Consulting Psychology

Consulting psychology is a specialty area of psychology that addresses such areas as assessment and interventions at the individual, group, and organizational levels. The Handbook of Organizational Consulting Psychology provides an overview of specific areas of study and application within the field. The major journal in the field is Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. Consulting psychologists typically work in business or non-profit organizations, in consulting firms or in private practice. Consulting psychologists are typically professionally licensed as psychologists.

The American Psychological Association defines the fields as:

"Consulting psychology shall be defined as the function of applying and extending the specialized knowledge of a psychologist through the process of consultation to problems involving human behavior in various areas. A consulting psychologist shall be defined as a psychologist who provides specialized technical assistance to individuals or organizations in regard to the psychological aspects of their work. Such assistance is advisory in nature and the consultant has no direct responsibility for its acceptance. Consulting psychologists may have as clients individuals, institutions, agencies, corporations or other kinds of organization."

Consultation should help individuals and organizations "become more efficient and effective."

The generic model encompasses all kinds of consulting, starting with Entry, moving through Diagnosis and Implementation and ending with an explicit Disengagement.

This approach focuses on an individual client (recipient of service) and helps service providers better help that client. The consultant functions assesses the client, makes a diagnosis and recommends changes to the consultee, typically a teacher, physician or other care providers.

This relationship focuses on the consultee rather than a particular client, helping build new skills via training and/or supervision. The consultant typically does not meet clients directly. Consultees seek consultation to increase knowledge, skills, confidence, and/or objectivity.

In some cases, the focus is on administrative rather than professional staff. Such relationships are typically longer term.

In this model, the consultant is an authority figure who assumes primary responsibility for the relationship. The focus is on problem-solving more than skills development or a particular client.

This model employs systems theory to improve productivity or to streamline the relationship between an organization and its environment.

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