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President's Message

Editorial

Jean Carter, Ph.D.

As I write this column, the Division Board of Directors has just returned from the annual winter governance meeting. We began the meeting with a two hour discussion of visions—our visions for the Division and its members, as well as the breadth of the practice of psychology. Our Board of Directors is a bright, creative group of individuals, deeply invested in the Division and in psychology. As you can imagine, the discussion was wide-ranging, innovative and intense. Although we did not always agree (it really is true that you can’t please all of the people all of the time!), there are several themes that I heard. It is these themes that serve as my guiding principles for leadership in the Division this year.

First, Psychologists in Independent Practice has a vital role in advocacy for practice within APA. How do we reflect that kind of internal advocacy? This advocacy role within APA includes taking a strong stand for leadership of APA that reflects the concerns and strengths of a practice voice and perspective. In particular, we need to ensure that the next president of APA has significant expertise and knowledge of the issues of practice and seeks the guidance of our division and of other practice groups in developing programs and projects for APA. To this end, the Board voted to strongly endorse Ron Levant for president of APA at both the nominations and elections stages of the APA presidential process. Ron will be a great president for APA. We also need to ensure that other officers of APA are strongly knowledgeable about practice concerns; Ruth Paige, who is also a member of our division, is running for APA recording secretary, and we support her in that election. We need to be strongly engaged with the efforts of the APA Practice Organization to ensure that there is sufficient funding to allow our new companion organization to survive and thrive and to allow the great staff of the APAPO to focus on the professional issues that they know so well. We need to represent the division well on the APA Council to ensure proper attention from APA for the needs of practitioners and our relationship with other practice groups.

A second primary purpose of the division is in addressing member needs and maintaining a strong infrastructure that will allows us to do so. And what are the needs of the members that the division must attend to? I believe that members look to the division for two primary activities.

• First is to provide practice tools that enable you to do a better job of the job you do—apply psychological principles to enhance people’s lives and to ameliorate pain. The division offers practice tools for this purpose—tools like PICK42 niche guides, CE programming and convention programming. The Resource Development Task Force (my presidential initiative) is currently developing procedures to offer CE credits for PICK42 Niche guide offerings and matched brochures that members can use to advertise your practices.
• Second, the division offers the opportunity for collegiality, collaboration and involvement with others whose work lives are defined by our roles in the practice of psychology as a profession. The listservs give us a chance to connect. Members collaborate with each other with practice questions and recommendations of resources. You joke with one another, share stories, good humor, worries and movie reviews. You look for referrals in distant cities or for particular kinds of clients. You find connections despite the loneliness we can sometimes feel in this profession. The division offers committees, task forces, special interest groups for you to participate in.
• Third, the division takes an active role in advocacy and action for the advancement of psychological practice outside of APA. The APA Practice Organization provides leadership in political advocacy to advance the agenda of practice at both the state and federal level, in litigation to ameliorate the ravages of managed care, in regulation that governs practice. The division both supports the work of the Practice Organization, shares responsibility for some of the activities, encourages member involvement, and provides opportunity for both members and governance to take a strong and active role of ensuring the health of psychological practice.

As I think about these three arenas, I see how much we are already doing in the division, as well as how much remains to be done and how many possibilities are out there. The year is off to a good start!

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