I graduated from Radford University with a Master of Science degree in Clinical Psychology in May of 2009.  During my internship at Lewis-Gale Behavioral Health, my supervisor was a Licensed Professional Counselor who had graduated from the same program I was attending.  In addition to my supervisor, I personally knew several previous graduates from the program who had gone on to receive professional counselor licensure in the state of Virginia.  Therefore, I was surprised to receive a letter from the Board of Counseling's Executive director indicating that my application for professional counselor licensure did not meet the requirements as outlined in Virginia regulation 18VAC115-20-49.  The letter explained that the Clinical Psychology program I graduated from did not have appropriate emphasis on counselor preparation and that the intent of the program was to train students to be clinical psychologists rather than counselors.  To my knowledge, the program has not changed.  It is still confusing to me how the same program produced many other acceptable licensees in recent years, yet others were somehow deemed unacceptable. 

If the Board were judging applicants on some objective criteria, such as program emphasis on counselor preparation and program intent to train clinical psychologists rather than counselors as their letter indicated, why were some graduates from the same program acceptable and others unacceptable?  And if the concerns of the Board of Counseling were about me as an individual applicant, rather than the program from which I graduated, why weren’t those concerns outlined in the letter I received?

As a result of the Board's decision to not approve my LPC application, I was unable to obtain licensure in the state of Virginia with my current level of education.  I was forced to move to another state to pursue licensure, in order to put my training and education to use assisting community members with mental health concerns at a licensed level.  Had I been able to receive licensure in Virginia, community members there would be able to benefit from my graduate training.  It’s unfortunate that despite my training, experience, and completion of coursework that is very similar to that of students graduating from counseling programs, I will never be able to practice at the Master’s level in Virginia, the state where I was trained.