Diversity in CPSY program

We strive to create a training environment that promotes self-awareness, skills development, and experiences that enable our graduates to develop and share knowledge regarding multicultural and diversity issues as well as to provide effective, culturally sensitive services to a variety of individuals in our society. We believe that this is best accomplished through a multifaceted approach; hence, we are committed to recruiting a diverse student body, incorporating diversity and multicultural training throughout our curriculum, and promoting an environment in which diversity is valued and respected. We integrate the critical multicultural competencies for training that were developed by the American Counseling Association and by the American Psychological Association into our training program and outcome expectations for training, consistent with our training values.

Recruiting a diverse student body. We believe that multicultural competency is supported by classroom learning that integrates diverse viewpoints and a broad range of experience. The reciprocal training that students provide to each other through active discussion, sharing of opinions and experiences, and through respectful discovery of values, biases, and attitudes beneath interactions, course content, research results, etc. is an irreplaceable asset to the training environment. Thus, we attempt to recruit a diverse student body, particularly with respect to ethnic group membership, second language skills, and experience with oppressed or marginalized groups. Approximately 48% of our current students are members of American ethnic minority groups, 10% are self-identified L G B T Q, and a number of our students have been first generation college students. (The faculty does not request information about sexual orientation or religious affiliation in application materials nor do we attempt to gather this information from current students.) However, discussion of the intersection of religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and the intersection of professional and personal (cultural, religious, sexual orientation) identity development is raised in doctoral seminars, meetings with advisors, our Ethnic Diversity Affairs Committee (EDAC) meetings, and other venues on a regular basis. The ratio of male students has decreased over the past 10 years, reflective of larger trends within the profession.

Incorporating diversity and multicultural training throughout our curriculum. In coursework such as Psychological Assessment I and II and Theories of Career Development, the appropriateness of assessment and interventions for clients of different ethnic groups, lesbian and gay clients, clients with disabilities, and other client populations are integrated. Our course Counseling Diverse Populations provides students with the opportunity to explore their own values, biases, and attitudes around ethnic diversity, sexual orientation, and gender, to review research and practice literature, and to explore their own ethnic identity. The Advanced Individual Interventions integrates ethnic and other types of diversity in readings and class discussion. Community and Preventive Interventions focuses on human diversity, issues of poverty and social injustice, and on how to ethically and responsibly provide prevention and intervention within environments that perpetuate systematic oppression. Given the makeup of Eugene, practicum experiences largely involve providing services to European American clients, but various sites (e.g. Lane Community College) provide opportunities to work with clients from widely ranging educational and socioeconomic backgrounds as well as some ethnic diversity. Faculty members attempt to integrate theory and practice related to understanding the role of human diversity into each course.  And, our goal is to continually improve our attention to human diversity in classes.

Promoting an environment in which diversity is valued and respected. Faculty members attempt to model respect for diversity through verbal behavior and action, including through our research. To varying degrees, faculty members attend directly to issues that have covert racist, homophobic, or otherwise intolerant themes. This occurs, for instance, in the context of practicum supervision, classroom discussion, and EDAC meetings. By modeling that conversations about race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and religion are difficult but important, we hope to promote an environment where such conversations are normative. Faculty members acknowledge our own limitations and needs to continue our growth and development in improving our own multicultural competence. We select students who demonstrate a commitment to diversity. Students, to varying degrees, address diversity issues in and outside of the classroom. Faculty and student scholarship reflects attention to and valuing of diversity. For example, in August of 2000 a group of Counseling Psychology Doctoral students offered a symposium at APA entitled “Racism in therapy and supervision” to discuss training suggestions for helping ethnic minority student therapists and supervisees deal with racism expressed by clients and supervisors. Each year since 1999 our students have organized APA symposia of this nature. Other examples of how we value human diversity are the research, service, and clinical activities of faculty. Drs. Benedict and Ellen McWhirter participate in community service, research, and consultation every year in Santiago, Chile. This enhances their global perspective of human diversity. Dr. Beth Stormshak has been involved in several ongoing grants targeting families at risk including Native American and Latino Head Start families from rural Oregon. Counseling Psychology students have had opportunities to be involved in this research by conducting parent interviews, observing children in classrooms, and conducting parent training groups. Dr. Ellen McWhirter has focused her scholarly work in the areas of adolescent career development, with an emphasis on ethnic minority adolescents, and on using the counseling process as a vehicle of empowerment, which involves a multicultural approach to counseling. Dr. Krista Chronister conducts research with women of diverse economic means who experience interpersonal violence. All faculty are committed to infusing questions about human diversity and multiculturalism in student research work as well.