By Moncrief                                            S.B. No. 890
       74R6086 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the practice of psychology.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 2(c), Psychologists' Certification and
    1-5  Licensing Act (Article 4512c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (c)  The term "psychological services," means acts or
    1-8  behaviors coming within the purview of the practice of psychology.
    1-9  The practice of psychology is an offering to the public or
   1-10  rendering to individuals or groups any service, including
   1-11  computerized procedures, that involves but is not restricted to the
   1-12  application of established principles, methods, and procedures of
   1-13  describing, explaining, and ameliorating behavior.  The practice of
   1-14  psychology addresses normal behavior and the evaluation,
   1-15  prevention, and remediation of psychological, emotional, mental,
   1-16  interpersonal, learning, and behavioral disorders of individuals
   1-17  and groups, as well as the psychological concomitants of medical
   1-18  problems, organizational structures, stress, and health.  The
   1-19  practice of psychology includes the use of projective techniques,
   1-20  neuropsychological testing, counseling, and career counseling<,
   1-21  psychotherapy, hypnosis for health care purposes, hypnotherapy, and
   1-22  biofeedback> and the evaluation and treatment by psychological
   1-23  techniques and procedures of mental or emotional disorders and
   1-24  disabilities.  The practice of psychology is based on a systematic
    2-1  body of knowledge and principles acquired in an organized program
    2-2  of graduate study and on the standards of ethics established by the
    2-3  profession.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.