Passing your National Licensing Exam
Getting licensed can open up incredible opportunities, but the exam can seem daunting. Our podcasts make passing more achievable and even fun. Dr Hutchinson and Stacy’s energy and passion for this content will get you motivated and confident.
We break things down in understandable ways - no stuffiness or complexity and focus on the critical parts you need so your valuable study time counts. You’ll come away feeling like, “I can do this!” Whether it’s nailing down diagnoses, theoretical approaches, or applying ethics in challenging situations, we help you get into a licensed mindset. Knowledge domains we cover in these podcasts include:
Professional Practice and Ethics
Intake, Assessment, & Diagnosis
Areas of Clinical Focus
Treatment Planning
Counseling Skills and Interventions
Core Counseling Attributes
And, of course, the DSM-5-TR.
If you listen, you might surprise yourself at how much you absorb and enjoy it along the way. Take that first step – you’ll gain confidence and valuable skills and feel confident getting ready for your licensing exam!
Passing your National Licensing Exam
2027 NCMHCE Exam Changes PT 2
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Domain Two Starts Here<br>
Domain 2A Intake And Telehealth<br>
Domain 2B Assessment And Diagnosis<br>
DSM-5-TR Meets ICD-11<br>
Lethal Means Restriction Added<br>
Domain Three Preview And Closing
SPEAKER_00Welcome back, all you incredible therapists. It looks like you made it through the onslaught of the changes from the last podcast that you're gonna find in the new 2027 exam. Ready for some more? Okay, let's take a peek at domain two and take an assessment with a side order of ICD11 now on the table. Guess you figured I was unsuccessful in dragging Linton out of the sushi aisle at Publix, but I did manage to pin him down long enough to do our study session six on motivational interviewing for the Florida Mental Health Counseling Association. It's a free monthly service offered to prepare for the licensing exam. Contact the Florida Mental Health Counseling Association and they'll send you information to attend our next study session. And whatever state you're in, let your counseling association know we're available and we'll set something up to help you with your study process. The current exam's intake, assessment, and diagnosis domain is worth 25% of scored items, or the heaviest single domain, and it stays heavily weighted in 2027. But the 2027 version splits into two sections, 2A, which is intake, and 2B. Assessment and yes, the distinction matters. Domain 2A focuses specifically on the intake process, obtaining informed consent, and also get this, including content specific to telemental health services, which I'm positive you didn't cover in grad school. For example, if you ran into an exam question like this, a therapist is beginning a telehealth session with a new adult client who reports anxiety and has limited experience with video technology. The platform freezes repeatedly. What is the therapist's most appropriate immediate response? Or this. A therapist is obtaining informed consent for telehealth services with a new adult client who has a serious mental illness history. The client asks, what happens if they experience a crisis during a video session? What should the therapist include? You get the picture. If you're taking the exam in 2027, you have your work cut out for you. And if you're taking it this year, you gotta get on the stick. Domain 2A goes on to review policies and procedures with clients, methods to evaluate barriers to service, and obtain collateral information from relevant parties. These are the front-door tasks that you will need to know front to back. Domain 2B covers everything that happens once your clinical assessment begins: conducting biopsychosocial assessments, the mental status exam, trauma assessments, substance use assessments, determining co-occurring and differential diagnoses, and selecting and interpreting appropriate instruments. Here is the detail that will catch a lot of students off guard. The 2027 exam explicitly requires knowledge of both the DSM-5 TR and the ICD-11. The International Classification of Diseases, 11th revision, is now listed alongside DSM-5TR as required diagnostic knowledge. If your current study materials only address DSM-5 TR, and most do, you have a gap to fill. You don't need to become an ICD-11 expert, but you do need to know what it is, how it differs from the DSM system, and be familiar with common ICD-11 codes. And not only for the conditions you're most likely to encounter in a narrative, such as mood disorders, anxiety, trauma, substance use, and psychotic disorders. Oh, and I forgot, there's another item in domain tube B that deserves your special attention. Lethal means restriction. This skill is now explicitly listed as a clinical skill on the 2027 exam. It was not a name task in the current content outline, so you'll be better off knowing what it is, when to apply it, and how to document it. I was thinking of continuing to domain three, the treatment planning and continuity of care, but as you can see from the title of the domain, it's massive, and I'll save the details for the next podcasts. Needless to say, domain three may be the most instructive split in the new 2027 licensing exam structure. It covers treatment planning in its traditional sense, developing SMART goals and objectives, identifying strengths and barriers, integrating assessment results into treatment plans, reviewing diagnoses with clients, assessing for contraindications of treatment approaches, revising plants collaboratively with the client. And that's just the beginning. We'll go into the details of domain three's treatment planning and the rest of the continuity of care next time we get together. In the meantime, I swear I'll drag Linton out of publics for the next podcast. Continue to study a little every day and don't put off what you can do today until tomorrow. You can do this, and remember, it's in there.
