This act amends RCW 18.19.090 to change licensure and application rules for agency-affiliated counselors and related credentials. It adds an eligibility pathway explicitly allowing board-certified psychiatric pharmacists to be licensed as agency-affiliated counselors, requires that applications for agency affiliated counselor, certified counselor, certified adviser, or hypnotherapist use secretary‑approved forms, authorizes the secretary to require information to determine qualifications and to set fees under RCW 43.70.250, and requires each application to include a description of the applicant’s orientation, discipline, theory, or technique and documentation that the applicant is employed by or has an offer from an agency or is a department‑defined student intern. Substantive credential requirements are specified: a certified agency affiliated counselor must have a bachelor’s degree in counseling or a social science with specified coursework and at least five years of supervised direct‑treatment experience with persons with a mental disorder under supervision of a mental health professional who can independently provide assessments and diagnoses within that professional’s scope. A licensed agency affiliated counselor may qualify either with an advanced degree in counseling or a social science plus two years of supervised direct‑treatment experience, or with an advanced degree in health care plus two years of behavioral health care experience—this second pathway explicitly includes board‑certified psychiatric pharmacists. The required counseling or health care coursework will be determined by the department by rule. This is a modification of existing law that creates a new eligibility pathway, adjusts application and supervisory procedures, and sets education and experience criteria; it does not state new penalties. Important specifics are missing from the extracted text: the department’s rule definitions (for example, “student intern” and the precise coursework), the identity of “the secretary” and the department referenced, the effective date of any rules, and the content of related chapters and waiver provisions cited, so full implementation details cannot be determined from the provided excerpts.

If enacted, the law creates a clear additional pathway for board-certified psychiatric pharmacists to become licensed as agency-affiliated counselors by meeting an advanced health-care degree plus at least two years of behavioral health experience and the coursework the department will require. More people can apply for agency-affiliated counselor status, but all applicants will have to use forms and pay fees set by the secretary, show employment or an offer from an agency (or student intern status), and include a description of their counseling orientation or technique. Those most affected are board-certified psychiatric pharmacists, other counselor applicants, the agencies that hire them, and the mental health professionals who supervise them. Psychiatric pharmacists gain a new credential option and employers gain a broader hiring pool, while applicants face the cost of application fees and the uncertainty of coursework and student-intern definitions that the department must still set by rule. Legacy exemptions let some long-practicing applicants avoid the new coursework if they apply by July 1, 2027, but several implementation details are left to the department and other referenced laws, so exact requirements and timelines remain unclear.