Student Affiliates of Seventeen (SAS) 2020 Report: Transitioning to Leadership in a Historic Year

The University of Missouri–Columbia was selected to host the Student Affiliates of Seventeen (SAS) Executive Board from 2019–2022 and began their term in August 2019, following a successful three-year tenure by Ball State University. The new executive board has anchored its term in four pillars—Growth and Sustainability, Justice and Equity, Excellence and Innovation, and Wellness and Positive Development—which have guided the organization over the past year. This report reviews the purpose of SAS and discusses membership development, programming, advocacy, and the organizational development activities of the organization, including progress on goals to increase and engage membership and foster a more equitable and socially just organization that embraces liberation as a value. Counseling psychology students’ and the organization’s response and adjustment to the COVID-19 pandemic and national reckoning with police brutality and anti-Black racism are also discussed.

Counseling Psychology Trainees’ Knowledge of Cultural Display Rules

Social norms that shape people’s emotional expression are called cultural display rules (CDRs). Training in counseling psychology emphasizes cultural context in understanding clients, but it is unclear the degree of training specifically focused on students acquiring skills in emotional expression systems connected to diverse cultures. This qualitative study investigated 99 counseling psychology trainees’ knowledge and experiences of CDRs. Based on thematic analysis, we found four superordinate themes: (a) General Knowledge and Awareness, (b) Therapy Elements and Processes, (c) Personal Experiences with CDRs, and (d) Training. Several subthemes emerged in each area. Although participants expressed a range of complexity in knowledge and awareness of CDRs, they reported a lack of systematic integration of CDRs in their training. Recommendations for integrating CDR knowledge into training counseling psychology students with a focus on developing multicultural and international competencies and improving clinical decision-making are provided.

Humanity in Homelessness: A Social Justice Consultation Course for Counseling Psychology Students

Students in counseling psychology have cited a desire for more opportunities to engage in social justice within their programs. Pressing national issues, such as homelessness, offer an opportunity to use transferrable psychology skills, including consultation, to address and prevent systemic oppression, while affording students necessary training. This paper describes a doctoral level counseling psychology course on social justice consultation and evaluation. The students and faculty undertook a consultation project with the city’s Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention (OHPI), where they applied a strengths-based social justice consultation model to the goal of providing recommendations to prevent homelessness. First, we set the context for homelessness in the United States and [university town]. We then outline the data consultation process and preparation/presentation of a formal report for OHPI officials, including successful outcomes from the consultation. Finally, we discuss lessons learned from the consultation project and recommendations for students and faculty who plan to implement social justice consultation into their graduate programs.

International Education and Service Learning

The field of counseling psychology continues to see a perpetual underutilization of mental health resources by many cultural groups, including international populations. Underutilization of services is due, in part, to psychologists’ deficiency in cultural and international competency. International education—an experiential learning technique that involves cultural contact—has been proposed as an alternative method for training students to work effectively cross-culturally. The current article examines the effects of service learning embedded in a study abroad diversity course in Singapore. The course was designed for graduate counseling psychology students as an experiential vehicle for developing cultural competency and awareness of social justice issues through direct contact with diverse groups. Qualitative data are reviewed, and implications for training, such as integration of cross-cultural and social justice issues in counseling training programs, are discussed.

Making the Social Justice Connection: Development of a Community Resource Guide

This article describes a project developed by counseling and counseling psychology students enrolled in a Social Justice in Counseling Psychology course. The purpose of the project, a course assignment, was to integrate knowledge of social justice principles, theories, and strategies into a tangible effort to promote social justice within our community. This project entailed the creation of a community resource guide to be used by our department’s training clinic, which provides low-cost psychological services to community residents. The contexts in which the project was undertaken, including the course, department, and training clinic, are described. The development and implementation of the project are explained with emphasis on how the project was guided by a definition of social justice and by principles of advocacy and empowerment. The current status of the project is also discussed. Finally, the strengths and limitations of the project are presented and general reflections on the process of student engagement in social justice are offered.

Perceptions of Nonheterosexuality Among Future Muslim Counseling Psychologists

In this study, I investigated perceptions of nonheterosexuality among Muslim counseling psychology students. Data were collected using semistructured interviews that included 8 open- and closed-ended questions. The sample of 76 female and 65 male students (N = 141) were in their final year of study in counseling psychology departments in Northern Cyprus. It was found that Muslim counseling psychology students' knowledge of the sexual orientation, lifestyle, and psychological needs of nonheterosexual individuals tended to be biased and incorrect. The attitudes of Muslim participants who were highly or very highly religious differed from those who were nonreligious or marginally religious.