Counseling Psychology and Health Applications

Abstract

Roles for psychologists in health settings have greatly expanded over the past two decades. Although early goals of counseling psychology aligned with health promotion concepts, counseling psychologists have been slow to assert themselves in the health field Opportunities for the future involvement of counseling psychologists in health applications are examined in terms of (a) evolving definitions of health specialties; (b) changes currently taking place in conceptual models for health, disease, and medicine; and (c) issues related to the future involvement of counseling psychologists in the health field

Internship and Initial Job Placements in Counseling Psychology

“…. with other hospitals consistently outpacing VAs [Veterans Administrations]" (p. 310; see also Alcorn, 1991;Larson, 1992). Increased opportunities in other hospitals for consulting, forensic, evaluation, and research activities may all underlie the growing numbers of counseling psychologists in these settings (Levant, 2000).…”

“…Across the period of the 1990s, Guinee and Ness reported counseling centers showing significant increases in "making consultation a high priority, developing self-help programs and materials, and working whenever possible as consultants and trainers" (p. 273) in support of personal growth and development. This kind of adherence to a developmental perspective is not necessarily unique to counseling center settings, of course, and can be instantiated in a variety of other medical and nonmedical training and service contexts as well (see Alcorn, 1991;Larson, 1992).…”

The anticipated future of counselling psychology in the United States: A Delphi poll

“…Calls for counselling psychology to align more closely with other health care professions (Alcorn, 1991;Altmaier, 1991, Harris, 1991, including neuropsychology (Agresti, 1992;Larson, 1992), and child clinical psychology (Kaczmarek and Wagner, 1994), encourage an additional kind of elasticity in the eld's identity that pose further challenges to the integrity and coherence of its core moorings. The consequence, as Fretz (1980, p. 9) noted wryly, is that 'Counselling psychology, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder'.…”

“…This was the area of neuropsychological assessment …Mˆ3:81 †, a prediction that is supported by the work of Larson (1992) and Agresti (1992), and a wide spectrum of scholars and practitioners who support the development of counselling psychology more broadly within the elds de ned by the allied health professions (see Alcorn, 1991;Altmaier, 1991). Out of the ve areas of assessment studied (objective, projective, neuropsychological, vocational and behavioural), only one was nominated for substantially greater future attention.…”

Physical Illness and Subscription to Ellis's Irrational Beliefs

“…The sequence is not a one-way process but constitutes part of a cybernetic system with continuous feedback. (p. 10) If professionals in the field of counseling and development are to maintain a focus on human wellness, it seems clear that it is important for them both to acknowledge and to understand the interactions between psychosocial variables and wellness (Alcorn, 1991). Ellis (1989) has stated that "although people have remarkable capacities to observe, reason, imaginatively enhance their experiencing, and transcend some of their own limitations, they also have an incredibly facile and easy propensity to ignore reality, misuse reason, and rigidly and intolerantly invent gods and demons that frequently sabotage their health and happiness" (p. 233, emphasis added).…”