Some Social Justice Actions for Counseling Therapists
Recent world events and the undertaking of training in Culturally Competent Disaster Mental Health Counseling has motivated me to examine my own biases and implicit acts of oppression in my own work. As a result, I began thinking, “What can I do to incorporate social justice into my work? How can I change?” Below is a list of actions I will take.
Investigate and critique the ways I am perpetuating Eurocentric/Western/heterocentric/etc. models and interventions of psychotherapy.
Reflect on how my work is keeping people marginalized. Are different communities better able to access my services than others? Am I maintaining an open and accepting business, or am I closed off to certain communities?
Connect with colleagues and organizations that are of a different cultural context than my own (including belief systems, ethnicities, cultural practices, etc.)
Read more: about social justice, critical race theory, systems thinking, resilience, and social change.
Know and critique laws and other social systems which contribute to oppression.
Understand how my own training and education perpetuates oppression and appropriation, and refrain from training others in the same way.
Avoid becoming complacent- I have agency, I should use it.
Avoid becoming defensive- listen to those who criticize the way I work and use their feedback to improve.
Avoid becoming rigid- remember what it is to feel like an outsider, remain open to new ways of being, feeling, and thinking. Think: PLASTICITY! You are never too old to change.
Learn more, always. Enjoy the knowledge that other people have- everyone is an expert of their own lives and has their own wisdom.
I am not here to fix or solve, I am here to empower others.