It was disheartening to hear about the recent proposed amendment to the requirements for LPC supervision to include licensed clinical social workers. There are a variety of differences between LCSWs and LPCs including their educational backgrounds, scope of practice, licensing, and regulations, and even in their chosen therapeutic approaches. With LPCs typically holding graduate degrees solely focused on counseling, their training emphasizes counseling theories, psychotherapy techniques, assessment methods, and ethical standards. On the flip side, while LCSWs do possess a graduate leveldegree, their education focuses heavily on coursework more concentrated on social welfare policies, human behavior, social justice, community engagement, and interventions that incorporate these. Another component to consider is the overall scope of practice. LPCs are trained to provide counseling and psychotherapy services to individuals, couples, families, groups, etc. They use a variety of evidence-based interventions to best accommodate each client and have been trained to work in many different types of settings. LCSWs generally have a broader scope that incorporates more case management, advocacy, and community outreach. Essentially, theyaddress social, emotional, and environmental factors impacting mental health, which is never a bad thing… however, it is a major difference in the focus of training. As for licensing and regulation boards, LPCs obtain licensure through state counseling boards, meeting education, supervised experience, and specific counseling exam requirements.LCSWs are licensed by state social work boards, fulfilling education, supervised practice hours, and social work exam criteria. The exams are not identical. Additionally, LPCs and LCSWs can really have very different training, educational backgrounds, and experiences working in the mental health field altogether. Personally, I believe it would be most beneficial to me as a soon-to-be resident in counseling to have a supervisor who has been through the same residency/supervisory process as me, who can even aid me in the licensure process and give more constructive feedback on approaches and techniques.

In sum, LPCs and LCSWs each have their own methods and manners of handling mental health related concerns. They have separate accreditation boards, licensing requirements and education requirements for a reason, and as someone who recently graduated from a counseling program and is working toward their LPC, I firmly believe it would not be in our best interest. This is in part due to the years of training in a solely counseling-focused field and the various differences in just the experience of LCSW and LPC supervisors clinical training. If this were to happen, then why do graduate level programs even bother to train them as separate clinical roles? I am curious, given there is not reciprocity with this proposal, if social workers were to be in the shoes of LPCs in this moment, would they agree that they should be supervised by an LPC supervisor if it was not reciprocated? Overall, I believe understanding these differences can facilitate healthy collaboration and enhance our ability to provide compassionate and effective mental health services, however, the key word being collaboration. Working alongside and learning from LCSWs would be very beneficial for LPCs, however, allowing LCSWs to wholeheartedly supervise a position that is not the same as their own would be irresponsible.