Douce, Louise (1948-)

In her autobiographical writings and speeches, Louise Douce described herself as coming of age personally and professionally amidst the “wave of feminism” in academia in the 1970s and early 1980s. She identified feminist values as a core part of her identity and has consistently embodied those values as a clinician, administrator, educator, mentor, scholar, and professional leader. Indeed, her career can be seen as an exemplar of the passionate implementation of the values of empowerment, advocacy, and equality. She once used an image of standing on a bridge to describe significant work that she had done as a counseling psychologist. She indeed has toiled in the [Page 168]construction of bridges over which the fields of counseling and counseling psychology have moved toward feminism; lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) affirmation; and multiculturalism. She has labored to build bridges that span the integration of science and practice, to lead the way toward effective responses to the changing milieu of professional practice, to connect the counseling professions with a more global perspective, and to link the counseling professions to the future through more effective approaches to professional training.

Douce grew up on a small farm in southern Ohio in what she described as a “small-town Christian family, with missionaries and ministers on both sides.” Her undergraduate education at Ohio State University (OSU) during the Vietnam War era of the late 1960s was a time of great social change and of great personal change for Douce. She described herself as beginning those years believing that the war in Vietnam was justified and ending that era as an ardent feminist who wore a peace sign on her arm at graduation. From 1971 to 1977, she went to graduate school in counseling psychology at the University of Minnesota and did her internship at the Student Counseling Bureau there. She was one of a cadre of feminist women students in counseling who would come to forever change the profession. She has spoken and written about her experiences with sexism in graduate studies, but she has also noted it was an exciting time for young women like her to be feminists and to come out as lesbians. She has discussed the crucial role mentors played in her own development at this time, and she has passed on this legacy of mentoring by becoming a powerful mentor to so many.

Upon completion of her doctoral program in 1977, she became a staff psychologist at the Counseling and Consultation Service at OSU and has remained there for almost 30 years, providing extraordinary service and leadership to one of the most prestigious and respected university counseling centers in the country. Douce became the director for the graduate and predoctoral training program in 1980 and then became the director of the center in 1987. Her work in administering the training program, in providing clinical supervision, and in mentoring have had a significant impact on scores of graduate students and interns. It is safe to say that virtually every counseling center in the United States has been touched by Douce's work as a trainer and mentor to its staff members. She remained significantly involved in training at OSU even as she became the director responsible for providing vision and leadership to a staff of almost 20 with a budget of several million dollars. Of particular note for its impact, and for its significance to Douce personally, is that she has been a pioneer in the training of LGB counseling psychologists. In the LGB psychology community, she is a true elder of the tribe and grand-mentor to an entire new generation of LGB psychologists.

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