The Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling shall issue a license as a licensed professional counselor to each applicant who files an application upon a form and in the manner that the board prescribes accompanied by a fee as set by the board and who furnishes satisfactory evidence of the following to the board:
(1) The applicant is not a minor under the laws of Arkansas;
(2) The applicant is highly regarded in professional ethics;
(3) The applicant is not in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter and the rules adopted under this chapter;
(4) The applicant has applied for a criminal background check and has not been found guilty of, or pleaded guilty or nolo contendere to, any of the offenses listed in § 17-27-313(e) [repealed];
(5)
(A) The applicant has received a graduate degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education that is primarily professional counseling in content and has accumulated the graduate semester hours that meet the academic and training content standards established by the board.
(B) The board shall use the standards for the preparation of counselors prepared by that special professional association nationally as a guide in establishing the standards for counseling;
(6)
(A) The applicant has three thousand (3,000) client contact hours of supervised full-time experience in professional counseling acceptable to the board.
(B) Two thousand (2,000) client contact hours of experience may be gained for each sixty (60) graduate semester hours earned beyond the master's degree, provided that the hours are clearly related to the field of counseling and are acceptable to the board.
(C) The applicant may not have less than one thousand (1,000) client contact hours of professional experience; and
(7)
(A) The applicant has declared special competencies and demonstrated professional competence in specialty areas by having passed a written, oral, or situational examination or any combination thereof as the board will prescribe.
(B) Upon the examination of credentials, the board, by a majority of the board members present and voting, may consider those credentials adequate evidence of professional competence and recommend to the Chair of the Arkansas Board of Examiners in Counseling that a license be approved in that specialty.