The Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy, Division 29 of the American Psychological Association is pleased to announce its decision to endorse Drs. Rosie Phillips Bingham and Ray DiGiuseppe for President-elect of APA, 2018.

Rosie Phillips Bingham. Ph.D., ABPP

Psychotherapy is the window into the soul of psychology. I was an avid supporter of psychotherapy before I fully understood psychotherapy. When I was a teenager, I aspired to be a psychiatrist. Later, I decided to become a guidance counselor. I had no knowledge of psychology at that time but somehow believed that “talking” helped as many people felt better after talking to me about their concerns. It was in graduate school that I finally found psychology as a profession. I trained as a scientist-practitioner and my first post-doctoral job was as an assistant professor. Throughout my first year in this position, I had a sense of incompleteness; a sense that I was not quite where I wanted to be. I really wanted to know if I was a competent therapist. So, I switched from a teaching position at Ohio Dominican College to a staff psychologist position in the counseling center at the University of Florida. I fell in love with providing therapy.

I very much valued the opportunity to do therapy, scholarship, training, and research. I loved my work so much that I had to schedule time off so that I did not work every day and every evening of the week. I conducted individual and group therapy, outreach, workshops, and training with practicum and internship graduate students. In the midst of all of these psychological interventions, I discovered my dream to direct a counseling center one day. In the first year of my position as a counseling center director, I immediately began creating a training program for internships. Within three years of my arrival, we offered an APA-accredited internship. I was resolutely committed to training psychologists who would be stellar therapists. At the time, our internship had more assessment training than any other internship in the country because of my commitment to advancing excellence in training, research, and practice. The number of assessments has been scaled back since I left the position but the commitment to excellence in doctoral education is as strong as ever.

In addition to my clinical work, I have published research related to counseling African Americans especially around multicultural vocational psychology (see www.rosieforapapresident.com). I developed instruments to enhance therapeutic effectiveness and I provided training in ethics to help psychologists remain focused on delivering the highest quality service to clients. My commitment to psychotherapy can even be seen in my continuing to see clients while I was an administrator. It came as a surprise to me that some directors of counseling centers did not have a caseload. Quite frankly I could not imagine not working with clients; I had a regular counseling load even as an assistant vice president. I finally stopped seeing clients when I became a Vice President, but I still participated in the internship training program and served the academic department because I am committed to education, training, and practice. I served as a Vice President for Student Affairs for over 13 years. While in the role, we combined the Health Center and the Counseling Center to bring more synergy to mind and body. The Director of the Counseling Center now directs both services. I stepped down from the VP job in August,2016, to a full-time faculty position. And I love it this time around.

In my current role, I strive to train excellent scholars and therapists. I also ensure that the graduate students use evidence-based interventions because strong research and practical training are inextricably linked. That orientation is a part of the department in which I teach and is consistent with my graduate training as a scientist practitioner.

I strongly support the Division 29 mission: “preserving and expanding the theoretical and evidentiary base for psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic relationships, supporting life-long learning of psychotherapeutic skills, as well as making the benefits of psychotherapy accessible to all.” I very much value the Division 29 journal, Psychotherapy, and the members’ efforts to advance psychotherapy. When I served on the APA Board of Directors, I participated in efforts to support guidelines that advanced psychotherapy and our profession.

I believe that we must continue to advance psychotherapy because it helps individuals and society to be whole and healthy. We can discover more interventions and innovations in psychotherapy if we Dream Big and Do More. We must continue to define the discipline and profession of psychology, determining what we want to be in the next 25 years. That means we must continue to have a scientific foundation. To that end, note that one of my initiatives is developing a stronger “Culture of Science” within APA. I invite you to help with this initiative. We must build on the practice guidelines because they help us to protect psychotherapy, provide better services to patients/clients, and advance our knowledge and skills as psychotherapists.  We must work with states, APA, APAPO and Divisions to advocate for funding for research, innovative and effective interventions, access to mental health care and appropriate reimbursement for services. We must lobby for resources and use our skills and abilities to develop a diverse group of psychotherapists who can serve a diverse society. I am calling on you to help me get this job done. I hope you will join me in my journey to become APA President. Given that my first love in psychology was psychotherapy, I want the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy to endorse me and I most certainly will continue to endorse you.

Rosie Phillips Bingham. Ph.D., ABPP

Ray DiGiuseppe, Ph.D.

For my entire career, I have seen clients and engaged in supervision every week. In addition, I have continually engaged in research and teaching. This gives me the experience to promote the integration of science and practice in psychotherapy.

I became involved in Division 29 mostly through my affiliation with Albert Ellis who was a member of that Division. I was awarded the Jack Krasner Award from the Society for my early career contributions. I became an active in division 29 as a member of the publication board, chair of the publication board, and eventually as president. Working within Division 29,

In ABCT I served as a founding member of the Diplomate Board in Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, chair of the program committee, coordinator of conventions and continuing education, and representative to the Board, president, and finally as chair of the leadership and elections committee.

For 27 years, I served as either a graduate program director or department chair. For the remainder of my career I have taught didactic classes, mentored dissertations, and supervised graduate students. I have taught continuing education courses across the US and around the global. This has provided me the experience to promote and support the education and training of professional psychologist across the life span.

These responsibilities provided me with a wide range of leadership experiences that address the activities that organizations provide for professional psychologists. I have learned to be fiscally responsible with other people’s money and to efficiently provide courses, conventions, publications, continuing education, and advocacy activities that professional psychologists want.

There is a more personal reason that the endorsement of this Society is important to me. I was originally trained in the behavioral and cognitive behavioral traditions. For most of my career, I kept a narrow range of professional colleagues and rarely interacted with psychologists of differing theoretical views. When I became active in Division 29, I experienced a paradigm shift. I worked with psychologists who espoused different positions form mine. They failed to fit my stereotypes. During these years, I became more of an integrationist. I saw value in psychological interventions that I had never considered. I realized that I was in fact doing things that were outside of my narrow worldview. I started to look for the similarities in what psychotherapist do. I discovered the idea of Common Factors. I still believe our field is too fractured by the Therapy Wars and disagreements over theoretical orientation. I believe professional psychology can only grow if we acknowledge that many therapies work and that we search for commonalities. My Division 29 presidential address was titled “Can We Achieve a Unified, Integrated Science, and Practice of Psychotherapy.” This remains important to me.

This theme of integrations drives my major academic work. For more than 20 years, I have worked on understanding anger as a clinical problem. Most of the treatments for anger and aggression have emerged from CBT. However, it became clear to me that anger clients do not usually wish to change and that motivational for changed needed to be addressed first. Angry clients often feel they are victims and it is easy to rupture the therapeutic alliance. Such clients often experience resentment about past life events and a present-only-focus leaves them feeling invalidated. These events have convinced me of the need for a more integrated approach to treatment.

I believe my growth as a psychologist has helped me to consider the value of many different perspectives and has prepared me to lead professional psychology in discovering the best practices to help our clients and to lead APA in accordance with this mission.

As a department chairperson for 13 years, and as a continuing member of our department’s personnel committee, I have hired and promoted psychologists from diverse underrepresented groups. External reviews of the St, John’s University Psychology Department have repeatedly commented on our successful ability to recruit and retain diverse faculty and graduate students. I am most proud of my accomplishments in this area.

I believe that I have successfully provide leadership to organizations training and representing professional psychologists. I can advocate for, represent, and promote the Society’s goals and values for as president of APA.

Thank you

Ray DiGiuseppe, Ph.D.

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