The Counseling Psychologist

The growing community of international counseling students in the United States has been a vital force in the internationalization of counseling psychology and the diversification of counseling practices. However, their intersectional identity of being both an international student and a counseling student is also associated with a variety of unique challenges in training and career development. This Special Issue includes five articles that address a conceptual model on international students’ social justice identity development, experiences of clinical training and clinical supervision, career barriers and coping efficacy, and experiences of counseling psychology faculty from international backgrounds. Each of these articles discusses challenges faced by international counseling psychology students and provides implications that can be used to facilitate the professional development of international counseling psychology students.

Despite the inclusion of social justice and international issues in counseling psychology, there are no conceptual models or research to date that focus on social justice identity development and training issues for international counseling psychology students. The unique cross-cultural experiences and systemic injustices facing many international counseling psychology students may inform their social justice identity development in a distinctive manner. Thus, by incorporating biculturalism and transformative learning theories, this article proposes a theoretical model to illustrate the psychological processes and outcomes of social justice identity development for international counseling psychology students with the following four phases: (a) cultural and social awareness of privilege and oppression, (b) critical analysis of systemic oppression across cultures, (c) synergistic development of social justice competence and bicultural competence, and (d) integration of social justice identity and competence across cultures. We provide recommendations for future practice, advocacy, education, training, and research.

This study uses Lent et al.’s (1994) social cognitive career theory (SCCT) as a framework for understanding the career barriers and coping efficacy experienced by international master’s of counseling psychology students. Grounded in SCCT, we described coping efficacy as international students’ perceived capability to navigate career barriers. Using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis, we explored the career barriers and coping efficacy of 12 international master’s of counseling psychology students. The first focus area, International Journey with Multiple Barriers, included five themes: Interpersonal Stress, Language Barriers, Financial Pressures, Advising Concerns, and Visa and Immigration-Related Stress. The second focus area, Agents of Change in the Midst of Barriers, included five themes: Self-Regulating, Stepping into Discomfort, Cognitive Reappraising, Becoming a Change Agent, and Social Support Seeking. Findings demonstrated participants’ coping efficacy and perceptions of themselves as agents of change. This study deepens the field’s understanding of career development among international master’s of counseling psychology students.

The present study discusses clinical supervision from the perspectives of 20 international counseling psychology trainees with a focus on English-specific experiences in training. Using concept mapping, we identified four clusters of sociolinguistic experiences in clinical settings: Growth and Strength Through Embracing Vulnerability, Barriers to Showing Clinical Potential, Fear of Being Seen as Incompetent, and Self-Doubt About Therapeutic Performance and Relationships. Helpful supervisory events included seven clusters: Genuine Curiosity and Understanding, Exploration and Validation Regarding Linguistic Identity, Affirmation and Illumination of Strengths, Facilitation of Clinical Communication, Multicultural Awareness and Cultural Humility, Humanity and Compassion, and Externalization and De-emphasis of the Act of Language use Itself. Lastly, unhelpful supervisory events fell into seven clusters: Seeking Understanding From a Deficits-Lens, Lack of Self-Awareness and Cultural Humility, Acts of Disrespect, Disregard and Lack of Interest, Judgment and Over-Correction, Disempowerment, and Superficial Fixes. Implications for practice and advocacy and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Despite the call to internationalize counseling psychology and calls for improved mentoring to Asian international students enrolled in counseling psychology training programs, there is a dearth of literature to help trainers understand this population’s clinical training experiences. The present study explored the practicum experiences of Asian international students (N = 10) in counseling psychology programs using the consensual qualitative research method. Data analysis yielded five domains: Learning Outcomes, Challenges, Resources, Behavioral Strategies, and Suggestions. Participants described how they navigated their cross-cultural practicum training in the face of unique challenges and how they adapted, as well as relied on support systems. As our participants reflected on their cross-cultural clinical training experiences, they shared the lessons they learned and provided suggestions for current and future international students, supervisors, and programs. Scholarly and practical implications for this population are discussed.

International students have a considerable presence in U.S. counseling psychology programs; what happens when they pursue academic counseling psychology positions in U.S. institutions? Seven counseling psychology faculty who started as international students in the United States used collaborative autoethnography to examine this matter. We found that our identification with counseling psychology philosophy and our lifelong, self-reflective process as cultural insiders/outsiders have proven crucial. Likewise, we found that our academic career development has been shaped by extra challenges encountered when dealing with ethnocentric aspects of U.S. psychology and by unique opportunities generated by our multinational professional identities and multilingual abilities. Three themes recurred across our reflections: Overcoming Linguistic Differences, Learning to Thrive Across Cultures, and Mentoring as a Valued Experience. We offer advice for international counseling students considering careers in U.S. academia and discuss the implications of our findings for research, training, and advocacy.