I am writing to support the expansion of Licensed Clinical Social Workers to provide clinical supervision to counseling residents. 

Several of the other comments on this petition explain that The Board of Counseling originally excluded LCSW’s due to wanting to keep professional counseling as a separate professional identity. 

I would urge The Board to carefully consider this question: What is more important now in 2024? Is it more important that Professional Counselors work towards setting ourselves apart as a profession, as it was in the past? Or should we open up the path for more supervisor options so residents will encounter less barriers when attempting to get licensed in Virginia, a state that already has notoriously rigorous licensing standards? 

While there are certainly more LPC supervisors now, counseling residency in Virginia is still made exponentially more difficult because of the supervisory limitations that are currently in place. In a time where competent mental health professionals are needed more than ever, consider how these roadblocks to LPC licensure impact not only residents but our communities at large.