The Social Justice Practicum in Counseling Psychology Training

A commitment to social justice and diversity are defining principles of the counseling psychology specialty. Practical strategies arc needed to prepare future generations of psychologists to engage in social justice work, including systems-level advocacy to transform existing power dynamics and structural inequities. This article provides a framework for conceptualizing social justice practicum (SJP) training in doctoral psychology programs. We also highlight SJP requisite in three different American Psychological Association-accredited counseling psychology doctoral training programs using this framework. In addition, we present considerations and challenges for developing an SJP. Our goal is to offer a systematic way to consider the myriad of barriers and challenges in the development and implementation of an SJP, and to challenge scholars and educators in professional psychology to think critically about the place of social justice in graduate-level training. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges presented in the evaluation of SJP for training and education in psychology, and invite others to join this task in the spirit of Miller's (1969) longstanding ethos of "giving psychology away."