Establishment of the Emory G. Cowan, Jr., and Susan Cooper Lifetime Service to Humanistic Psychology Award

The RMHCPA Board is very proud to announce the establishment of the Emory G. Cowan and Susan Cooper Lifetime Service to Humanistic Psychology Award, which will be award to Emory and Sue at the First Annual Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association Conference in June (date TBA). This award is established for individuals who have demonstrated extended excellence in service to humanistic psychology.

Drs. Cowan and Cooper helped establish the Colorado School of Professional Psychology. While the school did not sustain, the legacy of the school lives on with a profound impact upon comtemporary humanistic psychology. The leadership of Dr. Cowan and Dr. Cooper demonstrated the values of humanistic and existential psychology as well. Without Dr. Cowan and Dr. Cooper, it is unlikely the Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association would have come into existence. In no small part due to their legacies, Colorado has become one of the centers of humanistic and existential psychology in the United States. Many of their former students have gone on to become local, regional, and international leaders in the humanistic psychology movement.

We hope you join us in celebrating these two special individuals at our first conference (we will be posting more information about the conference and a call for papers soon).

Report from March 2017 Board Meeting

A number of new developments emerged from the March 2017 Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association Board Meeting. We wanted to provide members with an update on what will be coming in 2017.

  1. RMHCPA has begun preparations to be able to offer continuing education events in Colorado.
  2. We are planning our first annual conference for this summer and hope to have the final dates along with a call for papers announced soon.
  3. We are planning a pre-conference workshop focusing on working with individuals who have experienced or work with marginalized and oppressed groups.
  4. Following the conference, we are planning a day of community service in which we will offer programs for the community on topics such as “How to Talk to your Children About Racism” and “Self-care for Advocates and Activists.” We also plan to offer free groups for children and teenagers to talk about their experience with bullying and prejudice.
  5. We established three new RMHCPA Awards: Lifetime Achievement Award, Lifetime Service Award, and Distinguished Student Paper Award. Each year, we will have a call for nominations and awards will be given at our annual conference.

These are just some of the exciting things we are planning for 2017! If you are a mental health professional or student and have not yet joined, we hope you will consider joining soon.

Louis Hoffman, PhD
President, Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling & Psychological Association