Rick McCarthy MFT Statement to the California MFT Board
Hello, I’m Rick McCarthy MFT. I am here to respectfully recommend and request the reinstatement of some effective form of the oral exams as an essential component of the licensure process.
To Raise the Bar of Competence
As a LMFT with nearly 50 years of clinical experience, 28 years of teaching and supervising, and over 25 of years serving as a Subject Matter Expert for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences—I’ve been deeply involved in every facet of therapist licensure: writing and administering the oral exams, the clinical vignette and written exams. What I’ve witnessed in the years since the oral exam was eliminated in 2003 is alarming.
Therapist readiness and competence have declined. Academic and supervisory programs have grown more lenient. And the most troubling of all, a growing number of therapists are entering the field without the essential skills needed to serve the public.
The oral exam was the gold standard—designed to assess real-world competence with a new client as they would in their practice. It evaluated how well a therapist could conceptualize a case. The Board did an excellent job selecting and training highly skilled therapists who learned to discern competency from incompetency. Written tests alone cannot measure those abilities.
As an oral examiner, my partner and I did everything we could to give borderline candidates the benefit of the doubt—searching for all evidence of minimal competency. Yet roughly 60% of candidates were assessed as either clinically incompetent or even potentially dangerous. Many of these candidates are now licensed.
My Call to Action
This is a public health emergency, and I encourage us not to treat it like an administrative exercise. It’s like focusing on a patient’s chronic illnesses while ignoring the fact that they’re actively bleeding out. Until we stop the immediate harm—by ensuring only truly assessed competent therapists are licensed—no amount of system reform will matter.
It’s time to reinstate the standard that the public can trust. Reinstating the oral exam, though a complex task, is a necessary safeguard for the future. I do believe we care about the integrity of our profession and the well-being of the people we serve; therefore, I strongly encourage us to act now.
Thank you.
Rick McCarthy LMFT
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