As a faculty memeber in the Virginia Tech Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) masters program, I support this pettition as it will help doctoral students in the state of Virginia as well as unlicensed faculty who come to Viriginia to count clinical and supervision hours accumulated in docotral programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) toward Virginia LMFT residency requirements.  Typically, doctoral students in MFT programs have already have completed a masters degree in MFT or a related mental health degree and the supervision provided in academic settings tends to be of high quality.  This change would make staying in Virginia more enticing to MFT doctoral students and would also make moving to Virginia to practice as an MFT more enticing to clinicians who recently graduated from an MFT doctoral program in another state.  I do not see a downside from this proposed change.