LANSING – The mobilization of thousands of licensed professional counselors angered by proposed changes to the rules that govern their practices has pushed the Legislature to fast-track a bill that would stop the new rules.

The state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs was attempting to update the rules, which could impact the counselors’ ability to diagnose and treat patients. There are roughly 10,000 counselors in the state who are providing mental health services to 150,000 clients.

“The current rules are very outdated and require updates governing the counseling profession,” said Jason Moon, spokesman for LARA. “Counselors will still be able to practice their profession under the new rules. The current and new rules do not allow licensees to diagnose and use psychotherapy techniques because the statute does not allow this practice under the profession's scope.”

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And that’s been the rub for the counselors.

“The department says this change is benign, but it is not and it will put us out of compliance with our own code of ethics. If we’re out of compliance, we’re practicing illegally,” said Richard Lieske, a counselor from Okemos. “And when counselors can't see their clients, a lot of bad things are going to happen.”

Licensed professional counselors are required to have bachelor's and master's degrees, but not a medical degree like psychiatrists, who can prescribe medications, or a doctoral degree like psychologists. Counselors can evaluate and treat mental health problems through counseling and psychotherapy.

But if LARA removed the term "diagnose" from the rules, counselors said it would be difficult to treat patients without a definitive initial evaluation. And it could affect their ability to get reimbursed for treatment from a patient's insurance policy.

Sara Sue Schaeffer, a counselor from Sturgis and the public policy head of the Michigan Mental Health Counselor’s Association, said the new rule would have put counselors out of business.

“A low estimate is 150,000 clients of those 10,000 counselors, and they would just have to go without mental health care,” she said. “There aren't enough of the other providers to go around and people are waiting in long lines to get services right now.”

After hundreds of phone calls to legislators and more than 1,000 people protesting the rule change in Lansing last week, the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a bill that would enshrine current practice into law and continue to allow counselors to diagnose and treat patients. The full House of Representatives followed suit later Tuesday, passing the bill on a vote of 108-0. More than 100 counselors who stuck around for the full House vote erupted into cheers and applause after the vote.

“We have a situation where the department is pressing rules to go against the last 31 years of precedent and these counselors will no longer have the ability to do the work that they’ve done for 31 years,” said state Rep. Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis, who sponsored the bill. “They worry about what will happen to them, but more so of what happens to their clients.”

The Legislature tried to pass similar legislation last year, but the issue died without a vote on the last day of the lame-duck session in 2018.

The speedy movement of the bill is a testament to the grassroots efforts of the counselors, said Miller, who added he was repeatedly stopped in his district by constituents urging action against the LARA rules.

“This has been very special to me, aside from passing the policy, to see so many people mobilizing and contacting their representatives and senators and getting passionate about the governmental process,” he said. “It's been very, very, very sweet to see.”

The bill — HB 4325 — still has to get through the Senate.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.