Behold Our Creation! What Counseling Psychology Has Become and Might Yet Become

This article probes the conceptual and philosophical foundations of counseling psychology and considers possible futures of the specialty. Brief excursions into the histories of Western thought and U.S. psychology are taken to situate the perspectives and values that are fundamental to the unique identity of counseling psychology. Two studies are presented that deal with the value commitments endorsed by counseling psychologists and the ways in which this pattern of value commitments differs from the values endorsed by other specialties within psychology. Finally, the importance to the specialty of each counseling psychologist imaginatively projecting himself or herself into his or her future as a professional is highlighted. It is hoped that as each counseling psychologist uses such futuristic fantasies to fine-tune his or her professional values and career goals, the specialty of counseling psychology will benefit from the consciously, self-directed efforts of each of its members.