Scientist-Practitioner-Advocate Training Model

Our program places a high value on the integration of science and practice. Graduates possess critical thinking skills and a well developed capacity to advance knowledge as accomplished behavioral scientists. They are also able to intervene effectively to enhance the mental health and positive well-being of a wide range of clients who seek their counseling services. Graduates of the program are competent in each of the two complementary domains of science and practice, but equally important, they are able to use highly developed research skills to enhance the effectiveness of their practice, and to use their advanced intervention skills to inform the research questions they pursue. Students graduate with an appreciation of research as one of the highest forms of service to others, together with a well developed capacity to conduct research that is directly beneficial to individuals, groups, or organizations.

Our program places a very high value on diversity and multicultural competency -- broadly defined. Students gain detailed knowledge of a wide variety of cultures. Graduates must have generalized skills to communicate effectively and provide counseling services for any client whose world view and life experiences differ from their own. Graduates leave the program having engaged in a deeply searching process of self-examination about their own cultural experiences and assumptions. We consider culture to include, but not be limited to ethnicity and race, sexual orientation, religion and spiritual beliefs, gender, age and generational influences, disability, social and socioeconomic status, urban-rural origins, formal education, family traditions and values, indigenous cultural heritage, and national origin (Hays, 1996).

We value our unique identity as Counseling Psychologists as described by the central themes of our discipline identified by Gelso and Fretz (2000) and elaborated by the Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs (Epperson, Fouad, Stoltenberg, & Murdock, 2005). These are (a) a focus on working within a developmental framework across the whole range of psychological functioning; (b) a focus on assets and strengths; (c) an emphasis on brief counseling/therapy approaches; (d) an emphasis on person-environment interactions, rather than an exclusive focus on either person or environment; (e) an emphasis on prevention; (f) an emphasis on the educational and vocational lives of individuals; (g) attention to issues of and respect for individual and cultural diversity; and (h) evaluation and improvement through critical thinking and a commitment to the scientific approach.

Having adopted a scientist-practitioner-advocate training model, we value an emphasis on engagement with the wider society, and an appreciation for the social context of our work as Counseling Psychologists. This value takes many forms in our training program. One form is a strong sense of needing to “give back” to the citizens of our state and community who support the University of Tennessee. Students learn to take a global perspective in understanding how society-wide problems impact the lives of individuals. Graduates are knowledgeable about current social problems, and they are able to apply a global social systems perspective to understand individual clients’ presenting concerns. Students are recruited to the program, in part, because they have an interest in social justice. Concern for social justice is infused throughout many of the courses we teach. Students are provided with the tools to address societal problems. These tools include the ability to formulate research questions that investigate the impact of societal influences on individuals, groups and organizations. Finally, students gain skills to intervene at a systems level including: (a) developing and delivering psychoeducational programs; (b) teaching viewed as a systems intervention; (c) consultation with groups and organizations; (d) community organizing, social activism, and advocacy; and (d) social action research.

All of these elements of program philosophy are compatible with the mission statement of The University of Tennessee, which is “to provide the environment and atmosphere for the development of the human resource within the context of a local and global community, ecology, and economy. This mission is accomplished through exceptional teaching, scholarship, artistic creation, public service, professional practice, and administration of our resources.”

References

• Gelso, C. J., & Fretz, B. R. (2001). Counseling psychology (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College Publishers.
• Hays, P. A. (1996). Addressing the complexities of culture and gender in counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development, 74, 332-339.
• Epperson, D. L., Fouad, N. A., Stoltenberg, C. D., Murdock, N. L. (2005). Model Training Program in Counseling Psychology.

Contact Information

Counseling Psychology Program
1404 Circle Dr., Rm. 312
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996

Phone: 865-974-3328
Fax: 865-974-3330

Program Director

Brent Mallinckrodt, Ph.D.
Email: bmallinc@utk.edu

Program Administrative Assistant

Alecia M. Davis
Phone: 865-974-8319
Email: adavis44@utk.edu