I am the Director of the M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at William James College and the Chair of the Counseling and Behavioral Health Department. We had M.A. programs in Counseling Psychology from 2007 to 2016, when we collapsed and converted them to Clinical Mental Health Counseling. To date, we have graduated over 500 individuals, the great majority of which are licensed mental health counselors or licensed professional counselors in many states. We are not a CACREP accredited program, mainly due to the faculty restrictions they impose.

In Massachusetts, out of the 30+ counseling masters programs in existence, only 2 mental health counseling programs are CACREP accredited. I do not have exact figures (the MA Board of Allied Mental Health and Human Services Professions may have them), but I would venture that the majority of 11,000+ licensed mental health counselors in Massachusetts did not graduate from CACREP accredited programs. Is the Commonwealth of Virginia then saying that our LMHCs need 10 years experience to equal the qualifications of a recent CACREP accredited program graduate to practice as a counselor in Virginia?

I support the efforts to maintain a counselor identity without discriminating against those who have studied in counseling programs and are licensed as counselors.

Virginia should adopt the fair and simple Portability Model of the American Counseling Association:

"A counselor who is licensed at the independent practice level in their home state and who has no disciplinary record shall be eligible for licensure at the independent practice level in any state or U.S. jurisdiction in which they are seeking residence. The state to which the licensed counselor is moving may require a jurisprudence examination based on the rules and procedures of that state."