President's WelcomeWelcome to the Society of Counseling Psychology’s (SCP) official website! We are Division 17 of the American Psychological Association. Our mission is to “cultivate a ‘home’ for all counseling psychology professionals and affiliates to connect, to collaborate, and to coordinate efforts toward creating a more just and equitable world where ALL people and communities can thrive.” In part, our values are to empower people to improve their lives; promote resilience beyond ameliorating pathology; build upon people’s strengths from a strength-based approach; consider context, systems, and intersecting social identities; center marginalized voices; and address systemic oppression. We welcome your membership, your engagement, and your leadership as we continue to work toward actualizing our mission and living out our values. SCP is in an exciting time as we continue strengthening our society by centering the fight against anti-black racism, and moving toward the liberation that Past President, Dr. Anneliese Singh, called us to a few years back. That call has been continued by Past Presidents, Drs. Mary O’Leary Wiley and Amy Reynolds, who have, respectively, led us in engagement and transformation over the past two years. The SCP executive board, our larger group of SCP leaders, and many of our SCP members have been committed to this work and advancing our society. That includes our President-Elect, Dr. Helen Neville. Our consultants, from Jernigan and Associates, have also been instrumental in helping us think about the next steps in our journey. For the past few years, SCP has been focused on moving toward the liberation that Past President, Dr. Anneliese Singh, called us to. We have been intentionally reflecting on the ways in which we need to grow and change as a Society, and we have done so with specific attention toward becoming an anti-racist and anti-oppressive organization. We have engaged the work of our consultant group, Jernigan and Associates, who have been instrumental in helping the SCP leadership team think critically about the change that we desire, specifically as it relates to combating anti-Black racism. It has truly been an exciting and motivating time. This year, we will continue the work that SCP has been focused on and move forward with greater boldness and understanding of where our values fit into the work we have been centering. Therefore, through building off the insights from the past and with great hope for the future, I offer my presidential theme – Dismantling Anti-Black Racism with Unapologetic Boldness: Redefining Our Values and Living Them Out Loud. There will be two presidential initiatives that are aligned with this theme (see below for additional information).
Counseling Psychology values are an important foundation to our professional identity and overall work. They are also the underpinning to our Society of Counseling Psychology values, which are equally important and guide our work and engagement within the Division. The time has come to define, and perhaps redefine, those values with bolder understanding and language that reflects the current work of the Division. Examining our mission statement will also be an important undertaking for SCP members engaged in this initiative. Initiative #2: In addition to better defining and redefining our values, we will aim to focus on living our values out loud, internal and external to SCP. We have been engaged in the process of understanding how anti-Black racism shows up in SCP policies, practices, and general functioning. We are also working to dismantle that. As we deepen our understanding and focus on aligning our values, it will be equally important to develop tools and resources to help us move forward with living out our values, within SCP and out to counseling psychology at-large. Another area is unapologetic boldness in challenging respectability politics and our notion, and use, of professionalism, on both the collegial and student/trainee levels. A key area of exploration will be how people are socialized into our profession, based on explicit and implicit values. I look forward to working together in a bold and unapologetic pursuit of becoming an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and liberated Society of Counseling Psychology! Shavonne J. Moore-Lobban, PhD, ABPP
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