Towards a Decolonization of Counseling

CSJ Responds to Racial Violence & Injustice

Authors

  • Lauren Shure Barry University
  • Ebony E. White Department of Counseling and Family Therapy, Drexel University
  • Darius A. Green Department of Counseling and Human Services, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs
  • Rachael D. Goodman College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University
  • Colette T. Dollarhide Department of Educational Studies, The Ohio State University
  • Shon Smith Counselors for Social Justice
  • Frannie Neal Chesterfield County Public Schools

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33043/JSACP.15.1.2-13

Keywords:

advocacy, social justice, racial justice, organizational leadership, decolonization

Abstract

The racist violence that occurred during the summer of 2020 was a tipping point forcing many people and institutions to acknowledge and address racial inequities in the United States. As the “conscience” of ACA, Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ) responded to this crisis through immediate action and strategic planning. This article discusses the process used by CSJ leaders to meet the CSJ mission of “promoting social justice…through confronting oppressive systems of power and privilege that affect professional counselors and our clients and to assist in the positive change in our society through the professional development of counselors” during this critical time. Recommendations for moving toward a decolonization of counseling practice, supervision, education, and research also are provided.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

American Counseling Association (2014). ACA Code of Ethics. Alexandria, VA: Author.

American Counseling Association. (2011). ACA Standing Committees Leadership Manual. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/AboutUs/PDF/Committee_Leadership_Manual.pdf

Austin, D. (2020, June). George Floyd’s death has to be a tipping point. White people like me must fight racism. THINK Newsletter, Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/george-floyd-s-death-has-be-tipping-pointwhite-people-ncna1229181

Bryant-Davis, T., Adams, T., Alejandre, A., & Gray, A. A. (2017). The trauma lens of police violence against racial and ethnic minorities. Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 852-871. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12251

Comas-Díaz, L. (2016). Racial trauma recovery: A race-informed therapeutic approach to racial wounds. In A. N. Alvarez, C. T. H. Liang, & H. A. Neville (Eds.). The cost of racism for people of color: Contextualizing experiences of discrimination (pp. 249-272). http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14852-012

Comas-Díaz, L., Hall, G. N., & Neville, H. A. (2019). Racial trauma: Theory, research, and healing: Introduction to the special issue. American Psychologist, 74(1), 1-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000442

Counselors for Social Justice (2021). History. Counselors for Social Justice. https://www.counseling-csj.org/

Cross, W. E., Jr., & Strauss, L. (1998). The everyday functions of African American identity. In J. K. Swim (Ed.). Prejudice: The target’s perspective (pp. 267-279). Academic Press, Inc.

Dollarhide, C. T., Hale, S. C., & Stone-Sabali, S. (2021). A new model for social justice supervision. Journal of Counseling & Development, 99(1), 104–113. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12358

French, B. H., Lewis, J. A., Mosley, D. V., Adames, H. Y., Chavez-Dueñas, N. Y., Chen, G. A., & Neville, H. A. (2020). Toward a psychological framework of radical healing in communities of color. The Counseling Psychologist, 48(1), 14–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000019843506

Ferdman, B. M., & Gallegos, P. I. (2001). Latinos and racial identity development. In C. L. Wijeyesinghe & B. W. Jackson III (Eds.), New perspectives on racial identity development: A theoretical and practical anthology (pp. 32-66). New York University Press.

Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin Classics.

Gone, J. P. (2009). A community-based treatment for Native American historical trauma: Prospects for evidence-based practice. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77(4), 751-62. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015390

Gonzalez, I. A., & Cokley, R. K. (2021). The case for a core anti-racist course for counselors in training, Teaching and Supervision in Counseling, 3(2), 26-27. https://doi.org/10.7290/tsc030204

Goodman, R. D. (2014). A liberatory approach to trauma counseling: Decolonizing our trauma-informed practices. In R. D. Goodman & P. Gorksi (Eds.), Decolonizing “multicultural” counseling through social justice (pp. 55-72). Springer.

Goodman, R. D., Williams, J., Chung, R. C-Y., Talleyrand, R., Douglass, A., McMahon, G., & Bemak, F. (2014). Decolonizing traditional pedagogies and practices in counseling and psychology education: A move towards social justice and action. In R. D. Goodman & P. Gorksi (Eds.), Decolonizing “multicultural” counseling through social justice (pp. 147-164). Springer.

Green, D. A., & Evans, A. M. (2021). Undue police violence towards African Americans: An analysis of professional counselors’ training and perceptions. Journal of Counseling & Development, 99(4), 363-371. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12389

Green, D. A., Williams, B. A, & Park, K. (2021). Crisis counseling for Black Lives Matter protests. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 43(3), 198-211. https://doi.org/10.17744/mehc.43.3.03

Guthrie, R. V. (2003). Even the rat was white: A historical view of psychology. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Helms, J. E. (1995). An update of Helms’s white and people of color racial identity models. In J.G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casa, L.S. Suzuki, & C.M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of Multicultural Counseling (pp. 181-198). Sage Publications.

Helms J. E. (2019). A race is a nice thing to have: A guide to being a White person or understanding the White persons in your life (3rd ed.). Microtraining Associates.

Hemmings, C., & Evans, A. M. (2018). Identifying and treating race-based trauma in counseling. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 46(1), 20-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmcd.12090

Horse, P. G. (2005). Native American identity. New Directions for Student Services, 109, 61-68.

Israel, B., Eng, E., Schulz, A., & Parker, E. (2005). Methods in community-based participatory research for health. Jossey-Bass.

Kim, J. (1981). Processes of Asian American identity development: A study of Japanese American women’s perceptions of their struggle to achieve positive identities as Americans of Asian ancestry. Doctoral Dissertation University of Massachusetts Amherst. Available from Proquest. AAI8118010.

McGuire, T. G., & Miranda, J. (2008). New evidence regarding racial and ethnic disparities in mental health: Policy implications. Health affairs (Project Hope), 27(2), 393–403. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.27.2.393

Mental Health America. (2020). Mental health treatments. Mental Health America, Inc. https://mhanational.org/mental-health-treatments

Mosley, D. V., Hargons, C. N., Meiller, C., Angyal, B., Wheeler, P., Davis, C., & Stevens-Watkins, D. (2021). Critical consciousness of anti-Black racism: A practical model to prevent and resist racial trauma. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 68(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000430

O’Dowd, M. F., & Heckenberg, R. (2020, June 22). Explainer: What is decolonization? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-decolonisation-131455

Perzichilli, T. (2020, May 7). The historical roots of racial disparities in the mental health system. Counseling Today. https://ct.counseling.org/2020/05/the-historical-roots-of-racial-disparities-in-the-mental-health-system/

Poston, W. C. (1990). The Biracial Identity Development Model: A needed addition. Journal of Counseling & Development, 69(2), 152–155. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1990.tb01477.x

Racial Equity Tools. (2020). Decolonization theory and practice. Racial Equity Tools. https://www.racialequitytools.org/resources/fundamentals/core-concepts/decolonization-theory-and-practice

Sharma, J., & Hipolito-Delgado, C. P. (2021). Promoting anti-racism and critical consciousness through a critical counseling theories course. Teaching and Supervision in Counseling, 3(2), 14-25. https://doi.org/10.7290/tsc030203

Singh, A. A. (2019). The racial healing handbook: Practical activities to help you challenge privilege, confront systemic racism, and engage in collective healing. New Harbinger Publications.

Singh, A. A., Appling, B., & Trepal, H. (2020). Using the multicultural social justice counseling competencies to decolonize counseling practice: The important roles of theory, power, and action. Journal of Counseling & Development, 98(3), 261–271.

Singh, A. A., Nassar, S. C., Arredondo, P., & Toporek, R. (2020). The past guides the future: Implementing the multicultural and social justice counseling competencies. Journal of Counseling & Development, 98(3), 238-252. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12319>>

Toporek, R. L., & Ahluwalia, M. K. (2021). Taking action: Creating social change through strength, solidarity, strategy, and sustainability. Cognella.

Vesely, C. K., Letiecq, B. L., Goodman, R. D., Marquez, M., Alves, L., & Moron, L. (2019). “What does this mean to you?” Partnering with Amigas de la Comunidad to analyze the housing conditions of undocumented Latina immigrants. In A. Humble and E. Radina (Eds.), Moving beyond ‘themes emerged’: Real stories of how qualitative data analysis happens (pp. 112-127). Taylor & Francis.

Downloads

Published

2023-08-31

How to Cite

Shure, L., White, E., Green, D., Goodman, R., Dollarhide, C., Smith, S., & Neal, F. (2023). Towards a Decolonization of Counseling: CSJ Responds to Racial Violence & Injustice. Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology, 15(1), 2–13. https://doi.org/10.33043/JSACP.15.1.2-13

Issue

Section

Activism and Advocacy

Similar Articles

<< < 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Most read articles by the same author(s)