I strongly oppose this petition for the simple reason that in my experience Virginia Counseling Residents are simply not ready to be on their own.  A two-year residency, under close supervision, is an absolute must to maintain the integrity of the field.  Some respondents on this petition describe “bad” supervisors.  I agree, a bad supervisor is a problem, and we should do everything to ensure that Residents are getting high quality clinical supervision.   A bad supervisor is not a reason to give Resident Counselors permission to open their own practices!  The problem I see today is that new residents want to start out making $70K and that’s financially near impossible for a small practice clinical supervisor to make happen.  Where does that leave us?  Big companies come in, hire lots of “supervisors”, offer minimal oversight and you get a bunch of unhappy residents who aren’t getting good clinical supervision.  Rather than making it easier for new clinicians to be on their own before they are clinically ready, the board should secure state funds to offset the costs for Clinical Supervisors to take on new Residents.  This would make it possible for more small-practice clinical supervisors to accept Resident Clinicians and offer them great supervision and better financial compensation.