Building a Climate for Advocacy Training in Professional Psychology

Abstract

Counseling psychologists have been at the forefront of social justice and advocacy efforts in the discipline of psychology. Despite these foci, few graduate training programs in psychology offer formal courses or training in advocacy, social justice, and public policy. To develop and fill a pipeline of professionals involved in social justice and advocacy efforts, graduate training programs in psychology must expose and prepare students to these areas. The purpose of the current paper is to describe how faculty within the professional psychology program at the University of Denver incorporate advocacy, public policy, and social justice education and training into their program. We describe how the program climate and curriculum were created to meet these training needs.