Accessing high quality supervision in residency continues to be challenging for LPC residents.

Allowing for a percentage of supervised hours to be done by closely-related interdisciplinary professionals may increase access, therefore expanding workforce development across the commonwealth. An increase in well-trained LPCs in the commonwealth benefits all stakeholders.

If LPC residents could seek supervision from LCSW’s for, say, 25% of their total supervised hours, that would greatly help facilitate the number of residents able to earn their LPC’s in a reasonable amount of time. This would be 50 hours of supervision out of the total 200 required for residency.

I would also suggest that reciprocity should be allowed and LPCs should be able to supervisor LCSWs for a portion of their necessary hours.

The benefits would be increased access to supervisors and perhaps a less logistical barriers to obtaining a license. 

Perhaps we also need to focus on the quality of supervision being offered as well. Supervision from a poorly trained supervisor is detrimental, regardless of the specific type of license. Conversely, supervision from a person providing high quality supervision reduces burnout, promotes ethical practice, and elevates effective clinical treatment. 

If this motion were to pass, it might be also important for the Board to expect LCSW’s to have the same 20 hours of supervision training as LPCs. (right now that total is only 14).

As a field, we should consider – how do we promote access through more available supervisors offering high quality supervision??