We're already well underway planning the AMHP Annual Conference and I'm confident in saying it will be like no other counseling conference you've ever attended. In fact, that's our stated goal.

How Will It Be Different?

We see two very specific areas of concern affecting counselors that we want to address in this conference:

• Navigating the new CE Renewal Rules and checking those boxes off of your list, and...
• Running a counseling practice in a post-covid environment, and the issues that that brings.

The New CE Renewal Rules

The new set of rules goes into effect Jan 2024. Before you say to yourself, "oh, good, I have time to figure them out!", uh, no, you don't. That effective date means that anyone submitting renewal ce's after that date has to comply with the new list of requirements to renew.

In other words, if you spend all of 2023 accumulating ce's without an eye towards the new requirements (think Approved Provider list and 50% Rule) then you run a very probable risk of getting bad news from the license renewal folk at BHEC, especially if you renew in 2024.

Our thinking is that 50-60% of all counselors will have heard that there are changes but won't understand what they are. Another 20-30% won't even find out about the new rules until they get a little love letter from BHEC after trying to renew in 2024 using "unapproved" hours accumulated in 2023.

One of our major objectives for this conference is to line up those 10 pre-approved, required ce's so you leave the conference having checked that box. But simply knocking out all your needed ceu's in one weekend isn't the entire purpose of the conference, and never will be going forward.

Post-Covid Counseling

The covid event triggered a lot of change on a lot of different fronts in our society, including the counseling world and how we deal with our clients. We need to talk about that and that's exactly what we're going to do.

The last 3 years have peeled back the cover on a lot of things people still don't want to talk about (or it's not socially safe to do so). Our clients need to talk about it though, and what does that say about us as the standard-bearers for mental health if we don't have the courage to confront uncomfortable issues?

We're working on the subject-matter expert(s), speaker line-up right now and the minute we have it all on paper, you're going to hear about it!

Your Call-to-Action

Get familiar with the new CE Renewal Rules (start here). We talked about it ad nauseum last year in our posts and you can bring yourself up to speed in short order. Just know that if you attend our conference in September you'll walk out of there with ALL of the 10 required hours from an Approved Provider. All of them.

Make it a priority for 2023 to devote time to what's going on in the world and how it's affecting your clients and the conversations they need to have. You know what I'm talking about. You and I can be a part of the solution if we work together.

We're not going to wait until September to start our conversation, though. We've already begun (see "Therapy Sisters" podcast) and we'll utilize the blog posts to express our thoughts as well. So stay tuned then join us in September. A splendid time is guaranteed for all!