It may seem odd that the President of the Virginia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy would oppose this petition requesting a pathway for LMFT's to become licensed as LPC's similar to the pathway for LPC's to become licensed as LMFT's.  "Two wrongs do not make a right." Both disciplines are unique and distinct.  Because LPC's have a pathway to licensure as LMFT's does not mean LMFT's should have a similar pathway to licensure as LPC's.  Both are wrong, although this seems to imply that counseling is a "superior" discipline to marriage and family therapy when it is not. Without rewriting the definitions contained in 54.1-3500, it is obvious that there is considerable overlap between the professions of counseling and marriage and family therapy, as well as clear differences between the two professions recognized in the Code of Virginia and by the Virginia Board of Counseling.  In reviewing the Regulations for LPC's and LMFT's, I also found considerable differences in the education requirements, with emphases in different areas for each discipline.  The Board created separate licenses for each discipline because of these noted differences.  LPC's take more of an individual, linear approach to mental health issues, where problems are located within the individual, and A leads to B; while LMFT's take more of a systemic, circular approach to mental health issues where A leads to B leads to A, while considering and focusing on context, relationship, interaction and what happens between rather than within people.  The practice of LMFT's and LPC's are different because of these different orientations to mental health issues.  This does not mean that LPC's don't consider context and relationship, and LMFT's don't consider individual pathology; but these orientations establish different tendencies in practice. Again, when I examined the Degree Program Requirements for both LPC's and LMFT's in their respective Regulations, I found that the graduate programs in each discipline have to have a distinct sequence of academic study to prepare the Resident for licensure as an LPC or LMFT; and there must be an identifiable training faculty with credentials and specialization in each discipline.  The Board created different licenses because of the recognition and sensitivity to professional identity.  We are colleagues under the professional umbrella of mental health professionals yet are uniquely different as counselors and marriage and family therapists. Reviewing graduate catalogs for degrees in counseling and marriage and family therapists, I again find clear differences. Now, the general public may not recognize the differences between the two disciplines when seeking a mental health professional, but their experiences in sessions will be different. It is for these reasons that I oppose the petition.