ACCTA 2010-11
CCAPS, March 26-30, Baltimore, MD

Submitted by: ACCTA Representative- Jodi Caldwell 

Description and Mission

• The Association of Counseling Center Training Agencies (ACCTA) is an organization of internship programs in college and university counseling centers across the United States and in Canada.

• The mission of ACCTA is to promote excellence in predoctoral psychology internship training within university and college counseling centers. Fundamental to our values is appreciation of and support for diversity and the enrichment that an inclusive multicultural community brings to the organization and to training generally.

Recent Activities and Issues of Importance·

• ACCTA’s Annual Conference was held October 2-6, 2010 in Portland, OR. The theme of the conference was Navigating Current Trends in Counseling Center Internship Training. A plenary panel of current ACCTA Training Directors discussed issues related to budget cuts, technology utilization, changing licensure requirements, multicultural/diversity experiences, and the impact of the competencies movement. Liaisons attending the conference included Drs. Cathi Grus - APA Education Directorate; Erica Wise - Association of Psychology Training Clinics (APTC); Greg Eells - Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD); Joyce Illfelder-Kaye - Commission on Accreditation (CoA); Angela Ferguson - Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs (CCPTP); and Judy Hall - National Register. The conference was followed by an APA/CoA Self-study workshop presented by Drs. Joyce Illfelder-Kaye and Donna Horn.

  • The ACCTA Diversity Mentorship Scholarship Program provides funding for selected psychologists who are committed to diversity and wish to pursue training leadership positions within counseling centers to attend our annual conference. This year’s Diversity Scholars and their conference presentations were:
          Dr. Grace Chen, Palo Alto University – Like Water over a Rock: The Effects of Microaggressions; and
          Dr. Joy Stephens, Towson University – Social Class Training: Integrating Classism within Cultural Conversation.

  • This year’s recipient of the Helen Roehlke Award for Service to ACCTA was Dr. Sharon Kirkland-Gordon of the University of Maryland.

  • This year’s recipient of the Helen Roehlke Award for Service to ACCTA was Dr. Sharon Kirkland-Gordon of the University of Maryland.

  • A widely attended session at the conference focused upon updates to the AAPI Selection Portal, organizing and utilizing data from the AAPI, and changes to the Match process for 2011. It was very helpful to have Dr. Greg Keilin and Dr. Cecilia Sun share information on these topics.

  • ACCTA’s 2011 conference will be held September 10th -14th at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, WI. The theme will be “Integrating Social Justice Issues in Internship Training: Expanding our Multicultural Competence”. Suzette Speight, Ph.D. and Elizabeth Vera, Ph.D. will be giving the keynote address.
     

• The ACCTA Clearinghouse, which has existed for a number of years to serve intern candidates and ACCTA member internship programs not able to find or fill positions in the APPIC Match, will be discontinued. Most of our member programs are also APPIC members and participate in the Match; therefore, they will participate in Phase 2 of the APPIC Match if their slots are not filled in the first cycle of the Match. We will continue to assist members not participating in the Match to find interns following the completion of the 2-phase Match process.
   

• ACCTA has recently accepted a bid from Clarity Ventures, Inc. to implement a major website redesign that will better meet our current needs. Clarity Ventures, Inc. was also the company selected by APPIC to redesign their website. The launch of the redesigned website is planned for spring 2011.
   

• ACCTA has decided to hire a conference planner, beyond the site locater that we currently use. Because of our positive experience working with Debbie Nolan on the 2008 International Counseling Psychology Conference and the 2010 CCTC Joint Conference of Training Councils, we have contracted with her to serve as our conference planner beginning with our annual conference in 2012.
   

• The Handbook of Multicultural Counseling Competencies, which grew out of work started in ACCTA, was published by Wiley in summer 2010. Several of ACCTA’s former presidents, Drs. Jenny Cornish, Barry Schreier, and Emil Rodolfa, served as editors and have donated all royalties from the sale of the Handbook to ACCTA to support training in multiculturally competent practices.
   

• ACCTA made a financial contribution to sponsor the National Multicultural Conference and Summit (NMCS) held in Seattle in January 2011.
   

• ACCTA made a financial contribution to the 50th Anniversary celebration of CCAPS, to be held at ACPA in March 2011.

The 2010-2011 ACCTA Board
 

ACCTA appreciates the close working relationship that has been established with CCAPS and looks forward to continued collaboration, especially in the areas of competencies and evidence-based assessment practices as well as the need for more creative leadership in challenging times and meeting the needs of a changing student body, with special attention to campus diversity issues.

Submitted on February 14, 2011
 

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