Current through Register Vol. XLII, No. 1, January 3, 2025
Section 17-3-5 - Adequacy of Supervised Experience5.1. To meet the requirement of acceptable supervised experience, the supervised-psychologist shall be involved in the "practice of psychology," as defined in W. Va. Code § 30-21-2 and shall perform competently at a professional level in order for the experience to be considered satisfactory in scope and quality. The Board shall not accept experience limited to essentially repetitious and routine tasks at the pre-professional level, e.g., administering and scoring structured tests, computing statistics by hand or machine, or assisting an instructor in psychology courses. Satisfactory professional experience includes tasks which depend upon the application of skills, concepts and principles made available during the applicant's formal professional education, e.g., administering and interpreting unstructured psychological tests; the psychological evaluation, prevention, and improvement of adjustment problems of individuals and groups; providing clients or patients assistance in solving their professional or personal problems; and other activities outlined in W. Va. Code § 30-21-2. For the purposes of this rule, the supervised professionally oriented teaching, supervising and research activities of applicants who are full time, university clinical faculty members may apply toward the required hours of supervised work experience. However, these hours for teaching, supervising, and research activities shall not exceed 50% of the total hours required for acceptable supervised experience. This acceptable experience shall be performed under the supervision of a licensed psychologist. The supervising psychologist shall be competent in the area of psychology in which the supervised-psychologist is engaged. The supervision shall be conducted according to the ethical standards described in Section 6 of this rule.5.2. The term "year" is defined as twelve (12) average work months, including leaves for vacation with pay, during which the supervised-psychologist is engaged in employment on a full-time per week basis. In the case of full-time employment, the work schedule of the employing agency, clinic, institution or organization shall be accepted by the Board as meeting the requirement. In the case of part-time employment, the Board shall extend credit for such periods of employment on a prorated basis, in such a manner that the number of hours actually worked per week shall be divided by forty (40), and the resulting fraction shall be applied to the number of months of employment to determine the number of months credited to the supervised-psychologist; for example, a supervised-psychologist employed for sixteen (16) months, who worked twenty (20) hours per week would be given credit for eight (8) months of experience. 5.3 W. Va. Code § 30-21-7a(4) specifies that masters degree applicants shall earn five (5) years of post-graduate Board-approved supervised experience. A minimum of two (2) approved supervising psychologists are required, either simultaneously or separately during the five years of supervision.5.4. When the applicant holds a Ph.D. or the equivalent, W. Va. Code § 30-21-7(a)(4) requires at least one year of Board-approved supervised experience. If all requirements have been met for a degree and the only reason that awarding of the degree has been delayed is that the university's scheduled time for conferring degrees is one (1) or more months later, and if the applicant has begun work which meets the standards described in subsection 5.1 and 5.2 of this rule, the Board may count the work experience from the time that all requirements of the degree were met. In those cases the Board shall request verification from the university's or college's department chairperson or program advisor.5.5. Independent private practice does not meet the requirements for supervised experience. Independent means private practice wherein the psychologist does not maintain regular consultative relationships, or does not require supervision, in regard to the management of his or her case load.