Extending the Tradition of The Counseling Psychologist by Building on Strengths

This article describes The Counseling Psychologist’s (TCP’s) format and content, policy issues, editing experiences, and the interplay of professional and social forces during the first two editorial years of P. Paul Heppner (1997-1998). Given the real heritage of the journal and existing resources, the primary mission has been to extend the tradition of TCP by building on the journal’s many strengths.

Internship and Initial Job Placements in Counseling Psychology

A 26-year retrospective study was conducted on internship and initial job placements of counseling psychologists. The results indicated that university counseling centers consistently supported the highest percentage of the field’s predoctoral interns followed by Veteran Administration Medical Centers, other hospital settings, and community mental health centers. Initial job placements indicated relative parity among placements in academic, community mental health, counseling center, and private practice settings with Veterans Administration Medical Centers and other hospital settings accounting for significant percentages of the field’s initial job placements. In addition, changes in internship and job placements across time indicated that various contexts have waxed or waned in their contribution to the training and placement of counseling psychologists. Results are discussed in relation to the evolving identity of counseling psychology as a specialty and the contexts that support and challenge that development.

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.

Training in Supervision

This study examined the current state of affairs of training in the practice of supervision in doctoral programs and predoctoral internship sites accredited by the American Psychological Association. Results indicated that although a majority of programs and sites offered some type of opportunity for training in supervision, there were differences in the methods and extent of the training. In particular, statistically significant differences were found between the training offered in counseling psychology programs when compared to clinical psychology programs, and in university counseling center internship programs when compared to other types of internship sites. The more extensive training in supervision offered among counseling psychology programs and counseling center internship sites is discussed in terms of the identity of counseling psychology and the future of professional psychology in general. Recommendations for enhancing training in the conduct of supervision and directions for further research are also offered.

Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Rain

The three reactions in the September 2005 issue of The Counseling Psychologist provide a context for extending and deepening our understanding of key issues surrounding counseling psychology training programs. This rejoinder (a) comments on their reflections and suggestions, (b) offers a tabular summary of the suggestions made by the various contributors and discussants, and (c) concludes with the hope that this collection of articles and reactions will contribute to an ongoing process of development that will help ensure counseling psychology’s continued viability.

Bolstering the Scientist Component in the Training of Scientist-Practitioners

This article presents three specific curriculum recommendations that have been implemented at one American Psychological Association-approved counseling psychology program to increase the didactic and experiential scientific core. The recommendations include requiring an ongoing research practicum, a qualitative methodology course, and an advanced integrative research design course specific to the discipline of counseling psychology. The institutionalized research experience is designed to help empower all students and provide equal access to research opportunities.

A Counseling Psychology for the New Millennium

In this article, the author offers some comparisons and contrasts about the 1985 and 2000/2003 counseling psychology survey data sets. The data, which show stability and flux, continuity and change, capture elements of counseling psychology's rich heritage, current tensions of growth, and possibilities of future.