Are Consultation and Social Justice Advocacy Similar?: Exploring the Perceptions of Professional Counselors and Counseling Students

Abstract

An exploratory pilot study was conducted to investigate the views of present and future counselors on whether and in what ways social justice advocacy and consultation may overlap and possibly synergize. Descriptive results indicate that study participants (n = 203) viewed (a) basic counseling skills, (b) problem-solving, (c) acting on behalf of clients, and (d) contextualizing client or student issues in relation to oppression as services that both consultants and advocates engage in. Practices such as diagnosis or direct action were viewed as unique to either consultation or advocacy. A multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that participants differed in their perceived similarity between consultation and advocacy based on the interaction of their practice setting and ethnic or racial identification. Implications for future research and theory are discussed.