The future of Canadian counselling psychology: Doctoral students
Little is known about the overall characteristics and beliefs of Canadian counselling psychology doctoral students. An online survey was administered to 43 doctoral students across all Canadian counselling psychology programmes, representing an approximate 26% response rate. Results
indicated that the average age of doctoral students in the sample was about 32 years and that the majority were women (about 77% in the sample). Additionally, findings can be taken to suggest that participants were satisfied with their choice of counselling psychology as a career. The
doctoral students sampled primarily practised from an integrationist theoretical standpoint and spent very little of their practice time providing formal psychological assessment services or career counselling. Participants generally intervened through individual counselling or psychotherapy
and were focused on disorder treatment rather than preventative or developmental services. Curriculum changes that should be considered from the results of this study pertain to the topics of assessment, career counselling, advocacy/media skills, professional identity development and prevention/developmental
interventions. The results of this study can also be taken to predict characteristics of the next generation of Canadian counselling psychologists and the future practice of counselling psychology in Canada.
Keywords: Canadian counselling psychology; counselling psychology; doctoral students; professional issues; survey
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada 2: Department of Psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA 3: Department of Educational Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Publication date: 03 April 2018
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