I clearly support any changes to the regulations for the Laws Governing Licensed Professional Counselors that will support individuals who are competent to provide counseling and have faced such debilitating complications from an organization that should be there to promote support and encouragement to thrive in their profession as therapists. I earned my LPC for Texas and due to the regulations, the Virginia Board of Counseling has declined to endorse my license and will not allow me to register under a Board Approved Supervisor. I completed my Masters Degree in 12/2001 in Counseling Psychology. I was told that though my degree was in “Counseling Psychology” I still did not have enough “counseling” courses. I graduated from a 48 credit hour approved masters program with thesis in 2001. I have over 12 years of experience that has taught me valuable skills, techniques, and knowledge that I could have never gained in a classroom. I cannot register under a board approved supervisor due to the lack of course work and lacking 150 internship hours to match the 600 required by Virginia. Did I mention I have over 12 years of experience? Taking course work, though time consuming and costly, is easy to accomplish through online courses but it is impossible to enroll in just a course to complete 150 internship hours. All programs require that you are a full-time graduate student to enroll in an academic advised internship. So now that I cannot register under a board approved supervisor, after 12 years of experience and direct client contact, I am no longer able to have direct contact within my current employment or any employment that I should qualify for. What a punch in the gut this has been. I am expected to complete the 4 required courses in 3/2014 but this still leaves the 150 internship hours needed to register under a board approved supervisor which is needed to complete 500 more hours of residency requirements, as I only completed approximately 3500 hours in Texas (only needed 3000) and in Virginia 4000 is needed. So over 12 years of experience appears to lack any substance, weekly meetings with a supervisor during these 12 years is considered non-existent, and my future to become a licensed professional counselor in Virginia currently looks impossible due to the current academic standards. Instead of moving forward within my career I have been placed on hold and over looked for numerous career opportunities.

Please consider changes in the regulations of the laws governing counselors as there are so many competent and much needed individuals that are in the same position.

Christin Guretsky, MS