The mandate of the Examining Board of Psychology is to protect the public’s health and safety and to promote the welfare of the state by regulating the competency and quality of professional health care providers under their jurisdiction. The Board accomplishes this mandate through a variety of activities in collaboration with the Department of Health, Health Professions Quality Assurance.

Board duties include:

• Establishing qualifications for minimal competency to grant or deny licensure of psychologists.
• Regulating the competency and quality of professional health care providers under its jurisdiction by establishing, monitoring, and enforcing qualifications for licensure.
• Establishing and monitoring compliance with continuing education requirements.
• Ensuring consistent standards of practice.
• Developing continuing competency mechanisms.
• Assessing, investigating and making recommendations related to complaints against psychologists which may range from a Notice of Correction to a Revocation of licensure.
• Serving as reviewing members on disciplinary cases and serve on disciplinary hearing panels.
• Serving as members of standing committees, when appointed.
• Developing rules, policies, and procedures that promote the delivery of quality health care to the residents of the state.

Qualifications

The Examining Board of Psychology is made up of two public members and seven psychologists.

Professional members:

• Must be citizens of the United States who have actively practiced psychology in the state of Washington for at least three years immediately preceding appointment.
• Must be licensed as a psychologist in this State.

Public members:

• Shall not be and shall never have been psychologists or in training to be psychologists.
• They may not have any household member who is a psychologist or is in training to be a psychologist.
• They may not participate or ever have participated in a commercial or professional field related to psychology nor have a household member who has so participated.
• They may not have had within two years before appointment a substantial financial interest in a person regulated by the Board.

The following expectation guidelines are intended to serve as a reference for current members and for prospective appointees of the Board:

• Attend regular Board meetings, scheduled for one day during business hours on Friday ten months out of the year. The Board establishes its meeting schedule each fall for the following calendar year. There is an annual Department of Health one-day Board, Commission, Committee conference.
• Board members develop a strategic plan each biennium and participate in sub-committees established to support that plan.
• Prepare for all meetings by reading materials sent one to two weeks in advance of the scheduled meeting date. In addition, time may be spent reviewing complaint files prior to each meeting.
• Participate on disciplinary panels that may meet by telephone or in person several times per year. Sometimes panels meet with short advance notice in order to respond to emergent situations to protect the public. Hearings may also be scheduled separately from regular meetings because of the number of cases that need to be heard.
• Assist and mentor newly appointed Board members as necessary.

Attend an initial orientation about the Board presented by Department of Health staff. This is approximately half a day in length. Initial orientation outlines the legal authority of the Board, the roles and responsibilities of Board members, ethics, confidentiality, the legal liability of Board members and the Department of Health, the organizational structure of the Department of Health, roles and responsibilities of Department of Health staff, roles and responsibilities of staff attorneys and Assistant Attorneys General (AAGs), disciplinary processes, rule-making and other issues.

• Attends committee meetings if necessary.
• Performs duties of current members.

Current Meeting Schedule

The Board meets ten times per year on Fridays.

Meetings are primarily held in Tumwater, Kent, or in Seattle.