The Texas A&M Counseling Psychology program prepares scientist-practitioners within a cultural framework. Graduates are expected to effectively use critical thinking skills and empirical methods to design, conduct and evaluate psychological research and practice at all levels of professional activity. The program aspires to matriculate culturally-sensitive colleagues who can advance theoretically-based, empirically-driven services that enhance the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Specifically,

• We aspire to train psychologists who understand and use empirical, theoretical, clinical, and contextually-based knowledge to guide their conduct of and evaluation of psychological research. We seek to train psychologists to conduct investigations of and evaluate the effectiveness and efficacy of psychological interventions and to develop the skills to design, implement, and evaluate psychologically-based preventive and remedial programs that concern behavioral and social factors that influence health and well-being.

• We recognize that individuals exist in cultural, social, political, historical, and economic contexts. Thus, we aspire to mentor and train colleagues who are culturally informed in theory and practice. Consonant with the multicultural training guidelines provided by American Psychological Association, we matriculate students who in research and practice:

• recognize that, as cultural beings, they may hold attitudes and beliefs that can detrimentally influence their perceptions of and interactions with individuals who are ethnically and racially different from themselves.
• recognize the importance of multicultural sensitivity/responsiveness, knowledge, and understanding about race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, age, religion, spirituality, and physical challenges.
• recognize the importance of conducting culture-centered and ethical psychological research among persons from ethnic, linguistic, and racial minority backgrounds.
• apply culturally-informed skills in psychological research and practice
• use organizational change processes to support culturally informed policy development and practices.

• We prepare graduates to perform valuable roles at the highest levels of professional activity, including:
  • the individual level - to include basic therapeutic and evaluation services that benefit individuals and families;
  • the institutional level - to encompass skills to conduct, administer, evaluate and promote research and service that documents and refines our professional benefits to individuals and families, and to consult and train others regarding these concerns in a fashion that advances the profession and professional service;
  • the societal level - to produce, evaluate and promote evidence at this highest level of professional service to influence informed, empirically-based federal, state and institutional policies that facilitate the health and well-being of individuals, families, and their communities.

While the program provides general training for careers at the individual level of professional activity, our mission is to train applicants whose ambitions are to work at the institutional and societal levels.