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Bus. & Prof. Code, § 4980.02 · Article 1. Regulation

Bus. & Prof. Code, § 4980.02

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) For the purposes of this chapter, the practice of marriage and family therapy shall mean the application of psychotherapeutic and family systems theories, principles, and methods in the delivery of services to individuals, couples, or groups in order to assess, evaluate, and treat relational issues, emotional disorders, behavioral problems, mental illness, alcohol and substance use, and to modify intrapersonal and interpersonal behaviors.

(b) The application of marriage and family therapy principles and methods includes, but is not limited to, all of the following:

(1) Assessment, evaluation, and prognosis.

(2) Treatment, planning, and evaluation.

(3) Individual, relationship, family, or group therapeutic interventions.

(4) Relational therapy.

(5) Psychotherapy.

(6) Client education.

(7) Clinical case management.

(8) Consultation.

(9) Supervision.

(10) Use, application, and integration of the coursework and training required by Sections 4980.36, 4980.37, and 4980.41, as applicable.

(c) The amendments to this section made by the act adding this subdivision do not constitute a change in, but are declaratory of, existing law. It is the intent of the Legislature that these amendments shall not be construed to expand or constrict the existing scope of practice of a person licensed pursuant to this chapter.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 647, Sec. 22. (SB 801) Effective January 1, 2022.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=4980.02.
Text hash
sha256 ddca299d135c7e30159c658c2eed92841839e8290e7635989b89b6f1a52c9ea3
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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