The Importance Of Social Justice In Counseling

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Having a sound knowledge and awareness on the impact of social and cultural variables is imperative for understanding the complexities surrounding human behaviors. Culture, which is primarily used to refer to the way of life of a people, inevitably influences individuals’ lives through language, dress, food, worldviews, institutions, art, material objects, beliefs, values, and attitudes. Similarly, social issues affecting individual lives may be influenced by economic, political, and environmental factors. Accordingly, as a mental health professional I believe it is essential for to develop an awareness of all the intricate factors which may have an invariable effect on the individuals I work with and will assist me in developing appropriate …show more content…

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. …show more content…

Firstly, beliefs and attitudes infer the counselor’s ability to move beyond cultural unawareness for safeguarding that their personal biases, values or problems will not affect their ability to work with culturally diverse clients (Corey, 2013). In the same way, culturally skilled counselors are cognizant of the fact that “cultural self-awareness and sensitivity to one’s own cultural heritage” plays an integral role in the helping process (Corey, 2013, p.

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