Counseling Leaders and Advocates. Группа авторов
the BLM movement and the MSJCC. The authors suggest four key multicultural and social justice theories as a mechanism to disrupt White supremacist hegemony and implement their use of MSJCC in practice: relational-cultural theory (Miller, 1976), critical race theory (Bell, 1995), intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1989), and liberation psychology (Martín-Baró, 1994). Finally, Na and Fietzer (2020), in the same issue, report on the relationship of a sample of more than 150 counselors’ social justice engagement and demographic, personality, and contextual factors. They suggest that counselor training and, by proxy, counseling leaders’ choices about social justice should be focused on quality over quantity and that awareness of individual personality and identity characteristics should be considered in supporting such engagement.
Culturally Responsive Counseling Leadership in Action
As you reflect on the content of this chapter, we hope you have had the opportunity to consider some of the practical steps you can take to integrate culturally responsive leadership in your practice. We can attest that culturally responsive leaders address issues of oppression, discrimination, and microaggressions in the classroom, while working with clients, and within their supervisory relationships. Culturally responsive counseling leaders are keenly aware of the systems of power and hierarchy that exist within their relationships and act in ways to mitigate those power differentials (Peters et al., 2020). We further recognize that culturally responsive leaders understand the role of culture when diagnosing and treating clients in the community. They utilize the cultural formulation interview (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) when working with clients who have differing identities and concurrently embrace the intersectionality of each unique client.
Cultural responsiveness is also being embraced on behalf of counseling students in hundreds of Chi Sigma Iota (CSI) chapters. As Storlie et al. (2016) confirm, counselor community engagement “may provide a means to respond to and advocate for the needs of marginalized groups in ways that traditional counseling practices have not” (p. 53). In their examination of counselor community engagement activities, the highest reported levels of outreach began with local programs and the most common areas addressed were issues of poverty and mental health. To become culturally responsive leaders, we must move beyond action or intervention itself and evaluate the effectiveness of our actions as seen by the recipients of our services.
Culturally responsive counseling leaders evaluate the outcomes of their actions to ensure that interventions are effective when working with students, clients, supervisees, and the greater community. Counseling leaders can draw feedback from multiple sources to inform their continued use of advocacy action steps and to provide context in their own self-evaluations. This reflexivity supports formal and informal evaluation as an indicator to move forward and does not necessarily need to be solely quantitative in nature. Guth et al. (2019) identified the importance of evaluation through qualitative and quantitative means as catalysts for action to undo hate and oppression. Although they contextualized evaluation specific to group work, they posited that evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness and success of specific interventions and informs reflections for future action, community organizing, and mobilization. Evaluation can institute reflection on the meaning and process of individual and collective change for justice.
Additional Considerations for Culturally Responsive Leadership Practices in Counseling
As we look to the future in strengthening our profession in leadership and advocacy, contemplate the following considerations as you move forward in your culturally responsive leadership journey:
Systems surround us in all aspects of our lives. Remember, it’s not just the system, it’s multiple systems, and you, as a culturally being, are a part of those systems.As a culturally responsive counseling leader, you are responsible for taking deliberate action with and on behalf of those who do not have a seat at the table. How can you get involved in state, regional, national, and international professional associations to continue to combat systemic injustices that permeate our society? Where does your voice need to be heard?
How can we best create a pipeline for diversely represented counseling leadership?As a profession, we know that many of our ACA counseling divisions have focused on improving diversity among their leadership (e.g., Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, AMCD, CSJ, and the Society for Sexual, Affectional, Intersex and Gender Expansive Identities). We further recognize the push for diversity and inclusion in other counseling organizations such as CACREP and CSI. We need to continue to strive for and increase the diversity in our counseling leadership at every level and consider how executive boards engage and address diversity concerns in their practice. It is essential to increase the representation of voices that are often not acknowledged while simultaneously avoiding tokenism.
How can we improve our selection of speakers, resources, and content within our schools, agencies, and work environments to include diverse individuals and to have the crucial conversations necessary for growth and development?It is not enough to have one (or maybe two) multicultural classes in your counseling program curriculum. As professionals in training and in the field, we need to think strategically about how to improve our selection of guest speakers who can offer perspectives and worldviews that differ from our own. In addition, we need to be purposeful and intentional with the resources and content we explore with our students, supervisees, and colleagues and be prepared to have challenging conversations that move beyond cultural competence to action and evaluation.
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We hope this chapter spoke to you. Part II of this book highlights some exceptional culturally responsive counseling leaders and advocates whose work is illuminated in these narratives. You will see the recognition of their privilege and how they used their privilege to support marginalized and oppressed people. Each of these profiles provides insights into how to become a culturally responsive counseling leader. As you read the next chapter and move toward Part II, remember this:
You are a light. You are the light.Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light.Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant.
—Rep. John Lewis
Chapter 3
Leadership and Advocacy in the Field
Michael D. Brubaker and Andrew W. Wood
I do not see myself as a leader, though I have served in many leadership positions. I see myself as an advocate, and leadership positions are the avenue through which advocacy is implemented.
—Jane Myers, former president ACA, AACE, CSI (Nichols & Carney, 2013, p. 244)
When there was a need for someone to work with persons with AIDS, I did that. When there was a need to work with the homeless, I did that. When there was a need to break down some of the prejudices here in Charlotte, I did that.
—Mary Thomas Burke, former president of CSI and chair of the Counselor Education Program at UNC–Charlotte (Nassar-McMillan, 2001, p. 498)
In these challenging times, it is important to extend thinking and action beyond national boundaries. To be a professional counselor means being a true citizen of the world.
—Courtland C. Lee, former president of ACA, AMCD, IAC, CSI (Gladding, 2011, p. 498)
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Counselor leadership and advocacy are inseparable