A Journey Worth Traveling: Globalization of Counseling Psychology

Abstract

Although it is an established psychological specialty in the United States, counseling psychology is still a culturally encapsulated discipline confined to its national borders. Internationalizing the discipline will require colleagues in the United States to examine their attitudes, abandon their sense of self-sufficiency, and engage counseling psychologists worldwide as equal partners. International counseling psychologists should avoid a wholesale importation of mainstream counseling psychology into their cultures, as indigenous practices and models are vital to the development of a global counseling psychology discipline. International counseling psychologists should play a major role in internationalizing the discipline by documenting their theories and practices, using their multilingual ability to bridge and foster scholarly communications among professionals from different regions, and promoting exchanges and visits that could lead to long-term cross-cultural collaborations. Only through breaking its isolation can counseling psychology move forward to become a relevant discipline worldwide.