This comment is to go on record opposing the limitation of residency supervision to LPCs and LMFTs.  I understand the rationale - that the board does not regulate licensed professionals from related fields and thus cannot provide due diligence in oversight if providers with other licenses are allowed to provide supervision of a portion of the time of residents (although actual problems resulting from this state of affairs appears to be limited).  But from outside the board, the effort appears to be oriented toward further establishing a counseling profession limited to a narrow vision of counseling.  It's too bad - the profession of counseling in Virginia once had a big tent philosophy, embracing a diversity in professional preparation and practice.  Now apparently largely in an attempt to establish perceived parity with other fields, the board has chosen to follow them down an exclusionary pathway.  There is limited if any solid evidence supporting this direction, and a strong argument to be made that professional counselors benefit from having diversity in training.  But the sadder part is that in so choosing, the board is limiting the future of professional counselors in Virginia largely to only those workplaces in which LPCs are already established as supervisors, because in sites that do not currently have LPCs as supervisors, there will be no developmental pathway for developing counselors to rise in the ranks to the level of supervisors who can provide supervision of future counselors.   Within the domain of rehabilitation counseling in which I work, damage is being done to a field that has long embraced professional counselors and psychologists working side by side, and it's ironic that professionals serving on the Virginia board who have long decried being snubbed by psychology have now turned around to do the same thing to the psychologists who have devoted their careers to stepping outside the exclusive domain of psychology and instead built careers in the field of counseling based on an appreciation that counseling recognized the value of diversity and colleagiality.