Читать книгу Counseling Leaders and Advocates - Группа авторов - Страница 25

Cassandra A. Storlie, Christian D. Chan, and Michael Hannon

As is true with many works addressing multiculturalism and social justice in counseling, this chapter may take time to fully digest and understand in a way that empowers you to acknowledge yourself as a cultural being and reflect on ways you can incorporate culturally responsive counseling leadership in your practice. To become a culturally responsive leader, it is essential to have a historical understanding of the role of race, culture, and “otherness” within society and in our profession. We will not know where we are going if we don’t know where we have been. By striving for culturally responsive counseling leadership, you will embark on a journey in which you voluntarily accept both the privilege and the responsibility of intervening. Your leadership will help our profession become stronger and more inclusive, representing more diverse voices and combating systemic injustices. By becoming a culturally responsive leader, you will examine how intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) affects each of us and others, focus on challenging your worldview for unconscious bias, and move forward reflectively to ameliorate barriers to inclusion.

Racism. Prejudice. Sexism. Discrimination. Oppression. Microaggressions. Heterosexism. Poverty. These words represent concepts that have perpetuated inequities in the United States that affect our clients, our students, and even ourselves as privileged members of the counseling profession. There has long been a call for cultural awareness (Sue et al., 2019), cultural sensitivity (Whaley, 2008; Wright & Reese, 2015), and cultural competence (Ratts et al., 2016; Sue et al., 1992) in the counseling profession. These three terms are not synonymous; each has a well-defined meaning (Whaley, 2008). Taken together, they provide a foundation for cultural responsiveness and enable counselors to provide leadership in guiding socially just practices in unity for current and future counselors. Culturally responsive counseling leadership is enacted when professional counselors move beyond mastery of cultural knowledge to action-oriented approaches, concurrently engage in reflective evaluation for effective practices, and develop community and solidarity with marginalized groups.

Culturally responsive counseling leaders encompass four core characteristics: cultural awareness, culturally sensitivity, cultural competence, and cultural responsiveness (see Figure 2.1). Each of these characteristics is salient in the growth and development of our profession, and integration of these four characteristics is necessary to effectively lead others toward culturally responsive counseling.

The ethnic and racial makeup of the United States reflects a diverse population, and the number of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) has been growing by historic proportions (Pew Research Center, 2019). Since 2010, the “U.S. population increased by 18.9 million, and Hispanics accounted for more than half of this growth” (Pew Research Center, 2020). As the population of BIPOC increases, the disparities between White individuals and BIPOC have also increased on measures of mental/physical health and poverty/socioeconomic status. According to McGuire and Miranda (2008), “racial and ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services than do Whites, are less likely to receive needed care and are more likely to receive poor quality care when treated” (p. 396).

Racial and ethnic minority health disparities have become more evident during the coronavirus pandemic. Communities of color (specifically Black and Hispanic/Latinx) are disproportionately diagnosed with coronavirus and suffer more serious effects from the virus than White individuals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Communities of color remain incessantly burdened with limited health care coverage (Buchmueller et al., 2016) and are more likely to live in low-income areas that are also engulfed in the pandemic of racial injustice (Rogers et al., 2015). Internalized racism and colonialism affect attitudes toward seeking help (David et al., 2019; Tuazon et al., 2019), and ethnicity has been identified as a relevant variable in mental health stigma (Crowe & Kim, 2020). As a result, racial disparities in health care may prevent BIPOC from participating in counseling services critical to their wellness. This pattern is often an outcome of cultural mistrust toward providers within the health care/mental health care system combined with culturally insensitive practices (Flynn et al., 2020; Sue et al., 2019). Scholars have made multiple recommendations to revise the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) to enhance its cultural sensitivity and inclusion (Chang & Kwon, 2013; La Roche et al., 2015).

Figure 2.1 Culturally Responsive Counseling Leadership Characteristics

As the authors of this chapter and persons of color, we recognize that the terms diversity and culture expand beyond race and ethnicity. Historically, we have witnessed discriminatory practices in our society related to a variety of “isms” that represent “otherness” and affect oppressed populations including, but not limited to, women, the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with visible and invisible disabilities, immigrants without documentation, older adults, and Indigenous populations. As counselors, it is paramount that we believe and behave in ways that align with the Code of Ethics of the American Counseling Association (ACA; 2014):

Counselors do not condone or engage in discrimination against prospective or current clients, students, employees, supervisees, or research participants based on age, culture, disability, ethnicity, race, religion/spirituality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status/partnership, language preference, socioeconomic status, immigration status or any basis proscribed by law. (Standard C.5.)

We call upon professional counselors to move beyond simply understanding the current needs of diverse individuals and to engage in action-oriented interventions that address systemic injustices. Culturally responsive counseling leadership extends this approach across several counselor roles and functions, including professional counselor, advocate, supervisor, and leader (Peters et al., 2020; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2018).

We have much work to do in combating systemic racism (Lenes et al., 2020) and biased-based bullying (Toomey & Storlie, 2016) in our schools, in our agencies, within society, and in our own profession. We begin our exploration by providing some historical context for the inception of multiculturalism in counseling. We follow that with an overview of the development and endorsement of advocacy and social justice movements within our profession. We then present an ecological systems framework and discuss how counselors can become culturally responsive counseling leaders. As you read, we encourage you to reflect on the following questions:

 What does it mean to you to be a culturally responsive leader in counseling? What does a culturally responsive leader do that is different from other leaders?

 How can counseling leaders leverage their power and privilege to dismantle overlapping forces of oppression and extend opportunities for advocacy across contexts (e.g., professional associations, legislative bodies, universities, communities)?

 How can counseling leaders identify their proximity to Whiteness and actions that reinforce White supremacy? How do they work with colleagues, teach, and mentor students and supervisees about these mechanisms?

 How do we, as professional counselors, denounce the “deafening silence of dehumanizing and complicit inaction to address these systemic ills within our society?” (ACA, 2020b)

 And last, but perhaps most important, how do we evaluate whether our culturally responsive actions have been effective? What do we need to do to ensure their sustainability?