The Future of Social Justice in Counseling Psychology: A Delphi Study

Twenty-six social justice scholars evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of counseling psychology’s contributions to social justice over the past 20 years. Using a Delphi method, they made predictions about the future of social justice in counseling psychology. Strengths included influencing the field of psychology to adopt social justice values and ethics; emphasizing structural influences on well-being; elevating voices of diverse scholars; expanding practice skills to include advocacy; and adopting liberatory practice frameworks. Weaknesses included politicizing social justice dialogue; taking too few risks; omitting international perspectives; being too self-reflexive; failing to work across disciplines; allowing social justice to be jargonized; not fully modifying training models; and allowing social justice to replace traditional content areas. Predictions were a mix of positive expectations (e.g., continuing to push the American Psychological Association APA to change training models, participating in more advocacy and activism) and pessimistic visions (e.g., political resistance). Implications for training and leadership are discussed.