Self-Monitoring, Loneliness, EAPs, Social Justice, Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Peacebuilding: Challenges and Opportunities

This article expands on the author's invited presentation given in Minneapolis in August 2022 as the recipient of the 2020 Leona Tyler Award. Four phases (New York, Georgia, Illinois, and Indiana) of the author's life are described. Challenges and opportunities of the author's pursuit of research and other activities on impression management, loneliness, Employee Assistance Programs, social justice, cross-cultural psychology, and peacebuilding are discussed. Further, the importance of counseling psychologists demonstrating cross-cultural validity and equivalence and reducing bias in the science and application of psychology, and educating students is deemed a social justice imperative. Given the polarization and lack of civility in societies worldwide, the need for more counseling psychologists to function as bridge or peace builders in addition to advocates and activists also is highlighted. Lessons learned, recommendations to move the counseling psychology discipline forward, and appreciation to individuals' instrumental in the author's life are discussed as well.

The 2020 Counseling Psychology Conference and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned in Cultivating Change Through Liberation

Simultaneous to the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, the 2020 Counseling Psychology Conference was in the final stages of preparation. It was impossible to hold the conference in the midst of university restrictions on nonessential travel and government restrictions of large gatherings. We document the 2020 Counseling Psychology Conference as originally planned for historical purposes and describe the leadership challenges associated with cancellation. Further, we describe the virtual events arising from the 2020 Counseling Psychology Conference that were held to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Counseling Psychology. Finally, we make recommendations for the field's constituent professional organizations and future leaders for planning future national conferences based on these experiences. Consistent with the theme of the conference, “Counseling Psychology at 75 Years: Reflections on Shared Identity, Cultivating Change, and Building a Counseling Psychology of Liberation,” our manuscript is framed from a liberation psychology perspective.

Social Justice Identity Development for International Counseling Psychology Students

Despite the inclusion of social justice and international issues in counseling psychology, there are no conceptual models or research to date that focus on social justice identity development and training issues for international counseling psychology students. The unique cross-cultural experiences and systemic injustices facing many international counseling psychology students may inform their social justice identity development in a distinctive manner. Thus, by incorporating biculturalism and transformative learning theories, this article proposes a theoretical model to illustrate the psychological processes and outcomes of social justice identity development for international counseling psychology students with the following four phases: (a) cultural and social awareness of privilege and oppression, (b) critical analysis of systemic oppression across cultures, (c) synergistic development of social justice competence and bicultural competence, and (d) integration of social justice identity and competence across cultures. We provide recommendations for future practice, advocacy, education, training, and research.

Social Justice in Counseling Psychology: Then, Now, and Looking Forward

In this article, a diverse group of early, mid, and advanced career scholars call for counseling psychology to continue to evolve in our integration of social justice action in our field. In doing so, we first consider our history as proponents and enactors of social justice, highlighting the ways in which counseling psychologists have served as social justice leaders in psychology. We then discuss our field’s contemporary challenges to, and opportunities for, social justice progress as we work toward equity and justice. Finally, we offer recommendations for counseling psychologists individually and as a field to move forward in our social justice action. Given our longstanding social justice values and our unique training as counseling psychologists, if we aim with intentionality to use our skills toward systems change, counseling psychologists are poised to have a strong and proactive role as social change agents within psychology and society at large.

White Supremacy and Counseling Psychology: A Critical–Conceptual Framework

The mainstreaming of White nationalism in the United States and worldwide suggests an urgent need for counseling psychologists to take stock of what tools they have (and do not have) to combat White supremacy. We review the rise of social justice issues in the field of counseling psychology and allied helping professions and point to the limits of existing paradigms to address the challenge of White supremacy. We introduce transnationalism as an important theoretical perspective with which to conceptualize global racisms, and identify White racial affect, intersectionality, and allyship as three key domains of antiracist action research. Finally, we suggest three steps for sharpening counseling psychologists’ approaches to social justice: rejecting racial progress narratives, engaging in social justice-oriented practice with White clients, and centering White supremacy as a key problem for the field of counseling psychology and allied helping professions.

Make It Personal: A Qualitative Investigation of White Counselors’ Multicultural Awareness Development

In this qualitative research study, we explored the multicultural awareness development of 12 multiculturally adept non-Latino White counselors. Using a grounded theory approach, we found that early personal experience with diversity was the most important contributing factor in developing understanding and empathy for oppression among White counselors. This factor appeared to lay the foundation for an ongoing personal initiative to develop multicultural awareness. Subsequently, counselors tried to maximize what they could learn from their culturally diverse clients, work environments, coursework, supervision, and mentoring opportunities. Their personal initiative also inspired them to persevere despite the difficult emotions and conflict inherent in this developmental process. Results suggest the need to incorporate personally transformative experiences in counselor training and to prepare counselors for the emotional challenges of multicultural awareness development.

Eighteen Years of the Great Lakes Regional Counseling Psychology Conference

The Great Lakes Regional Conference on Counseling Psychology is the only conference to continuously fulfill the 1987 mandate issued by Division 17 for regional counseling conferences. The rationale for regional conferences is reviewed, and the 18-year history of the Great Lakes Regional Conference is examined. The authors conclude by noting the strengths and limitations of regional conferences and recommend that the Society of Counseling Psychology reconsider the issue of regional conferences in counseling psychology.

An Emancipatory Communitarian Approach to Vocational Development Theory, Research, and Practice

Building on recent calls for a more explicit and intentional endorsement of social justice goals within counseling psychology and vocational psychology, this article proposes Prilleltensky’s (1997) emancipatory communitarian approach to psychological practice as a useful framework for vocational theory, practice, and research. Such a framework emphasizes the distinction between the concepts of work and career and illuminates the extent to which traditional vocational psychology has attended to the needs of the people who experience little, if any, volition in their choices of career or line of work. We present a rationale for integrating an emancipatory communitarian approach into vocational psychology theory and the implications of this approach for future research and practice.

A Social Justice Agenda

This commentary highlights the innovative inclusion of social action groups in the 2001 Houston Conference and expands on their significance to the conference and the field. If the 2001 Houston Conference has correctly forecast a (re)establishment of social action as a mainstay of counseling psychology, then an in-depth exploration of how we train students, conduct research, and engage in practice is warranted. Given the political nature of social action and its inextricable connection to social justice, the implications of such a stance for the future of the profession are discussed.

Does the Model Matter? The Relationship Between Science-Practice Emphasis and Outcomes in Academic Training Programs in Counseling Psychology

The emphasis on the commitment to science and practice varies among counseling psychology training programs, and this article reports two studies that examine whether these different emphases are linked to distinctive outcomes. Study 1 examined outcomes related to students and faculty within science-oriented, balanced science-practice, and practice-oriented counseling psychology programs. Study 2 examined the differential success and placement of doctoral students in matching to predoctoral internships. Against a backdrop of substantial similarity, differential commitments to science and practice within programs were related to selected differences in faculty and student outcomes in conceptually coherent ways. Scholarly productivity and internship placements, for example, varied according the science-practice emphasis of the training program, providing qualified support for future work that might further address the relationship between training models and outcomes in counseling psychology.

Houston 2001

Using the structure modeled by Fouad et al., the authors discuss issues of identity, training, andsocial advocacyfrom a student perspective. In addition to topics raised by Fouad et al., broader issues within counseling psychology are discussed in terms of their impact on students. Finally, the authors offer suggestions and recommendations for considering the place of students within future counseling psychology conferences, as well as the place of students as future counseling psychology professionals.

Teaching Qualitative Research

Qualitative research has become increasingly perceived as well suited to the advancement of counseling psychology, yet opportunities for formal training in qualitative inquiry remain inconsistently available within and across graduate programs. For the potential contribution of this approach to counseling psychology to be realized, graduate students need routine access to adequate and appropriate coursework. In this article, the author shares a design and rationale for an introductory course in qualitative research, describes typical challenges faced by students, and offers strategies for fostering student learning and success. Limitations of the approach are discussed and recommendations offered based on lessons learned from practice.

Counseling Psychology and Social Justice

The 4th National Counseling Psychology Conference presented a unique opportunity for our field to share our progress and contemplate future directions. Fouadet al. ’s accountis a contribution to the documentation of our profession’s history. Fouad et al. ’s article and the 4th National Counseling Psychology Conference can also be viewed as a continuation of our profession’s search for its identity. The authors of this reaction paper urge the counseling psychology profession to integrate a social change identity. Specific recommendations to effect this transformation are offered.

Diversity in the Ivory White Tower

Scholars have highlighted the importance of recruitment, retention, and promotion of racial-ethnic minority faculty for the field of counseling psychology. This study examines the specialty’s progress by chronicling the racial-ethnic composition of faculty in counseling psychology programs across time. The findings summarized begin to reveal the level of progress made toward increasing faculty racial-ethnic diversity within the field. Data generally support the collective success of counseling psychology programs in increasing racial-ethnic diversity of faculty but also highlight some of the challenges that remain to be addressed. Several possible interpretations, implications, and limitations of these findings are discussed in relation to counseling psychology’s continuing support of multiculturalism as a distinctive feature of its identity and its objectives as a specialty.

Research Productivity in Counseling Psychology

This article is an update and review of institutional research productivity in counseling psychology. Institutional research productivity is assessed by totaling credits for articles published from 1993 to 2002 in the following journals: Journal of Counseling Psychology, The Counseling Psychologist, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Counseling and Development, Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development , and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology . Results show that the rankings of many programs have remained fairly stable over the years, while others have substantially changed. Additionally, two factors were found to represent the research productivity of institutions in the field. These results are discussed in terms of the identity of counseling psychology and research productivity.

The Houston 2001 National Counseling Psychology Conference

The authors briefly note the accomplishments of the Houston 2001 National Counseling Psychology Conference and focus on several questions raised that, in their judgment, have implications for how counseling psychology will continue to develop as a specialty. Noteworthy accomplishments are the following: (a) inclusiveness in content and participation, (b) better linkages to the American Psychological Association (APA) and among counseling psychology organizations, (c) spotlighting the importance of political advocacy, and (d) concretizing counseling psychology’s social advocacy mission to focus on social justice. The questions raised include (a) preparation of students for entry-level positions in science and practice, (b) ratio of potential earnings as an autonomous professional to the educational investment required, and (c) appropriate balance of breadth and depth in training professional psychologists.

Best Practice Guidelines on Prevention Practice, Research, Training, and Social Advocacy for Psychologists

Preventive interventions have been shown to successfully aid the development of children, youths, and adults and avert maladjustment in individuals at risk for negative outcomes. Continued scientific advancement of preventive interventions is crucial to further the health of U.S. children, youths, and families. This article presents 15 best practice guidelines on prevention practice, research, training, and social advocacy for psychology. These guidelines articulate clear standards and a framework for moving the profession toward improving the well-being of a greater number of individuals and communities. The guidelines are intended to assist psychologists in evaluating their preparation for engaging in prevention work and in furthering their understanding through increased knowledge, skills, and experience in prevention.

Training Counseling Psychologists as Social Justice Agents

Despite recent calls for counseling psychology to embrace social justice-oriented work, there has been little discussion about what such work actually looks like. The first part of this article derives a set of principles from feminist and multicultural counseling theories that counseling psychologists should consider as they engage in social justice work. These include (a) ongoing self-examination,(b) sharing power, (c) giving voice, (d) facilitating consciousness raising, (e) building on strengths, and(f) leaving clients the tools to work toward social change. The second part of the article describes a program designed to integrate social justice work into the core curriculum of the Boston College doctoral program. The authors discuss ways in which the above principles have shaped students; activities, and some of the ethical dilemmas that have emerged. Finally, the article under-scores professional obstacles that counseling psychologists doing social justice work are likely to face, and offers recommendations for overcoming them.

Counseling Psychology and Culturally Competent Health Care

Addressing health care disparity and working toward a culturally sensitive and competent health care delivery system is a monumental task that calls for social and cultural change. As Herman and colleagues note in this issue, counseling psychologists have contributed greatly to the area of cultural competence and may be capable of taking on a number of roles that can lead to these changes. However, if counseling psychologists are to be part of the solution, they face a number of challenges. In this reaction article, the authors identify a number of issues related to the creation of a culturally sensitive health care system, including the definition of cultural competence, access to health care, the context of health care delivery, and reactions to the model of patient-centered cultural sensitive health care proposed by Tucker and colleagues in this issue.

The Shifting Sands of Counseling Psychology Programs’ Institutional Contexts

Despite strong indicators of the robustness of counseling psychology, the specialty seems somewhat vulnerable, as evidenced by the fact that several solid programs have been forced to phase out or to convert to combined-integrated programs. In fact, analyzing the trends among counseling psychology programs reveals that 30% of programs that have been accredited have been phased out. This article provides a context for understanding the accreditation history of counseling psychology programs. We then offer solutions and strategies to reduce this particular vulnerability. The proximal and distal solutions that are presented may help ensure the continued flourishing of counseling psychology across institutional, programmatic, and national levels.

Setting the Counseling Psychology Agenda

This reaction to the Major Contribution in the September 2005 issue of The Counseling Psychologist highlights the implied threats to the survival of academic training programs in counseling psychology. Counseling psychologists are urged to analyze the historical roots of the profession and current market realities and to make principled commitments to determine where, when, and how training programs will fit into the culture of any given college or department.

Empirical Reflections on Academic Training Programs in Counseling Psychology

The three main articles in the Major Contribution of the September issue of The Counseling Psychologist address academic training programs in counseling psychology, focusing on their institutional contexts and commitments. Each article examines one key issue, provides empirical data concerning this issue, and traces the practical implications of these data for future research, training, or policymaking in the field of counseling psychology.

On Being a Psycho-Oncologist

This special issue of TCP focuses on the psychological and psychosocial components of coping with cancer and its aftermath. Psycho-oncology, a subspecialty within professional psychology, is a multidisciplinary field emphasizing the psychological and social aspects of cancer. In this introductory article, I show the congruence between counseling psychology and psycho-oncology, indicate how counseling psychologists can expand their parameters of practice to include cancer patients and families, and explain what evidence-based resources are needed to acquire relevant background knowledge. Health care reform changes—in general and oncology-specific—are explained as they currently open new opportunities for counseling psychologists in psycho-oncology. Finally, the five articles that make up this special issue are previewed. Psycho-oncology is a challenging yet rewarding subspecialty within counseling psychology, congruent with its values and parameters of practice, and now is an opportune time to expand one’s practice to include psycho-oncology and help those coping with cancer and its aftermath.

African American Men’s Beliefs About Mental Illness, Perceptions of Stigma, and Help-Seeking Barriers

Little is known about African American men’s beliefs about mental illness. A descriptive qualitative study, using the common sense model (CSM), examined African American men’s beliefs about mental illness, perceptions of stigma associated with mental illness, and barriers to help-seeking. A total of 17 community-dwelling African American men participated in individual interviews. Dimensional analysis guided by the CSM showed most of the men identified mental illness causal factors consistent with the biopsychosocial model of mental disorders. They believed mental illness is a chronic disorder having negative consequences and reported experiencing barriers to help seeking. In contrast with previous studies, most men in the present study did not perceive stigma associated with mental illness and did not identify stigma as a barrier to help seeking. They were open to help seeking, were optimistic about professional treatment, encouraged others to seek treatment, and expressed strong interest in mental health research. Implications for counseling psychology research and practice are discussed.

Early Career Psychologists

The findings from the Smith et al. (2012) survey of early career psychologists (ECPs) who are members of the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP) provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs for ECPs in the SCP as well as recommendations about how the SCP can better meet the professional needs of ECPs. Ideally, the implementation of these recommendations will result in more ECPs joining the SCP and finding their membership to be a beneficial part of their professional lives. Capturing the interest and involvement of ECPs into the SCP needs to be an ongoing priority requiring focused attention and effort by SCP leadership. Who are the next generation of counseling psychologists? How are they fundamentally different from prior generations of counseling psychologists? And how have cohort and external environmental changes helped or hindered ECPs’ involvement in professional organizations? Finding the answers to these questions is necessary to guarantee that the Society changes in ways that make it professionally relevant for future generations of counseling psychologists.

Ethnic Minority Psychological Associations

This article provides the introduction, background and rationale for the Major Contribution focused on five national ethnic minority psychological associations: the Asian American Psychological Association, The Association of Black Psychologists, the National Latina/o Psychological Association, the Society of Indian Psychologists, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (Division 45 of the American Psychological Association). The first five articles focus on each of the five major ethnic minority psychological associations and their relationship to the specialty of counseling psychology in general and, more specifically, to the largest professional organization of counseling psychologists, the Society of Counseling Psychology, Division 17 of the American Psychological Association. In the final article, we summarize general trends and make recommendations. In this introductory article, we (a) describe our rationale for the Major Contribution, (b) provide a brief history of counseling psychology’s growing commitment to an inclusive multicultural psychology, and (c) conclude with a brief description of the articles and authors included in the Major Contribution.

Social Justice Advocacy in Rural Communities

The professional literature related to social justice has increased, but there has been little discussion of the practical issues and implications associated with social advocacy. However, adding new roles will result in new considerations for counseling psychologists. The need to be attuned to how the practical aspects of advocacy intersect with the context of psychological work may be especially present in rural areas where practitioners may be more involved in the community and thus their actions highly visible. Because the data indicate that rural communities may have few resources, a limited number of mental health professionals, and higher rates of mental illness, psychologists practicing in these areas may feel compelled to engage in advocacy. Yet there is little practical guidance for these psychologists. Therefore, the authors present considerations for social justice advocacy in rural areas, using the American Counseling Association advocacy competencies as an organizing framework.

Best Practices in the Reporting of Participatory Action Research: Embracing Both the Forest and the Trees 1Ψ7

Participatory action research (PAR) represents an approach that is deeply consonant with counseling psychology’s commitments to social equity and action. However, counseling psychologists who would like to study this literature, or who would like to write about a project of their own, may discover that the reporting of PAR is not straightforward: PAR is a fluid, multifaceted, co-created, idiosyncratic process that does not necessarily correspond to established report-writing conventions. In this article, the authors present best-practices suggestions for writing about PAR based on an analysis of PAR articles published between 2000 and 2008.

Historical Antecedents: Counseling Psychology and the Fulbright Program

The purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive, field-specific directory of counseling psychologists who have served as Fulbright scholars. First, the authors provide a brief history of the development and mission of the Fulbright program, followed by a review of prominent Fulbright grants. Next, they focus on the Fulbright Senior Scholars program. They detail the method used to explore related archival data and present a list generated from those data to include researchers and educators who professionally identify as counseling psychologists. Host country and dates of international service under the auspices of the Fulbright scholarship are included. Ultimately, the authors seek to provide documentation and stimulate future research into the collective impact of individual Fulbright scholars on counseling psychology as a discipline.

Impacting sexism through social justice prevention: implications at the person and environmental levels

Sexism in our society leads to multiple negative outcomes for women. Although traditional therapeutic approaches as well as preventive interventions address the specific negative outcomes of sexism, they rarely utilize a social justice approach. The deleterious effects of sexism occur complexly; sexist interpersonal events often occur within family systems that may endorse traditional gender roles, which exist within a societal and cultural context that contains sexist norms and formalized sexist policies. These multifaceted, ingrained circumstances delineate the need for preventive social justice to address sexism on multiple levels. A prevention/social justice model will be used to critique existing interventions and identify avenues for change in research and practice.

Supervision of Psychotherapy

Current models and issues related to psychotherapy supervision are examined. These include ethical and legal issues, problems of interpersonal competence, and multicultural issues. As a part of this analysis, interviews about supervision with five prominent counseling psychologists are included to provide their perspectives. Implications for the field of counseling psychology are described, and a series of recommendations is presented.

The Ever Evolving Identity of Counseling Psychologists

Understanding our identity as counseling psychologists has been an issue since the inception of our specialty in the 1940s and one that the authors of these two articles (Goodyear et al., 2008 [this issue]; Munley, Pate, & Duncan, 2008 [this issue]) tackle in new and different ways. In this response, this author (a) identifies additional reasons why studying our identity as counseling psychologists is beneficial to the specialty, (b) commends the authors on the methodological improvements they made, (c) comments on the underutilization of the American Psychological Association membership database as a resource for answering questions about change and stability in our identity, and (d) recommends that future studies focus on the approximately 75% of counseling psychologists who are not members of the Society of Counseling Psychology, Division 17 of the American Psychological Association. In an effort to capture more counseling psychologists as members of the Society of Counseling Psychology, attention should focus on students, early career professionals, and practitioners.

Demographic, Educational, Employment, and Professional Characteristics of Counseling Psychologists

Counseling psychologist members of Division 17 (n = 1,792) were compared with counseling psychologist nonmembers of Division 17 within the American Psychological Association (APA; n = 6,917) with respect to demographic, educational, and professional characteristics reported in the 2003 APA Directory Survey. Employment setting and work activities of both groups were also studied based on employment data from the 2000 APA Directory Survey (n = 3,908). Findings indicated a relatively lower percentage of newer counseling psychologists maintaining membership in Division 17 and reflected differences in the employment settings and professional activities of each group. With respect to APA division membership, a majority of counseling psychologists who did not belong to Division 17 also did not belong to any divisions within APA (67.8%). APA divisions most frequently joined by counseling psychologist nonmembers of Division 17 included Divisions 42, 29, 35, 43, and 40.

Multicultural Competence and Social Justice Training in Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education

This article presents the findings of a descriptive content analysis of 54 multicultural and diversity-related course syllabi drawn from counseling and counseling psychology programs accredited by the American Psychological Association and the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs. Results suggest that most courses adhere to the knowledge, awareness, and skills paradigm of multicultural competence. However, actual course content varies considerably. Whereas the findings identify social justice content as a growing presence in multicultural courses, there is a need to more clearly outline the fundamental points of distinction and overlap between multicultural competence and social justice advocacy in counselor and counseling psychology training.

Challenges of Work

Because of recent advances in medications and treatment regimens, persons with HIV disease are maintaining better health status and living longer. Thus, greater opportunities exist for these individuals to either continue their current employment or return to the world of work. The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide in-depth descriptions of related vocational experiences of persons with HIV. Data were collected from eight focus groups consisting of a diverse sample of people living with HIV (N = 93). Results support the need for counseling psychologists and other mental health professionals to address real and perceived barriers, both internal and contextual, while also becoming advocates for persons with HIV who want to work. A model derived from qualitative data analysis provides visual representation of the work experiences of people living with HIV, for potential application in assessment and treatment.

The Intersections of Work, Health, Diversity, and Social Justice

Although counseling psychology has discussed vocational issues, health concerns, diversity, and social justice, discussion of these topics has typically been narrowly focused. This article uses the example of persons with HIV (PWHIV) to demonstrate how these areas can be intertwined. The counseling psychology literature is also examined to determine the degree to which direction has been provided regarding clients facing health concerns, disabilities, confusion regarding career issues, or possible discrimination. Because HIV is now considered to be a chronic illness for many people, there is an increased likelihood that PWHIV will be faced with employment issues, as well as significant barriers to beginning work, returning to work, or keeping a job. After highlighting characteristics of PWHIV, we review the degree to which the vocational literature addresses the needs and issues of PWHIV. We also examine the role of social justice in relation to PWHIV who are considering work.

Integrating Health and Vocational Psychology

This article introduces the Major Contribution on integrating health and vocational psychology, using persons with HIV who have work-related concerns as an example. The authors describe the demographics associated with HIV disease and new treatments that have allowed people with HIV to remain healthy and continue working, or consider returning to work. They also outline the purposes of the Major Contribution and conclude with a call for more focus on traditionally disenfranchised populations, especially those who are members of multiple groups facing discrimination.

Positioning Classism Within Counseling Psychology's Social Justice Agenda

Counseling psychologists have been instrumental in advancing a social justice agenda within the larger field of psychology. What is still missing within this agenda, however, is a fully developed consideration of classism within the spectrum of oppressions more commonly addressed in discussions of social justice and multiculturalism. The operations of classism can be difficult to see in a society that has long considered itself to be classless, and for counseling psychologists to undertake this work, they must initiate a deliberate effort to develop their awareness of classism as it affects their theory, research, and practice. In support of this end, the author presents a social justice conceptualization of classism, provides examples of classism at work, and outlines the resulting implications for counseling psychology practice.