The Future of Social Justice in Counseling Psychology: A Delphi Study

Abstract

Twenty-six social justice scholars evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of counseling psychology’s contributions to social justice over the past 20 years. Using a Delphi method, they made predictions about the future of social justice in counseling psychology. Strengths included influencing the field of psychology to adopt social justice values and ethics; emphasizing structural influences on well-being; elevating voices of diverse scholars; expanding practice skills to include advocacy; and adopting liberatory practice frameworks. Weaknesses included politicizing social justice dialogue; taking too few risks; omitting international perspectives; being too self-reflexive; failing to work across disciplines; allowing social justice to be jargonized; not fully modifying training models; and allowing social justice to replace traditional content areas. Predictions were a mix of positive expectations (e.g., continuing to push the American Psychological Association [APA] to change training models, participating in more advocacy and activism) and pessimistic visions (e.g., political resistance). Implications for training and leadership are discussed.