Dear Friends in Virginia:
I am writing so that you will consider reversing your course in restricting qualified psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers from being able to help your citizens get great mental health treatment.
As a psychologist, I was able/required to take a full doctoral-level semester course AND practicum clinical supervision which included theory, technique, and feedback on my ability to supervise a beginning counselor from a seasoned supervisor in psychology who watched my sessions via video tape and gave tailored feedback. Then I continued to specialize in supervision as one of my emphases where other masterful psychologists were evaluating my taped supervision sessions giving me loads of feedback after reviewing my sessions with trainees. However, this means those like me who spent our time working to on these skills would not be allowed to share our knowledge with your professional counseling and LMFT trainees in Virginia.
Aaron T Beck, a psychiatrist credited with creating Cognitive Therapy (an empirically supported treatment which has saved countless LIVES) would not be able to supervise your counselors or LMFTs if he moved to your state under this plan. The INVENTOR of the lifesaving/changing approach could not supervise those learning how to use it in your state! Nor would his daughter Judith Beck, a prominent psychologist in her own right, be able to supervise trainees who are working to specialize in this very common and helpful form of psychotherapy/counseling. You would want her practicing in your state and training those counselors, I promise. Think of what that means?
If you are interested in the mental health of your citizens, you might take a closer look at those in the field who are doing masterful work with effective treatment approaches and make sure you aren’t restricting their ability to train future counselors. And if a counselor/LMFT has demonstrated appropriate preparation in supervising at a high level, I am willing to say vice versa. The mental health needs are too great to be making the pool of qualified supervisors smaller when it’s already a challenge and liability to take on a supervisee!
To lawmakers in support of this: I challenge you to ask your family and loved ones whose lives were made better (or perhaps saved) by a mental health professional. Track down that person and see what clinical approach was used. I will contribute $10 to your campaign fund if the theory or approaches used by that professional were solely developed by or supported by the work of a professional counselor or LMFT (and not a psychiatrist, social worker, or psychologist). Email me the story and the training. We psychologists are not necessarily the best just because of our label but we sure should be in the conversation and our training should be taken seriously as competent supervisors for ANYONE serious about learning counseling or psychotherapy..
If this were to pass, VA would be a much less attractive place to move a business like mine and many of my colleagues who are eminently qualified to supervise ANYONE seeking licensure for counseling/psychotherapy.
A DO can supervise an MD in medicine. They are over it! Why? Because patient care is more important than turf wars and protecting a profession. There is plenty of time to fix this. States that have attempted something similar are dealing with unintended consequences making training and supervision harder for the rural communities or for organizations who would need to fire and hire based on degree title. Please don’t make the same mistake.