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2023 Candidate Statements

Candidates for President-elect

Stewart E. Cooper, PhD, ABPP

Stewart E. Cooper, PhD, ABPP

I am honored to be considered for leading the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy. My presidency, should I be elected, will focus on four overlapping and synergistic priorities: (1) furthering our focus on the salience and incorporation of identity and culture in the science, practice, and education of psychotherapy and psychotherapy supervision, (2) global cross-fertilization of psychotherapy research, education, practice, and application, (3) increasing the value and engagement of SAP membership across the professional lifespan, and (4) having SAP function as the authoritative voice in advancing psychotherapy science, practice, education, and application.

My diverse professional background in psychotherapy practice, education, supervision, and research will inform my leadership of the Society. For many years, I served as the Director of Counseling Services at Valparaiso University. Counseling Services was built over time and eventually included several integrated units – a counseling center, an alcohol and drug prevention program, a sexual violence reduction program, and a suicide prevention program. During this time, I was also a faculty member in the Department of Psychology teaching in their accredited master’s mental health counseling program. Based on my teaching, service, and scholarship, I was promoted to Full Professor. I have authored/edited 5 books, 10 book chapters, and 77 refereed journal articles. Additionally, I served two stints as program chair. Licensed as a HSPP in Arizona and in Indiana with Board Certification in both Counseling and Organizational Psychology, I developed and am currently expanding Life Enrichment Associates, a solo clinical and consultation practice. In closing, my significant experience in APA Divisional and Central leadership will be of value during my Presidency. Leadership positions have included SAP Secretary; SAP E&T Chair; President of Consulting Psychology; Chair of Sections for Counseling Psychology; Chair APA Board of Professional Affairs; Chair APA Membership Board; APA Council Representative; APA Board of Directors.


Candidates for Secretary

Astrea Greig, PsyD

I am excited to be considered for the role of Secretary for Division 29, Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy.

I often find myself wearing multiple hats and feel that it is fulfilling work. Within APA, I have been an active member and past board member of Division 29. I have been proud to serve in multiple Division 29 roles including most recently as Program Chair and previously as Chair of the Diversity Committee. Within Division 18, Psychologists in Public Service, I have served as co-chair of their Diversity Committee and am an active member. I also served on APA’s Task Force to Develop APA Guidelines for Persons with Low Income and Economic Marginalization. This latter role coincides with my clinical and applied research interests in working with people experiencing poverty and underserved populations.

Outside of APA, I hold varied clinical, training, and leadership roles at Cambridge Health Alliance, including staff psychologist and Clinical Regional Manager within Primary Care Behavioral Health Integration, psychologist on the Health Care for the Homeless team, and also serve as the Group Program Lead for all of the outpatient Psychiatry Department. Moreover through our academic affiliation with Harvard Medical School I direct a psychology intern seminar and supervise psychology interns and post-doctoral fellows. Throughout all of my duties, I am committed to social justice and a mission to provide high quality psychotherapy for historically marginalized populations and to improve our behavioral health systems to better serve them. Meanwhile I aim to keep psychotherapy outcomes, measurement based care, and psychotherapy integration in mind. This is a common thread in my clinical work, teaching and research that also makes me feel at home with Division 29. I would be happy to continue to serve our Division 29 community towards our common goal of the advancement of psychotherapy.

Clara Hill Ph.D.

I am running for Secretary of the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy so that I can contribute to advancing psychotherapy through practice, research, and advocacy efforts. The role of Secretary is important to facilitate the flow of the organization and help the other board members. If elected, I will try to represent the group’s best interests as a whole and help the other members of the governance do their work.


Candidates for Public Interest and Social Justice Domain Representative

Andréw E. Pérez-Rojas, Ph.D.

I am honored to be nominated for the Domain Representative for Public Interest and Social Justice for the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy. I am a counseling psychologist and Associate Professor at Indiana University Bloomington whose research is on culturally and structurally responsive psychotherapy. Previously, I have served on (and chaired) the Society’s Committee on Early Career Psychologists helping to expand programming for our early career members (e.g., workshop on navigating economic realities early in one’s career). I have also published in the Society’s newsletter and our journal, for which I currently serve as Associate Editor. Finally, I have received a grant award from the Society. I feel incredibly fortunate to call this Society a professional home and I would be grateful to serve as Domain Representative for Public Interest and Social Justice.

It has been heartening to see the growth in our Society’s interest in matters of public policy and social justice that pertain to psychotherapy. Indeed, psychotherapists have been at the forefront of many key public interest and social justice initiatives, including gun control, the treatment and prevention of racial trauma and other forms of oppression, and work that redefines primary care to include counseling and psychotherapy, among others. If elected Domain Representative for Public Interest and Social Justice, I will help lead the Society so that we continue to strongly advocate for the integration of equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice principles into all aspects of the work we do as psychologists, including psychotherapy.

Penelope Asay, Ph.D.

I am delighted to be a candidate as the Domain Representative for Public Interest and Social Justice!  I have spent my career teaching, training, and mentoring students to consider how their clinical work, their research, and their growing professional voices can contribute to dismantling oppression and working for social justice.  I have had profoundly moving experiences working for change:  lobbying on Capitol Hill for gun reform with the Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology, serving for a decade in membership and leadership of the Community Engagement Committee for Division 17, and collaborating with students and colleagues on direct advocacy and activism.  I am a Board Certified Counseling Psychologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park.  I serve as an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies as well as the Director of DEI Operations for the National Psychology Training Consortium.  For several years, I have been particularly invested in championing advocacy as an integral part of psychology and psychotherapy and helping students and professionals alike consider what this looks like in their personal and professional lives.  The social and social justice issues affecting the lives of our clients (and ourselves!) are daunting and deep.  If elected, I would hope to help division members recognize the work they are already doing, areas where they can do more or need to do less.  I would encourage a community commitment to building on our strengths and seeing ourselves as advocates for change at all levels.


Candidates for International Affairs Domain Representative

 

Harold Chui, Ph.D.

It is an honor for me to be nominated as a candidate for Division 29’s International Affairs Domain Representative. I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and one of the Associate Editors for the Division journal, Psychotherapy. Being trained as a counseling psychologist in the U.S. and now working in Hong Kong, I experience firsthand how psychotherapy principles and techniques developed in the West may need adaptation indifferent contexts. For example, how may one use challenges or immediacy effectively with a client in a culture that emphasizes interpersonal harmony and less direct communication? Having a global perspective will enhance our ability to evaluate our assumptions about “good” psychotherapy processes and mental health so that people from varied backgrounds can benefit from the work that we do.

If elected as the Domain Representative for International Affairs, I envision strengthening the collaboration among psychotherapy practitioners, scholars, and students around the world to promote cultural awareness and competence. Such collaboration can take the form of virtual exchange, cross cultural investigation, seminars on special topics, and much more. The existing network that I have and continue to grow as the inaugural president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research Asia Affiliate Group will facilitate the achievement of these goals. Thank you for considering to vote for me, and I hope to connect with you one way or another through our passion in psychotherapy.

Xu Li, PhD

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