Joseph M. Cervantes, PhD, ABPP
Q. Why pursue board certification in Couple and Family Psychology?
A. Certification and competency have become increasingly important benchmarks in professional psychology. ABCFP certification represents a highly recognized level of achievement that underscores a practitioner’s professional status. The growing need to address societal challenges—such as domestic violence, substance use, and family and community disruption—highlights the importance of a strong foundation in family systems. This specialty enhances conceptual, clinical, and professional understanding through deeper integration of couple and family psychology for practitioners seeking advanced knowledge and recognition of higher-level competency.
Q. What are the advantages of board certification in this area compared to other ABPP boards?
A. All boards within the American Board of Professional Psychology ensure specialized knowledge and certification in a defined area of competency. Each board maintains its own standards, best practices, and expectations for advanced professional competence.
Board certification in couple and family psychology provides a strong foundation for advanced practice across a wide range of clinical and professional settings, including community mental health agencies, hospitals and clinics (e.g., VA systems, children’s hospitals), and emerging primary care environments where couples and families are increasingly recognized as central to individual well-being. A key advantage of this specialty is that interventions can be more comprehensive and impactful at both the individual and family levels.
Q. How might board certification enhance one’s ability to practice more competently with multicultural families and couples?
A. Couples and families are inherently diverse. The call for diversity awareness and education, long emphasized by the American Psychological Association, extends beyond ethnicity and culture to include sexual orientation, gender, ability, age, religion and spirituality, and socioeconomic status. Each of these dimensions provides essential context for understanding couples and families across communities.
Developing competency in one or more of these areas of specialization contributes to advanced practice and equips practitioners to respond effectively to complex, real-world issues (e.g., the impact of deportation on undocumented families or religious and spiritual crises within families). The ABCFP emphasizes the importance of diversity, integrating it into training materials and the examination process. As a result, board certification enhances credibility in settings that require advanced competence in navigating complex relational dynamics.
Q. How does board certification contribute to our evolving understanding of diversity?
A. Diversity has become a central concept in research, professional training, education, and clinical service, and it is a core principle within this specialty. ABCFP certification emphasizes advanced competency and helps build a community of practitioners who contribute to the evolving understanding of diversity in clinical practice.
As standards of care continue to evolve, professionals must remain responsive to emerging best practices. For example, the evolving understanding of sexual diversity requires ongoing development of both language and professional awareness. Board certification supports practitioners in staying current and effective in these areas.
Q. What is the board certification process like?
A. As with all ABPP certifications, applicants are expected to have prior education, training, and professional experience in couple and family psychology. This board is welcoming to new applicants while maintaining high standards of demonstrated competency, supported by mentoring throughout the process.
Examiners are committed to conducting evaluations in a respectful, collaborative, and collegial manner. Following submission and approval of materials, the examination process is typically a positive experience that allows candidates to showcase their areas of specialization. This collaborative process often fosters mutual learning for both examinees and examiners while providing a supportive environment for demonstrating advanced competencies.
Q. Describe your clinical practice
A. I have been in clinical practice for many years following completion of my doctorate in community-clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1977). After serving as an Air Force psychologist and later as director of a child guidance clinic, I achieved ABPP certification in clinical psychology (1985).
Over the next two decades, my work increasingly focused on child and family psychology and diversity, which I teach at California State University Fullerton while also applying in clinical practice. I pursued additional board certification in 2005, which proved to be an invaluable and collegial experience that reinforced my knowledge base and supported further specialization.
My areas of specialization include work with Latina/o immigrant populations and involvement in juvenile justice systems, supporting youth and families facing complex legal and behavioral challenges. Board certification in couple and family psychology has significantly enhanced my conceptual framework and professional practice, and I currently serve on the ABCFP Board.