I strongly oppose legislation that would limit LPC-eligibility solely to individuals who have graduated from a CACREP-accredited program. My career has been limited so severely that I have been forced to pursue a second masters in social work beginning fall 2017, which will cost close to $30,000. I have witnessed and struggled through the resounding effects of exclusion from LPC eligibility to include drastically reduced wages, partial promotions, lack of employment opportunities, burn out due to a shortage of qualified professionals and reaching the ceiling of promotional opportunities within 4 years of graduating.

            Within 6 months of employment, I was offered a promotion to a management position; however, this was quickly halted due to questions regarding LPC-eligibility. The agency decided to work with me, in the hopes that I would soon be eligible, by giving me a partial wage increase and a limited title change. My precise title was Assistant Coordinator and my wages were docked thousands of dollars per year. This partial title was also the highest position that I was eligible for within the agency, leaving me with zero room for career enhancement opportunities. Having proven my worth through hard work and long hours, it felt degrading to accept a title that was half of those given to my lateral cohorts. The lessened wage and limited abilities led to frustrated colleagues and job dissatisfaction as I knowingly worked just as hard for thousands of dollars less.

            With ambitious goals and an unwillingness to resign to mediocrity, I quickly moved to another agency with, what appeared to be, more opportunity. I hastened to network with my new colleagues in hopes of finding a loophole for expansion. I began working with my clinical supervisor, and the clinical director to start new sectors or help the agency begin new programs with the plan being that I would lead these endeavors. After graduating from Radford University’s Clinical Psychology Master’s Degree Program in 2012, I contacted the Licensing board multiple times requesting information about eligibility for different services to include outpatient services, management, and clinical supervisor. Each time, I was met with the same problem; my master’s in clinical psychology did not make me eligible for licensure. Without licensure, I was unable to seek advancement or change services with the opportunity for advancement. This moment, only 4 years after graduation, I realized that I had hit the ceiling for career advancement. I have advanced positions in multiple agencies, put in hard work, long hours and shown significant potential but I am limited to menial positions due to limited licensure eligibility.

            Not only has my career been stunted, but mental health agencies are struggling to find eligible workers for middle management positions leaving the front-line workers overworked and burned out with little support or assistance. Please OPPOSE this legislation that would prohibit graduates from non-CACREP accredited from LPC-eligibility in Virginia and would prevent hundreds of master’s level clinical staff from being able to fill positions to keep up with the ever-growing need of mental health professionals.

            With all of these examples in mind, eligibility for licensure MUST be expanded to include the well-trained, knowledgeable and capable workers that have been excluded by the Virginia Licensing Board in the past (including the exclusion of graduates from master’s degree programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology). These limiting rulings are destroying the careers of hundreds who want to serve and assist those in need; degrading competent qualified professionals; accelerating burnout rates; costing exorbitant prices for unnecessary education and inhibiting the new generation of counselors to excel in their careers.

Kristen Flanders MS, QMHP A & C

Site Supervisor-Westside Elementary

Dominion Day Services

Radford University Clinical Psychology Alumuni 2012

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