaluations to diagnose mental health disorders.

Assisting Dr. Kranz in our office with psychological evaluations is a group of people called LPA-IPs and our psychometrists, so let’s look at them next. LPA-IP means Licensed Psychological Associate with Independent Practice and this is a type of license that is special to Texas. LPAs are mental health professionals who have earned a master’s degree in psychology and have passed the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology. After their master’s degree, they complete 3,000 hours of clinical experience under a licensed psychologist over the course of several years in order to earn the designation of “independent practice.” LPAs can both provide counseling services as well as engage in psychological testing. We also have several clinical staff who are psychometrists. They work with Dr. Kranz and our LPA-IPs to administer and score the psychological tests used in the evaluations. Our psychometrists have finished their master’s degrees in psychology and are usually in the process of studying to take that difficult exam so that they can become LPAs. Psychometrists always work under the supervision of a licensed psychologist.

Now let’s look at the letters associated with the people that we generally just call “counselors” or “therapists”. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, so I have completed a master’s degree in counseling along with 700 hours of indirect/direct experience in counseling during practicums and internships before graduation and passing a national exam. After graduation from a master’s program, we have at least a year and a half of post-graduate work where we continue to meet with clients, but under supervision. We call this stage of the process LPC Associate. After we reach 3,000 more hours of direct and indirect experience with clients, we can apply to become Licensed Professional Counselors! There is also one more stage of licensure that some choose to go on to take the 40 hour course to apply to be a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor so that they can supervise LPC Associates.

This process is similar for another type of license, which is LMFTs. This stands for Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. LMFTs also complete a graduate program with specified hours of counseling clients, take a national exam, and then apply to become LMFT Associates. They also work under supervision for 3,000 more hours of client contact after graduation and then apply to become LMFTs. And they also have a further designation as LMFT Supervisors. However, LMFTs’ graduate program is specifically preparing them for work with families and couples. They are required to have a certain percentage of hours working specifically with families and couples, which are called relational hours. While they can also see individuals, they have that special expertise to see families and couples. LPCs may also see families and couples if they have taken courses or additional trainings to prepare them for those populations, but it is not a focus of their programs as it is for LMFTs.

In our office, we have LPCs (Licensed Professional Counselors), LMFTs (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists), LPC Associates and also students that we call Graduate Interns or Master’s Interns. These students are in that stage of completing their masters degrees for counseling or family and marriage therapy or psychology, so they have already taken certain classes to get to the point of being able to meet with clients to gain their experience hours before graduation. All graduate interns work under two supervisors- a site supervisor at our office as well as their supervisor in their graduate program. People frequently report having excellent experiences with graduate interns; in my opinion, this may be because they have fewer clients so they give a lot of attention and focus to the clients that they have. They also receive a lot of guidance, resources, and help from their supervisors, so they benefit from a lot of years of wisdom. And finally, since they are currently in classes while seeing clients, they have the most up to date knowledge and all their training is fresh in their minds.

The third group of clinical professionals in our office apart from those who provide psychological evaluation and counseling are professionals who provide medication management. We have an MD on staff, which means that she is a Doctor of Medicine and has completed medical school. We also have a PMHNP-BC on staff- this is the longest acronym we have and stands for Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner- Board Certified. This is a nurse practitioner who has completed a graduate program in psychiatric mental health nursing and taken an exam specific to this license. PMHNPs can offer psychotherapy and they specialize in prescribing medications for mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, or dementia. In Texas, PMHNPs work under the supervision of a physician in order to prescribe medication. There are also certain classes of drugs that a PMHNP cannot prescribe, such as Ritalin and Vyvanse. These are called Schedule II drugs and are in a category of drugs with a high potential for abuse.

Our practice also includes ABA therapy at a separate location, and two designations of our colleagues over there include ABAT and QASP-S. ABAT stands for Applied Behavioral Analysis Technician, and these professionals use an evidence based practice called Applied Behavioral Analysis to help people with autism and developmental disorders work towards skill development in specific areas. QASP-S means Qualified Autism Service Practitioner- Supervisor. These colleagues complete coursework in ABA therapy, as well as 1000 hours of fieldwork and an exam to achieve this designation.

There are many other letters of clinicians in the mental health field that we do not currently have in our office. LCDC means Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and they assist people to overcome substance use disorders. LSSP is a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology, and they provide school psychological services in Texas public schools. LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker- these are professionals who have achieved a master’s degree in social work and then gone on to obtain supervised clinical experience with counseling under a supervisor.

The letters above are the licenses typically found that allow professionals to provide psychological testing, counseling, or medication management in Texas. Each state licenses their own mental health providers, and it is illegal to provide health services or mental health services without a license. Also each state uses their own “letters”, so I have given the letters that Texas uses, but some letters differ from state to state! For example, the professionals that Texas calls “LPCs” (Licensed Professional Counselors) are called “LMHCs” (Licensed Mental Health Counselors) in some other states. The other letters that we counselors put behind our names typically represent certifications that are national certifications rather than state-specific, and they represent many hours and sometimes years of work. For example, RPT stands for Registered Play Therapist, a designation that takes hundreds of hours of trainings, supervision, and clinical practice to obtain. EMDR Certified Therapist is a certification for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. There are many different types of treatment modalities with certifications, so the easiest thing to do is just to look up those last letters behind our names because it is impossible to know all of them. A signature usually includes the person’s name, the type of education they have (i.e. PhD, MA), followed by their license, followed by any certifications that they want to put on there.

And that wraps up our decoding of the alphabet soup behind mental health professionals’ signatures in Texas! You can also see a video explaining the alphabet soup here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNjr_43mPJ4

Additional Blog post:

What Do All These Letters Mean? https://www.kranzpsychservices.com/single-post/what-do-all-these-letters-mean