Dr. John Murphy, professor of psychology and counseling at the University of Central Arkansas, presents at the sixth annual International Conference on School Psychology held Aug. 1-3 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
A University of Central Arkansas professor was selected to present the keynote address at an international conference in Vietnam.
Dr. John Murphy, professor of psychology and counseling in UCA’s College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, presented at the sixth annual International Conference on School Psychology held Aug. 1-3 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The conference was presented by the Consortium to Advance School Psychology-International, or CASP-I.
The conference gathers university faculty, school psychology practitioners, policymakers and others on professional development related to school psychology. Murphy opened the conference with a keynote address titled “The One Thing to Becoming a Better School Psychologist” and also presented a workshop titled “Brief Solution-Focused Counseling in Schools: Practical Skills and Strategies” on its second day.
“It’s a great honor because they have a choice of a lot of people,” Murphy said of being selected as keynote speaker. “When they asked me to do it, I was flattered by it. It’s a privilege I take very seriously.”
School psychologists often work with students who face academic, social, emotional and behavioral problems, including issues with disengagement, aggression, depression and more.
Murphy’s keynote address stated that the “one thing” in becoming a better school psychologist is client involvement—or allowing clients to have an active role in their own care—which is also referred to as client participation or client engagement.
“All those words point you toward giving people a significant voice in their own services by asking for their ideas and preferences about how the service can be delivered, and obtaining their ongoing feedback about the usefulness of service,” Murphy said.
His workshop on solution-focused counseling taught school psychologists how to improve service outcomes by focusing on future possibilities versus past problems and building on what clients already have to help them resolve problems and reach goals, rather than focusing exclusively on what is wrong or lacking in their lives.
“We don’t deny the pain. We have to acknowledge and validate the person’s struggle and the pain of the problem, but we don’t spend session after session talking about what’s wrong with them,” he said. “We want to discover and build on what’s right with them in their lives.”
Though Murphy has presented at conferences in Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the U.S., this year marked his first visit to Vietnam. While abroad, Murphy made three appearances on national and local television networks to discuss school psychology.
“I can’t thank UCA enough for supporting me in my mission of teaching graduate students and others to deliver respectful, evidence-based services to young people and families,” he said. “My work would not have had near the impact it has had without the departmental-, college- and university-level encouragement and support I’ve received at UCA. It is very fulfilling, personally and professionally, to share these ideas with our students here at UCA and beyond.”