Infusing Social Justice Advocacy into Counselor Education: Strategies and Recommendations

Medicare Reimbursement for Counselors: Counseling Professionals’ Advocacy Beliefs and Behavior

“…In sum, our results provide a much‐needed baseline against which to measure the counseling profession’s commitment to advocacy, as well as the specific impacts on advocacy attitudes and behaviors that result from efforts to infuse advocacy and social justice into counselor education (Decker et al, 2016; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2018). Our data suggest that in spite of progress made in the 17 years since the ACA Advocacy Competencies were first endorsed (Lewis et al, 2003), there is more work to be done.…”

“…It was notable that out of 10 choices available to respondents, the four groups perceived as least responsible for MRA were all associated with counselor training (i.e., counselor educators, CACREP, doctoral students, master’s students). Given the emphasis on advocacy as a key part of counselor training and professional identity (Chang et al, 2010; Decker et al, 2016; Ratts & Wood, 2011), this result was somewhat surprising. Further examination revealed somewhat less unified opinions about the respective roles of aspects of the counselor training apparatus.…”

“…Specific to MRA, our finding that only 32.5% of master’s students had participated (cf. 54.0–63.3% for the other groups), suggests that counselor training programs should infuse social justice advocacy into counselor education curriculum (Decker et al, 2016), teach students how to participate in legislative advocacy on specific issues, and collect data on the effectiveness of these efforts.…”

“…The relationship between legislative advocacy and counselor professional identity has been examined in recent years (Reiner, Dobmeier, & Hernandez, 2013). Engagement in legislative advocacy is not viewed as an optional part of counselor identity development; rather, there is an expectation that members of the counseling profession will speak out on behalf of the needs of clients, students, and the counseling profession within the public arena (Chang, Crethar, & Ratts, 2010; Decker, Manis, & Paylo, 2016; Ratts & Wood, 2011; Toporek et al, 2009). This is reflected within the 2016 Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) Standards (CACREP, 2015), which state that counselor training programs are expected to foster advocacy skills and dispositions in their students.…”

“…Likewise, “doctoral programs in counselor education address professional roles in five doctoral core areas: counseling, supervision, teaching, research and scholarship, and leadership and advocacy” (CACREP, 2015, p. 35). Several key publications have emerged in which counseling scholars have described the importance of cultivating advocacy skills and dispositions among members of the profession: Decker et al (2016) proposed strategies for infusing social justice advocacy into the counselor education curriculum, Swartz et al (2018) conducted an investigation into how exemplar counselor advocates are formed, and Ratts and Greenleaf (2018) outlined the development of a counselor‐advocate‐scholar model. Common to these publications is a commitment to promoting advocacy as a key aspect of counselor identity.…”