Licensing exams have triggered anxiety in pre-licensed individuals since their inception. While eustress can be beneficial, a high level of anxiety will often lead to avoidance, more anxiety, fear, and an inability to access one’s clinical knowledge and experience. Here are five tips for pre-licensed individuals and their clinical supervisors:

1. Talk about licensing exams — the earlier the better! Knowledge and preparation can go a long way to banishing anxiety. Think of exams as termination of therapy. We talk to therapy clients about termination from the beginning of treatment, not on the last day. Why not bring up the end point with interns at the beginning — not to increase anxiety — but to manage it?
    
2. Ask (and answer) questions about licensing exams. Many pre-licensed people carry around worries and misconceptions about licensing exams. Talking about these issues helps a supervisor to dispel common misconceptions and confront worries. Often, worries may be related to an area of clinical practice in which a pre-licensed person feels unqualified. What a great opportunity to identify a place for growth and create a teaching moment!
    
3. Know what the licensing exams cover. Clinicians in training and clinical supervisors have strengths and blind spots. The California Board of Behavioral Sciences goes to great lengths to spell out everything that could be included on the licensing exams. Use this list as a blind-spot and strength detector — and banish anxiety about exams at the same time!
    
4. Talk about anxiety. Everyone deals with anxiety at different points in life. Teaching pre-licensed individuals skills to manage anxiety (or identifying the need for a clinical level of treatment) is essential to the mentoring of pre-licensed individuals. A test-taker cannot access stored material during a test when experiencing high levels of anxiety neither can pre-licensed professionals respond to crisis situations effectively if they do not have a plan for anxiety management. The same skills interns learn for managing anxiety during sessions can be transferred to managing anxiety during the exam process.
    
5. Know what your resources are! The exam process is an incredibly personal journey. Understanding the options available allows test-takers to evaluate the plan that is best suited for them. What worked for the clinical supervisor or a friend may not be the right plan for another. Understanding the many different ways in which someone can successfully pass exams on the first try can open the door for pre-licensed persons to find their own path and the joy that comes from walking that path!

I hope these tips help you banish the fear and excessive anxiety that can keep the next generation from successfully navigating licensing exams. Happy talking, studying, and passing!

Author:  Miranda Palmer

Miranda Palmer is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Modesto, California. She provides consultation for pre-licensed individuals to help them love the whole process from graduate school to licensure as a MFT. She has a free monthly newsletter for pre-licensed individuals and a free online study group for exams with over 600 members at http://mftguide.com.