A note on the training of clinical and counseling psychologists.

"In June of 1958, letters were sent to the department chairmen of the 24 institutions approved by the APA Education and Training Board to train PhD psychologists in both the clinical and counseling specialties… . One-third of the 24 institutions are known to differentiate definitely in course requirements between the two specialties, while only one-eight are known to differentiate definitely in the preliminary examinations used for the two specialties… . Only three of the institutions definitely differentiate between the specialties in terms of both course requirements and preliminary examinations… . it seems obvious that little differentiation is being made between the two specialties in our major training institutions even though these institutions are approved to train for each of the specialties." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marriage counselors and psychologists in the United States.

In view of the fact that clinical and counseling psychology have much in common with the growing profession of marriage counseling, this new profession merits special scrutiny by psychologists. Yet it has been found difficult to know who constitutes the new profession or even to identify those who call themselves marriage counselors. Whoever the marriage counselors of the United States are, it seems clear that few of them claim to be psychologists. Since the work of clinical and counseling psychologists often includes marriage counseling, and since announced marriage counselors often could be regarded as or mistaken for psychologists, it is of importance that a study of the relation of each profession to the other be made by APA. The marriage counseling movement is here to stay. In spite of the interdisciplinary character of the movement, APA should follow it vigorously and take appropriate action whenever such would be of value to the professions and to the public. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology in clinical health psychology: The impact of specialty perspective.

Not all clinical health psychologists are trained as clinical psychologists. A significant minority is trained and identifies as counseling psychologists. As a field, it is important to understand how the specialty-specific values, training context, scholarship, and parameters of practice of counseling psychology contribute to clinical health psychology. In this article, we (a) identify the core values and training context of counseling psychology, (b) review the scholarly history of clinical health psychology by counseling psychologists, (c) present the parameters of practice of clinical health psychology as identified from the extant counseling psychology literature, and (d) examine American Psychological Association membership status to investigate joint membership in the Division of Health Psychology and the Society of Counseling Psychology. Conclusions indicate that (a) an identifiable set of core values guides the training of counseling psychologists, (b) scholarly literature by counseling psychologists has contributed to the growth and development of clinical health psychology, and (c) parameters of practice reflect the specialty-specific perspective of counseling psychology. As professional psychology continues to grow as a health care profession, clinical health psychology will benefit from the knowledge, values, attitudes, competencies, and practice parameters of counseling psychology, and counseling psychology will benefit from recognizing what it brings to the practice of clinical health psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction.

For this issue, we have selected remembrances of three psychologists (two clinicians and one industrial/organizational) who were pioneers in various aspects of their fields. Marguerite R. Hertz, the most senior of these writers, shares her memoir of the Rorschach test's development into a major diagnostic tool for clinical psychologists. Mary Tenopyr shares how her entrance into the field of industrial psychology was almost accidental, as was true for many psychologists in that field. Larry Abt reviews the changes in clinical psychology that he experienced throughout his career, noting how psychotherapy started to dominate the field and recalling the early conflicts in psychoanalytic training institutes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Committee on the Scientific and Professional Aims of Psychology: Preliminary Report.

"This report concerns some of the issues involved in the increasing diversification of psychology." Focus was "on problems of professionalization in clinical psychology in order: (a) to deal with the problems involving the largest number of psychologists, and (b) to make it possible to speak more specifically about issues." The "training of clinical psychologists for the practice of psychotherapy should be established as a new doctoral program within the university." Interdisciplinary training is encouraged. "Generally we favor awarding a degree other than the PhD at the end of such doctoral training." "None of the present models for training of psychotherapists, whether within clinical psychology, medicine, or social work, are satisfactory means for developing competent practitioners able to meet the needs or expectations of society." Guidelines for legislation are suggested. It was suggested that "perhaps as much as 50% of the [APA Convention] program should be composed of invited talks and papers which would be either integrative in their nature or which would open up new areas in which significant advances are being made." The Committee has proposed suggestions rather than solutions to problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training in Psychotherapy for Psychologists: Recommendations of Clinical Psychologists.

This article discusses the current debate on the subject of psychotherapy training for psychologists and how it tends to concern itself with rather broad philosophical issues and matters of role definition. As part of a larger study, data not previously reported were derived from three questions which asked for opinions about ideal patterns of psychotherapy training for psychologists. This brief report suggests the desirability of careful stratification of the group of clinical psychologists in future opinion sampling and when policy recommendations are being developed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists and psychological services in urban police departments--A national survey.

The purpose of the present study was to survey urban police departments and determine the amount and type of psychologist involvement. The major aims of the study were to ascertain the number of psychologists employed, the characteristics of these psychologists, and the services they provided. One hundred seventy-four copies of a questionnaire were sent to cities throughout the nation. The survey assessed, in broad terms, the role that psychologists and psychological services have in police departments today. A 74% return (N = 130) of the questionnaires was obtained within 3 months of the initial mailing. Results show that the more populated an area, the more psychologists employed: Only 11% and 10%, respectively, for the two smaller urban groups, but 18% and 39% for the two larger groups (in ascending order). Full-time and part-time psychologists are employed in approximately equal numbers, but, on a national scale and for all population groups, neither is used as frequently as consultants. The majority (74%) of psychologists employed are at the PhD level. Most have a clinical background, though training in counseling or industrial psychology was significantly involved. Two points represent major findings of the study: the use of consultants rather than full-time employees, and the relatively great amount of time spent in applicant screening. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Psychologist in community mental health.

It is "our belief that the field of community mental health is a challenging and stimulating field for research oriented psychologists. We feel strongly that the identity of the psychologist may be best maintained through a scientist-professional model." Recommendations are made for the future training of psychologists in this field. The individual psychologist "must be assisted by adequate post-doctoral interdisciplinary training in a university setting." Major sections are: Maintenance of an Identity, Scientist and Professional, and Training the Scientist-Professional. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

APA Visiting Psychologist Program.

The Visiting Psychologist Program, sponsored by the American Psychological Association and supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, has two major goals: (1) to provide information on recent developments in the field to psychologists in service settings, and (2) to provide opportunities to visit and learn about field centers for psychologists with significant training, service, and research responsibilities. The specific goals of the program are to disseminate up-to-date knowledge of recent research findings and to demonstrate innovations in psychological procedures and techniques. The Visiting Psychologist Program, under which psychologists from universities and other training and service centers visit selected field settings, involves the careful selection of visiting psychologists who have something new and substantial to transmit to the field, and the determination of representative settings to be visited that do not have ready access to significant recent developments. Main topics discussed in this article include the following: (1) how the program functions; (2) selection of visiting psychologists; (3) selection of agencies; and (4) how to apply. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clients, roles, and functions of the school psychologist.

The basic credo held by American school psychologists is that of child advocacy. Yet, with most school psychologists being employed by local school systems—where administrators often place institutional needs over individual student needs—the practitioner role is usually conflict-laden. Even though the preferred practitioner role is generally direct service to children through counseling or indirect student help via teacher consultation or parent counseling, at this time the school practitioner's major role in many settings is that of "gate keeping," which involves testing and certifying pupil eligibility for special education. If we look forward to the time when inappropriate gatekeeping—that is, formally labeling the mildly handicapped as eligible for special education—is eliminated, other functions performed must be strengthened and made more desirable to make the role of the school psychologist more viable. In addition to competent counseling skills, the ability to provide effective teacher consultation within schools is essential, not only for dealing with behavior, but instruction as well. The upgrading of school psychologists' skills is essential to ensure that, regardless of possible conflicts engendered, there will be at least one highly skilled child advocate working in the schools. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive coaching and consulting: "Different strokes for different folks".

Increasing frustration with the politics and economics of traditional mental health care has led many psychologists to consider shifting to or adding executive coaching as a core competency in their practices. Experience with work-related issues in clinical practice makes this appear to be a logical extension of traditional clinical and counseling work. There are many types of executive coaching and consulting, however, and only some of these relate to traditional mental health services. The authors propose a 4-category model of executive coaching defined by the intersection of focus (business vs. personal) and technique (brief-directive vs. extended-Socratic). Developmental coaching, which addresses long-standing behavior problems in both personal and work settings, is most likely to fit with traditional psychological training. Training or experience in the upper levels of the business world is essential to developing the capability to help corporate leaders with a broad range of needs and situations in which they find themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training of Psychologists.

Suggests that psychologists concerned about the training of psychologists generate some testable hypotheses about the effects of different kinds of training, match or otherwise control variation in graduate departments at student and staff levels, and start treating each graduate school as the experimental group it should be in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student Perspectives on Clinical and Counseling Psychology Practica.

Clinical practica are essential to the training and socialization of future clinical and counseling psychologists. When training expectations are not met, however, students may not be candid about these gaps, instead opting to grin and bear it. A sample of 321 doctoral psychology students responded to a survey that qualitatively and quantitatively assessed their expectations and actual training experiences at practicum. Results indicated that although many students received what they expected, a large minority did not, in areas ranging from work responsibilities to primary supervision. Implications for students, practicum, graduate programs, and the profession are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conference on the professional preparation of clinical psychologists: A summary.

Presents a summary of the conference on the professional preparation of clinical psychologists. Without countenancing the lowering of standards as such, the conferees have sought for a responsible position in the face of the dilemma presented by the foregoing combination of circumstances. Brought together for the purpose were not only clinical psychologists and their colleagues in applied areas, but experimental and social psychologists as well, together with representatives of such other disciplines as psychiatry and social work, a group including both suppliers of clinical psychologists and consumers. Topics discussed at the conference include: professional preparation; clinical training; research training; curricula; alternative models of doctoral training; and so forth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence on multicultural training in school psychology: Recommendations for future directions.

School psychology training programs are required to provide multicultural training to preservice school psychologists; however, trainers have had difficulty adequately including multicultural content into the curriculum. Thus, there is a gap between the requirements and the training that many school psychologists receive. Training programs have grappled with multicultural training because of difficulty identifying the structure and content of such training for school psychologists. To advance multicultural training in school psychology, guidance is needed regarding the content and structure necessary to adequately develop multicultural competence. Hence, the purpose of this article is to critically review the evidence on multicultural training in school psychology and provide a synthesis of the best evidence for preparing multiculturally competent school psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Note on Training Psychologists for Careers in Behavioral Medicine.

Discusses the training of psychologists for careers in behavioral medicine, a rapidly growing new field that is becoming increasingly attractive to psychologists and other behavioral and biomedical scientists. The author suggests that the optimum training setting in which to educate the PhD would be in an academic psychology department of a university that also had a medical school. His suggestions also include having a practicum that requires dealing both with emotionally and mentally disturbed patients and with psychosomatic patients, and requiring an additional postdoctoral year that would be used to specialize in cardiovascular, neurological, gastrointestinal, or other problems. The recommendations have nothing to say about other disciplines in the behavioral and biomedical sciences but are meant to describe a model for the training of psychologists to participate in this growing and exciting enterprise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections of a consulting counseling psychologist: Implications of the principles for education and training at the doctoral and postdoctoral level in consulting psychology for the practice of counseling psychology.

Examines issues related to the "Principles for Education and Training at the Doctoral and Postdoctoral Level in Consulting Psychology/Organizational" (R. L. Lowman et al, Education & Training Committee, see record 2003-04049-003), viewed from the perspective of a counseling psychologist whose primary work role is organizational consultation. The author traces the foundations of counseling psychology as they relate to organizational consulting practice. Comparisons are drawn between unifying themes and roles of counseling psychologists and consulting psychology domains and competencies. Each competency domain is examined with respect to its relative uniqueness or similarity of coverage in counseling psychology training and practice. Issues are raised about the relationship of individual counseling and individual consulting psychology. Suggestions are made about increased inclusion in training of vocational psychology theory, multicultural issues, supervised practicum experience, and role boundary work with respect to consultation and psychotherapy. The Principles are viewed as a resource to counseling psychologists, particularly in defining competencies and training needs related to enhancement of intergroup relations and organizational-wide structural interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postdoctoral Training in Psychotherapy.

During the past year, a number of articles have appeared in the American Psychologist on the general issue of whether psychologists should or should not do psychotherapy. While it is indisputable that a problem of this kind deserves attention as long as enough people are concerned to give it substance, we confess to a sense of bewilderment: Is not a long dead horse receiving a rather severe whipping? In settings ranging from hospitals and clinics to private practice, psychologists are doing psychotherapy, have been doing it for some time, and are likely to continue doing it as long as there is a social need for this kind of service. This fact has been clearly acknowledged by such national organizations as the VA and the USPHS and, through ABEPP and the Education and Training Board, by the APA itself. Much more central questions, it seems to us, are those of whether psychologists are being adequately trained for their therapeutic function and of what can be done to make training opportunities more available. First, we recommend that a comprehensive survey be made, through the Education and Training Board or other appropriate agency, of precisely what postdoctoral training resources are available in the nation for psychologists. Second, we urge that the APA investigate the possibility of establishing postdoctoral training programs in strategically located universities. Third, suspecting that one or another of the major foundations would be interested in this kind of venture into professional training at postdoctoral levels, we suggest that the APA take responsibility for investigating potential sources of financial support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)