As the Academic Program Coordinator and Professor for the George Mason University Counseling and Development Program, I am strongly opposed to the proposed regulation to limit counselor supervision to people who hold an active Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) or Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) license. Given the demand and need for mental health services both in Virginia and nationally and the corresponding lack of qualified mental health practitioners, this restriction, rather than helping to meet the mental health needs in the Commonwealth of Virginia, restricts supervisory training for counselors and may cause further human resource shortages in the provision of services.  It is important to mention that there has been no research supporting this regulation that indicates a difference in quality or skill of trained counselors related to the profession of the supervisor.  In fact, many of the textbooks and videos used in counselor graduate training are from psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers.  As the former head of the counseling departments at Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University, and now George Mason University, I am proud to say that I have been involved with the training of 100s upon 100s of counselors who have received exceptional supervision from not only counselors, but also psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists.  I am strongly in favor of multiple professional disciplines providing supervision to counselors in training and strongly urge the Board to not support this very narrowly focused regulation that has no research basis.