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Another Perspective on Social Justice in the Counseling Profession

By Kevin Wreghitt posted 03-19-2015 06:47 PM

  

Multiculturalism and Diversity as well as social justice have long since been important tenant of the counseling field. The former is an imperative to be sensitive to the various client behavior based on ethnicity and socioeconomic influences and adjust therapeutic practices accordingly.  It also means that as counselors should be aware of their own values regarding people from different sociocultural and ethnic backgrounds as well as to pay attention to one's personal heritage and economic status to be cognizant of how such factors affect clients.  Social justice takes these issues one step further.  It has been defined as “….how advantages and disadvantages are distributed to individuals in society” (Miller, 1999; p.11).  Because many clients face systemic disparities such as violence, oppression, poverty, and armed conflict, which prevent them from reaching their goals in life, it is difficult for these individuals to see a way out. These issues exist nationally and globally.  The argument is psychotherapy, even when a high degree of multicultural competence is employed, no matter what approach is used, it is not enough (Vera & Speight, 2003).  There are people in the field who seem to want to make social justice the future central paradigm the counseling profession.

Counseling historically has been about the individual, couples, other types of individual relationships, small groups and families, emphasizing human development and wellness throughout the life-span.  There has always been an acknowledgement that psychosocial issues affect the person and counselor activism and advocacy can be allowed as part of the client’s treatment plan.  Although not entirely new, with modern technology, we know much more about the biology of behavior and how both social and biological factors interact.   

As a result, I believe, the individual will be cast aside in favor of correcting community, societal, and global concerns.  Individual happiness and wellness will be defined as how the community, society, politics and world events are affecting the client’s life and what can be done to manipulate those social factors to achieve those mental health outcomes.  One’s mental health, according to a clinician, practicing in the social justice model, would be dependent on other people and institutions which are not under the client’s control, rather than factors that can be influenced by his or her own ability to persevere, learn and adapt to difficulty.  For example, if a client is discriminated against because of age, therapy might involve working with legislators to pass a bill outlawing the practice of ageism instead of working on internal resolve and helping him or her figure out alternative routes to finding employment where age would not be an issue. Some may be argue this may not be accurate, and it may not be, but if social justice advocates are saying the nature of counseling has to change to meet 21st century demands in favor of more activism, other counselors have a right to ask "to what end?" "will it work and how?" and "what does it mean?"

As a follow-up to the Call-to-Conscious meeting, at the 2015 ACA conference in Orlando, FL I offer another perspective on social justice in counseling.

Being Politically Neutral vs. Politically Active

There has been a debate within the counseling field as to whether the profession should engage in politics in the nation or remain neutral.  Past association President Brian Canfield (2008) stated the American Counseling Association “has occasionally been distracted by partisan and divisive social and political agendas” and the association should “maintain a neutral and centrist position.”  He also said that counseling should be “a value-free process” (p.2). Another Past ACA President Patricia Arredondo once argued “All counseling is political.  All theory is political” (Crethar & Ratts, n.d., p. 1). A counselor’s action or inaction to a particular social issue with a client is a political statement.  The social justice narrative in counseling is supported through research (Arredondo, Toporek, Brown, Jones, Locke, Sanchez, & Stadler, 1996; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992; Vera & Speight, 2003; Miller, 1992; Crethar & Ratts, n.d.; Constantine & Ladany, 2000).

Both sides have a good argument.  Personally, I could never figure out what “value-free counseling” was supposed to mean or look like.  If the therapist is a human being, values of the counselor will come through to the client no matter what the subject is or the method being used and no matter how hard we as clinicians may try to suppress personal and subjective beliefs.  Personal values will come out in the process.  The fact is, counselors and clients share values every day.  Of course, when carrying out association business, the leadership uses values whenever they advocate for legislation or an ethics rule change.  Obviously, the ACA should not support public campaigns for public office, endorse certain candidates, or ask members to do the same.

On the other hand, the ACA and its members have a right and obligation to speak out on public mental health issues such as racism, oppression, sexism, ableism, etc.  Arredondo may be correct on some level that “all counseling is political” depending on how one defines the term “political.”  It has indeed been argued that social justice has been part of counseling’s history since its inception and it has been European-White culture, the medical model and managed care practices that have made the focus of therapy so internally individualistic (Crethar & Ratts, n.d.).

I would argue on an individual level, politics may seem far away when the issue is a client’s mother dying, somebody having hallucinations or speaking to a couple with a broken marriage.  Somebody would have to perform “mental gymnastics” to make a social justice issue out of such matters. For example, one could argue financial problems contributed to the marital discord, people with mental illness are often shunned by others who don’t understand, or widows are often ignored by society.  So the social justice counselor would schedule a march, with like-minded people and write to politicians demanding they remove the obstacles for widows, the mentally ill and broken families.  While legislation makes its way through the process or is past, the widow still cries and has trouble returning to her daily activities, the mentally ill client still hallucinates and the broken marriage never heals. The question is how far does the association influence every day practice of the individual clinician and does the association have the right, short of responding to ethical complaints, to be so intrusive into the personal practice of the clinicians to where they become like robots with no values or opinions of their own?

Problems for a Central Role of Social Justice Within Counseling  

The social justice movement in this association and other behavioral organizations is a political movement meant to influence politics, not a method to heal people and correct divisions within the country.  Advocacy may be appropriate in some situations, but what Dr. D’Andrea is proposing is a radical shift from what counseling has been in the past.  ​I strongly disagree, that activism, such as die-ins by professional counselors, is an appropriate way to support minority populations or clients. 

Are we going to teach clients if they “throw a loud enough temper tantrum,” they will gain the desired outcome?  What is the message we will be sending to clients and society?  If I decide to stop traffic with a client, am I violating the client’s confidentiality if someone or the media puts two and two together?  Peaceful protests do not always wind up being peaceful. Sometimes they do become violent.  Whether the protests are done with or without clients, if professionals engage in such actions, what happens to the therapeutic relationship, legal liability for both client and professional, and consequences for psychological and physical wellbeing of the client. 

It could be argued that public protests, only in a few instances serves to produce the type of social change, which participants seek.  People may evoke Dr. King is the model and I concede that point, but most protests these days do not occur in the spirit King wanted.  Lacking an overwhelming significant moral purpose, most protests do not produce long-lasting social change that is desired.  While public protests may increase public awareness of a particular issue (at least temporarily) it might serve more to aggravate the general public and build further animosity toward the cause than was intended.  In order to be effective, protests need to inconvenience somebody.  That is how groups that participate gain attention.  There is little evidence (that I can find) in the literature that die-ins or any form of political activism helps clinically to correct emotional problems.  I understand some may say if social obstacles are some removed, one could relieve mental health problems for certain minority groups.  That may be logical, but not clear. The war on poverty has been going on for decades and we still have poor people.  No person who is an African-American is enslaved today, we have the first President who is black, and other individuals who are black have been doctors, lawyers, counselors and are involved in other professions. Yet, other people who are black keep thinking people who are white are keeping them down.  Many people are free to protest and conduct other forms of activism, but still some suffer from despair and rage. Hence, such actions cannot be considered to meet the best practice standard. Yes, citizens and non-citizens of the United States have a right to protest.  The question is should we be performing public protests as professional counselors as a way to help clients obtain what they desire?  There are no ethical rules or other protocols on how or when to conduct activism activities such as protests and other forms of civil disobedience. Without such criteria, we cannot assure standards of care when such actions are taken. 

Promoting the sense of “victimhood” and “entitlement” is also a risk with public protests.  This is not to say that social barriers and stigma get in the way of life fulfillment.  I should know as an adult with disability and I counsel those with various neurological impairments and need advocacy support at times.  It is all in one’s attitude.  Yes, some who protest have a legitimate gripe with the system, but others use it as a way to gain attention, express displaced anger, want something they did not earn, and show people they are significant.  Such individuals seem to have a “chip on their shoulder.”  Often the social issues that bring rowdy and loud protesters out into the streets are not the ones that motivate them – the event(s) that sparked the protest was only the tipping point, the opportunity to create chaos in society because perhaps that’s how life has felt since the day they were born.  I do not believe such ingrained problems in the psyche can be corrected totally by social policy.  I venture to guess some of those people involved in protests in the past sometime in their lives were in counseling before and never received what they needed. Whether the therapists did not know what they were doing, or the client just did not want to hear it, is unknowable.  The issue is before we grab the picket signs or schedule die-ins with clients, we better ask ourselves “are we doing everything we can in the office to produce healthy outcomes at the end of therapy and what kind of behavior are we modeling for clients and society if counselors perform, organize, or join protests, even if it is peaceful?”

Why does social justice have to be at the center of every curriculum for counselor education in America? I am interested in neuroscience and disability.  Perhaps I want neuroscience and disability at the center – taught and integrated in each course plus its own stand-alone course, taught in every practicum and internship, in every program in the country.  Another professional wants family therapy at front and center and on it goes.  So whatever it is, it would be a social constructionist conceptualization, based on the preferences of a select few, rather than being based on objective scientific rational and what the majority of professionals conclude would be the best approach.

Dr. D’Andrea has proposed a “top-down” approach that seems bureaucratic and cumbersome to me.  Perhaps I do not have all the facts, but it seems from an outsider’s point of view, the clinicians working in their own communities should be able to determine what would work in their environments without having to report to a “big brother” structure.  In his Multicultural Coalition Building paper, Dr. D’Andrea suggests two oversight committees – the Health and Liberation Committee (HLC) and the International Social Justice Counseling and Advocacy Committee (ISJCAC) which I never heard of before and cannot find information on.  What is their composition?  What is their history?  What is their authority and by whom is it granted?  Some of this was probably discussed at the meeting, but more needs to be said and done. What does the ACA leadership think of the Peace and Justice project?  I think the members need to hear from them before it develops much further.  Moreover, every counselor, members and non-members of ACA, need to learn about this project and feedback listened to with responses. I reiterate, local control is best rather than national and international oversight. 

The other concern is dividing everyone into groups is maybe necessary for attending to special needs, but I fail to see how it unites anyone. This is how politicians gain votes.  Should we as professionals be doing the same?  I admit I don’t have a better idea currently, but it is an observation we all have to keep in mind.  Having objected, the project structure is set, so it will have to be accepted and we will have to see how it develops.

When social justice becomes emotional with knee-jerk reactions, it can become dangerous.  We have seen this tendency already in online discussions when follow counselors wrote the mantra “hands-up, don’t shoot” when we now know no such statement was made (United States Department of Justice, 2015).  One ACA member called the police “terrorists.”  What was first reported by most news media accounts regarding another shooting of a teen, in WI, who was black by a white police officer, turned out to be wrong (Branca, 2015). Sure enough the leaders of the social justice counseling movement jumped all over the first accounts in forums and emails, but never bothered to correct the narrative when new evidence emerged. Two police officers, went to the hospital because of being gunned down in Ferguson, MO 3/11/15 because of that type of thinking and public rhetoric.

In order for social justice to succeed, as it is prescribed by civil rights activists and the politicians, participants have to be loud and provocative, to gain attention.  It has to be “us vs them” type of mentality.  Activists always claim that they are for peaceful demonstration, but leaders sometimes are divisive in their comments and are a nuisance to having more constructive dialogue.  Do mental health professionals really want to go down this road or even be associated with “mob mentality?”  If there are clinicians, who would like to see a more conservative approach to client and public mental health advocacy, now is the time to speak up!

There may be a silent number of professionals in the association who share my concerns and do not wish to see a shift to dominate social justice model as it is being proposed.  War, poverty, racism (or any other “ism”) will be with civilization for the rest of human existence no matter what the mental health professionals do.  Do not think for one minute that professionals can go to Orlando and plan peaceful protests when they go home, talk it up in committee meetings and think the world will be a better place – it will not, to the degree the peace project seems to have been promoted!  We may be able to scale back some of these social ills, but never irradiate them. We can do this, only if we work together and use science based approaches rather than the radical social justice movement. 

Addressing New Professionals and Students

To graduate students and neophyte therapists who attended the conference and perhaps the Call-to-Conscious meeting, let me say a few things.  You had a fantastic opportunity to mingle with some of the best minds in the mental health profession today and I sincerely hope you enjoyed the experience.  Most are aware the field is made up of abstract and sometimes murky concepts.  After all, it is not like medicine where you can see the “broken bone” or do experiments with a chemical under a microscope in a laboratory.  We cannot see the “mind” or a “broken mind.” This is why people refer to fields such as ours as “soft sciences.”  Psychologists and counselors have tried to incorporate neuroscience into therapeutic practice recently (Schwartz, 2003; Doidge, 2007; Siegel, 2010; Russell-Chapman & Jones, 2014; Zara Wilson, 2014; Arden, 2015) to make up for the “material deficit,” but there is still something about the human mind that cannot be understood by studying neural firing or social contexts. Some may say “well, one can see or experience violence, oppression and discrimination.”  True!  I would argue, however, these are social phenomena, which are behaviorally derived and others have judged to be harmful to our existence.

I am sure Dr. D’Andrea had a well thought out and lively discussion.  I bet it was interesting and fun!  I only ask that people keep in mind that social justice is a subjective concept.  This means people will have to think critically as to what was said in the days, weeks, and months to come. If the new professionals and students think these issues through, I am sure the future of counseling will be bright.  I have nothing against Dr. D’Andrea’s peace initiative, but I am concerned that it will transform the counseling field into more of a political endeavor than it already is instead of a healing scientific field dedicated to human potential and development.  Whether the two can co-exist remains to be seen.

Another Strategy to Incorporate Social Justice Advocacy and Intervention

There are certain tasks that counselors can play incorporating some social justice characteristics.  Counselors can write and call, or meet with political legislators on issues pertaining to individual client issues or population concerns.  Working with attorney’s to address perceived wrong doing on a client’s behalf would be helpful.  Running community meetings with opposing sides of a conflict, offering combination of group therapy and remediation approaches may calm tensions in a community.  Perhaps counselors could help develop new models of community policing and help public officials implement them. Offering counseling services to political leaders and media professions on community, state and national levels may help correct ingrained negative attitudes, prevent or treat mental defects while in office, running for office, considering running for office, or reporting on politics, creating a more harmonious political dialogue throughout the nation.  For some, it may mean a career change or an additional specialization in fields such as sociology, social work, social psychology, or bioethics, where more social concerns are addressed, not that I think counselors should leave the profession, because we need all kinds of people with different perspectives.  For some, however, another discipline may make sense.

For a healthy outlook on American society, we need to help educators get back to teaching positive messages about their country.  For too long, our children have been taught what the US has done wrong, not what we have done right.  Lessons about our founders and the founding documents are either not taught at all or poorly.  Such education may shape young minds to dislike their own country and if the nation is bad, they must be bad as well and this may lead to troubling behavior because their social messages is about where they come from are largely negative.  We should also teach what some of the mistakes were in the past, but be fair and positive about the country.

Clinicians may want to ask clients periodically about how political events or other news are affecting their lives.  It is important to teach people to advocate for themselves.  This may be done individually or in skills groups.  Counselors may want to let clients do most of the work and only take initiative if clients run into difficulty.  There is an acknowledgement by some that the mind-body connection is disrupted by social injustice or chaotic environments.  Besides changing policy, clinicians can help clients reduce the stress by using techniques from the field of psychoneuroimmunology (Douthit, 2015).  Perhaps the ACA might want to collaborate with the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Counsel and the American Camp Association to put more emphasis on wilderness therapy and camp programs, since such outdoor environments tend to foster interpersonal learning and break down social barriers between people (Robinson, & Skelley Skinner, 1985; Thurber, 2011; Henderson, Thurber, Scanlin, Bialeschki; Louv, 2008; Louv, 2012; Bray, 2015). I argue that most of the social justice work has to be on the community level because of the above reasons mentioned. These are some ideas to reasonably incorporate social justice into practice without causing a perception by some as being too radical and losing our dignified approach to behavioral problems.

Conclusion

Encouraging professionals to protest, switch the counseling emphasis from the individual to group and societal solutions, and almost minimizing other variables in human behavior, may not turn out the way it is supposed to and take the profession in a direction it does not want to go.  Some may call this an overstatement and it is not where a social justice model would lead.  I only will say that counselors need to be aware of the developments and trends in the field within the next few years. I will probably find people debating me, but in reading the proposal, provocative comments and rhetoric from people who are supposed to be educated clinicians and researchers for behavioral health, I have to publicly object.  I ask Dr. D’Andrea and the other attendees at the Call-to-Conscious meeting have to be careful not to adopt an overly ambitious agenda and to consult with other members of the association. 

People may think I am insensitive to injustice in the world, or I’m promoting the prevailing professional stereotypes.  Before anyone debates me, keep in mind I am disabled with quadriplegic cerebral palsy and that is its own injustice itself, not to mention all the actual or perceived social injustice that I have suffered over my lifetime.  I have respect for all who struggle in this world.  I don’t care what color they are, what they look like, or where they come from.  Appealing to White-privilege and trying to stir up emotion so counselors become enraged themselves, is troubling to say the least.  We, as counselors, are better than this.  Members do not have to adopt the Call-to-Conscious the way it is being promoted.  I hope attendees think about what is being proposed.  Perhaps it is time to take another approach to these problems.

I know the position I am taking is not popular with a vocal number of counselors.  Call-to-Conscious does not always mean “follow the leader.” It also can mean coming to an awareness of your own values.  What does social justice really mean to you and how can it be achieved?  Can members like yourself really afford a radical experiment in social engineering?  Doesn't the world have enough social engineers?  There are certain steps we can all take toward assisting with social injustice, but interventions have to be based on science and best practices, not emotion or radical ideology. It will be interesting to see what this meeting will produce and whether the rest of the membership will go along.  The rest of us will be eagerly watching.  Thank you.

Author's Note:  This post is the sole opinion of the author and should not be construed to represent the official position of the American Counseling Association, its affiliates, or membership. It is not the author’s intent to make misleading statements about the subject at hand.  If any statement is thought to be in error, please confirm that statement and reflect upon the differing views.

References

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