Toward Integration

My second presidential iniative is to promote integration, not only between research and practice but also among disparate theoretical orientations. President-elect Marvin Goldfried will carry on the integrative thrust in 2010. Our studies of Division 12 members repeatedly remind us that the modal orientation is integrative and that most of us are engaged in both practice and scholarship.

I intend to make Division 12 a more interpersonally inviting and collaborative organization. I will try to mend fences between the practice and research communities. This initiative continues past-president Irving Weiner's movement toward a more inclusive and ecumenical home for clinical psychologists. Moreover, this initiative converges with our official position ( approved unanimously on 6/10/2008) that “The Board commits itself and the Society of Clinical Psychology to collaborate with other organizations c ontaining large numbers of practicing psychologists.”

In 2009, I plan the following Division 12 activities in concert with APA, its practice divisions, and other organizations:

• convening a task force with APA Division 29 (Psychotherapy) on evidence-based psychotherapy relationships
• holding the Winter 2009 Board meeting at APA headquarters in Washington, DC
• cosponsoring the Division 12 Social Hour at the 2009 APA convention with the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology
• attending APA directorate functions as a representative of Division 12
• publishing a research study (with Dr. David Klonsky) on the science-practice gap from both sides of the gap -- scientists (Division 12 members) and practitioners (former presidents of Division 42) -- simultaneously in The Clinical Psychologistand The Independent Practitioner
• collaborating with APA Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues) to offer the first three hours of the evidence-based track in James Bray's Convention Within a Convention at the 2009 APA convention in Toronto

The Society of Clinical Psychology should be a place for all of us – a fully inclusive, integrative, and inviting organization. As in frequently the case, the empirical data have shown us the way. I thank you and the Division 12 governance, in advance, for helping to actualize these goals.

Figure 1: 
Theoretical Orientations of Division 12 Psychologists over the past 45 years

Figure 2: Primary Employment Settings of Division 12 Psychologists