Scope of practice 

Jace Hudon is an LMSW. He reports to the Idaho State Board of Social Work Examiners and his Clinical Supervisor. Jace is licensed in the State of Idaho and holds a Master's Degree in Social Work from Boise State University accredited by the Counsel of Social Work Education. Jace carries malpractice insurance and is a member of National Association of Social Workers. 

Taxonomy of Providers

UNRECOGNIZED FIELDS:

COACHING: 

 Coaches operate in an entirely unregulated marketplace with zero state oversight, no legal definition of care, no diagnostic capabilities, and no accountability to public health boards. Yet they will still try to grate right on the fucking edge of that line. Toeing that line is an immediate boundary violation and it should be flagged immediately and noticeably. If a person identifies themselves as a coach they are purely a business. Anyone can legally claim the title of a coach without an hour of training, and they are explicitly prohibited from practicing psychotherapy or treating trauma. It is a boundary violation for a coach to state they can work with any mental health diagnosis. It is common for coaches to claim they can work with stress, 'trauma' integration, shame, or developmental conditions like ADHD and Autism. To protect public health and preserve clinical safety, you need to know they are not mental health professionals and cannot work with anything to do with the brain, memory, association (of what), dissociation of the mind, the emotional, the biological, the somatic or psychological or anything else they might claim. The moment they want to move into a person's history and how it shapes their current personality and help define what movement looks like, they are doing textbook clinical work that requires a license and education to practice. It is beyond unethical; it is a literal boundary violation and the only accountability they have is to their financial bottom line. There is no legal accountability to the 'governing boards' (franchises) coaches get their clout from. A coach can lose their right to associate with their chosen franchise and then still keep doing their work because what they do is unregulated by even their 'boards'. They are not accountable to anything except money.

RECOGNIZED CLINICAL FIELDS: 

Regulated occupations like LMSWs, LCSWs, LCPCs, and LMFTs are legally bound by state licensing boards, complete rigorous accredited master's-level clinical education, carry malpractice insurance, and maintain legal accountability under occupational codes of ethics. They possess the clinical training and diagnostic capabilities required to safely navigate psychological trauma, severe emotional distress, and acute mental illness.

Brief overview of LPC, LMFT, LMSW, LCPC, LCSW: 

• An LPC's scope traditionally centers on inside-the-person diagnostics and individual mental health processing, an LMFT centers on interpersonal family units and relationships. LPC and LMFT frameworks focus heavily on individual psychology, internal cognitive-behavioral pattern modification, or isolated relational stabilization. Traditional frameworks focus on intrapsychic individualistic counseling (LPCs) or family therapy (LMFTs). 

• Master of Social Work (MSW/LMSW) training encompasses a comprehensive, 'dual-threat' legal scope that entirely encompasses and extends beyond. The LMSW/LCSW framework completely absorbs these clinical treatment modalities while simultaneously operating on the legal and institutional advocacy level. 

An LMSW/LCSW possesses the broader clinical scope to perform psychotherapy, clinical assessments, and treatment planning while simultaneously executing systemic case management, institutional advocacy, and macro-level structural navigation. 

LPC, LMFT, LMSW as a Chrysalis 

An LPC Associate and an LMSW are both stepping stone labels. They are provisional, mid-tier stepping stones on the way to the actual independent clinical tier (LCPC and LCSW). Framing the LPC Associate as cleanly crossing a finish line into independence while the LMSW is stuck behind an extra hoop is a complete fabrication of how the licensure process works.

Neither one of them is independent. Both are locked into identical structures of state-mandated dependency:

• Both the LMSW and the LPC Associate are legally tethered to a supervisor (LCSW and LCPC). Neither one can run an independent practice, contract with insurances on their own, or make independent clinical decisions without a superior signature on their charts.

• To get out from under that supervision and reach true independence, both tracks require the exact same hurdles: accumulating thousands of supervised hours and passing a major national clinical examination (the NCMHCE/NCE for counselors, and the ASWB Clinical for social workers).

• While an LMSW or LPC is receiving supervision they operate with comparable scope of their supervisor as they are trained to one day take that role up independently. 

• A LCSW or LCPC may practice without a supervisor. I will not make that choice, personally as I believe it offers something valuable to my clients. I plan to one day become a supervisor as well. I think it will be valuable to my clients. A supervisor is a teacher and mentor of a different variety. There is a beauty to a person taking up that mantle and being held to a higher standard of ethic of care. 

When the social work occupation mandates that an LMSW must gain their thousands of hours and clear a separate, comprehensive clinical examination before they can step out on their own as an LCSW, it isn’t because the LMSW tier is deficient. It is an intentional, collective choice by the occupation to protect the integrity of the license. It is a commitment to ensuring that before a social worker is granted the authority to operate completely independently, they have been thoroughly vetted, their compliance with occupational ethics is absolute, and their competence is proven beyond a doubt.

The occupation deliberately refuses to broadcast competence where it hasn't been earned yet. It forces a deeper level of accountability precisely because the social work scope is a dual-threat—it carries the power to execute intense clinical psychotherapy and navigate heavy institutional and legal machinery. With a scope that massive, letting people run wild without rigorous verification would actively endanger the very communities they are meant to protect.

PYSCHIATRY, PSYD, PSYCHOLOGY

These fields exist outside of the scope of traditional counselors. These providers tend to focus on medication management. These providers tend to work in conjunction with another of the recognized clinical fields during their course of care.