Spencer Murphy

Spencer G. Murphy, PhD, began his career in mental healthcare as a case manager for a community mental health clinic. Feeling incompetent in his ability to reach his clients before they had experienced profound trauma, he turned to the source of his many referrals, counselors, and figured he would become one to learn how to stop the bleeding.

Since entering the field, Dr. Murphy has worked in college counseling centers and community clinics, but a bulk of his experience and expertise is in corrections counseling.

Inspired by existential theory, Dr. Murphy strives to understand his clients’ material conditions, and to identify the oppressive structures which are responsible for inflicting trauma so they may be dismantled. To do that, Dr. Murphy fiercely advocates for collective action, state power, and an organized working class. He presently researches the efficacy of client advocacy models and the relationship between counseling and capitalism.

Dr. Murphy teaches at Butler University and has held leadership positions within several local and national coalitions, both within and without the field of counseling, such as the National Political Education Committee (NPEC) of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Legislative Review Committee of the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counseling (IAAOC).