Lizette Bonilla Professional Portfolio

Part of California's rigorous licensing process includes Continuing Education requirements. According to the Board of Behavioral Sciences, California licensees have to renew their licensees on two separate occasions:     First Time Renewals After 2 years, licensees must renew for the first time and complete a minimum of 18 hours of continuing education requirements. Suicide Risk Assessment (6 hours)  HIV/AIDS (7 hours) Child Abuse Assessment and Reporting (7 hours)  Alcoholism and Other Chemical Substance Dependency (15 hours)  Subsequent Renewals  Every 2 years after the first renewal, licensees must complete 36 hours of continuing education requirements  Law and Ethics (6 hours)  Marriage and Family Therapy (6 hours)  Note :  You can receive credit for teaching a course but only for one class per individual renewal period.  1 semester=15 CE hours 1 quarter=10 CE hours  Supervisors can apply their course training to their CE ...

Psychology Today is a mental health and behavioral sciences resource that offers graduate resources. PT provides recent articles and updates on various psychological conversations. They also offer consumers a magazine subscription.  Another great resource for people interested in psychology and therapy is the Find a Therapist feature on their PT's website. Individuals can search through their local: Therapists Treatment Centers Psychiatrists  Support Groups  Tele-therapy options  For example, someone in Syracuse would be able to enter their city, zip code, or a search to find a specific therapist or treatment center to access therapy options.  Prospective clients can sort through types of issues they’re looking to address, insurance, gender, types of therapy, ages served, ethnicities served, languages offered, or price. Practice Building Resources Building one's practice can be an intimidating process for therapists- new and experienced. However, there is an a...

The Syracuse University MFT program offers practicum courses for students each semester where we engage in teaming with second-year students. In our second year, we receive our own caseload in our student center and at our internship site. In order to track hours for graduation and licensing requirements we use:  Monthly Hours Forms  In this log we track:  Location of work Type of Case Hours  Supervisor Signatures  Supervision Log In this log we track: Supervisor Initials Date of session Hours Type of Case Live/Video Case  Clinical Hours Log In this log we track:  Student Hour Calculation  Hours Log  In this log we track: Date & Time of Session Month/Year Length Type of Case Type of Work Site  All of these forms can be located on Blackboard in the Practicum Course Template Tabs.  Pre Clinical Hours According to the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS), following graduation, MFT interns must use the following forms to track supervi...

In order to begin the therapeutic process, a client must complete and understand a variety of intake forms including:  Informed Consent forms are agreements between the client and healthcare providers regarding the permission for care. It is the duty of the therapist to ensure the client understands their rights in the therapeutic relationship.   Below is Dr. Kirk Honda's current informed consent form Authorization forms are used when the client grants the therapist permission to discuss protected health information with other members in their system or other health providers.  Content and time limited  Can be revoked by the client at any time  Below is Lizeth Ma's current authorization form

AAMFT offers various legal resources for members. In addition to legal consultation, AAMFT offers various legal fact sheets and reference pages on subjects ranging from: Subpoenas Minors in Therapy: Duty to Report Practicing Therapy Via Internet-Legal View Treating Children Legal and Ethical Issues For more fact sheets and references see the link  A few important rulings and laws to consider as a therapist working in California (as well as other states) include:  Jaffee vs. Redmond This Supreme Court decision set the precedent for protecting psychotherapy information for all clients across jurisdictions. The Supreme Court justices who voted for communication privilege stated that confidence is necessary for effective therapy.  Jaffee vs. Redmond Reference Page Tarasoff vs. Regents  This Supreme Court decision set the precedent that mental health professionals have a duty to warn and protect individuals anyone being threatened by the therapist's client.  This ca...

Professional Organizations such as AAMFT define and enforce Code of Ethics that set standards for therapists to promote ethical decision making. Linked is the most recent AAMFT Code of Ethics AAMFT and other sites also offer various articles and fact sheets on their websites through the Family Therapy Magazine for members. Examples of recent Fact Sheets and Articles are:  Sexual Attraction in the Therapeutic Relationship Fact Sheet  Duty to Report Fact Sheet  Black Families and Body Image: The Need for a Holistic Approach Article To read additional articles from the Family Therapy Magazine  click the link In case of questions or concerns, AAMFT has provided contact information for legal and ethical concerns: Members can send questions via email to ethics@aamft.org Schedule a phone call on their consultation page     Their hours are: Monday-Thursday: 10-4pm EST Friday-Sunday: Unavailable