Licensed Professional Counselors
Licensed professional counselors dedicate their careers to helping others, and serve as a critical resource in promoting mental and emotional well-being, preventing crises, and fostering healthier, more resilient individuals and communities. It can be especially distressing for them when they face accusations or legal challenges that might impede their capacity to fulfill their professional responsibilities.
Understanding the Board Complaint Process
The Board Complaint and Investigatory Process
Once a Board complaint is received from the originating source and the Board, depending on the type of violation(s) involved, opens up an investigation against the licensed professional counselor, a complaint letter is prepared and sent to the licensed professional counselor’s last known address on file at the Board. The Board complaint letter outlines the allegations and provides cursory information and notice to the licensed professional counselor. The Board will then inform the licensed professional counselor in this communication that he or she must respond to the Board and respond specifically with an explanation to every allegation contained in the letter. The Board will also advise, in the letter, that the licensed professional counselor must respond with an explanation by an internally determined date (i.e., not statutory or rule), usually thirty days from the date of the letter and not the date the letter was received. Read more>>
Written Notification from TSBEPC
Licensed Professional Counsels are regulated by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors. This group of licensees falls under a general umbrella agency, the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Board, which also oversees separate licensees such as social workers (Texas State Board of Social Workers), marriage and family therapists (Texas State Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists), psychologists (Texas State Board of Psychologists). Read more>>
Do I Need to Hire an Attorney? What Type of Attorney Should I Hire?
At the Phan Law Firm, P.C., our attorney, Phong Phan, was the former in-house attorney at two different state licensing agencies that regulated health professionals, the Texas Board of Nursing (nurses) and the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners (dentists, dental hygienists). Mr. Phan, during his time as an in-house attorney at these different licensing agencies, worked closely with the Board’s Directors of Enforcement, Executive Directors, Board members, and on a daily basis with the investigatory staff and advised the staff regarding all types of disciplinary cases and practice violations in all kinds of settings. Read more>>
Experience Matters
With over 15 years of professional license defense experience, Phong Phan, Esq. has an intimate understanding of the board complaint process, disciplinary proceedings, licensure issues, and SOAH contested case hearings.
In private practice for the last few decades, Mr. Phan has focused his practice exclusively on defending licensed professional counselors and similar other health-related professionals against Board complaints and disciplinary proceedings and has assisted applicants seeking licensure in the State of Texas to achieve their lifelong goal of being a licensed professional counselor.
The process is daunting, and each step requires an attorney who can shepherd a licensed professional counselor through that process and provide sound, reflective legal advice at each step of the way so that the licensed professional counselor is in the best position to understand the consequences of each action and make the best-informed decision for him or her depending on his or her unique facts.
The LPC must be advised and understand whether the Board, considering these same unique facts, can bear its burden and establish discipline against the licensed professional counselor under the statute and its rules. Licensed professional counselors often feel a great burden when faced with a board complaint, unsure as to how to carry themselves for their other clients and facing the possibility of discipline impacting their practice. The Phan Law Firm, P.C., fully understands this.
Candidly, the decision to hire an attorney is a critical and important one that is not to be taken lightly. Given the years of education and training of a licensed professional counselor, the firm expects that each potential licensed professional counselor-client will continue to do his or her due diligence in researching an attorney and finding an attorney and firm that can best obtain the right result for him or her. Thus, one of the key considerations, the firm believes, is whether that attorney has experience with the Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors and has defended licensed professional counselors before the Board. The Phan Law Firm, P.C., is this firm.