Dear Members,

Many of you have been following our emails regarding advocacy in the past year.  We have held two forums to discuss options regarding a MFT Compact and Licensing Reciprocity.  We have discussed the pros and cons in our Forum Meeting in June 2021, and we held another meeting in December 2021 to discuss a Study Bill to be submitted in the 2022 legislative session.

At the time, AAMFT was only promoting Licensure Portability, and we chose to pursue it and find ways to come to an agreement between Virginia, Maryland and DC.  A few of us attempted to reach out to Virginia and DC Board members to see if there was interest in submitting legislation in the 2022 session that would have allowed for the 3 jurisdictions to agree to have similar language regarding license portability. We learned that Virginia was pursuing license portability with North Carolina and were not interested in submitting any bills in the 2022 legislative session, as they had new leadership in place.

Our lobbyist advised us to submit a study bill that would ask Maryland to look into working together with the other jurisdictions to come up with a plan to have license portability in the DMV area. Unbeknownst to us, the Maryland Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists (BOPCAT) was already working on this and there was no need for the study bill.  BOPCAT tried reaching out to the DC and Virginia Boards, but since our last update, they did not get any response.

Metro MFT Board met with the MFT representatives of BOPCAT and the former Executive Director of the Board, Kim Link who was instrumental in organizing the Compact Bill for counselors.  We discussed BOPCAT's efforts and lack of response from the DC and Virginia Boards and the need for the national organization to spearhead the MFT Compact.  We (along with the MFTs from BOPCAT) agreed that we would work together to make sure all of our efforts are aligned and to continue to pursue licensing portability while we wait to see if AAMFT comes up with a plan for an MFT Compact or a stronger effort to support license portability across States.  If you are licensed in DC or Virginia, we need your help in reaching out to your licensure boards.  If there is a need for funds for lobbying or finding a lobbyist to represent us there, please reach out to us.  It is important for us to know whose voices we can support and represent when planning fundraising and budgeting future organizational expenses.

As a result of not having other states on board to work on licensure portability, no other current lobbying needs, and having limited funds, we decided to pause Willie Harris' annual contract in the coming year and to instead contract him on an as needed basis to support MFTs in Annapolis in 2023. 

With telehealth becoming standard practice, it is urgent that the movement to practice across states becomes a national effort as all other MH professions are moving forward with Compacts.If any of you know of any national efforts or initiatives towards allowing MFTs to practice across States that you think we should pursue, please contact the Metro MFT Board.   If you think we should be meeting more frequently to discuss our options, please email me at Viviana.azar.cft@gmail.com

Remember we are all volunteers trying to manage our work and life outside work. As MFTs, we are also a small group of mental health professionals who need each other to represent our profession as distinctive from other mental health disciplines.  Your ideas and suggestions are truly welcome.  Looking forward to hearing from all of you.

Sincerely,

Viviana Azar, LCMFT
Advocacy Officer