Public Description of Counseling Psychology

Counseling psychology is a general practice and health service provider specialty in professional psychology. It focuses on personal and interpersonal functioning across the life span and on emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related, developmental and organizational concerns.

Counseling psychology centers on typical or normal developmental issues as well as atypical or disordered development as it applies to human experience from individual, family, group, systems and organizational perspectives. Counseling psychologists help people with physical, emotional and mental disorders improve well-being, alleviate distress and maladjustment, and resolve crises. In addition, practitioners in this professional specialty provide assessment, diagnosis and treatment of psychopathology.

Advanced Scientific and Theoretical Knowledge Germane to the Specialty

Building upon a core knowledge base of general psychology (i.e., the biological, cognitive/affective, social, and individual bases of behavior, history and systems of psychology) common to the other applied specialties within professional psychology, the competent and skillful practice of Counseling Psychology requires knowledge of

  • Career development and vocational behavior

  • Individual differences (including racial, cultural, gender, lifestyle and economic diversity)

  • Psychological measurement and principles of psychological/diagnostic and environmental assessment

  • Social and organizational psychology

  • Human life span development

  • Consultation and supervision

  • Psychopathology

  • Learning (cognitive, behavioral)

  • Personality

  • Methods of research and evaluation

  • Individual and group interventions (counseling/psychotherapy)

  • Professional preparation for the specialty of Counseling Psychology occurs at the doctoral and postdoctoral level.

Parameters to Define Professional Practice in Counseling Psychology

Within the context of lifespan development, counseling psychologists focus on healthy aspects and strengths of the client (individual, couple, family, group, system or organization), environmental/situational influences (including the context of cultural, gender and lifestyle issues) and the role of career and vocation on individual development and functioning.

Populations

Client populations served by counseling psychologists can be organized along three dimensions: individuals, groups (including couples and families), and organizations. Counseling psychologists work with individual clients of all ages such as children who have behavior problems; late adolescents with educational and career concerns or substance abuse problems; adults facing marital or family difficulties, career shifts or overcoming disabilities; older adults facing retirement. They work with groups in a variety of settings toward achieving solutions to many of these same problems, as well as toward enhancement of personal and interpersonal functioning. Counseling psychologists also consult with organizations and work groups to help provide a work environment conducive to human functioning and to enhance the ability of organizations to increase productivity and effectiveness.

Problems

The problems addressed by the specialty of Counseling Psychology are varied and multifaceted and are addressed from developmental (lifespan), environmental, and cultural perspectives. They include, but are not limited to:

  • Educational and vocational career/work adjustment concerns

  • Vocational choice, and school-work-retirement transitions

  • Relationship difficulties-including marital and family difficulties

  • Learning and skill deficits

  • Stress management and coping

  • Organizational problems

  • Adaptation to physical disabilities, disease, or injury

  • Personal/social adjustment

  • Personality dysfunction

  • Mental disorders

Procedures

The procedures and techniques used within Counseling Psychology include, but are not limited to:

  • Individual, family, group and systemic counseling

  • Behavioral and psychotherapeutic interventions

  • Crisis intervention, disaster and trauma management

  • Psychodiagnostic assessment techniques

  • Psychoeducational/preventive programming

  • Organizational consulting

  • Program evaluation and treatment outcome

  • Training

  • Clinical supervision

  • Test construction and validation

  • Methodologies for quantitative and qualitative inquiry

Intervention procedures and techniques have as their focus change in client cognitions, feelings and behavior and may be preventive, skill-enhancing or remedial. The intervention procedures may range from short term or time-specified to longer term approaches.