How special are the specialties? Workplace settings in counseling and clinical psychology in the United States

How special are the specialties? Although clinical and counseling psychology each have distinctive origins, past research suggests their potential convergence across time. In a survey of 5666 clinical and counseling psychologists, the similarities and differences between their workplace settings were examined during early-, mid-, and late-career phases to explore the distinctiveness of the two specialties. Overall, clinical and counseling psychologists reported markedly similar workplace settings. However, some significant differences remained; a greater proportion of counseling psychologists reported working in counseling centers, while a greater proportion of clinical psychologists reported working in medical settings. In addition, during late-career, substantially more counseling and clinical psychologists worked in independent practice contexts than in community mental health centers, medical settings, academia, or university counseling centers. Findings are discussed in relation to the ongoing distinctiveness of the two specialties and the implications of this for training and service in the field of professional psychology.     

A National Survey of Trauma Training in Psychology Internships

Directors from psychology internship programs across the United States were asked to participate in a survey regarding their sites’ provision of services to traumatized populations and didactic and supervisory training offered to interns. All totaled, 259 training directors completed the survey. Using a point system, an impact score of training saturation was determined based on the content and frequency of training offered in didactic, supervision, or combined formats. Of these, all reported at least one trauma training opportunity in either didactic or supervision format. More than half indicated that they offered at least 1 to 3 hours of didactics on trauma per week (62.2%) and slightly less offered supervision-specific training opportunities (54.5%). However, only 30.8% identified training opportunities in trauma/posttraumatic stress disorder that reached a high level of saturation in training, meaning they offered training activities above the median impact score. The most commonly reported barrier to offering trauma training was related to being busy meeting other specialty or program requirements. Findings provide a preliminary overview of current training practices that can be useful to students seeking trauma internship placements and administrators and faculty who are looking to revise their curriculum.     

The Australian Psychology Workforce 2: A national profile of psychologists' education,training, specialist qualifications and continuous professional development

Objective data on the training profiles of Australian psychologists is scarce, despite important reforms across the higher education sector. This study aimed to profile Australian psychological training leading to registration. Universities, Registration Boards and registrants were profiled during 2008. Results revealed that there were 1063 postgraduate places a year across 34 university postgraduate training programs, with two thirds of places in clinical psychology. However, half of psychologists do not undertake postgraduate training, but undertake four years of university psychology followed by a 2 year internship (4+2) to make up the minimum standard for registration of 6 years training. Those with over 6 years of university training tended to work more in clinical, university or specialised areas of practice, whereas those with 4+2 were more likely to work in schools and general counselling. One quarter of psychologists are College members and 13% have doctoral qualifications. Analysis revealed a workforce that is actively engaged in ongoing professional development, supervision and further training. The profession has grown steadily in size by 6.24% per annum over the past 8 years and this presents a challenge for increasing the supply of postgraduate training places.     

Research in the high-stakes era

The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB; 2001), mandating standardized testing in public schools, provides researchers with unprecedented opportunities for scientific comparison. At the same time, the climate of high-stakes testing encouraged by the law merits empirical scrutiny from psychologists across an array of specialties. If researchers wish to advance policy through psychological science, they must take care to construct research designs that are meaningful to policymakers and professionals in other disciplines. The present study used data from 1,450 Virginia schools to provide a model of scientifically grounded research that is also informed by current legal and political contexts. Results indicate that student poverty and geography are associated with differential access to highly qualified teachers, and that differential access to qualified teachers is uniquely associated with performance on high-stakes achievement tests. Psychologists, with their unique training, are encouraged to take a more active role in using NCLB data.     

National Survey of Psychologists' Test Feedback Training,Supervision, and Practice: A Mixed Methods Study

In this empirical, mixed methods study, we explored test feedback training, supervision, and practice among psychologists, focusing specifically on how feedback is provided to clients and whether feedback skills are taught in graduate programs. Based on a 48.5% return rate, this national survey of clinical, counseling, and school psychologists' suggests psychologists provide test feedback to clients but inconsistently. Most respondents, 91.7%, indicated they give verbal feedback at least some of the time, whereas 35% do so every time. However, 2.8% indicated they never give feedback. A negative correlation exists for clinical psychologists between years since graduation and providing verbal feedback. Of particular interest, approximately one third of respondents indicated predoctoral coursework, practica, and internship were of little-to-no help in preparing them to provide feedback. Also, feedback training in predoctoral coursework, practica, and internship was not correlated to actually providing feedback. There was, however, a significant correlation between postdoctoral training and providing feedback. Consistent with existing ethical exceptions, the most frequent reason for not providing feedback was using assessments in forensic settings. Individuals who indicated their training was not helpful cited “trial and error” and self-instruction as ways in which they learned feedback skills. We discuss implications and suggestions for feedback training, research, and practice.     

Family therapy and clinical psychology

The results of a survey of 111 clinical psychologists in the Republic of Ireland along with some comparable data from US and UK surveys were used to address a series of questions about the link between family therapy and clinical psychology. Family therapy was not a clearly identifiable sub-specialty within clinical psychology in Ireland. Family therapy theoretical models were used by more than a quarter of the Irish sample to conceptualize their work but by less than a tenth of US and UK respondents. In all three countries about a tenth of treatment time was devoted to the practice of family therapy. In Ireland, the use of family systems models, family assessment interviews and family therapy was more common within the child and family specialty than within the mental handicap or adult mental health clinical psychology specialties. The experience of live supervision and participation in family or couples therapy were important formative factors in the development of some clinical psychologists. Further training in systemic consultation, particularly in situations where an abuse of power has occurred, was identified in the survey as a priority area for continuing professional development. The evolving relationship between family therapy and clinical psychology is discussed in the light of these findings.     

Psychology Internships in the Treatment of Severe Mental Illness: Implications for Training in Academic Medical Centers

Despite an increasing focus over the past 2 decades by federal and state governments on the care of persons with severe mental illness, psychologists remain underrepresented among behavioral health professionals working with this population. Within the discipline there is growing concern about the need to adequately train, recruit, and retain psychologists in this specialty. This is a particular concern in academic medical settings where the overall severity of illness among those receiving psychiatric services continues to increase. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to intensively examine the experience of predoctoral interns engaged in treating individuals with severe mental illness in an academic medical center in order to identify the professional developmental experiences and training needs of those learning to care for this population. This analysis, conducted with semistructured interviews at four points during the internship year, yielded a series of recommendations for improving internship training and recruiting psychologists to this specialty.     

The practice of psychology in rural communities: potential ethical dilemmas

The practice of psychology in rural areas offers unique challenges for psychologists as they try to provide optimal care, often with a minimum of resources. Psychologists are frequently required to be creative and flexible in order to provide effective services to a wide range of clients. However, these unique challenges often confront psychologists with ethical dilemmas and problems for which their urban-based training has not prepared them. The author examines how certain characteristics of rural communities may lead to specific ethical dilemmas. By being a part of a small community, psychologists will inevitably face multiple relationship dilemmas. Confidentiality is harder to maintain in a small town, particularly with its informal information-sharing network. To provide services to meet community needs, with a limited number of referral options, psychologists typically need to be generalists. This may lead to concerns about scope of practice, training, and experience with diverse populations. Psychologists also face other competency issues, such as a lack of supervision and consultation resources. Other concerns addressed include the psychologist's personal life, and the blurring of professional and personal roles. Suggestions are made for coping with each of these ethical issues, although more quantitative research and discussion are needed on the practice of psychology in rural areas.     

Training and Education in Religion/Spirituality Within APA-Accredited Clinical Psychology Programs: 8 Years Later

This study was a follow up investigation of Brawer et al.’s (Prof Psychol Res Pr 33(2):203–206, 2002) survey of education and training of clinical psychologists in religion/spirituality. Directors of clinical training were surveyed to determine whether changes had occurred in the coverage of religion and spirituality through course work, research, supervision, and in the systematic coverage of the content area. Results indicated an increased coverage in the areas of supervision, dedicated courses, inclusion as part of another course, and research. There was no increase in systematic coverage, but significantly more programs provided at least some coverage. The current study also assesses other areas of incorporation as well as directors’ opinions regarding the importance of religion/spirituality in the field of psychology.     

School neuropsychology

There is an increasing interest among school psychologists in the field of neuropsychology as it relates to children in the educational environment. This article attempts to identify those forces which have led to this increased interest as well as to provide a conceptual framework for recognizing this area of specialty within the profession of school psychology. Potential roles related to levels of training and preparation are discussed.     

United we stand, divided we fall: the education and training needs of clinical child psychologists

Reviews efforts to delineate training needs for psychologists who are providing clinical services to children, adolescents, and families. In particular, this article (a) describes efforts of clinical child and other psychologists who work with children, adolescents, and families to develop education and training guidelines; (b) discusses the overlap among various child and adolescent providers within psychology; and (c) highlights several key competencies that have been identified as important for all psychologists in practice roles with children and adolescents. In particular, we emphasize the need for greater collaboration and integration among various psychological specialties that focus on children, adolescents, and families and for greater system-wide discussion of training needs and priorities.     

School Psychology: Training Individuals for One of the Best Kept Secrets in Professional Psychology

Abstract

School psychology training at the doctoral level is discussed. Given the increasing diversity in the schools as well as the varied education and mental health needs of the population, school psychology training is necessarily broad, involving traditional skills such as assessment, intervention, consultation, and counseling, all of which are taught within a context of a changing school population with changing needs. Because there is compulsory education, school psychologists’ interface with a broad cross-section of individual children, their parents, and their teachers. Moreover, school psychological practice is not limited to schools, as doctoral school psychologists are health service providers; many of these individuals work in other settings for which they are trained to provide services. The complexities and challenges of training school psychologists within this broad agenda effectively across domains are discussed.     

Teaching assistant training in counseling psychology

We surveyed training directors and counseling psychology graduate teaching assistants at Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs to acquire information concerning Teaching Assistant (TA) training, supervision and teaching experiences, and the extent to which TAs believe their training and supervision helped them to feel competent in their teaching duties. TAs were most satisfied with those training methods related directly to the practice of teaching (e.g., role playing and receiving feedback on practice teaching). Implications for training counseling psychologists as educators are discussed.     

Reflections on uncomplemented philosophies,integrated curriculums and words that bind and separate in counseling and clinical psychology

Should counseling psychology remain a distinct specialty or should it merge with clinical psychology? Recently, a growing amount of attention has been directed toward the increasing similarities between the counseling and clinical specialties, and musings about integrating them into a generic training model have emerged. This position paper considers some problems with the current divisions existing between counseling and clinical psychology. Three basic points are examined: (a) the effects of language systems on the counseling and clinical specialties; (b) the normal-abnormal dimension of behavior as a weak justification for distinct specialties; and (c) the fostering of distorted views of human behavior through counseling and clinical training programs.     

Learning Experiences Contributing to Service-Delivery Competence in Applied Psychologists: Lessons for Sport Psychologists

The purpose of the present study was to compare learning experiences perceived to contribute to service-delivery competence in sport, clinical, and counseling psychologists. Twenty psychologists (11 female, 9 male; 28–70 years of age) participated in semistructured interviews. All participants emphasized the role of client interactions in learning service-delivery processes. In addition, clinical and counseling participants reported personal therapy and supervision as influential experiences. Applied implications for training include (a) regional supervision networks comprising peers and elders, (b) university-based sport psychology clinics, and (c) personal and professional development groups.     

Counselling psychology in South Africa

The origin and development of counselling psychology in South Africa has been profoundly influenced by the country’s sociopolitical history and the impact of apartheid. As a result of this, counselling psychologists in the country face a number of challenges and opportunities for the future. In this paper we provide a portrait of counselling psychology in South Africa by describing the current character of the specialty and the context in which South African psychologists work. We critically discuss the challenges that the specialty faces to meet the country’s mental health care needs, contest the current Scope of Practice; affirm multiculturalism without essentialising or reifying race and ethnicity, and build an evidence base for community interventions in the country. We also consider how, in the future, counselling psychologists in South Africa may make a more meaningful contribution within public health and the country’s health care and education systems.     

Predictive Validity of the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test for Non-Rated Officer Specialties

The Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) is used to qualify applicants for officer commissioning and aircrew training programs. The current study examined its predictive validity for 14 officer technical training courses for which there are no additional AFOQT minimum qualification requirements beyond those for officer commissioning. Sample sizes ranged from 16 to 2,190 with a mean and median size of 753 and 319 officers. Ninety percent (63 of 70) of the observed correlations between the AFOQT composites and average technical training grades were statistically significant. Meta-analyses were conducted to determine whether the AFOQT validities were generalizable across training specialties. Analyses were done on the observed data, after correction for range restriction, and after correction for both range restriction and criterion unreliability. The pattern of validities was similar for all three meta-analyses. The lower bound of the 95% confidence interval and the 95% credibility interval around the weighted mean validities were greater than zero for all five AFOQT composites supporting its utility for making personnel selection decisions for these jobs. The Verbal composite had the lowest and the Academic Aptitude composite had the highest weighted mean validity. The weighted mean of the validity coefficients across training specialties ranged from .261 to .326 for the observed data, .322 to .387 for the range-restriction corrected data, and .360 to .433 for the fully corrected data. Additional efforts are required to examine the generalizability of the results for a broader range of occupational specialties and to set minimum qualifying scores.     

Assessment of ADHD: differences across psychology specialty areas

Child psychologists are frequently involved in the assessment of ADHD symptoms among school-aged youth. There is limited information regarding the extent to which psychologists adhere to recommended assessment practices and whether differences exist in assessment strategies among psychologists from different specialty areas (clinical, counseling, and school) and/or who practice in different settings (university, school, or outpatient clinic). A 3 (specialty area) x 3 (employment setting) between-groups design is used wherein 230 child psychologists completed surveys regarding diagnostic practice. Psychologists differ in adherence with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision) diagnostic criteria, use of clinical interviews, and type of behavior observation. Only 15% of psychologists report using multiple methods consistent with recommended standards of best practice. Differences between groups of psychologists indicate that the diagnosis of ADHD in children is influenced by the type of psychologist conducting the evaluation and the setting in which the evaluation is conducted.     

Counselor Supervision: A Comparison Across States and Jurisdictions

Counselor licensure portability models have focused primarily on academic training with only little discussion concerning postgraduate supervision. Using a qualitative content analysis, the authors analyzed the supervision rules and laws in all 53 licensing jurisdictions. The results of this study reflect the lack of a consistent set of supervision guidelines across all 53 jurisdictions. Further study and reflection on these results could lead to the development of a supervision model for postgraduate supervision.