Dr. Dennis Kivlighan is a professor at the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Kivlighan obtained his PhD in counseling psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.
His research examines the process and outcome of both group and individual counseling.
Tell us a bit about your background: What is your area of research? What is your most recent journal-editing experience?
In individual counseling I am particularly interested in the therapeutic relationship (working alliance, real relationship, transference-countertransference).
Recently, I have been looking at the effects of both intrapersonal and interpersonal and how the relationship unfolds at different levels of analysis.
In my group therapy studies I am interested in how the context of the group influences the responses of the individual group members.
I am the former editor of Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice, and I am currently one of the associate editors for the Journal of Counseling Psychology.
Briefly, what are your main priorities? For example, how will you grow readership, what type of scholarship would you like to see in the journal, and what kind of content are you hoping to attract?
My vision for the journal is that it remain and grow as the leading outlet for empirical research in counseling psychology.
The Journal of Counseling Psychology should publish cutting-edge and sophisticated, qualitative and quantitative research in the field.
The journal should also publish theoretical articles and quantitative reviews of research areas in the counseling psychology domain. These theoretical and review articles, however, should have a heuristic focus on increasing or improving the empirical research in counseling psychology.
As editor, I would be particularly interested in articles that use new and innovative methods for addressing the traditional questions in counseling psychology.
Why is this journal important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health? What are the hot issues in your area right now?
JCP is the leading empirical journal in counseling psychology.
Five themes characterize counseling psychology:
These themes may be more important to society today than ever. For example, there have been dramatic changes in jobs and educational requirements for these new jobs.
It is important that we study how people prepare for changing demands in the world of work and study how we intervene to help people adjust and thrive in a rapidly changing world of work.
As another example, JCP has recently published several studies examining the psychological effects daily micro-aggressions in diverse populations. It is important for us to study how to mitigate the effects of these micro-aggressions and even more important to study how we can change environmental contexts to reduce the occurrence of micro-aggressions.
Do you have plans for a special issue or changes to the editorial process? Are you making any changes?
There are no plans for special issues at this time. JCP has always been known for the high quality educational reviews, and I plan to continue this important tradition.
In addition, under the current editor Terry Tracey, JCP has had a very quick and responsive editorial process, and I hope to continue this important process.
Editor Spotlight features interviews with the newly-appointed editors of APA Journals.
APA Journals produces an array of scholarly journals that cover the spectrum of modern psychology and feature the latest research in the field.
Journal of Counseling Psychology® publishes empirical research in the areas of counseling activities, career development and vocational psychology, diversity and underrepresented populations in relation to counseling activities, the development of new measures to be used in counseling activities, and professional issues in counseling psychology.