Today’s Law and Ethics blog and practice question explores the topic of scope of practice. Scope of practice is the definition provided in law that delineates what the profession does and places limits upon (or confines the breadth of functions) that persons within a profession may lawfully perform. It is basically the license that we obtain, such as LCSW or LMFT, together with what that license allows us to do. For instance, as MFTs our license allows us to talk about current family relationships, but does not allow us to give our clients a deep tissue massage. Legally, social workers can talk about ways in which family of origin dynamics have influenced the client, but they may not legally write up a will for the client, as that is something that lies outside of the scope of the social work profession. On the exam, you will likely be tested on what does and does not fall within the scope of practice for your license. Let us take a look at a scenario you could see on the test.