Counseling for Multiculturalism and Social Justice: Integration, Theory, and Application

By Manivong J. Ratts and Paul B. Pedersen

In this book, Drs. Ratts and Pedersen combine the very best from the multicultural and social justice traditions into a new paradigm, which will guide counselors toward a deeper understanding of the connections between these two counseling forces. Significantly updated and expanded from the previous edition, this fourth edition focuses on applying multiculturalism and social justice in various clinical settings with diverse client populations.

A completely new applications section contains nine chapters on working with oppressed client groups, including African Americans; Asian and Pacific Islanders; Latin@s; multiracial individuals; Native Americans; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning clients; transgender individuals; women; and socioeconomically disadvantaged clients. Clients experiencing religious and spiritual concerns are discussed as well. Each of the chapters in this section provides an illustrative case study and numerous counseling examples.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Dec 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781119026174

Book preview

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About the Contributors

Section I: An Overview of Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling

Chapter 1: Multiculturalism and Social Justice: A Revolutionary Force in Counseling and Psychology

Chapter 2: Five Forces in Counseling and Psychology

Chapter 3: The Complexities of Identity

Chapter 4: Counselor–Advocate–Scholar Model: Merging Multiculturalism and Social Justice

Chapter 5: Worldview and Identity Development

Section II: Developing Multicultural and Social Justice Competence

Chapter 6: Using Appropriate Terminology

Chapter 7: Developing Multicultural Competence

Chapter 8: Developing Advocacy Competence

Chapter 9: Addressing Resistance and Gaining Buy-In for Multiculturalism and Social Justice

Section III: Addressing Individual and Systemic Oppression

Chapter 10: Counseling Clients From Asian and Pacific Island Heritages

Chapter 11: Counseling African Americans

Chapter 12: Counseling Native Americans and Social Justice

Chapter 13: Counseling Latin@s From a Social Justice Perspecive

Chapter 14: Counseling Multiracial Individuals and Families

Chapter 15: Social Justice Counseling Practices: Affirming Queer Pluralism With LGBQ Clients

Chapter 16: Counseling Transgender Clients

Chapter 17: Counseling Women

Chapter 18: A Social Justice Perspective on Counseling and Poverty

Chapter 19: Engaged Spirituality: A Heart for Social Justice

Index

Technical Support

End User License Agreement

Fourth Edition

Counseling for Multiculturalism and Social Justice

Integration, Theory, and Application

Manivong J. Ratts

Paul B. Pedersen

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ratts, Manivong J.

Counseling for multiculturalism and social justice : integration, theory, and application / Manivong J. Ratts and Paul B. Pedersen.—Fourth edition.

pages cm

Revised edition of Paul Pederson’s A Handbook for developing multicultural awareness, 3rd ed., published in 2000.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-55620-248-3 (alk. paper)

1. Cross-cultural counseling. 2. Minorities—Counseling of. 3. Ethnopsychology. 4. Counseling psychology—Moral and ethical aspects. 5. Social advocacy. 6. Social justice. I. Pedersen, Paul, 1936- II. Title.

BF636.7.C76R38 2014

158.3—dc23

2013047397

Dedication

I dedicate this book to Nga Thi Truong and Kieu An Ratts. Working on this book has been challenging because it has meant time away from the both of you. Thank you for all of your love and support.

—Manivong J. Ratts

• • •

I would like to dedicate this book to students who aspire to become multicultural and social justice change agents.

—Paul B. Pedersen

Preface

Skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.

—R. MacGregor, Fortune Smiled Upon Us

• • •

Retired hockey great Wayne Gretzky is known to live by this maxim, which his father shared with him. Gretzky’s ability to foresee where the puck was going allowed him to stay ahead of the game and excel in the sport of hockey. This perspective can also be applied to the field of counseling and psychology. The future of counseling and psychology rests on our ability to continue to refine the multicultural and social justice counseling perspectives. We need to have the foresight to know where both perspectives are heading if counseling and psychology are to be sustainable resources. We must use research to improve our understanding of multiculturalism and social justice. Research, when done appropriately, can provide the vision to sustain the multicultural and social justice counseling forces. Just as important is the need for clinical practice to be informed by clients who seek psychological and community-based services. Clients bring with them a wealth of experiences and knowledge that should not be ignored.

As we look to the future of the counseling profession, we believe the next iteration is to bridge the multicultural and social justice perspectives. By bridging these two complementary forces, we expand the boundaries of imagination and practice on the ways in which counseling can be used to positively impact individuals and communities. Moreover, we address the challenge of living in a multicultural and socially just world in which people are able to live full and self-fulfilling lives.

The need to acknowledge and combine multiculturalism with social justice cannot be overstated. If counselors lack multicultural competence, they will be ineffective social change agents. No matter how well-intentioned, highly skilled, well trained, or intelligent they are, they can do harm if they make wrong or culturally inappropriate assumptions; they can inadvertently promote social change strategies that are not in clients’ best interests. Counselors may ignore the relevance of culture and disregard the influence of the sociopolitical milieu, or they may inappropriately use individual therapy to address systemic issues without getting at the source of the problem. The inaccuracy or misattribution resulting from wrong assumptions or from disregarding the influence of contextual factors on individuals translates into defensive disengagement by both providers and consumers of counseling, each trying to protect the truth as they perceive it.

The current trend toward increased multicultural counseling among counselors is critical and has been argued to be a fourth force in the helping professions with as profound an impact on counseling as the third force of humanism had on the prevailing psychodynamic (first force) and behavioral systems (second force) of that time (Pedersen, 1991). Each force reflects a new movement in counseling and psychology. The multicultural dimension is not competing with other counseling theories. By making culture central to humanism, psychodynamism, and behavioral psychology, those perspectives are strengthened, not weakened.

Similar arguments have also been made to consider social justice as a fifth force in counseling (Ratts, 2009; Ratts, D’Andrea, & Arredondo, 2004). Social justice is a paradigm unto itself distinct from all other helping models. Social justice counseling acknowledges that human development issues need to be understood within the context of living in an oppressive environment. Counseling is not office bound. The debilitating impact of oppression warrants the need for advocacy and activism in communities. Social justice counselors understand that counseling involves both individual and systems work.

Developing into multicultural and social justice competent counselors is not an easy task. Multiculturalism and social justice are too often classified as secondary or tertiary prevention approaches. It is something that counselors do if they have time for it, or it is something that is superficially added to an already established theory or practice. This attitude and antiquated way of thinking does nothing but hinder the profession and our clients. Some counselors will become so frustrated by their inability to connect with individuals from oppressed groups that they will blame their lack of multicultural and social justice competence on the clients themselves.

Counselors can choose either to ignore the influence of culture and oppression or to address it head on. In this book we discuss the increasing need to merge the multicultural and social justice forces into all facets of the helping field. We make several assumptions in writing this book, some of which are more controversial than others. Let us state these assumptions directly and explicitly.

There is complexity in the multiple aspects of human identity.

Multiculturalism is broadly defined and includes all the unique dimensions that shape human identity.

All counseling takes place in a multicultural and sociopolitical context.

The most important elements of multicultural and social justice competence can be learned but cannot be taught. Good teaching can, however, create the favorable conditions for multicultural and social justice competence to occur.

Multiculturalism and social justice go hand in hand. Both are necessary conditions in any psychotherapeutic interaction.

People experience both oppression and privilege. We are members of dominant (oppressor) and target (oppressed) groups.

The interlocking system of power, privilege, and oppression exists on many levels and hinders human growth and development.

Counseling that is informed by intrapsychic approaches cannot sufficiently resolve systemic based issues.

Counseling includes both individual therapy and systems advocacy.

Counseling can serve as a vehicle to oppress or liberate clients.

The 4th edition of this book is significantly different from previous editions. Earlier editions of this book were titled A Handbook for Developing Multicultural Awareness. The book was a resource guide on developing multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skill. To make this book relevant to the times, the following substantive and formative changes were made.

We adopted a broader and more inclusive definition of multiculturalism. We focus on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability status, and religion/spirituality as it relates to counseling. We bridge the very best from the multicultural force with the strengths of the social justice force to create a new paradigm.

We introduce two self-assessment instruments that help measure counselors’ awareness of their level of multicultural and advocacy competence.

We offer a framework that merges the multicultural and social justice forces and helps counselors to determine whether individual counseling (office-based interventions), advocacy counseling (community-based work), or both are needed when working with clients. We added an application section written by experts in the field that operationalizes multiculturalism and social justice with various client populations.

As a result of these changes we have retitled the book Counseling for Multiculturalism and Social Justice: Integration, Theory, and Application. We believe this title better reflects the intent of the book. We integrated both the multicultural and social justice perspectives into one unifying force. Past theories are highlighted along with their connection to current and emerging multicultural and social justice concepts. We also focused on applying multiculturalism and social justice in clinical settings. The book has three parts, each of which is described in the following sections.

Section I: An Overview of Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling

Section I encompasses Chapters 1–5, which provide foundational theories, concepts, and the context needed to understand the role of multiculturalism and social justice in counseling.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of both the multicultural counseling and social justice counseling movements and their connection. This chapter helps readers gain a historical perspective of the roots of multiculturalism and social justice in counseling. Chapter 2 highlights the five counseling forces in counseling and psychology. This chapter begins with an overview of the major tenets of the psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, existential-humanistic, multicultural, and social justice counseling forces and a critique of each. Chapter 3 describes the complexities of identity as well as the influence of oppression on identity. Privilege, border, and oppressed groups are identified and discussed. This chapter highlights the need to understand identity within the context of living in an oppressive society and the influence of power and privilege. Chapter 4 bridges the multicultural and social justice counseling forces into one unified approach. We introduce readers to the counselor–advocate–scholar model, which provides a framework that counselors can use to determine whether individual therapy or systems-level work is needed and integrates scholarship. Chapter 5 explores the concept of worldview and provides a comprehensive summary of predominant identity development models in the literature related to race, gender, and sexual orientation. Identity development models are important to understanding how oppression impacts racial, gender, and sexual identity development.

Section II. Developing Multicultural and Social Justice Competence

The chapters in this section focus on practical strategies that can help one develop into a multicultural and advocacy competent helping professional. Chapter 6 discusses the importance of terminology and its dynamic nature. We offer suggestions on how to refer to individuals based on their group membership. Using appropriate terminology is important to creating an affirming clinical environment. Chapter 7 explains the importance of developing multicultural competence. The Multicultural Competencies Self-Assessment Survey is provided as a tool to gauge the counselor’s level of multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Chapter 8 discusses the importance of developing advocacy competence. The Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment Survey is introduced to help counselors develop into advocacy competent change agents. Chapter 9 explains why gaining buy-in and addressing resistance toward multiculturalism and social justice are important. We introduce E. M. Rogers’s (2003) diffusion of innovation theory as a basis for how to infuse multiculturalism and social justice into counseling theories, research, and practices.

Section III. Addressing Individual and Systemic Oppression

In Section III we operationalize multiculturalism and social justice when working with oppressed client populations. This section is perhaps the most significant addition to the book. We invited scholars who are recognized experts in their respective areas to write application chapters focused on counseling from a multicultural and social justice framework. Each of the application chapters provides a historical overview of an oppressed group, identifies key multicultural concepts and systemic barriers, and offers a case study to help readers operationalize multicultural and social justice counseling tenets. Client confidentiality was maintained in all case material so that the client and third parties (e.g., family members) are not identifiable. (Some examples are actually composites of many individuals known to the authors.)

Examples of individual counseling and advocacy counseling are offered for each client group discussed. We note that practical considerations regarding book length prevented us from including chapters on all oppressed client groups. Issues relevant to the following client populations are included: Asian and Pacific Islanders (Chapter 10); African Americans (Chapter 11); Native Americans (Chapter 12); Latin@s (Chapter 13); multiracial individuals and families (Chapter 14); lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer individuals (Chapter 15); transgender individuals (Chapter 16); women (Chapter 17); and the poor (Chapter 18). Chapter 19 takes up religious and spiritual issues in counseling.

Multiculturalism and social justice are too complex a topic for any one book to cover completely; we have barely scratched the surface here. This book is intended to guide the reader toward a deeper understanding of the connection and practical applications when multiculturalism and social justice are integrated into the field. The reader is encouraged to seek further training and professional development to gain a deeper understanding of concepts discussed in this book.

References

MacGregor, R. (1999). Fortune smiled upon us. In S. Dryden (Ed.), Total Gretzky: The magic, the legend, the numbers (p. 19). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: McClelland & Stewart.

Pedersen, P. B. (1991). Multiculturalism as a generic approach to counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70, 6–12.

Ratts, M. J. (2009). Social justice counseling: Toward the development of a fifth force among counseling paradigms. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 48, 160–172.

Ratts, M. J., D’Andrea, M., & Arredondo, P. (2004). Social justice counseling: Fifth force in field. Counseling Today, 47, 28–30.

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge both Alexa Wayman and Jennifer Truong, recent graduate counseling students at Seattle University, for their research assistance with the book. Their commitment to multiculturalism and social justice has been important in helping to put this book together.

• • •

In memory of Dr. Judy Lewis, cofounder of Counselors for Social Justice and past president of the American Counseling Association. Dr. Lewis embodies the very best of humanity. Though she will be missed, her presence in the field will always be felt.

About the Authors

Manivong J. Ratts, PhD, NCC, is associate professor in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at Seattle University, a program accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. He is past-president of Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association (ACA), and founder of Seattle University Counselors for Social Justice, an advocacy organization that addresses issues of equity impacting individuals and communities. Dr. Ratts received his PhD in Counseling from Oregon State University (OSU). He also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Western Washington University and a master’s degree in counseling from OSU. Dr. Ratts’s scholarship promotes social justice counseling as an emerging paradigm and addresses the need for mental health professionals to act as agents for social and political change. He has published in such peer-reviewed journals as the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, Journal of Counseling & Development, and Counselor Education and Supervision. Dr. Ratts is the lead co-editor of the book ACA Advocacy Competencies: A Social Justice Framework for Counselors (2010, with Rebecca L. Toporek and Judith A. Lewis) and has produced two videos through Alexander Street Press—Four Approaches to Counseling One Client: Medical, Intrapsychic, Multicultural, and Social Justice Counseling Paradigms (2011) and a five-part DVD series titled Five Forces of Counseling and Psychotherapy: Psychoanalytic, Cognitive-Behavioral, Existential-Humanistic, Multicultural, and Social Justice (2013). Dr. Ratts has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Counseling and Development and the Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology.

Paul B. Pedersen, PhD, is professor emeritus in the Department of Counseling and Human Services in the School of Education at Syracuse University. He previously held academic positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Syracuse University, the East-West Center, and the University of Minnesota, and he served as faculty or visiting fellow at Harvard University, University of Hawaii, and the University of Pittsburgh—Semester at Sea. Dr. Pedersen is a fellow in Divisions 9 (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues), 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology), 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues), and 52 (International Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Pedersen has authored or edited 45 books, 100 articles, 82 chapters, and 22 monographs on aspects of multicultural/cross-cultural counseling and international communication. His body of work includes such classic books as Counseling Across Cultures (a textbook in its 6th edition, with Walter J. Lonner, Juris G. Draguns, and Joseph E. Trimble), Case Incidents in Counseling for International Transitions (with Nancy Arthur), Handbook for Developing Multicultural Awareness (3d edition), Preventing Prejudice (with Joseph G. Ponterotto and Shawn O. Utsey, 2d edition), Progress in Asian Social Psychology: Conceptual and Empirical Contributions (with Kuo-Shu Yang, Kwang-Kuo Hwang, and Ikuo Daibo), Counseling Refugees: A Psychosocial Approach to Innovative Multicultural Interventions (with Fred Bemak and Rita Chi-Ying Chung), Hidden Messages in Culture-Centered Counseling: A Triad Training Model, Constructive Conflict Management: Asian and Pacific Cases (with Fred E. Jandt), Five Stages of Culture Shock: Critical Incidents Around the World, Culture-Centered Counseling and Interviewing Skills (with Allen Ivey), Mental Health Services: The Cross-Cultural Context (with N. Sartorius and Anthony J. Marsella), and many others.

About the Contributors

Jodi L. Bartley is a doctoral candidate in the Counseling and Counselor Education program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is also a national certified counselor and a licensed professional counselor associate in North Carolina. She has a BA in education, an MA in educational psychology, and an MEd in mental health counseling. Her research interests include relational depth and spirituality.

S. Kent Butler, PhD, is associate professor of counseling at the University of Central Florida. He holds a PhD in educational psychology, with a concentration in counseling psychology, from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Butler is a licensed professional counselor, national certified counselor, and nationally certified school counselor. He joined the faculty at the University of Central Florida as an associate professor in 2007. Previously he was on faculty at the University of Missouri—St. Louis, where he served the Division of Counseling and Family Therapy as the coordinator of the School Counseling Program, coordinator of the Counseling Clinic, and faculty advisor to Chi Sigma Iota. He also served as the principal investigator on a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Earmark Grant: University of Missouri, Division of Counseling and Family Therapy-Drug Free Family Initiative. Dr. Butler is past-president of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development.

Craig S. Cashwell, PhD, LPC, NCC, ACS, CSAT, is a professor in the Department of Counseling and Educational Development at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and owner of Cashwell Counseling and Consulting, PLLC. Dr. Cashwell has received numerous awards, including outstanding mentor awards from the UNCG and the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools, the Chi Sigma Iota International Thomas J. Sweeney Professional Leadership Award, and the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling Lifetime Service Award. In 2011, he received designation as an American Counseling Association (ACA) Fellow.

Catherine Y. Chang, PhD, LPC, NCC, is a professor at Georgia State University and program coordinator for the counselor education and practice doctoral program. She also serves as the director for international programs for the Georgia State University College of Education. She has published and presented in the areas of social justice and advocacy, multicultural counseling competence, privilege and oppression, and supervision. Additionally, she was the lead editor for the book Professional Counseling Excellence Through Leadership and Advocacy and the lead editor for the special issue on Social Justice for the Counselor Education and Supervision journal. She has served as president of Chi Sigma Iota (2009–2010) and vice president of the Asian and Pacific Islander American concerns of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (2010–2013). She is the recipient of the ACA Research Award, the ACA Counselor Educator Advocacy Award, the Association for Assessment in Counseling and Education Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development Research Award, the Pre-tenured and Tenured Counselor Educator Award from the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and the Alumni Excellence Award from the Department of Counseling and Educational Development at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She serves on the editorial boards for the Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development and Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation journals.

Kelley R. Kenney, EdD, is a licensed professional counselor and a full professor in the Department of Counseling and Student Affairs at Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, where she coordinates the student affairs administration and college counseling graduate programs. Dr. Kenney is a coauthor of Counseling Multiracial Families, published by Sage Publications; coauthor and codirector (with Mark Kenney) of the training video Counseling the Multiracial Population: Couples, Individuals, and Families, distributed by Insight Media and Microtraining Associates; and an author and coauthor of numerous articles, monographs, and book chapters on the multiracial population. She is a cochair of the ACA’s Multiracial/Multiethnic Counseling Concerns Interest Network, an advisory board member of Loving Day, and the immediate past-Governing Council representative for the ACA’s North Atlantic Region.

Mark E. Kenney, MEd, is a licensed professional counselor and the coordinator of the masters program in psychology at Chestnut Hill College/DeSales University campus in Center Valley, PA. He is also a coauthor of Counseling Multiracial Families, published by Sage Publications; coauthor and codirector (with Kelley Kenney) of the training video Counseling the Multiracial Population: Couples, Individuals, and Families, distributed by Insight Media and Microtraining Associates; as well as a coauthor of several book chapters addressing the multiracial population. He is cochair of the ACA’s Multiracial/Multiethnic Counseling Concerns Interest Network and an advisory board member of Loving Day.

Jennifer Londgren, MS, LAMFT, NCC, is a second-year doctoral student in the counselor education and supervision program at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She is a therapist working at an inpatient treatment center for women and their children; in her clinical work, she focuses on issues of addiction, poverty, and trauma. She is also a qualitative researcher and an adjunct faculty member at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Laura A. Maki has a master’s degree in communication studies from the University of Minnesota and is currently completing a doctoral degree in counselor education and supervision with an emphasis in college student affairs at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her research interests include women’s mentoring experiences and women’s experiences in leadership in higher education.

Julian Rafferty McCullough, MAEd, is currently a doctoral student in the counselor education and supervision program at Georgia State University, a program accredited by the Counsel for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. He holds a BA in philosophy from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and a master’s in education in school counseling from Seattle University. He is a former adjunct professor in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at Seattle University and is one of the founding members for Seattle University Counselors for Social Justice. His background as an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and especially transgender youth and adults and as a middle school counselor in impoverished, urban communities has further strengthened his commitment to multicultural and social justice concerns in the field of counseling.

C. Peeper McDonald is a doctoral student in the counselor education and practice PhD program at Georgia State University. She holds master’s and specialist in education degrees in professional counseling. Her professional and research interests include counselor identity development and advocacy, social justice, and diversity issues within counseling and supervision. She values servant leadership and as a result has served in her local Chi Epsilon chapter of Chi Sigma Iota between 2010 and 2013, served as a National 2013–2014 CSI Leadership Fellow, and has served in her community for several years as a youth group leader for high school girls.

Caroline O’Hara, EdS, LPC, NCC, is a doctoral student in the counselor education and practice program at Georgia State University. An active scholar and researcher, Ms. O’Hara has published and presented at the national level in the areas of identity development, social justice counseling, sexual and gender diversity, multicultural competence, counseling supervision, and advocacy (both client and professional). She has also held multiple leadership positions. Locally, she has served as president of the Chi Epsilon Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota (CSI). Nationally, she serves as chair of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) Diversity Committee, Student perspectives editor for AARC’s NewsNotes, associate student editor of the CSI Exemplar, and member of the CSI Professional Advocacy Committee. She has been recognized with the CSI International Leadership Fellow and Intern Award, the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Emerging Leader Fellow Award, and the American Counseling Association Courtland C. Lee Multicultural Excellence Scholarship Award.

Jennifer L. Pepperell, PhD, NCC, LPC, is an associate professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Prior to her faculty position, her primary clinical focus had been with children and adolescents, in both shelter and school settings. She completed her doctoral degree at Oregon State University in counselor education and supervision. She is a qualitative researcher with a research focus on the identity formation of girls and women and on youth and college students in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Her research is predominantly conducted through a feminist and social justice lens.

Rebecca Reed, EdM, is a PhD candidate in the counseling psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She received her EdM in psychological counseling from Teachers College. Previously, she worked in a charter school in Harlem, New York, as a guidance counselor and admissions coordinator, where she provided academic and personal counseling services for children and parents. Her research interests include participatory action research training, poverty, and the influence of social class on education.

Varunee Faii Sangganjanavanich, PhD, is an assistant professor of counseling at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. She is a national certified counselor and a licensed professional clinical counselor with supervisor endorsement in the state of Ohio. She received her doctoral degree in counselor education and supervision from the University of Northern Colorado. Her clinical work focuses on gender identity and transition counseling. In addition, she has authored and coauthored numerous publications and presentations in the field of counseling and counselor education, particularly in the area of gender transition counseling and career development of transgender individuals.

M. Ann Shillingford-Butler, PhD, is an assistant professor of counselor education at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. She worked for several years as a professional school counselor prior to completing her doctorate at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Shillingford-Butler has written several articles and book chapters on multicultural issues, particularly those that affect children and those who serve them.

Laura Smith, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned her doctoral degree in counseling psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and has worked in a variety of applied settings in New York City. She was formerly the founding director of the Rosemary Furman Counseling Center at Barnard College and the director of psychological services at the West Farms Center, where she provided services, training, and programming within a multifaceted community-based organization in the Bronx. Dr. Smith’s research interests include social class and poverty, the influence of classism on psychological theory and practice, the development of socially just practice models for psychologists at the community level, and participatory action research in schools and communities.

Timothy C. Thomason, EdD, is a professor in the Educational Psychology Department at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He is a licensed psychologist and a national certified counselor. He has conducted research on counseling Native Americans and has published many articles and book chapters, many of which are available at the website http://works.bepress.com/timothy_thomason/.

Edil Torres-Rivera, PhD, is a professor of counseling in the School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in Education at the University of Florida. He holds a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Connecticut. His research agenda is about multicultural counseling, group work, chaos theory, liberation psychology, technology, supervision, multicultural counseling, prisons, Puerto Rican studies, identity development, and gang-related behavior. Dr. Torrres-Rivera’s primary research focuses on the role of indigenous healing techniques when working with ethnic minority populations in the United States and the implications of social injustice and oppression in counseling and psychotherapy with ethnic minorities, in particular, with school-age Latinos/Latinas in the United States.

Alexa Wayman holds an MAEd in counseling from Seattle University, wherein she completed a year-long internship at an alternative education K-8 school in Seattle. Her current work involves engaging with children and families in a low-income neighborhood through the Seattle University Center for Service and Community Engagement. Working with the Seattle University Youth Initiative, she strives to foster family resilience and advocates for early learning and closing the achievement gap with immigrant families. She is actively pursuing ways to engage in research and practice to respond to the needs of marginalized communities; she is currently involved in a qualitative study investigating causal factors for English language learners student dropout and retention rates.

Alexander C. Winninghoff is an educator and writer. She completed a BA in social justice at Antioch University and a master’s in teaching from Seattle University. She has served in the greater Seattle area as a diversity trainer and policy consultant for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer issues in a school district and as a youth advocate with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. She currently teaches at an inner-city high school in Atlanta.

Section I

An Overview of Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling

Chapter 1

Multiculturalism and Social Justice: A Revolutionary Force in Counseling and Psychology

There is a growing sentiment in the counseling profession that hegemonic counseling theories do not adequately address the needs of historically marginalized populations. Predominant theories in counseling do not take into account the unique needs of people of color; women; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals; socioeconomically disadvantaged clients; religious minorities; and other oppressed client populations. Predominant counseling theories, which we illustrate in detail in Chapter 2, tend to discount the importance of cultural factors, place excessive weight on individual change, blame historically marginalized clients for their predicament, and ignore the relevance of external factors to clients' health and well-being. Despite the growing body of literature (Ponterotto, Casas, Suzuki, & Alexander, 2010; Sue & Sue, 2013) indicating the importance of cultural factors in counseling and the need to contextualize client problems and interventions (Ratts, Toporek, & Lewis, 2010), counselors continue to use archaic counseling practices that are remedial at best.

Consider the following examples:

After seeing several counselors in his community, Victor, a 36-year-old African American gay male client, decided to travel more than 100 miles each way once a week to see a counselor who specialized in gay and lesbian issues. The counselors in his rural community were not able to address the struggles he was experiencing with family and work regarding his sexual identity. Victor was shunned by his family after telling them he was gay. They had cut off all communication with him. He did not come out to his colleagues at work for fear of losing his job. His colleagues often made anti-gay jokes, which made him feel uncomfortable. He could not speak out mainly because he did not want them to know that he was gay and because his work's anti-discrimination policy did not include sexual orientation.

At one campus, most students of color preferred to see the staff at the Multicultural Affairs center on campus instead of the counseling staff at the university counseling center. Although the Multicultural Affairs staff were not trained counselors or psychologists, they often talked with students of color about such issues as racial identity, relationships, college transition, and other personal or social concerns. The counseling center staff did not approve; they believed that students of color should be referred to them because they were trained to provide clinical services. The Multicultural Affairs staff reported that students of color regarded the counseling staff as insensitive to their cultural concerns. For example, many students of color reported that counselors seemed distant in sessions and appeared hesitant to share about their background. Many students of color, who are collectivistic in orientation, also reported that counselors lacked an understanding of how family played a role in their career choices. Students of color also reported that counseling staff, unlike Multicultural Affairs staff, were rarely present at student functions, which made them seem distant.

Steven, a 19-year-old transgender male client, was recently diagnosed with depression. His family had become distant from him ever since he told them he was intending to transition from female to male. He spent a majority of his time home alone and reported not having any friends. Steven did not agree with the diagnosis of depression; he believed that his struggles were due to his family's inability to accept his gender identity. After 2 months, Steven realized that the majority of time in therapy was spent educating his therapist on the issues experienced by transgender people; for example, his therapist did not know what needed to be included in a letter he was going to write to Steven's physician so that he could receive hormone medication. Steven decided to terminate therapy; he wanted a counselor who could address his concerns and not someone who he paid to educate.

Yen, a 35-year-old Vietnamese female client living in poverty in a major urban city, received a letter in the mail from her therapist who decided to terminate their relationship because she was late for therapy a third time without calling 24 hours in advance. Because she relied on public transportation to get to her counseling sessions, it often took about an hour to get from home to her counselor's office. The therapist had a 15-minute no-excuse late policy. Yen was unable to afford a cell phone (or a car, for that matter), so she was unable to call her therapist to inform her that she was running late on the three occasions that she was delayed by heavy traffic.

In each of these examples, the counselor failed the client. Equally unfortunate about each of these situations is that the failure often goes unnoticed. The counselors in the rural community will continue practicing without realizing that they cannot provide adequate clinical services to gay clients. The counselors in the university counseling center are likely to remain entrenched in what they have been trained to do, which is to require students of color to adapt to their own theoretical orientation. The therapist working with the transgender client likely feels that she is providing the client an affirming clinical environment. Yen's therapist may never realize that requiring her client to come to her office without being flexible regarding appointment times is an added structural barrier to accessing therapy.

These examples illustrate real-life multicultural interactions that occur every day between clients and counselors. These situations highlight how inequitable social structures contribute to client problems. Each example demonstrates how race, ethnicity, gender, and social class influence the therapeutic relationship, and each example reflects the harm that well-intentioned but ill-equipped counselors have on clients when they are unable to address multicultural issues and systemic barriers.

We hope this book helps to clarify, explain, and expand on the importance of multiculturalism and social justice in counseling. Multicultural and social justice counseling have transcended the field of counseling and psychology in ways its founders could not have imagined. These changes highlight the need for all counselors to possess multicultural and social justice competence. The issues that clients bring to therapy cannot be understood simply by exploring client cognition, affect, and behavior. Understanding people's lived experiences is not possible without a grasp of the larger cultural and social context.

The purpose of this book is to help counselors develop both multicultural and social justice competence and to understand its application with clients and communities. Both multicultural and social justice perspectives are crucial to effective and ethical practice. For this reason, we attempt to bridge these two complementary perspectives by shedding light on the distinctions, and the symbiotic relationship, between the two. We begin this chapter by providing an overview of the flaws in psychology and its impact on counseling. An overview and history of the multicultural and social justice counseling perspectives is offered along with important events that shaped both perspectives.

Promotion of the Status Quo

The failure of the counseling profession and (more broadly) psychology to respond to the needs of historically marginalized client populations has received considerable attention. This failure can be attributed to a variety of factors. One, counseling continues to use theories that minimize clients' cultural background and that discount the influence of contextual factors on human development. The lack of attention to cultural factors and the larger sociopolitical context has to do in part because psychology, and by extension counseling, is in direct competition with the natural sciences. Both the natural sciences and the social sciences are in direct competition to be at the top of the food chain in the helping professions. It is this competition that leads to counseling theories and practices that lack an adequate epistemology (Martin-Baró, 1996). Two, the prevailing belief that counseling is an office-bound profession is also a constraint that limits what counselors can do. By virtue of the very system they have helped to construct, such as managed care, counselors have limited their own ability to address oppressive systemic barriers impacting clients. Three, another factor contributing to the failure of counseling in this respect is the flawed practice of having counselors align with a theoretical counseling orientation prior to working with clients. For example, graduate counseling students are often taught that they need to affiliate themselves with a particular counseling theory before they are to work with clients. This approach to counselor training leads to a counselor-driven model of helping that does not sufficiently meet the needs of oppressed client groups. We discuss each of these factors below.

Psychology's Inferiority Complex

The need for the social sciences to be on par with the natural sciences contributes to the inability of psychology to address the needs of oppressed groups. In order to be viewed as equals to scientists, psychologists adopted concepts and methods from the natural sciences.For example, an important aspect of psychotherapy stresses the need for counselors to be objective and value neutral. Like scientists in a lab, counselors are trained to maintain professional distance from clients so that the therapeutic process can unfold without counselor bias. We believe that objectivity and value neutrality in counseling are impossible and that they mystify the counseling process. Counseling is a value-laden experience to which clients and counselors bring their own biases, values, and experiences.

The need of social scientists to be viewed as equals to natural scientists is also seen in counseling and psychology's acceptance of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The DSM is largely created by psychiatrists to promote the practice of psychiatry. Counseling and psychology have little to no say in the development of the DSM. When helping professionals uncritically accept the DSM-5 as dogma or rely solely on it without considering cultural or systemic factors, they are essentially relying on psychiatry to define what is normal and abnormal. This practice is both dangerous and careless. It places the profession in a predicament where psychiatry dictates psychological practice and determines the value and worth of psychological practice in ways that serve its own interests.

There is an inherent flaw in applying methods and concepts from the natural sciences in the social sciences. Both are completely different disciplines with unique rules, variables, and nuances. Concepts and methods established in one discipline do not necessarily apply to another. By uncritically incorporating methodologies and concepts from the natural sciences, counseling and psychology assume lesser significance as disciplines.

Lack of an Adequate Epistemology

Martin-Baró (1996) discussed five assumptions inherent in psychology that limit its ability to address the needs of marginalized client populations:

Positivism, the belief that knowledge should be based on logic, facts, events, and empirical research. The assumption is that society, much like science, operates according to general laws. These general laws are often based on dominant value systems and tend to place value of quantitative research over qualitative research. That which cannot be measured quantitatively (e.g., client and community voices) is rejected.

Individualism, the belief that human behavior can be understood separate from the social context. Values such as independence, self-reliance, and autonomy are promoted over those of the group. Structural problems are perceived as being rooted in individual problems. Not all cultures value individualism. For instance, many Asian cultures place high value on collectivism and making decisions that promote the larger group (e.g., family). Psychology's promotion of individualism creates a hierarchy whereby collectivism is devalued.

Hedonism, the belief that all human behavior is a never-ending quest for pleasure. Human beings seek happiness over pain. All theories are imbedded in hedonism in that they strive to help people achieve full pleasure. This perspective ignores alternative perspectives. For instance, within the Buddhist perspective suffering is considered a natural and healthy aspect of human development.

The homeostatic vision, whereby human beings endeavor to have balance in life. Disequilibrium, change, crisis, or anything that ruptures this ideal balance is viewed negatively. This explains why social change is difficult for many in society to accept—it often leads to disequilibrium in the sense that it changes the status quo.

Ahistoricism, a core tenet of science that all humans are the same regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, social class, disability status, and religion. The assumption that predominant theories and concepts can be modified to make them applicable to all groups is an example in psychology. This belief often leads to the application of dominant cultural theories and concepts on cultures and groups that hold differing worldviews and perspectives, which in turn can lead to labeling marginalized communities as abnormal.

For psychology, and thereby counseling, to truly be appropriate to historically oppressed groups, such issues need to be addressed. To ignore these issues would mean running the risk of doing harm to clients from oppressed groups and communities.

Office-Bound Profession

Students often enter graduate counseling programs with a predetermined idea of what counseling entails. Many begin their training with the idea that counseling is a one-on-one process that takes place in an