Changes in world politics and US policy have affected personal paradigm of many, as well as that of many professions. In this essay, I will discuss the meaning of social justice for the counseling profession. First, I will highlight how social justice has become a crucial necessity because of a changing world. Next, I will suggest how to promote and apply social justice into the counseling profession. Finally, I will point out some major characteristic that counselor should obtain in order to bring social justice into counseling process. Decades of US history in social justice movement recently bring the result when biases, values, and beliefs started to be questioned by many. Government and individuals released that there are no reason …show more content…
Starting with education of counselors, which needs”...to include social justice pedagogy...” into the process, and to develop “... creative approaches” (Flores et al. 2014, p. 999) for training, which as Sue (2008) outlined “... is concerned with how race, culture, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation affect individuals, organizations, and society.” (as cited by Flores et al., 2014, p. 1003) That would help students to challenge traditional systems and become agents for change in their communities as well, once they graduate. Later, as Arthur and Collins (2014) outlined, “...professionals have to be willing to notice inequities and understand them from the points of views of their clients” (p. 172). Therefore, genuinely see the world through the eyes of the client to understand the struggle is possible if the counselor focused on “(a) awareness of one’s own cultural identities, values, and biases; (b) awareness of the client’s cultural identities and worldviews; (c) development of a culturally responsive and socially just working alliance; and (d) engagement in culturally responsive and socially just change processes.” (Arthur and Collins, 2014, p. 172) The philosophy of social justice has to be a natural part of the counseling profession. This, in turn, would become life learning process that stimulates personal and professional
In today’s society where an abundance of resources exists, social workers are often the entry point for people to access services. Therefore, it is imperative for social worker professionals to have a clear understanding of themselves in relation to the client from a cultural perspective. While the social work profession has always focused on social justice and oppression, it wasn’t until the civil rights movement that there was a conscious shift in the social work pedagogy to focus the social service practice on race, racism, and training the workforce in cultural competences. Later in the mid 1980’s, the tone of cultural competence would shift from race and racism to a more inclusive language, which includes a more robust list of all types
Counselors today face the task of how to appropriately counsel multicultural clients. Being sensitive to cultural variables can be conceptualized as holding a cultural lens to human behavior and making allowances for the possibility of cultural influence. However, to avoid stereotyping, it is important that the clinician recognize the existence of within-group differences as well as the influence of the client’s own personal culture and values (Furman, Negi, Iwamoto, Shukraft, & Gragg, 2009). One’s background is not always black or white and a counselor needs to be able to discern and adjust one’s treatment plan according to their client.
The diversity among clients and the counselor is an issue that has recently come to the forefront. The counselor must be very cautious and sensitive to the cultural values of their clients, gender and gender preference, age, language preference, ethnicity, and spirituality and religious beliefs.
The National Association of Social Workers, NASW, considers the following as its six most core values; service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. The value of service is considered to be a core value because offering help to those in need is a crucial goal for all of those looking to practice in the field of Social Work. These services can include, but are not limited to, addressing social problems, helping those in need, and volunteering their knowledge to those who cannot otherwise afford such help. Social Justice is also an important core value for a Social Worker to develop. As a Social Worker one will encounter many people from several different walks of life, no two cases will ever be exactly the same. Some of these walks of life can leave a client vulnerable, defenseless, exploited, oppressed, and troubled. Therefore it is important to learn what Social Justice is, and how to help people from falling victim to injustice. Dignity and Worth of the Person is one of the most important values that one should uphold. People who need the help of a Social Worker many, but not all, times feel powerless, embarrassed, and worthless because they feel as though they cannot control aspects of their life an...
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
When advocating for the success of a client when utilizing this theory, a counselor must be prepared to identify and eliminate barriers, prejudices, oppression, and discrimination that may create a psychological obstruction in the client. Learning culturally-competent counseling practices and current theoretical approaches while practicing self-reflection will help the counselor acquire the skills necessary to engage with a diverse clientele. Strategies such as; identifying cultural differences, understanding and addressing issues in the counseling process, the counselor’s ability to understand self, and ongoing education are all important strategies in combating oppression and eliminating barriers.
Social justice is a core value in the social work field. We define social justice as, “all citizens would possess equal fundamental rights, protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015, p. 29). Unfortunately, we understand there are many members in today’s society that are not receiving social justice. Some may not want help and believe that s/he is able to do it on their own and then there are the individuals that we may not know about that could really use our help. Our jobs as social workers is to help those who need help no matter if they are rich, poor, disabled, white, Hispanic, it does not matter because everyone should be treated equally. As NASW states, “The original mission of social work had much to do with championing the rights of society’s most vulnerable members, from children to homeless people to the physically disabled” (NASW: National Association of Social Workers, 2015, para. 1).
The empowerment perspective, “support[s] the development of innate abilities and recognize differences in a positive manner are also helping social workers increase the individual client’s capacity to learn to use his or her own systems constructively” (Empowerment, 2011). Meaning, it is when social workers would use the positivity of being different races and religions to help the client. For example, it would be recognizing that being black or Muslim is not a bad thing, but that there are numerous positives. To address the impact of classism, a social worker would “Help clients [to] better understand these contradictions [(that media and the world send them of what certain class’s attitudes, schemas and behaviors are like)] may help them understand” (Liu, 2005). Meaning, the social worker would help the client to understand the good attributes of being in a certain class, and how to obtain a higher class. Since the media often sends contradictions, such as saying “saving is important, but you have to spend to succeed” (Liu, 2005). Lastly, an understanding of the social construction of culture will be used in social work practice, since it could help a social worker to get a better understanding of their clients. Being, it could help them to better understand how their clients view themselves or how their clients feel society views them. Which can lead to the social worker understanding their clients lives and who their clients are, in a better
A social worker must present themselves as a learner and understand clients from all experts of their own experiences. To show your respect to the clients as a social worker you must be able to show that you understand complexity of cultural identity. Cultural competence targets social workers knowledge of development, focusing on culturally specific demographics, characteristics, values, and intravenous technique. When dealing with cultural sensitivity a worker’s genuine appreciation of the client’s uniqueness and universalistic respect for the client’s humanness is needed. To have success in multicultural practice, cultural responsiveness come in to play, which means to be culturally responsive, social workers use dialogue skills that place the client’s construction of reality at the center of the
Social Justice enables individuals to become more empowered and self-aware. It gives individuals equal access and diminishes negative prejudices and stereotypes. The minority in society is oppressed by the dominant ones and social justice strives to diminish that. I am privileged and that allows me to obtain an education to help others. I am going to use this to help others gain the same privileges that I have and be able to build the future they want. Throughout middle school I would have friends that would be made fun of or denied entry to certain social groups, unless they were with me. Just because they had a different skin color or their culture was different they were not allowed to play tag on the playground. Associating negative stereotypes and prejudices, about cultures or ethnicity, to a young child is not okay. Only letting a child join a game of tag when a member of the dominant group is accompanying them is also not okay. This is a huge issue in society and not just when it comes to children, teaching children to become culturally competent and aware at a young age will lead to the decrease of this social issue. I strive to be culturally competent enough to have the ability to aid various individuals on their road to empowerment, safety, and self-healing. Educating myself is just the first step, joining the Social Work program will help me expand my field of knowledge. Through this, I will be enabled to become a better social worker and
(Hays & Erford, 2014 p 59). In the counseling world in order to effectively work with clients from diverse background and cultures, it is important to provide a culturally safe environment and promote equality to all persons. Our main focus should be those that have already experienced discrimination due to their race/ethnicity, gender, age or economic status. Our efforts and “Beliefs that all people should have the right to equitable treatment and fair allocation of societal resources, the goal of social justice counseling is to establish an equal distribution of power and resources through advocacy to ensure that all people have the tools and resources for a “good life.” (Hays & Erford, 2014 p 59). The Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies (MSJCC) has implemented and created several competencies useful for the counseling profession. These competencies work as the foundation for something positive if properly implemented. It allows the counselor to address issues of power, privilege, and oppression and how each day the client is faced with a variety of worries that require the counselor to intervene and recommend the proper interventions needed in order for the client to move
Social Justice is about making society function better – providing the support and tools to help turn lives around. This is a challenging new approach to dealing with poverty in all its forms. It is not about income poverty alone.(SJS) Throughout this essay I will explore why Poverty is a primary issue when striving for Social Justice and how, we as professionals, can attempt to overcome this by working together to achieve a fairer more just society. Social Work, Primary Education and Community Learning and Development are working together collaboratively to achieve Social Justice. I will discuss the changes that have taken place in our professions and the guidelines and regulations that we must adhere to. In addition to this I will examine the positive and negative outcomes of my group experience working together with CLD, Social Work and Education Students. I will also address the historical perspective in addition to the philosophical perspectives.
In order to effect social justice changes within counseling, counselors will have to re conceptualize the traditional perception of counseling. Conversely, acquiring multicultural competence is necessary to addressing social justice and ethical issues encountered within the counseling process as according to the ACA code of ethics, “counselors have an ethical obligation to be multiculturally competent” (Lee, 2007, p. 182). Multicultural competence requires counselors to be aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and how they might impact the way they relate to their clients. Also, counselors will need to acquire knowledge and understanding of the worldviews of the diverse clients they serve. “Culturally competent counselors acting from a virtue ethics perspective recognize that the counseling relationship is situated in a shared community that includes clients, their social support systems, and a variety of resources that might be enlisted in removing systematic barriers to client growth” (Lee, 2007, p.
Ethical Issues in Multicultural Counseling are very prevalent today. Counselors may or may not know how to counsel people of different race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity socioeconomic status, disability, age or spirituality. Due to their lack of knowledge in that area, ethical issues may arise. In order for a counselor to gain knowledge of Multicultural Counseling, the counselor must begin to gain an understanding of their clients past and culture. It is also important that the counselor does not categorize the client based his/her race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity socioeconomic status, disability, age and spirituality. The counselor also must consider and respect the client’s culture, when trying to comprise the client’s treatment
Social justice in counseling involves advocating for a person or a group of people so that they can better voice their needs and fight against the injustices they have endured individually or in their communities (Crethar, & Winterowd, 2012). Social justice requires multiple levels of activities such as: advocacy, raising awareness, and legislative influence. Counselors are in a ideal position to initiate change and be an advocate for individuals while engaging on these other levels, people involved in social justice are often referred to as “change agents” (Brackette et al., 2015, p.