Dear Colleagues in Counseling Psychology, It is my great honor to serve as the 2022 President of the American Board of Counseling Psychology (ABCoP), one of the fifteen specialty boards comprising the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). ABCoP’s mission is to serve the public by promoting the provision of quality psychological services through the examination and certification of professional psychologists engaged in counseling psychology. If you have not already, please check out our website for information regarding board certification in counseling psychology -- https://abpp.org/Applicant-Information/Specialty-Boards/CounselingPsychology.aspx.

Board certification as a Counseling Psychologist is considered evidence that the individual has successfully demonstrated the foundational and functional competencies expected of a health service psychologist with a specialized focus on Counseling Psychology’s approach of promoting human functioning across the lifespan using preventative, developmental, and remedial strategies. For more specific descriptions of counseling psychology as a specialty, please go to https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/counseling. Current Specialists in Counseling Psychology report seeking and maintaining board certification for a variety of reasons, including a personal sense of accomplishment, completing a job requirement, receiving a salary increase, or being a role model for others.

If you are a Counseling Psychologist working as a clinician, academician, trainer, supervisor, or administrator, whether in a civilian or military role, we welcome your application for board certification as a Counseling Psychologist. If you are an early career psychologist (ECP) still working on licensure, we encourage you to start the ECP application process now. And if you are a graduate student or doctoral intern, you can begin the early entry application process at a reduced rate, and submit your documentation as you complete your training.

If you are interested in board certification in Counseling Psychology, please read all the information about the specialty specific requirements available at https://abpp.org/Applicant-Information/Specialty-Boards/CounselingPsychology.aspx. To download the forms to get started on the process, please visit the Document Library on this site. Please feel free to contact me or any board members of ABCoP (contact email addresses are available under Specialty Board Officers on our website) if you have questions regarding the application process or if you want to be assigned a mentor who had been certified to help you proceed on the application process.

Changming Duan, PhD, ABPP
President, American Board of Counseling Psychology
duanc@ku.edu