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When I attended graduate school as I was earning my Master's in Social Work, I was taught the value of our state licensing boards. In Georgia, Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Licensed Professional Counselors are all licensed by the Georgia Composite Board, now based in Macon, Georgia. I was taught the value of the licensing process as a tool to protect the public, who were said to need the ability to examine standardized licensing qualifiers to enable them to pick and choose a capable practitioner.          

As I have learned experientially in the course of my social work practice, it is a rare client who educates her/himself about the educational curriculum of a Social Worker as compared to a Marriage and Family Therapist as compared to a Licensed Professional Counselor. Does it really matter to my clients that I had classes in cultural diversity, or social work policy and methods? Do they ask me if I completed my requisite 3,000 hours of direct clinical practice and at least 120 hours of direct clinical supervision before I sat for my final licensing examination? Do they really want to know the difference between Family Systems Theory and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? Although I do touch on some of these things in our informed consent discussions, I believe what they need to know most is that I have a sincere and abiding interest in them and what happens to them. They need to know I am compassionate, caring, and a person of integrity. These last they will know because as we work and play together they will get to know me more than they will know what I studied or what Board looks after their interests and mine. Certainly it is important that I possess certain knowledge and an experiential base from which to practice; however, what they most need to know about me, no Board can guarantee, especially not a Board that holds what I do in the light of suspicion, distrust, or lack of understanding or appreciation. 

I am also an advanced level Aura-Soma practitioner. This means that I use colour to assist clients in understanding more about their life paths and unique life missions as well as what particular gifts and challenges they have experienced along the way. This is an English system supported by the Aura-Soma International Academy of Colour Therapeutics, a non-profit organization that researches colour theory and direct practical application of its knowledge. 

I do not believe any Board can effectively protect or shepherd its members when the members of that Board know nothing about what its diverse members do and, worse still, may look suspiciously at the work itself.

Peggy Simms' article will be continued next month. In Part  2, Ms. Simms examines the values of allopathy vs. homeopathy and masculine vs. feminine approaches to healing. Ms. Simms is responding as an alternative practitioner to this situation and does not represent CAMA. She may be reached at peggysimms@hotmail.com.