Departmental Mission and Multicultural/Diversity Statement

The Doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology adheres to a scientist-practitioner model of training and is fully approved as such by the American Psychological Association. The program is designed to fully integrate traditional counseling and psychological theory with practice and substantive development of research skills in the specialty of counseling psychology.

The program aspires to create a program of learning that honors:

Because our program in Counseling Psychology emphasizes the integration of multiculturalism and diversity into counseling psychology, we endorse the "Guidelines on Multicultural Education and Training, Research, Organizational Change, and Practice for Psychologists" of the American Psychological Association. These guidelines are based on the premise that because the U.S. population is increasingly diverse, culture-centered and ethnically appropriate services are necessary. In particular, psychologists and psychologists-in-training must:

In endorsing the Guidelines on Multicultural Education and Training, Research, Organizational Change, and Practice for Psychologists of the American Psychological Association, the faculty recognizes that these guidelines reflect current expert consensus based on theory and research. As such, the department is committed to ongoing exploration of these principles through a scientist-practitioner model.

A full description of the guidelines can be found at: http://www.apa.org/pi/. These guidelines, along with the 2002 Ethical Principles of Psychologist from the American Psychological Association, are available in the student lounge, the front office, and on the Forms and Resources page of this website. Committed to multiculturalism broadly-defined in teaching, research, practice, and service, we have worked toward a dialogue of diversity as an integral part of our community of learning. To realize this goal we have designed a program that integrates a pluralistic education in all aspects of the curriculum and professional experience of our students and faculty. Our infused curriculum operationalizes multicultural competencies through awareness, knowledge, and skills, as a part of our curriculum, training, recruitment, retreats, special programming, research, and faculty-student dialogue. It has meant that all faculty explore on an on-going basis their own attitudes, understanding, and behaviors as they relate to cultural interactions and issues of sexism, racism, ageism, and discrimination. We address these issues through teaching about them as professional issues in classes, research teams, community activities, as well as modeling within our professional roles.

It is expected that students will engage in this self-exploration process as a critical aspect of their own professional development as multiculturally competent counseling psychologists, in accordance with the Guidelines on Multicultural Education and Training, Research, Organizational Change, and Practice for Psychologists. Engaging in competent, respectful, culturally relevant and meaningful dialogues on issues of multiculturalism and diversity as they relate to the theory, research, and practice of counseling psychology is an important emphasis of our learning community.

Given the department's demonstrated excellence in recruitment, retention, and graduation of racial and ethnic minority students, it was awarded a 2005 American Psychological Association Suinn Minority Achievement Award from the the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs.

Students' specific emphasis of study and practice should be consistent with the mission and goals of the program.

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