1.A. What Is Your Scope of Practice?

a therapist’s scope of practice what it is, why it matters, and how to expand it taking on a client who may fall beyond the scope of your practice may seem like a good idea at first after all, don’t you want to expand your service offerings, help more people, diversify your experience, and grow your business? of course! however, there is a prudent and ethical way to manage client cases that are beyond your scope of practice, and in this article, we will provide you with the context needed for understanding what a scope of practice is, when to make an appropriate referral, and how to ethically expand your scope of practice what is a scope of practice? a therapist’s scope of practice refers to their specific expertise, and it defines the procedures, services, and techniques that a therapist is qualified and legally permitted to administer it is important for therapists to operate within the boundaries of their scope of practice because psychological concerns are unique and often require specialized care for instance, the expertise of a certified emdr therapist is quite a bit different than that of a certified child play therapist for your protection and the client's, it is imperative for you as a therapist to ensure that your client receives the best and most appropriate care by honoring the industry’s code of ethics what defines my scope of practice? a scope of practice may be very narrow or hyper specific due to the extensive training or expertise required, such as with emdr trauma therapy, eating disorder treatment, or neuro divergent counseling alternatively, your scope of practice may be the psychological equivalent to a medical general family doctor, and you might specialize in a wide range of common mental health topics and treatments either way, your scope of practice is largely defined by three primary parameters the law your certifications your niche three reasons why working within your scope of practice is important you are ethically obligated to do so it could ultimately hurt the patient liability reasons how do i expand my scope of practice as a clinician? it is important to note that the expertise required for different treatment solutions will vary depending on the topic, severity, age group, or demographic however, as clinicians well know, there is quite a bit of overlap within psychology, and it is completely normal and encouraged for your scope of practice to expand and overlap with related topics and treatment solutions as your career progresses many of the seasoned therapists in our hopscotch community can attest to the fact that certain subject matters organically progress and lead to other topics, which causes your scope of practice to naturally expand or else a client’s needs may develop in new ways that require new treatment solutions, or else your own needs and interests may evolve there are many ways to expand your practice to include a variety of other service options 5 ways to expand your scope of practice at hopscotch, we feel the number one best way for therapists to expand their scope of practice is to simply keep learning learning is a never ending journey of exploration, and we have made it easy for you to earn free continuing education credits whenever and wherever it’s convenient for you in addition to furthering your education, here are five other ways to expand your scope of practice request hopscotch peer consultation do some digging research crossover topics and treatments for the services you already provide, and pursue the relevant training or credentials necessary for incorporating them into your practice keep up to date on current industry standards consider expanding your therapy practice to another state focus on your client’s needs what to do when a client requires or requests services beyond your scope of practice as soon as you discover that your patient's presenting issue falls beyond your scope of practice, you have an ethical obligation to refer them to a more appropriate provider if your client’s presenting issue is closely related to your scope of practice, and if you are able to advance your competency in order to effectively administer the treatment, then it may be a great opportunity to expand your scope of practice and pursue additional continuing education, supervision, or consultation note that even in instances where no specific credentials or specialized training may be legally required, it is still highly recommended to consider securing consultation or supervision before you begin treatment consulting with an expert and inviting collaboration is an excellent way to safely and ethically expand your scope of practice while ensuring the patient receives the best possible treatment how do i find consultation/supervision for a client case? there are many https //www joinhopscotch com/blog/therapist peer consultation groups 11 benefits of therapist consulting , and hopscotch offers opportunities for cross collaboration within our exceptional community of therapists contact our director of community, michelle rigg for support or if you feel you need to be connected to one of our peer consultants for assistance time for reflection take a moment to reflect on what you just read and write down the responses to the following questions do this in any format that works for you, such as typing on a document, writing in a notepad, or downloading our worksheet (1 e ) what do you believe is your particular scope of practice? what are the areas in which you would like to expand your scope of practice, and how might you do so in the next year (i e additional training, supervision, certifications, etc )? are there any clients on your caseload that are outside of your scope of practice? if yes, how can you use the resources available to you to correct this (hopscotch peer consultation, additional supervision, refer out, etc )