South Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners
Complaint Procedures

Procedure for Complaints against Counselors/Therapists

The exchange of information and procedures are strictly confidential.

Upon Board office receipt of the completed Complaint Form (see next page), a copy is sent to the licensee. The licensee has 10 days to respond to your allegations and concerns in writing to the Board office. A copy of that response is then sent to you and you have 10 days to counter-respond in writing to the Board office. That final response will be provided to the licensee only as informational.

All the information will be forwarded to a Board member for review and investigation (if necessary). The Board member will bring their recommendation to the next Board meeting. If the concerns appear to be ethical violations, the Board may have an informal meeting with the licensee. All complaint proceedings are held in Executive Session. No information can be disclosed to the complainant at any time during the process. Be informed, although the Board is proceeding as quickly as possible, this is generally a lengthy process.

It is possible that the matter may proceed to a formal hearing before the Board, at which time your sworn testimony will be required. You will be notified in writing if and when this is necessary.

Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC) and Licensed Professional Counselors-Mental Health (LPC-MH) counselors must abide by the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics. A copy of the Code may be obtained by calling ACA at 1-800-422-2648 or at www.counseling.org.

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT) must abide by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists Code of Ethics. A copy of the Code may be obtained by calling 1-202-452-0109 or at www.aamft.org.


The South Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners has converted its forms to the ADOBE .PDF format (Portable Document Format) which is both device and resolution independent. The printed version of these PDF documents will be similar regardless of the device used to print. In order to view or print the Adobe Acrobat forms, you must download the free ADOBE Acrobat Reader for Windows, DOS or for Macintosh. For best viewing results, we recommend using Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0.

Complaint Form