Virginia Board of Counseling/Licensure

The Radford University Counseling Psychology Program follows the criteria as established by the Virginia Board of Counseling for a program that seeks to prepare students in counseling and counseling interventions.  The Virginia Counseling Board requires the student satisfy 13 core areas of instruction.  These core areas and classes that are offered in the Radford program are listed in this document.  Additionally, the Virginia Board requires that programs meet certain criteria, which are indicated below.  How these criteria requirements are met by the University's requirements is shown in italics. 

1.      "There must be a sequence of academic study with the expressed intent to prepare counselors as documented by the institution.”  (The Radford University Counseling Program developed a program and sequential courses to specifically meet the requirements as stated by the Counseling Board to prepare counselors.  This information is listed in the Graduate College Catalogue.  There is a recommended sequence of courses and the transcript indicates the student has a major in counseling psychology.  The student is required to complete selected courses with satisfactory grades and complete 30 semester hours before enrolling in an internship.  Please note that many courses are sequential and the student must take the prerequisites.)

2.      "There must be an identifiable counselor training faculty and an identifiable body of students who complete the sequence of academic study.”  (The University has allocated three tenured track faculty for this area and a number of adjuncts.  There is a Director of the Counseling Program.)  The program is advertised as a graduate program in counseling by brochures and is listed in the APA Guide to Graduate Study as a master's program in counseling psychology.  Approximately 10 students are enrolled in counseling each year and students who apply to the Graduate College indicate counseling psychology as their major preference, counseling students are assigned advisors who are a part of the counseling faculty.  The counseling students are evaluated each semester.

3.      "The academic unit must have clear authority and primary responsibility for the core and specialty areas.”  (The Radford counseling faculty, among other responsibilities, determine the courses and course content, the requirements of the program, admittance criteria and acceptances.)

(Department of Health Professional., Commonwealth of Virginia, Title of Regulations: 18 VAC 115-20-10 et seq. Regulations Governing the Practice of Professional Counseling, page 4) (Adopted February 18, 2000)

**Please note that a graduate level internship completed in a program that meets other requirements may count for 600 hours of the required 4,000 hours of experience.  "The internship shall include 20 of face-to-face on site supervision, and 20 hours of face-to-face off- site supervision.”  In order to count toward the residency, internship hours shall not begin until completion of 30 semester hours toward the degree.”  The student needs a total of 600 clock hours at the setting hours and 240 face-to-face.

"Internship means supervised, planned, practical, advanced experience obtained in the clinical setting, observing and applying the principles, methods and techniques learned in training or educational settings."

In order for any graduate-level internship to be counted towards a residency, either the clinical or faculty supervisor shall be licensed.  The supervisor shall document two years of post-licensure clinical experience and have received professional training in supervision.