Blackwell Reference Online

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Counseling psychology is one of 11 specialties recognized by the American Psychological Associations' Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology (CRSPP). As described in CRSPP's archival description of counseling psychology, counseling psychology is a general practice and health service provider specialty in professional psychology. Practitioners of counseling psychology provide assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of psychopathology while focusing on personal and interpersonal functioning across the lifespan and on emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related, developmental and organizational concerns. While attentive to disturbances in functioning, practitioners generally focus on healthy aspects and strengths of their clients and the environmental/situational factors that affect their development and functioning. Counseling psychology focuses both on typical or normal developmental issues and on atypical, dysfunctional, or disordered development as it applies to human experience from individual, family, group, systems, and organizational perspectives. Counseling psychology strives to help people with physical, emotional, and mental disorders to improve their well-being, alleviate distress and maladjustment, resolve crises, and increase their ability to live more highly functioning and satisfying lives. In their introduction ... log in or subscribe to read full text