I am concerned that Virginia is considering not accepting for practice any mental health therapists who did not earn their graduate degree at a university which was accredited  by CACREP. When a state decides to arbitrarily restrict the practice of mental health in this manner, the public is prevented from exercising the freedom to choose a therapist to treat them by an unreasonable standard. All 50 states already have stringent standards for licensing mental health counselors. The CACREP standard is an unreasonable one that unfairly restricts the public from choice, as well as restricting the pool of potential mental health practicioners from providing a needed service to the community.