Advocate Spotlight: Megan A. Mooney, PhD

Name: Megan A. Mooney, PhD
Home State: Texas
APA Divisions: Division 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology), Division 44 (Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity), Division 53 (Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology)
SPTA Membership: Texas Psychological Association (TPA)

I initially engaged in legislative advocacy to protect our pre-doctoral internships by fighting for legislation to allow for reimbursement by insurance companies for psychology interns' services under supervision of a licensed psychologist. I had been watching our number of internship spots dwindle over the years and was concerned for what this meant for the future of psychology. I signed up to testify in support of a bill from TPA and the rest is history.

I am most passionate about fighting for the rights LGBTQ+ people because we know that discriminatory laws and policies are related to potentially traumatic experiences and negative mental health consequences. It is important for psychologists to recognize that these sorts of discriminatory actions impact our children, our communities, and our colleagues.

Advocacy is about building relationships and having meaningful conversations. The most effective advocates are those who can listen to different opinions, sort through information and data, and provide good solutions. These are exactly the kinds of qualities that psychologists possess and the skills we are trained to use every day. This makes us particularly well-suited to engage in advocacy.

Do some research ahead of time. Whether you are speaking with a legislator, a reporter, or a community forum, know your audience. Find common interests or concerns and make sure to work that into your discussion. Think through the kinds of "selling points" that will be most appealing to your audience to increase the likelihood that they will hear your message. Also, consider what you can offer to others and not just your "ask" of them. Be of service to your legislators by offering to be a resource to their office or provide other sources of information to reporters and community members.

If we are not present in advocacy forums, someone else will be. We have to actively seek out opportunities to share our knowledge and research about psychological science and how this is relevant. This may be with legislative bodies but also in the media and our communities. We must be watchful for legislation that directly impacts our practice (e.g., bills related to our licensure or billing) but also for legislation and policies that may more indirectly impact psychologists and the people we serve (e.g., discriminatory bills or policy actions). We must be proactive and take steps to advocate for what is right. If we are not part of these conversations and efforts, someone else will likely be and we may not like what they have to say.

Our biggest challenge is ourselves! Psychologists get nervous about engaging in advocacy because we are so used to being well-trained in a subject area and feeling like we are experts, and this is new territory for most people. But the good news is that we—are—subject matter experts in lots of relevant areas of research and clinical practice, so we have lots to contribute!

I wish I had known how so many small elections and legislative actions are part of the much larger process that impact us all professionally and personally every day. I now see that local elections are often the beginning of long career paths for legislators so early relationship-building now may lead to important advocacy opportunities later.

Because much of my advocacy work focuses on LGBTQ+ people, this is at the forefront of my mind. I've been working for almost a decade to convince some colleagues that our advocacy work cannot only focus on scope of practice and "guild" issues. We have to look at the much broader landscape of social justice and equity because these are issues that should concern all of us. This is not just about "others.” It is about our profession. It's about our rights to be treated fairly in our communities and our workplaces. Political attacks on marginalized and minoritized people have well-documented negative mental health consequences and this includes on our own psychology colleagues. Acts of discrimination today can and will lead to historical and intergenerational trauma that will impact this country and our profession for decades of our future.

I seek opportunities to testify against discriminatory legislation that would harm LGBTQ+, especially transgender, people. I try to speak often about these concerns in professional presentations and advocate for change. I also have worked for many years within TPA to diversify our leadership and increase participation from colleagues who have been historically underrepresented in our association.

I hope that my work encourages people in private practice, in research settings, in academic medical settings, etc. to all get involved. We need all of psychology to work together to advocate to protect people as well as our profession. As experts in the science of psychology and mental health, I feel we owe it to others to share this widely and to do so to help others. This is an all-hands-on-deck effort where there's a place for everyone in the field of psychology. I hope everyone finds an avenue to advocate for whatever they are passionate about and to use psychological science to support their efforts.