International Students who Became U.S. Counseling Psychology Faculty Members: A Collaborative Autoethnography

Abstract

International students have a considerable presence in U.S. counseling psychology programs; what happens when they pursue academic counseling psychology positions in U.S. institutions? Seven counseling psychology faculty who started as international students in the United States used collaborative autoethnography to examine this matter. We found that our identification with counseling psychology philosophy and our lifelong, self-reflective process as cultural insiders/outsiders have proven crucial. Likewise, we found that our academic career development has been shaped by extra challenges encountered when dealing with ethnocentric aspects of U.S. psychology and by unique opportunities generated by our multinational professional identities and multilingual abilities. Three themes recurred across our reflections: Overcoming Linguistic Differences, Learning to Thrive Across Cultures, and Mentoring as a Valued Experience. We offer advice for international counseling students considering careers in U.S. academia and discuss the implications of our findings for research, training, and advocacy.