{"id":770,"date":"2025-07-03T16:23:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T20:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/?p=770"},"modified":"2025-07-30T16:23:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:23:18","slug":"speech-doesnt-need-to-be-licensed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/speech-doesnt-need-to-be-licensed\/","title":{"rendered":"Speech Doesn’t Need to be Licensed"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a regrettable trend emerging in behavior health (mental health and substance use disorder[i]) that non-clinical professionals should be licensed.<\/h4>\n

Proponents generally argue:<\/h4>\n

(1) that certain non-clinical practitioners (specifically, peer support specialists under a multitude of confusing titles, including \u2013 erroneously, if popularly \u2013 \u201crecovery coaches\u201d) cannot be trusted to stay within their role boundaries in a service environment where organic course correcting mechanisms are presumed not to exist;<\/h4>\n

and<\/h4>\n

(2) there’s no difference between \u201clicensing\u201d (clinical scope of practice) and \u201ccertification\u201d (voluntary confirmation of non-clinical competence).\u00a0 In reality, the former is mandatory where applicable.\u00a0 The latter is always voluntary, although professionals may be encouraged into becoming certified by external factors such as eligibility for Medicaid-billable services (e.g. \u201cCRPA\u201d certification in NYS[ii]).<\/h4>\n

In sum, a license describes (circumscribes) what I\u2019m permitted to do by law.\u00a0 A certification, by contrast, confirms what I\u2019m capable of doing as a competent professional.<\/h4>\n

Which is appropriate? That depends on the purpose of the professional practice \u2013 is it clinical (medicine, etc.) or non-clinical (coaching)?\u00a0 This distinction is summarized by the INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATION & RECIPROCITY CONSORTIUM<\/a>(IC&RC)<\/strong> which has developed a wide range of licenses and certifications applicable in the behavioral health field (https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/ICRC-lic-cert<\/a>):\u00a0 \u201cA license is a state\u2019s grant of legal authority to practice a profession within a designated scope of practice. \u00a0Certification represents the achievement of a level of professional competency.\u201d<\/h4>\n

So what do non-clinical behavioral health professionals do?\u00a0 And should they be licensed or certified?<\/h4>\n

Peer recovery support specialists \u201cboost\u00a0individuals’ engagement in\u00a0treatment and commitment to recovery; [and] connect patients to community-based recovery supports consistent with treatment, recovery, and discharge plans.\u201d (NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports<\/a>[iii])\u00a0OASAS proceeds to list a number of specific tasks which may be summarized as engaging in purposeful non-clinical conversation<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n

The coaching industry’s International Coaching Federation<\/a> (ICF), meanwhile, defines what coaches do as:\u00a0 \u201cpartner with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.\u201d[iv] A non-clinical practice<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n

Conversation?\u00a0 Free speech between consenting adults.\u00a0 There\u2019s a constitutional amendment to protect that! <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Non-clinical?\u00a0 Nothing to license.\u00a0 But the public, clients and employers, and other stakeholders (including taxpayers contributing to Medicaid reimbursements), will appreciate a certification of role competence as a measure of the credibility and accountability of any professional.<\/h4>\n

Let\u2019s be very careful what we wish for in our non-clinical practice: confirmed competence and credibility (certification)\u2013YES!\u00a0 Censorship for our conversations (license)\u2013NO!<\/h4>\n

###<\/h4>\n
\n

[i] American Medical Association https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/AMA-behavioral-health-2022<\/a><\/p>\n

[ii] Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/DHHS-CMS-2007<\/a><\/p>\n

[iii] NYS OASAS https:\/\/oasas.ny.gov\/recovery\/become-certified-recovery-peer-advocate<\/a><\/p>\n

[iv] ICF https:\/\/coachingfederation.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a regrettable trend emerging in behavior health (mental health and substance use disorder[i]) that non-clinical professionals should be licensed. Proponents generally argue: (1) that certain non-clinical practitioners (specifically, peer support specialists under a multitude of confusing titles, including \u2013 erroneously, if popularly \u2013 \u201crecovery coaches\u201d) cannot be trusted to stay within their role boundaries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}