Society of Counseling Psychology President's Welcome

Welcome Colleagues, Friends, and Co-Conspirators in Justice.

It is with deep gratitude, humility, and fierce hope that I step into the role of President of the Society of Counseling Psychology.

Our field stands at an inflection point, both challenged and inspired by the turbulent socio-political realities of our time. We find ourselves navigating compounding global crises: the persistent entrenchment of White supremacy, the erosion of civil and human rights, climate catastrophe, and the commodification of education and healthcare. In this context, our field is being called—urgently and unapologetically—to rise to the occasion and radically reimagine the future of our discipline.

Decolonizing our field demands an intentional disruption of Eurocentric paradigms and a courageous embrace of global majority wisdoms that have long challenged, expanded, and enriched our understanding of human flourishing. Liberation psychology, rooted in the people’s struggle, reminds us that healing cannot be separated from justice. Transformation requires not only theory, but praxis: we must build new structures that reflect community, collectivity, and care.

My presidential theme speaks both to our legacy and to our future: Radical Reimagining: Decolonizing, Liberating, and Transforming Counseling Psychology for the People. This theme is an invitation to fundamentally shift how we train, teach, practice, engage, and lead as counseling psychologists. It reflects an understanding that reform alone is insufficient. What is required now is a bold reimagining of our discipline that is explicitly anti-racist, anti-colonial, and centered in the collective liberation of those most impacted by systemic injustice.

Through this theme, we will foster spaces for critical reflection and co-creation. We’ll amplify voices from the margins, celebrate community-based innovations, and challenge ourselves to move beyond performative commitments to genuine solidarity. Whether through research, clinical work, activism, teaching, or mentorship, every member of our Society holds power to shape a future where counseling psychology truly serves the people.

To advance this vision, I offer several key initiatives that we will launch over the coming year:

Transformative Pedagogy
We will launch a Psychologists as Public Scholars series with opportunities to train and learn from counseling psychologists who engage broader audiences through public writing, social media, podcasts, and other accessible mediums. This initiative affirms our responsibility to speak truth beyond the academy and make psychological knowledge available in service of the people.

Liberatory Training & Education
We will advance a Structural Equity Assessment Tool (SEAT) designed to help counseling psychology programs assess and improve their anti-racist and decolonial training practices. A report card of sorts, the SEAT will serve as a tool to increase transparency and accountability around our commitments and challenges institutions to do better, do more, and do it now.

Liberatory Leadership Legacy Project (LLLP)
The LLLP seeks to institutionalize the lessons, strategies, and insights from past and current SCP leadership committed to anti-colonial, justice-oriented, and liberatory transformation. The initiative seeks to document, disseminate, and activate leadership practices that challenge the status quo and support sustainable structural change in the division and field of counseling psychology.

This theme and these initiatives are not static. They are alive; intended to evolve in dialogue with our members, students, educators, supervisors, practitioners, and the communities we serve. I believe that our best work emerges in relationship, in resistance, and in radical hope. We will hold space for all of it. Whether you are new to SCP or a long-standing member, I invite you to join us—not just in conversation, but in co-creation. Bring your expertise, your voice, your questions, and your dreams. Let us dream radically, build collaboratively, and act boldly.

In solidarity and hope,

Delishia M. Pittman, PhD, MPH, ABPP, LPC, NCC, ACS
President, Society of Counseling Psychology