I strongly support Dr. Chase’s petition for amendments to the Virginia statues that prevent students who graduate from Clinical Psychology master’s programs from pursuing a professional counseling licensure.  I am a graduate from the Radford University’s Clinical - Counseling Psychology master’s program, and can say that my education was suburb.  I have no doubts that it prepared me to be a well-rounded and competent mental health clinician.  My parents emigrated from Vietnam to Virginia; I was born in Virginia, raised in Virginia, did my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Virginia, and hoped to pursue my passion of being a mental health clinician in Virginia.  If I had the opportunity I would have pursued my LPC post-graduation, but realized that those peers who tried before me were unsuccessful.  I am now in my final year of a doctoral program in Professional Psychology and am working in a university counseling center.   I would not be where I am without the academic and clinical vigor that was offered in the master’s in Clinical – Counseling Psychology program at RU.  If a student meets the coursework requirements and licensure exam for the LPC degree, there is no reason to prevent them from obtaining the licensure.  As a mental health clinician, I am constantly hearing about the need for more clinicians and putting this limitation on students who are well-qualified who can give back to their communities is unfair.  Regardless of this issue what seems to be a political issue, theoretical orientation, or training, the one commonality between fields is the idea of putting our clients’ needs at the forefront of our work.   By limited Virginian’s mental health resources we are just doing a disservice to those we are trying to help.