Please consider this letter, on behalf of the faculty at the Old Dominion University Counseling Program

Dear Virginia Board of Counseling:

The faculty in the ODU Counseling Program strongly oppose the proposed change of having LCSW’s eligible for the supervision of counseling residents. It is critical that LPCs supervise counselors in order to maintain and advance counselors’ unique professional identity. This is not just hyperbole, as the coursework between master’s level social workers and master’s level counselors varies dramatically.

Despite the fact that both master’s degree counselors and social workers both work intensively with individuals, couples, and families with mental health disorders and problems, their training differs dramatically. Let me delineate.

• Whereas a counseling program has a spiral curriculum, that reinforces critical skills and culminates in practicum and internship, social work program immerses students into clinical settings early, with little content knowledge, hoping the students learn along the way through supervision.

• Counseling programs are unique in their training of micro counseling skills, which ensures clinical expertise early in their program. Social work programs do not have this as a mainstay approach and a supervisor would not be able to reinforce some of those skills.

• Coursework in counseling is different than in social work programs, as per their accreditation programs. For instance, counseling programs must offer course content in assessment, career counseling, counseling theory, human development, a “growth group” experience, and other practices that social workers are not required to be take.

• The scope and focus of supervised clinical training, as well as supervision training in counseling programs, is different than what is taught in social work programs.

• Professional identity, especially relevant to history, approach to clients, and most importantly ethics, is different (see the ACA and NASW ethics code). A social worker supervisor does not know the history of counseling, the practice of counseling, or its ethical code.

There are also many other differences, but in short, the nine social work competencies vary dramatically from CACREP’s eight core content areas. See the table below.

If not familiar with the breakdown of these competencies within counseling and social work, I urge you to review the standards of both degrees and I am confident you will find major differences in these common-core standards. In addition, counseling programs also require specific standards in clinical mental health counseling which I am sure social work supervisors know little or nothing about. To have a social worker supervise a counselor, does little to reinforce the existing, and important, content knowledge and professional identity of the counselor.

Due to these differences, I encourage the board to not allow LCSWs to supervisor counselors in residence.

Sincerely,

Ed Neukrug, Ed.D., LPC, Endowed Chair of Counseling

Professor of Counseling and CACREP Coordinator

Old Dominion University