How to Find an LPC Supervisor in Texas
I wish you the best of luck. Seriously, you’re going to need it.
It would be great to tell you there are a ton of resources and searchable databases to find an LPC Supervisor in Texas, but unfortunately it’s just not true. Years ago, potential LPC Interns could go to the LPC website and click on ROSTERS to download a list of all LPC Supervisors in Texas. These rosters could be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet and you could sort by city to create a list of potential supervisors in your town. Then you went through a long process of contacting each potential LPC Supervisor, finding out if they were accepting new interns, scheduling a time to meet, deciding whether or not it would be a good fit, and repeating the process until you found someone that hopefully provided you with an excellent supervision experience. Nowadays, if you attempt to download a roster, you are notified that: “The downloadable rosters are temporarily unavailable. If you need to verify a license - please use our new live online search, or contact the board/program office”. PLEASE NOTE: “temporarily unavailable” has been on this page for a long time. I don’t think it’s temporary, you just aren’t able to download the rosters anymore.
You can still complete a search of LPC’s using the “Live Online Search Verification”, but there are a couple problems:
You CANNOT search for LPC Supervisors! You can search the database for “Professional Counselors”, and even search by “City”, but you will get a list of ALL LPCs in that city. You will then have to click on each name individually to find out if they are an LPC Supervisor (more on that in a little bit).
If you are searching by city, a lot of the information isn’t updated so the city might not actually be where the counselor is currently practicing.
Based on these issues, it’s my opinion that the online search database is not much help for finding a supervisor.
So, what do you do now?? It was already difficult to find a supervisor, and now you have one less resource.
Option 1: get a referral. If you have a friend/cohort that worked with an LPC Supervisor and had a positive experience, it might be worth scheduling a time to meet.
Option 2: talk with your professors and other academic advisors at your college to see if they can help direct you to a possible supervisor. Your professors may have some good contacts, especially if they’ve been in the community for a long time. The problem with this option is many students do not stay in the city where they went to school, so your professors may not be much help if you move after graduating. (Also, this option won’t work with online programs since your professors are not local).
Option 3: search the Internet. This might be your best option to find potential LPC Supervisors in your area. It can also give you the option of possibly learning about the supervisor before making the effort to contact them for a meeting. For example, you can view the supervisor’s website to learn about the type of work they do, their experience, training, etc. This can give you excellent insight into the supervisor’s practice and area(s) of expertise. Once you find a person that may be a good fit, before contacting the potential LPC Supervisor, I recommend going to the state’s LPC Website and clicking on “Find a Licensee”. A drop down menu appears and you click on “Live Online Search Verification”. From this page you can search the name of the potential LPC Supervisor to confirm their status as a current, state approved LPC Supervisor. Below is a picture of what you will be looking for:
There are some important things to look for in the picture above:
License Status: Current, Active
This is EXTREMELY important because it tells you that the potential supervisor’s license is current and in good standing.
Modifier(s): Approved Supervisor
Also, EXTREMELY important! This is the only place on the state’s website where you will confirm that the potential supervisor is actually an approved supervisor with the state. If you don’t see this modifier, don’t bother contacting the potential supervisor. They are not currently approved to supervise without it listed on the state’s website.
After confirming the potential LPC Supervisor is fully licensed in Texas, you will want to reach out to the supervisor to schedule a time to discuss possible supervision options.
Once you and your supervisor have agreed to work together, your supervisor will help you get all the initial paperwork completed and submitted to the state to begin your LPC Internship.