The Virginia Board of Counseling within the Virginia Department of Health Professions licenses professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, qualified mental health professionals, and substance abuse counselors, assistants, and practitioners, among practitioners in other related professions. Your Virginia counseling or therapist practice doubtless provides you with significant personal, professional, and financial rewards. But if you face Virginia Board of Counseling disciplinary charges, then you could lose those rewards to license suspension or revocation. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to defend and defeat your Virginia Board of Counseling disciplinary charges. We are available in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Arlington, Richmond, Newport News, Alexandria, Hampton, Roanoke, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Lynchburg, Dale City, Centreville, Reston, Harrisonburg, and all other Virginia locations.
Virginia Board of Counseling Licensing Authority
Virginia Code Title 54.1, Chapter 35, codifies the state's laws on professional counseling. Virginia Code Section 54.1-3503 establishes the Virginia Board of Counseling to license and regulate the practice of professional counseling in the state. Section 54.1-3506 expressly requires professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, and substance abuse counselors practicing in the state to obtain and maintain a Virginia Board of Counseling license. Practicing without a license or on a suspended or revoked license may result in the Virginia Board of Counseling seeking a court injunction, violation of which could result in fines and incarceration. Unlicensed practice or practice in violation of disciplinary limitations or restrictions on a license may further result in the Board of Counseling's permanent revocation of your license and refusal to reinstate your license or reissue a new license. The unlicensed practice may also result in the loss of licenses you hold in other states or hope to gain in other states. Respect the Virginia Board of Counseling's authority and responsibility. Let us help you defend and defeat your disciplinary charges.
Virginia Board of Counseling License Requirements
The Virginia Board of Counseling has adopted administrative rules providing for the requirements for licensure in the state as a professional counselor, marriage and family therapist, qualified mental health professional, or substance abuse counselor. For instance, 18 Virginia Administrative Code 115-20-40 requires professional counselors to submit a verified application showing graduation from an approved education program, completion of an approved residency program, examination, a report from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), and that no disciplinary proceedings exist against the applicant in other states or jurisdictions. Similarly, 18 Virginia Administrative Code 115-50-10 lists the requirements for licensure of marriage and family therapists, including application, education with specific coursework, residency, examination, and other details. You know how long you studied, how hard you worked, and how much you invested in qualifying for your Virginia Board of Counseling license as a professional counselor, marriage and family therapist, qualified mental health professional, or substance abuse counselor. Don't lose your license to disciplinary charges. Retain us to help you defend those charges for your best possible disciplinary outcome.
Virginia Board of Counseling Disciplinary Grounds
The Virginia Board of Counseling's administrative rules as to professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, qualified mental health professionals, and substance abuse counselors authorize discipline against those professionals when they violate the Board's standards. For example, 18 Virginia Administrative Code 115-20-140 authorizes the discipline of professional counselors on a long list of potential charges. For example, 18 Virginia Administrative Code 115-50-120 authorizes the discipline of marriage and family therapists on an equally detailed list of grounds. Qualified mental health counselors face similar discipline under 18 Virginia Administrative Code 115-80-100, while substance abuse counselors face similar discipline under 18 Virginia Administrative Code 115-30-150. Below are the primary disciplinary grounds that each of these four administrative rules lists. Our attorneys are highly qualified to defend you against any of these disciplinary charges:
- felony conviction or conviction for a crime of moral turpitude;
- violating any state law regulating professional counseling;
- obtaining a counseling license through credential fraud;
- endangering the health and welfare of a client in practice;
- practicing without reasonable skill due to illness;
- practicing without reasonable skill due to drugs or alcohol;
- mental or physical impairment affecting safe practice;
- intentionally or negligently injuring a client;
- practicing outside your area of competence;
- failing to complete continuing competency requirements;
- aiding or abetting others in violating counseling standards;
- deceiving or defrauding the public relating to practice;
- failing to report child or elder abuse as mandated;
- license denial or discipline in another state or jurisdiction;
- obstructing or failing to cooperate with a board investigation.
Virginia Consumer Complaints Against Counselors
The Virginia Board of Counseling's administrative rules as to professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, qualified mental health professionals, and substance abuse counselors authorize Board disciplinary officials to investigate complaints against those professionals when they violate the Board's standards. The Virginia Board of Counseling relies on the staffing and expertise of the Virginia Department of Health Professions' Enforcement Division to solicit, receive, and initiate investigations on consumer complaints. The Enforcement Division maintains an online complaint form and other public materials to encourage consumers to share their complaints and concerns about licensed professional counselors with Virginia Board of Counseling disciplinary officials. Do not doubt the ability of others to observe, question, and complain about your professional counseling practices. You are constantly under public and private scrutiny to ensure your competence and fitness for counseling practice.
Preserving Disciplinary Defense Evidence
Retain us immediately upon hearing of an individual's concern over your actions in which the individual indicates a willingness or intent to complain about you to the Virginia Board of Counseling. First of all, we can help you identify, preserve, and gather evidence relating to the concern. You may need that evidence later for your defense of disciplinary charges. If you deliberately destroy or carelessly discard evidence relating to your disciplinary charges, you may face additional charges alleging that you obstructed a disciplinary proceeding. As the saying goes, the cover-up can be worse than the crime. Do not put yourself in the position of being innocent of any substandard practice but guilty of destroying evidence that would have shown so.
Responding to Virginia Consumer Complaints
You may be able to take steps to minimize the risk of a complaint reaching the Virginia Board of Counseling, triggering a disciplinary charge, and proceeding to threaten your license. We may be able to help you diplomatically and sensitively answer the individual's concern with a reasonable explanation of your actions. Your clients and professional colleagues are frankly the most likely individuals to express concern because they are also the most likely to closely observe your professional conduct and suffer any negative impacts from it. You may thus be in a good position to hold fruitful dialogue with them, sharing your information justifying or excusing your actions. Do not threaten or coerce anyone to discourage them from reporting you to the Virginia Board of Counseling. Doing so may result in disciplinary charges for obstructing the investigation. Get our help preparing and making appropriate explanations. Together, we might be able to head off an unnecessary but disruptive and embarrassing investigation.
Virginia Board of Counseling Investigations
As indicated briefly above, the Virginia Board of Counseling, lodged under the Virginia Department of Health Professions, relies on the Department's Enforcement Division to receive consumer complaints and investigate suspected counseling professional wrongdoing. When the Enforcement Division receives a consumer complaint, its officials will evaluate the complaint to determine whether it alleges a rule or standard violation. Consumers can complain about all sorts of things, some of which are trivial and others of which have little or nothing to do with professional practice rules and standards. In their defense, consumers don't generally know the rules and standards. Enforcement Division officials must thus winnow complaints, assigning investigators only to those complaints that allege misconduct that the rules and standards address.
Virginia Board of Counseling Investigation Response
The Enforcement Division investigator may notify you of the investigator's assignment, requesting that you supply information and documentation and submit it to an interview. The investigator's notice and request may come before or after the investigator has interviewed the complainant and other witnesses and gathered records and other information. Retain us the moment you learn of a Virginia Board of Counseling investigation. Do not respond to investigation requests on your own without our skilled representation. If you mistakenly give inaccurate information or carelessly omit other information, disciplinary officials may construe your errors as obstructing the investigation, resulting in additional disciplinary charges. Let us help you give accurate, truthful, and complete answers and responses while preserving a record of your responses in case obstruction allegations come up later.
Virginia Board of Counseling Disciplinary Sanctions
The Virginia Board of Counseling's administrative rules provide for the discipline of professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, qualified mental health professionals, and substance abuse counselors authorize several forms of disciplinary sanction. The discipline for professional counselors, 18 Virginia Administrative Code 115-20-140, for instance, authorizes disciplinary officials to “revoke, suspend, deny issuance or renewal of a license, or take [other] disciplinary action....” Administrative rules for the other three professions repeat those sanctions while adding license restrictions and civil penalties as other options. The point is that Board of Counseling disciplinary officials have broad discretion to impose anything from no discipline to mild or severe discipline. Let us help you defend and defeat your disciplinary charges so that you do not suffer a crippling sanction.
Mitigating Virginia Board of Counseling Sanctions
Virginia Board of Counseling disciplinary discretion gives our attorneys the opportunity to build your defense case for mitigating or even eliminating any sanction, even if disciplinary officials find that you committed a rule or standard violation. Harsh punitive sanctions are not a foregone conclusion, even in the case of disciplinary violations. We may instead be able to show that a warning, caution, reprimand, small fine, restitution, or community service will satisfy the Board of Counseling's public protection interests while preserving your license, practice, and employment. If the Board of Counseling can accomplish its public protection duty without removing a competent counseling practitioner from the field, depriving clients of needed counseling services, then all the better. We can work closely with you to determine what minor sanction you may be able to accept without undue cost, expense, embarrassment, or disruption in a negotiation with disciplinary officials for an early voluntary dismissal of all charges.
Virginia Board of Counseling Remedial Measures
In our negotiation with disciplinary officials over an appropriate charge resolution, we can also propose remedial measures as an alternative to any punitive sanction. We can work closely with you to determine what remedial measures might benefit you without undue cost, expense, embarrassment, or disruption. Remedial measures may include evaluation and treatment or counseling for mental or physical health, substance abuse, and other impairing issues. Remedial measures may alternatively include additional training, additional education, or your acceptance of a professional mentor or work supervision. Remedial measures can also include limiting your license to certain clients, practices, employers, hours, or locations.
Virginia Board of Counseling Hearing and Appeal
The Virginia Board of Counseling must provide you with a fair hearing on the charges to satisfy your constitutional right to due process. We can invoke your hearing right to present your defense evidence and challenge the Board's incriminating evidence. If you have already lost your hearing, we can take your available appeals to reverse errors toward reinstatement of your license. Civil court review may also be available under the applicable administrative procedures.
Premier Virginia State Board License Defense
Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team if you face Virginia Board of Counseling disciplinary charges of any kind. Our skilled and experienced attorneys have helped hundreds of professionals nationwide with successful defenses of disciplinary charges. Your professional counseling license and practice are worth our strategic and effective defense.
