Issues related to training of counseling psychologists are examined. Employment settings are related to socioeconomic trends, and their combined impact on training is discussed. Some training models are described, and, EdD, PhD, andPsyDprograms are reviewed in terms of history, setting, and training emphases. Certification and licensing issues are considered, along with such related issues as retraining of psychologists. The ever-changing identity of counseling psychology, which produces changes in training that result in further changes in identity, and so forth, is presented as an obstacle to reaching consensus as to what constitutes appropriate training for counseling psychologists.
Employment Settings of Counseling Psychologists as Related to Socioeconomic TrendsOne of counseling psychology's strengths is its broad and diversified training that addresses a wide range of professional dimensions and allows counseling psychologists to function in an array of employment settings. Twenty years ago most counseling psychologists were employed either in high schools, colleges, or universities. The profession was predominantly education based, and few professionals considered seeking employment in other settings, such as business and industry, hospitals, community mental health agencies, or government services.Recent surveys on where counseling psychologists are seeking employment show that they are moving in increasing numbers into the noneducational settings (Banikiotes, 1977;Banikiotes, 1980). Some reasons for this change are that psychologists found that although life in academia surely had its advantages, they were not always monetary. Salaries in many of these nonacademic locations were higher, often considerably so. Another factor was the saturation of the university marketplace. Positions were increasingly harder to find, and often because of university budget delays, notifications of job availability came so late that applicants were unwilling to undergo the anxiety of waiting.Social and political sensitivity to underserved populations in our country has induced psychologists to bring their professional services to these populations. Disabled persons, the aged, ethnic minority populations, and the jobless and poverty-ridden young people in urban areas have stimulated the growth of community mental health centers and various health care agencies across the country. Many mental health psychology clinics have been developed in hospitals. Counseling psychologists have found these agencies to be appreciative of their skills and to be satisfying and productive places in which to work.Although the shift in the work trends mentioned above exists, the percentage of counseling psychologists going into education-related jobs has not changed radically since 1975 (Banikiotes, 1980). Psychologists with strong interests in research and teaching still continue to make academic departments or a combination of academic department and counseling center positions within universities their first choice.The age range of the popula...
