The Ever Evolving Identity of Counseling Psychologists

Abstract

Understanding our identity as counseling psychologists has been an issue since the inception of our specialty in the 1940s and one that the authors of these two articles (Goodyear et al., 2008 [this issue]; Munley, Pate, & Duncan, 2008 [this issue]) tackle in new and different ways. In this response, this author (a) identifies additional reasons why studying our identity as counseling psychologists is beneficial to the specialty, (b) commends the authors on the methodological improvements they made, (c) comments on the underutilization of the American Psychological Association membership database as a resource for answering questions about change and stability in our identity, and (d) recommends that future studies focus on the approximately 75% of counseling psychologists who are not members of the Society of Counseling Psychology, Division 17 of the American Psychological Association. In an effort to capture more counseling psychologists as members of the Society of Counseling Psychology, attention should focus on students, early career professionals, and practitioners.

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References

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