Clinical Social Work Licensure

Washington State

Clinical Social Work is the largest category of licensed professionals providing outpatient mental health care (2019 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Clinical Social Work facts

Independent clinical social workers are often assumed as being identical to employees in institutional employment (hospitals, child/senior protective services, prisons, etc. whose job titles include the term “social worker”. In fact, clinical social work is one of the oldest, largest specializations practicing psychotherapy in the United States.

Licensure

The LICSW (Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker) designation is the highest level of licensure for Clinical Social Work in the State of Washington. My licensure is current. You can verify that here (select “Social Worker Independent Clinical License”, type in my name & security code, and click “Search”.)

Post-graduate training and recent continuing professional education

1998-99 Gottman Institute – 2 multi-day trainings

1999 -2014 Sexual Crucible Model (David Schnarch Ph.D,Ruth Morehouse, Ph.D.) Four weeklong intensive trainings; five years of monthly supervision & peer consultation.

Continuing Education

A minimum of 36 hours of certified continuing professional education (including law & ethics) every 24 months is required to maintain state licensure. Here is the most recent five years (out of twenty five total) professional coursework

2024-25 Internal Family Systems Learning Hub (6 mo.)
2024 - The Body Keeps the Score -Trauma Healing Through the Senses
2024 - Disentangling The Axes of BDSM
2024 - Clinical Applications of Internal Family Systems Therapy:: Step-by-Step Procedures for Healing Traumatic Wounds and Alleviating Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, Addiction and More
2024 - Homoerotic Expression and Perverse Desire in the Anatomical Image
2024 - Jungian and Archetypal Perspectives on BDSM
2024-25 IFS Online Circle (6 mo. training)
2024 - MDMA & Psilocybin Therapies for PTSD Treatment: Updates and Future Direction
2023 - Power, Sex, Community, and Headspace: Assessing and Addressing Kink Identity in Therapy
2023 - Sex-Positive Treatment of Out Of Control Sexual Behavior
2023 - Introduction to Erotic Humiliation, Embarrassment, and Degradation
2023 - Consent Incidents and Defamation Law
2023 - Master Class: Internal Family Systems in Action with Complex Trauma and PTSD
2023 - The Body Keeps The Score - Intensive Trauma Healing with Bessel van der Kolk, MD
2022 - Somatic Re-Experiencing of Sexual Trauma
2022 - Hall Monitors, Ambassadors to Ecstasy: How Dungeon Monitors View Their Role in Semi-Public BDSM Venues
2022 - Rope and Psychotherapy: Integrating The Personal And Professional
2022 - Sick Fuck: Navigating Kink & Chronic Illness
2022 - Kink Cultural Competence Scale
2022 - Words For Perverts: Terminology for Erotic Minorities
2022 - Attachment Disruption, Unresolved Childhood Memories and Self-Disturbance:An Evolving Approach To Complex Trauma
2022 - Case Conference: Applying Systems Theory to Polycules
2022 - Spinning Off While You Get Off: Chemsex and Drug/Sex Use in Kink Populations
2022 - Traumatophilic Repetitions and the Suffering of Pleasure
2022 - Becoming Whole Again: Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy for Trauma
2022 - Kink Identity: Its Structure and Development
2022 - Emerging Research on Unique Fetish Interests and Communities
2021 - Sexual Fantasies: Understanding their Meaning In Psychotherapy
2021 - 19th Century Sexology and the Origins of the Modern Paraphilias
2021 - Working with Sex, Gender and Relationship Diverse Clients
2021 - Transforming Sexual Narratives: Integrating Sex Therapy Into Couples Therapy
2021 - Protecting Human Research Participants (PHRP)
2021 - From The Playroom To the Courtroom:BDSM, Consent and the Law
2021 - Using systemic therapy as a navigation tool for alternative sexual landscapes
2021 - Conversations In Kink: From Emerging To Thriving
2021 - BDSM as Spiritual Practice; recent scholarship and research
2021 - Playing with Dark Emotions: Playing with fear and shame in scenes of humiliation, objectiﬁcation and dehumanization
2020 - The Kinky Mind and Body: The Psychobiology of Kink
2020 - The Ethical Slut Presents: Navigating Consent - Dossie Easton
2020 - Excellence in Therapy with Kink-Identiﬁed Clients
2020 - Balancing Safety and Pleasure: Making ethical decision when personal expression and professional boundaries collide
2019 - How the Body Keeps the Score: Intensive Trauma Treatment Course
2019 - Ethical Issues in the Integration of Aikido Principles into Trauma Treatment
2019 - Transgender, Gender Queer, Two-Spirit and Intersex: Ethical Mental Health Services with Gender Variant Clients
2019 - Internal Family Systems: a Non-Coercive, Integrative Therapy Model for Individual and Couples Work

To search for any state licensed provider’s current license status, or file a complaint, visit the Washington State Department of Health Social Work program website.