Values and Social Justice in Counseling

Abstract

The construct of social justice in counseling is defined and operationalized in this article. This is followed by a discussion about the intersection between social justice in counseling and philosophy, ethics, and spirituality. A call to action for counseling professionals is offered.

Social justice competencies for counselling and psychotherapy: Perceptions of experienced practitioners and implications for contemporary practice

“…Participants also identified the need for anti‐oppressive and reflective practice. In the literature, specific approaches to doing therapy, consistent with both anti‐oppressive and reflective practice, were identified (Crethar & Winterowd, ; Linnemeyer et al, ). Accountability was also evidenced by practice that was consistent with one's own values, attitudes and skills (Ratts, Singh, Nassar‐McMillan, Butler & McCullough, ).…”

“…An important function of the therapy is to address internal barriers to challenging oppressive external conditions (Goodman et al ()). This may be partially achieved through client empowerment (Crethar & Winterowd, ), using modified interventions that attend to demographic and broad external factors (Linnemeyer et al, ). As a result, clients feel worthy of fair social, economic and political opportunities and outcomes, as well as feeling prepared to self‐advocate (Collins et al, ).…”

Integrasi Kompetensi Multikultural dan Keadilan Sosial dalam Layanan Konseling

“…Integrasi ini muncul karena adanya persimpangan antara kompetensi multikultural dan keadilan sosial dalam konseling (Nassar-McMillan, 2014;Singh & Salazar, 2010). Multikulturalisme membantu konselor mendapatkan wawasan tentang ketidakadilan yang dialami oleh klien dari │ 253 kelompok terpinggirkan serta hak istimewa yang diberikan kepada klien (Arredondo et al, 1993;Crethar & Winterowd, 2012;Ponterotto et al, 2009). Wawasan multikultural atas ketidakadilan ini dapat membantu konselor mengidentifikasi dan inisiatif terlibat dalam keadilan sosial itu membutuhkan kerja tingkat individu dan sistem (Lewis & Arnold, 1998).…”

A Call for Social Justice in the American Counseling Association (ACA)

“…Social justice is one of the five core values of the counseling profession (ACA Code of Ethics; American Counseling Association, 2014), and is defined as actions taken by counselors to remedy social oppression and ensure that all persons have equitable access to resources and opportunities that have historically been reserved for those of privileged life status (Ratts, 2009;Sue & Sue, 2013;Thrift & Sugarman, 2019). Social justice counselors act within certain roles with clients holding oppressed identities, including client empowerment (Crethar & Winterowd, 2012;Martín-Baró, 1994), change agent (Lewis, 2011), consultant, and facilitator of indigenous healing systems that are congruent with the client's cultural beliefs / worldviews (Atkinson, Thompson, & Grant, 1993;Chávez, 2016 ). Social justice counselors also take on certain roles external to the counseling office to support clients from historically oppressed populations, including various forms of client advocacy (Toporek & Daniels, 2018) and social activism (Chávez, Fernandez, Hipolito-Delgado, & Rivera, 2016;Kiselica & Robinson, 2001;Ratts, Singh, Nassar-McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2016;Washington, 2018).…”

“…Social justice competencies still need to be promoted at programmatic and organizational levels to counter unexamined privilege held by many counselors. Because most graduate students, counselors, and counselor educators are White American, they may hold White American cultural values (i.e., meritocracy, individualism, mastery, self-determination, achievement [Monk, Winslade & Sinclair, 2008]) and, therefore, might counsel from this cultural worldview (Crethar & Winterowd, 2012). Further, unless directly countered by challenging the "universalistic application of psychological methods and theories based on a European American paradigm" (Ginter, Roysircar, & Gerstein, 2018, p. 490) found in some counseling textbooks (see Ginter et al, 2018, for an example of this challenge), counseling graduate programs may perpetuate these values by teaching Western counseling theories and techniques (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2014), emphasizing an individualistic view of clients.…”