About PTI

The PTI Group began writing and teaching with our Study Guide in 1994 to help mental health counselors pass their licensing exams nationally. It has gone through several revisions to stay abreast of changes in the mental health counseling field and in the NCMHCE exam. It is now in it’s 3rd Edition, with almost all the chapters having gone through major updates to address changes brought about by the DSM-5.
 
Since we began preparing individuals for the NCMHCE, diagnosis has advanced from DSM-III, to DSM-IV and DSM- IV TR, and now to the conceptual framework of DSM-5. When we first began, the NCMHCE was used as a license exam in only 7 states. It is now used in 36 states. The NCMHCE has gone from the scenario and multiple choice format, to the clinical simulation, latent-image magic pencil format to the now computer-based clinical simulation format.  The NCMHCE content categories have been revised and in addition to Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment Planning, Professional Practice and Ethics, now also include Administration, Consultation and Supervision.

The PTI study guide has kept up with all these changes, and adhered to our goal of giving test-takers an organized overview of all the content domains necessary for this challenging exam, and a realistic experience of the structure, content and "feel" of the NCMHCE. We now also include on-line exam samples, ExamAce, that we believe are most truly reflective of the NCMHCE.

The authors are Licensed Mental Health Counselors, with over 35 years of experience each, as clinicians, mental health counselor educators, and mental health counseling association board members and executives.

We also want to acknowledge and thank, the over 3500 LMHCs in Massachusetts and other states from around the country, who have successfully used our Study Guide, and/or taken the study course, and added their feedback and support to our development of these materials.

Warmly,

Bonnie M. Bullard
Linda L. Lawless
Midge Williams
Deborah Bergstrom