I also live in southern Va where qualified licensed professionals are not readily found. However I found that in my supervised 2 years of experience was essential in fully understanding the responsibility of practice and developed my clinical skills.                                  In my local area we have varied level of skills, education and abilities with QMHPs. I face daily challenges with QMHPs failing to continuing education/knowledge requirements as a direct result of lack of mandated  continuing education and they are not bound by a code of ethics to practice. I mention this as an example of the potential clinical level of experience most doctoral candidates have. Without practical experience the "practice" of our profession is based in real practice with a working knowledge of a code of ethics-ethics and legal requirements are not theory.