Enhancing training and practice in the context of poverty.

Abstract

While the importance of multicultural competence among practitioners and clinical supervisors has been explored in the psychological literature, these examinations give little attention to issues of social class and poverty. The author suggests five interrelated areas for supervisory action to enhance supervisee competence in the context of poverty. Supervisors may (a) provide supplemental curricula on social class, (b) help supervisees explore class privilege, (c) process supervisees' reactions to poverty, (d) apply social justice tenets in supervision, and (e) teach flexible approaches to interventions. These suggestions are framed within the field's growing emphasis on competencies and its larger service commitments to people living in poverty.

Social Class and Ideologies of Inequality: How They Uphold Unequal Societies

“…Furthermore, experiential learning about social class (Willians & Melchiori, 2013), and the ideologies that uphold hierarchies at schools, would help students to understand the impact of privileges in a personal level and the role of ideologies to maintain them. Moreover, once psychology students are aware of the impact of ideologies on the maintenance of the status quo, it could be useful to train and encourage them to practice in contexts of poverty and social inequalities (APA, 2006;Smith, 2009), which will make them more sensitive to social injustice and consequently more willing for social change. All in all, the inclusion in psychology curricula of social class, inequality, and ideologies that promote, maintain, or attenuate inequalities, could benefit undergraduate training (APA, 2008).…”

Effective Psychotherapy With Low-income Clients: The Importance of Attending to Social Class

“…A community psychology orientation emphasizes a wide-reaching, collaborative approach to addressing oppressive and unequal institutions, and to advocate for more fair treatment and conditions for all individuals and families (Bullock & Lott, 2007; Constantine et al, 2007; L. Smith, 2009).…”

“…L. Smith (2005; 2009) further delineates classist attitudinal barriers that reproduce additional blind spots. She posits that there lingers an assumption that low-income clients will not benefit from psychotherapy and would instead respond to more immediate material and practical help.…”

“…Much less psychotherapy research has paid explicit attention to other sociocultural dimensions, including social class (Liu et al, 2004; J. Smith, 2000; L. Smith, 2009; Levy & O’Hara, 2010).…”

Poverty, Crime Seriousness, and the “Politics of Disgust”

“…Importantly, we do not suggest that such responses are conscious or deliberate-these attitudes would simply be understood to constitute another dimension of the unaware sociocultural biases that are more commonly addressed within multicultural psychological training. Consequently, multicultural graduate curricula and/or other training experiences that comprise a focus on social class could help address this situation, much as they have facilitated psychotherapists' understanding of the ways that unaware racism, sexism, and heterosexism can impact their work (Smith, 2009).…”