I strongly support this petition for the following reasons:

1. Inclusion of CACREP accreditation as a requirement for the licensure education standards will promote professional identity for counselors.  The counseling profession has evolved to the point where further advancement of the profession requires that we be able to differentiate ourselves from other mental health professions.  The only way to effectively achieve this differentiation is to limit licensure to graduates of programs who have met rigorous standards for not only quality, but for promoting a strong professional identity.  Only CACREP accreditation can guarantee that programs have met such standards.
2. Protection of the public.  In order to make informed choices, citizens of the Commonwealth need to be able to clearly identify which mental health professionals are truly counselors.  The previous licensure of graduates from psychology programs only served to confuse the public and blur the differences between mental health professionals.  Again, the only way to completely ensure that only trained counselors are licensed as professional counselors is to require that they come from accredited programs.
3. Portability.  The counseling profession has for decades attempted to improve licensure portability for counselors.  Unfortunately, fifty-one different standards and fifty-one separate legislative bodies have made this effort almost impossible.  As with other mental health professions, it appears that the only realistic path to licensure portability is to support training standards established by a national accrediting body.  CACREP now accredits 52.4% of the institutions offering counselor education programs and 63.4% of the specific counselor education programs and the number of institutions applying for CACREP accreditation is increasing rapidly.  With almost two-thirds of counseling programs being CACREP accredited, CACREP has clearly become the recognized accrediting body for counselor education and should be recognized by the licensure boards as such.
4. CACREP’s history promoting the counseling profession.  CACREP was established in 1981 and was supported by the same pioneering counselor educators who were responsible for creating Virginia’s counselor licensure in 1976.  CACREP is a non-profit organization whose Board of Directors is composed of practicing counselors and counselor educators with limited terms.  Current and former board members are recognized leaders in our profession.   CACREP, along with NBCC and ACA has consistently and effectively advocated for our profession and have helped provide opportunities for counselors that would have been difficult to imagine twenty years ago.
5. Advancement of the profession.  The recognition of licensed counselors by Tricare has created a controversy in the profession over Tricare’s requirement for graduation from a CACREP program.  It is important to note that if CACREP did not have the credibility to be endorsed by the Institute of Medicine, there would be no counselors eligible endorsement by Tricare.  Despite the controversy, the Tricare endorsement is an example how CACREP’s credibility has benefitted our profession.  If CACREP standards are accepted for licensure education standards, the benefits of being a licensed counselor will continue to increase.

6.       Sufficient grandfathering period.  The proposed seven-year grandfathering period is sufficient for all              currently unlicensed counselors from non-CACREP programs to obtain licensure and for unaccredited programs to easily attain accredited status before the requirement for graduation from a CACREP accredited program takes effect.