Integration, Theory, and ApplicationManivong J. RattsPaul B. Pedersen

FOURTH EDITION

Counseling for Multiculturalism and Social Justice

5999 Stevenson Avenue • Alexandria, VA 22304

www.counseling.org

AMERICAN COUNSELING ASSOCIATION

Copyright © 2014 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

American Counseling Association5999 Stevenson AvenueAlexandria, VA 22304

Associate Publisher • Carolyn C. Baker

Production Manager • Bonny E. Gaston

Copy Editor • Ida Audeh

Editorial Assistant • Catherine A. Brumley

Cover and text design by Bonny E. Gaston.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataRatts, 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 aware-ness, 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

FOURTH EDITION

Counseling for Multiculturalism and Social Justice

iii

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

v

Table of Contents

Preface ix Acknowledgments xv About the Authors xvii About the Contributors xix

Section I. An Overview of Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling

• • •Chapter 1

Multiculturalism and Social Justice: A Revolutionary Force in Counseling and Psychology 3

Chapter 2

Five Forces in Counseling and Psychology 17

Chapter 3

The Complexities of Identity 35

Chapter 4

Counselor–Advocate–Scholar Model: Merging Multiculturalism and Social Justice 51

Chapter 5

Worldview and Identity Development 59 Manivong J. Ratts, Paul B. Pedersen, and Alexa Wayman

Section II. Developing Multicultural and Social Justice Competence • • •Chapter 6

Using Appropriate Terminology 85

vi Table of Contents

Chapter 7

Developing Multicultural Competence 89

Chapter 8

Developing Advocacy Competence 105

Chapter 9

Addressing Resistance and Gaining Buy-In for Multiculturalism and Social Justice 117

Section III. Addressing Individual and Systemic Oppression • • •

Addressing Racism in Counseling and Psychology

Chapter 10

Counseling Clients From Asian and Pacifi c Island Heritages 127 Catherine Y. Chang, C. Peeper McDonald, and Caroline O’Hara

Chapter 11

Counseling African Americans 143 S. Kent Butler and M. Ann Shillingford-Butler

Chapter 12

Counseling Native Americans and Social Justice 157 Timothy C. Thomason

Chapter 13

Counseling Latin@s From a Social Justice Perspective 179 Edil Torres-Rivera and Manivong J. Ratts

Chapter 14

Counseling Multiracial Individuals and Families 193 Kelley R. Kenney and Mark E. Kenney

Addressing Heterosexism in Counseling and Psychology

Chapter 15

Social Justice Counseling Practices: Affi rming Queer Pluralism With LGBQ Clients 211 Julian Rafferty McCullough and Alexander C. Winninghoff

Addressing Transgender Oppression in Counseling and Psychology

Chapter 16

Counseling Transgender Clients 229 Varunee Faii Sangganjanavanich

Table of Contents vii

Addressing Sexism in Counseling and Psychology

Chapter 17

Counseling Women 245 Jennifer L. Pepperell, Jennifer Londgren, and Laura A. Maki

Addressing Classism in Counseling and Psychology

Chapter 18

A Social Justice Perspective on Counseling and Poverty 259 Rebecca Reed and Laura Smith

Addressing Religion and Spirituality in Counseling and Psychology

Chapter 19

Engaged Spirituality: A Heart for Social Justice 275 Craig S. Cashwell and Jodi L. Bartley

Index 289

ix

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 ap-plied to the fi eld of counseling and psychology. The future of counseling and psychology rests on our ability to continue to refi ne the multicultural and social justice counseling perspectives. We need to have the foresight to know where both perspectives are head-ing 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 coun-seling 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 comple-mentary 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-fulfi lling lives.

The need to acknowledge and combine multiculturalism with social justice cannot be overstated. If counselors lack multicultural competence, they will be ineffective so-cial change agents. No matter how well-intentioned, highly skilled, well trained, or intel-ligent they are, they can do harm if they make wrong or culturally inappropriate assump-tions; they can inadvertently promote social change strategies that are not in clients’ best

x Preface

interests. Counselors may ignore the relevance of culture and disregard the infl uence of the sociopolitical milieu, or they may inappropriately use individual therapy to address sys-temic issues without getting at the source of the problem. The inaccuracy or misattribution resulting from wrong assumptions or from disregarding the infl uence 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 criti-cal 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 (fi rst force) and behavioral systems (second force) of that time (Pedersen, 1991). Each force refl ects a new movement in counseling and psychology. The multicultural dimension is not competing with other counseling theories. By making culture central to humanism, psycho-dynamism, and behavioral psychology, those perspectives are strengthened, not weakened.

Similar arguments have also been made to consider social justice as a fi fth force in coun-seling (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 op-pressive environment. Counseling is not offi ce bound. The debilitating impact of oppres-sion warrants the need for advocacy and activism in communities. Social justice counsel-ors 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 classifi ed as secondary or tertiary prevention approaches. It is something that counselors do if they have time for it, or it is something that is superfi cially 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 indi-viduals 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 infl uence of culture and oppression or to ad-dress 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 fi eld. 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 defi ned 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 con-ditions 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 (op-pressor) 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 suffi ciently resolve systemic based issues.

Preface xi

• 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 signifi cantly 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 defi nition of multiculturalism. We fo-cus on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability status, and re-ligion/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 (offi ce-based in-terventions), advocacy counseling (community-based work), or both are needed when working with clients. We added an application section written by experts in the fi eld 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 refl ects the intent of the book. We integrated both the multicultural and social justice perspec-tives 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 fi ve 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 infl uence of oppression on identity. Privilege, border, and oppressed groups are identi-fi ed and discussed. This chapter highlights the need to understand identity within the context of living in an oppressive society and the infl uence of power and privilege. Chapter 4 bridges the multicultural and social justice counseling forces into one uni-fi ed approach. We introduce readers to the counselor–advocate–scholar model, which provides a framework that counselors can use to determine whether individual therapy

xii Preface

or systems-level work is needed and integrates scholarship. Chapter 5 explores the concept of worldview and provides a comprehensive summary of predominant identi-ty 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 im-portant to creating an affi rming clinical environment. Chapter 7 explains the importance of developing multicultural competence. The Multicultural Competencies Self-Assess-ment Survey is provided as a tool to gauge the counselor’s level of multicultural aware-ness, 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 work-ing with oppressed client populations. This section is perhaps the most signifi cant 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, identifi es key multicultural concepts and systemic barriers, and offers a case study to help readers operationalize multicultural and social justice counseling tenets. Client confi dentiality was maintained in all case material so that the client and third par-ties (e.g., family members) are not identifi able. (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 Pacifi c Islanders (Chapter 10); African Ameri-cans (Chapter 11); Native Americans (Chapter 12); Latin@s (Chapter 13); multiracial indi-viduals 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 fi eld. The reader is encouraged to seek further training and professional development to gain a deeper understanding of concepts discussed in this book.

Preface xiii

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 “fi fth force” among counseling paradigms. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Develop-ment, 48, 160–172.

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

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

xv

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 pres-ence in the fi eld will always be felt.

xvii

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 organiza-tion that addresses issues of equity impacting individuals and communities. Dr. Rat-ts 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 counsel-ing 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 fi ve-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

xviii About the Authors

chapters, and 22 monographs on aspects of multicultural/cross-cultural counseling and international communication. His body of work includes such classic books as Counsel-ing 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 Confl ict Management: Asian and Pacifi c 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. Mar-sella), and many others.

xix

About the Contributors

Jodi L. Bartley is a doctoral candidate in the Counseling and Counselor Education pro-gram at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is also a national certifi ed 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 coun-seling. Her research interests include relational depth and spirituality.

S. Kent Butler, PhD, is associate professor of counseling at the University of Cen-tral Florida. He holds a PhD in educational psychology, with a concentration in coun-seling psychology, from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Butler is a licensed profes-sional counselor, national certifi ed counselor, and nationally certifi ed 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 Men-tal Health Services Administration Earmark Grant: University of Missouri, Division of Counseling and Family Therapy-Drug Free Family Initiative. Dr. Butler is past-presi-dent of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development.

Craig S. Cashwell, PhD, LPC, NCC, ACS, CSAT, is a professor in the Depart-ment 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 Inter-national 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 Uni-versity 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

xx About the Contributors

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 presi-dent of Chi Sigma Iota (2009–2010) and vice president of the Asian and Pacifi c 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 Edu-cator 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 Caro-lina 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 gradu-ate 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 In-sight Media and Microtraining Associates; and an author and coauthor of numerous ar-ticles, 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, distrib-uted by Insight Media and Microtraining Associates; as well as a coauthor of sev-eral 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 coun-selor 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 quali-tative 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 coun-selor 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 Coun-

About the Contributors xxi

selors for Social Justice. His background as an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and especially transgender youth and adults and as a middle school counsel-or in impoverished, urban communities has further strengthened his commitment to multicultural and social justice concerns in the fi eld of counseling.

C. Peeper McDonald is a doctoral student in the counselor education and prac-tice 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 be-tween 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 educa-tion 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 com-petence, 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 Associa-tion for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) Diversity Committee, Stu-dent perspectives editor for AARC’s NewsNotes, associate student editor of the CSI Exemplar, and member of the CSI Professional Advocacy Committee. She has been rec-ognized 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 Teach-ers 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 per-sonal counseling services for children and parents. Her research interests include partici-patory action research training, poverty, and the infl uence 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 certifi ed counselor and a licensed professional clinical counselor with supervisor endorsement in the state of Ohio. She re-ceived her doctoral degree in counselor education and supervision from the University of Northern Colorado. Her clinical work focuses on gender identity and transition counsel-ing. In addition, she has authored and coauthored numerous publications and presenta-tions in the fi eld of counseling and counselor education, particularly in the area of gender transition counseling and career development of transgender individuals. 

xxii About the Contributors

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 found-ing director of the Rosemary Furman Counseling Center at Barnard College and the di-rector 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 infl uence 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 Depart-ment at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He is a licensed psychologist and a national certifi ed counselor. He has conducted research on counseling Native Ameri-cans 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 Devel-opment and Organizational Studies in Education at the University of Florida. He holds a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Connecticut. His research agen-da is about multicultural counseling, group work, chaos theory, liberation psychology, technology, supervision, multicultural counseling, prisons, Puerto Rican studies, iden-tity development, and gang-related behavior. Dr. Torrres-Rivera’s primary research fo-cuses 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 com-pleted a year-long internship at an alternative education K-8 school in Seattle. Her cur-rent 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 ad-vocates 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.

An Overview of Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling

I.Section

3

Multiculturalism and Social Justice: A Revolutionary Force in

Counseling and Psychology

1

Chapter

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. Pre-dominant 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 (Ponterot-to, Casas, Suzuki, & Alexander, 2010; Sue & Sue, 2013) indicating the importance of cul-tural 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 fam-ily 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 counsel-ing 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

4 An Overview of Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling

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 Mul-ticultural 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 Mul-ticultural 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 depres-sion. His family had become distant from him ever since he told them he was intend-ing 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 depres-sion; 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 medica-tion. 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 rela-tionship because she was late for therapy a third time without calling 24 hours in ad-vance. 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 offi ce. 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 traffi c.

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 com-munity 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 affi rming clinical environment. Yen’s therapist may never realize that requiring her client to come to her offi ce without being fl exible regard-ing appointment times is an added structural barrier to accessing therapy.

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

We hope this book helps to clarify, explain, and expand on the importance of multicul-turalism and social justice in counseling. Multicultural and social justice counseling have transcended the fi eld of counseling and psychology in ways its founders could not have

Multiculturalism and Social Justice 5

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 fl aws 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 infl uence of contextual factors on human de-velopment. 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 offi ce-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 fl awed 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 affi liate 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 suffi ciently 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 in-ability 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 pro-fessional 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 psychol-

6 An Overview of Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling

ogy 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 defi ne what is normal and abnormal. This practice is both dangerous and careless. It places the profession in a pre-dicament 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 fl aw 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 sci-ences, counseling and psychology assume lesser signifi cance as disciplines.

Lack of an Adequate Epistemology

Martin-Baró (1996) discussed fi ve 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 em-pirical 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 can-not 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 pro-moted 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 alterna-tive perspectives. For instance, within the Buddhist perspective suffering is consid-ered a natural and healthy aspect of human development.

• The homeostatic vision, whereby human beings endeavor to have balance in life. Dis-equilibrium, change, crisis, or anything that ruptures this ideal balance is viewed negatively. This explains why social change is diffi cult for many in society to ac-cept—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 assump-tion that predominant theories and concepts can be modifi ed to make them appli-cable to all groups is an example in psychology. This belief often leads to the appli-cation of dominant cultural theories and concepts on cultures and groups that hold differing worldviews and perspectives, which in turn can lead to labeling marginal-ized 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.