An activist is a person who campaigns and takes action for social change. Counselors are often activists for their clients and for their profession by nature of being in a helping field. The issue of self-care looms for both counselor practitioners and counselor educators as we face difficult client issues,
Tag: Multiculturalism & Diversity
Multiculturalism & Diversity
We are living through a historic era that many people describe as divisive, polarizing and disheartening. The world of social media never sleeps, and we are bombarded with images of pain and strife. The visible presence of neo-Nazi groups marching, the increase in arrests and deportations of immigrants from sanctuary
Johnnetta Betsch Cole couldn’t help but chuckling at the audacity (or, as she phrased it, the “chutzpah”) of the keynote message she was about to deliver to the thousands of counselors congregated Saturday morning at the ACA 2018 Conference & Expo in Atlanta. With charismatic presence — and a knowing
Dolores Huerta can be described in many ways: labor organizer, feminist, civil rights pioneer, social justice icon, impassioned speaker and lifelong advocate for the oppressed. On Friday, Huerta delivered a stirring keynote address to open the ACA 2018 Conference & Expo that proved the 88 year-old has lost none of
Hearing jokes about watermelon and grape Kool-Aid. Hearing someone talk about their “half-colored” nephew’s “nappy” hair. Being called “boy.” This is what I experienced over the year that I led an addictions process group in rural Appalachia. After working in the area for almost four years, I had grown accustomed
Tears streamed down her face. Kaylah (not her real name) was a 21-year-old woman struggling with a romance in trouble. I’d seen it many times, even though I’d only been in the field for a few years at this point. My heart broke for Kaylah as I saw the same
In a small village resting in a valley watched over by a medieval castle, the women made their morning rounds. At each house, they were met by the same ritual. A warm greeting with a kiss on each cheek, an invitation to sit and at least three rounds of offerings:
For many years, white men were presented as the face of the counseling profession and largely dictated its focus and direction. The American Counseling Association (originally known as the American Personnel and Guidance Association) was founded in 1952. Nineteen of its first 20 presidents — many of whom went on
A supervisee committed to a multicultural counseling practice approached me feeling distressed and self-critical. In my capacity as a doctoral candidate in counselor education and supervision, I had worked with this supervisee for several months and had also worked with him the year prior. At this point, he expressed uncertainty
Despite several decades of counseling research focusing on culturally diverse populations, limited knowledge still exists about such issues as parenting, achievement, resilience, the intersectionality of identity and the psychological impact of systemic oppression on clients who are members of culturally marginalized groups. Most of the efforts within the counseling profession