4.1 Distance Professional Services and Telemental Health
Key Takeaways
- Rule 7.5 allows Distance Professional Services (Telemental Health) only for a practicing P-LPC, LPC, or LPC-S in Mississippi who holds a license in good standing in both the location where services are provided and the location of the recipient.
- Training must be the CCE BC-TMH credential (or an equivalent credential recognized by CCE) or at least nine clock hours covering all seven named Telemental Health topics, documented by a graduate syllabus or a CE certificate.
- A P-LPC may provide TeleMental Health only with approval from that P-LPC's LPC-S, and that supervisor must already be a Board-designated Distance Professional Services provider.
- At renewal, LPCs document 2 Telemental Health CE hours and P-LPCs document 1 hour; those hours count inside the ordinary CE totals, and Rule 7.5 assesses no licensing fee for the DPS designation.
Why Distance Professional Services matters on the Mississippi JP exam
The Pass/Fail Jurisprudence Examination is an open-book test of Mississippi Board rules and the ACA Code of Ethics, not a test of whether you personally like telehealth. Rule 7.5 is a high-yield administration topic because it stacks several independent conditions: Mississippi practice status, dual-location licensure, documented Telemental Health training, a P-LPC supervisor gate, renewal CE that is easy to miscount, and a fee rule that is easy to invent. Candidates who study only “you need a telehealth certificate” miss the dual-license requirement. Candidates who study only licensure miss the seven-topic training list. Either miss can fail an item even with the PDF open, because the distractors look plausible.
Rule 1.4 defines Distance Professional Services as counseling, consulting, and clinical supervision provided from one location to a recipient in another location by secure electronic communication that ensures HIPAA compliance in synchronous methods and, as appropriate, verbal telephone communications. Rule 1.4 also defines synchronous methods as a two-way audiovisual link that requires both parties at the same time with no perceivable delay. Keep that definition next to Rule 7.5. The definition describes the medium; Rule 7.5 describes who may use it. One drafting tension is worth noticing so you do not over-read the definition: Rule 1.4.N describes DPS as services “provided by an LPC,” while Rule 7.5 expressly names a practicing P-LPC, LPC, or LPC-S. On the exam, the practice gate is Rule 7.5’s three-credential list, not a claim that only full LPCs may ever appear on a video session.
Non-practicing status is a related trap. Rule 1.4.X states that non-practicing licensees may renew without completing continuing education, but that status does not allow the person to promote as a Licensed Professional Counselor, practice counseling or psychotherapy, provide group or individual supervision, provide Distance Professional Services, or bill for counseling or psychotherapy. A counselor who “just wants to keep a few video clients” while on non-practicing status is still providing DPS and is outside that status.
OpenExamPrep teaches these facts from Title 30 Part 2201, Effective 09/16/2025. This resource is independent exam-prep material. It is not a Board, CCE, NBCC, or ACA product, and it does not claim official approval or partnership with those bodies.
Rule 7.5 conditions, in the order the Board lists them
1. Mississippi practice status. The person providing counseling or supervision through Distance Professional Services must be a practicing P-LPC, LPC, or LPC-S in Mississippi. “Practicing” is doing work here. An expired, lapsed, retired, surrendered, or non-practicing credential is not a practicing license. A counselor licensed only in another state who wants to treat a Mississippi client over video is not satisfying item 1 merely by holding some other state’s LPC title.
2. Dual-location good standing. The professional must hold a license in good standing in both (a) the location where services are provided by the professional and (b) the location of the recipient of the services. If you sit in Jackson and the client sits in Jackson, Mississippi licensure in good standing covers both sides of that sentence. If you sit in Mississippi and the client is physically in another state (college, vacation, military move, family visit), Mississippi licensure is only half of the sentence. You also need whatever license that recipient location requires, and it must be in good standing. The rule does not create a Mississippi shortcut that replaces the other jurisdiction’s practice act. Jurisprudence items love this fact pattern because the counselor did everything right under Mississippi training rules and still failed the location test.
3. Documented Telemental Health training, submitted to the Board. Verification may include synchronous or asynchronous audio/video webinars. The Board accepts one of the following paths:
- Path a — credential. Board Certified-TeleMental Health (BC-TMH) from the Center for Credentialing and Education, Inc. (CCE), an affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), or an equivalent credential as recognized by CCE. Naming CCE and NBCC here is a description of the credential the rule accepts. It is not a claim that OpenExamPrep or the Mississippi exam is an official CCE or NBCC program.
- Path b — professional training hours. Minimum nine (9) clock hours. The training must include all of the following topics:
- HIPAA compliance for Telemental Health
- Ethical and legal issues in Telemental Health, including confidentiality/privacy issues
- Crisis planning and protocols in Telemental Health
- Choosing and using technology in Telemental Health
- Orienting clients to Telemental Health
- Telemental health settings and care coordination
- Appropriateness of Telemental Health
Professional training may be gained by either (1) graduate-level academic training documented on the syllabus or (2) a continuing education training course documented by certificate. A nine-hour course that skips crisis protocols, or a syllabus that covers HIPAA and technology but not client orientation, does not meet “all professional training must include.” Asynchronous webinars can count if they are part of this verified training; the rule expressly allows synchronous or asynchronous audio/video webinars as the delivery format for the verification package.
- Path c — P-LPC supervisor gate (additional, not a substitute for training). P-LPCs can practice TeleMental Health counseling with the approval of the P-LPC’s LPC-S, and that LPC-S must be designated by the Board as a Distance Professional Services provider. A fully qualified LPC-S who has never obtained the DPS designation cannot unlock TMH for a supervisee by “approving it anyway.” The supervisee still needs the Rule 7.5 training path; supervisor approval is an extra P-LPC condition, not a replacement for BC-TMH or the nine-hour curriculum.
4. Renewal CE that lives inside existing totals. At license renewal, LPCs must document two (2) hours of continuing education in Telemental Health counseling, and P-LPCs must document one (1) hour. These hours are included as part of the required continuing education requirements for renewal. They are not an extra stack on top of Rule 6.1. An LPC with the DPS designation still needs 24 CEH in the biennial cycle, including 6 ethics or legal hours; 2 of the 24 must be Telemental Health. A P-LPC with the designation still needs 6 CEH in the annual cycle, including 2 ethics or legal hours; 1 of the 6 must be Telemental Health. Third-party copy that recites “30 CE hours” is an error. Do not study that number.
5. No designation fee. No licensing fee will be assessed for the Distance Professional Services provider designation. Contrast this with Rule 2.1 items that do charge: LPC-S application $50, LPC-S biennial $50, P-LPC application $50, and so on. DPS is a designation with training and CE duties, not a paid extra license class.
Distance supervision has a matching overlay in Chapter 4 of the same compilation: an LPC-S who provides individual or group supervision by Distance Professional Services must be qualified to provide DPS according to Rule 7.5. Supervision over video is not a looser track.
Training topics, CE overlay, and fee contrast
| Rule 7.5 piece | What the Current.pdf text actually requires |
|---|---|
| Who may provide DPS | Practicing P-LPC, LPC, or LPC-S in Mississippi |
| Dual location | License in good standing where the professional provides services and where the recipient is located |
| Credential path | BC-TMH (CCE) or equivalent credential recognized by CCE |
| Hour path | Minimum 9 clock hours covering all seven named TMH topics |
| Hour documentation | Graduate syllabus or CE certificate |
| P-LPC extra gate | Approval from an LPC-S who is a Board-designated DPS provider |
| LPC renewal TMH CE | 2 hours per renewal, inside the 24 CEH total |
| P-LPC renewal TMH CE | 1 hour per year, inside the 6 CEH total |
| Designation fee | None |
A nine-hour course is a floor, not a buffet you can sample. The seven topics are conjunctive. HIPAA compliance is necessary and not sufficient. Ethical/legal coverage must include confidentiality and privacy issues, not a generic “be ethical online” slogan. Crisis planning and protocols matter because a video client in a different county or state cannot walk down your clinic hallway. Choosing and using technology, orienting clients, settings and care coordination, and appropriateness of Telemental Health are separate topics. “Appropriateness” is the clinical gate: some presentations, safety profiles, or settings are not suitable for TMH even if the platform is encrypted.
Keep the CE arithmetic boring and exact. Surplus CEH do not roll to the next period under Rule 6.2, so extra TMH hours this cycle do not bank a future DPS requirement. The TMH hours can be part of a larger workshop, but the certificate still needs to support the Telemental Health content the Board asks you to document at renewal.
Jurisprudence scenario: the Jackson counselor and the Alabama dorm
Dana is a Mississippi LPC in good standing with a current DPS designation, BC-TMH documentation on file, and a clean CE log. Dana’s long-term adult client begins freshman year at a university in Alabama and asks to continue weekly video sessions “because you are already my counselor.” Dana’s office computer stays in Jackson. The client’s laptop is in an Alabama residence hall.
Rule 7.5.2 is the item that decides this fact pattern. Dana must hold a license in good standing in the location where Dana provides the services and in the location of the recipient. Mississippi good standing covers Dana’s chair in Jackson. It does not, by itself, authorize treatment of a recipient located in Alabama. Whether Alabama requires its own license, a compact privilege, or some other authorization is Alabama’s practice question, but Mississippi’s rule still demands good-standing licensure on the recipient’s side. Dana’s BC-TMH credential, two TMH CE hours, and zero DPS fee do not waive dual-location licensure.
Change one fact: the same client remains physically in Mississippi and joins the session from a parent’s house in Hattiesburg while Dana stays in Jackson. Both locations are Mississippi. Dual-location licensure is satisfied by Dana’s Mississippi license in good standing, assuming no other restriction. Change another fact: the provider is a P-LPC whose LPC-S is Board-qualified as a supervisor but is not a Board-designated DPS provider. Rule 7.5.3.c blocks TeleMental Health for that P-LPC until the supervisor condition is met, even if the P-LPC already completed a nine-hour course covering all seven topics.
A third twist is status. If Dana later elects non-practicing status to pause CE, Rule 1.4.X independently bars Distance Professional Services. Keeping a “small caseload on Zoom” is still practice. Lapsed status under Rule 6.1 is even cleaner: a lapsed LPC is not licensed to provide counseling, so TMH is unavailable during the lapse.
Exam traps for this section
- Treating a nine-hour HIPAA-only webinar as enough because “HIPAA is the hard part.”
- Adding 2 TMH hours on top of 24 CEH, or studying the widely repeated figure of 30 CE hours.
- Assuming a P-LPC can provide TMH whenever the site has a HIPAA platform, without DPS-designated LPC-S approval.
- Assuming Mississippi licensure follows the client across state lines because the counselor never left Mississippi.
- Inventing a DPS application fee because other credentials (LPC-S) cost $50.
A Mississippi LPC in good standing completes BC-TMH training and holds the Distance Professional Services designation. The LPC remains in an office in Jackson, Mississippi, while the adult client joins weekly video sessions from a residence in another state. Under Rule 7.5, what additional licensure condition must be true before those Telemental Health sessions may proceed?
Under Rule 7.5, which training submission satisfies the Board's Telemental Health verification requirement for Distance Professional Services?
At renewal, how do Telemental Health continuing education hours interact with the ordinary Mississippi CE totals for a counselor who holds the Distance Professional Services designation?