Community Counseling: A Multicultural-Social Justice Perspective, 4th Edition

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LEWIS LEWIS DANIELS D’ANDREA

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COMMUNITY COUNSELING

Your helping hands in the helping professions

FOURTH EDITION

COMMUNITY COUNSELING A Multicultural -Social Justice Perspective FOURTH EDITION

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JUDITH A. LEWIS

MICHAEL D. LEWIS

JUDY A. DANIELS

MICHAEL J. D’ANDREA

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Community Counseling A Multicultural-Social Justice Perspective FOURTH EDITION

JUDITH A. LEWIS Governors State University, ret.

MICHAEL D. LEWIS Governors State University, ret.

JUDY A. DANIELS University of Hawaii at Manoa

MICHAEL J. D’ANDREA National Institute for Multicultural Competence

Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions, some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right to remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For valuable information on pricing, previous editions, changes to current editions, and alternate formats, please visit www.cengage.com/highered to search by ISBN#, author, title, or keyword for materials in your areas of interest.

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Community Counseling: A Multicultural-Social Justice Perspective, Fourth Edition Judith A. Lewis, Michael D. Lewis, Judy A. Daniels, and Michael J. D’Andrea Publisher/Executive Editor: Linda Schreiber-Ganster Acquisitions Editor: Seth Dobrin Editorial Assistant: Rachel McDonald Marketing Coordinator: Gurpreet Saran Marketing Communications Manager: Tami Strang Content Project Management: PreMediaGlobal Art Director: Caryl Gorska

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To all the counselors and other mental health professionals who work hard to foster their clients’ psychological empowerment and personal well-being by promoting social justice in our society.


Contents

PREFACE

x iii

ABOU T TH E AU THORS

x vi

Chapter 1 Community Counseling for the 21st Century

1

21st-Century Community Counseling: Fundamental Assumptions 4 Environmental Contexts 4 Client Strengths and Resources Multiculturalism 8

6

The Link between Individual and Community Development Community Counseling Defined 9 Community

9

10

Multicultural Competence Social Justice 12

11

Healthy Development of Clients and Communities Community Counseling Strategies 14 Facilitating Human Development: Focused Strategies

13 15

Facilitating Human Development: Broad-Based Strategies 16 Facilitating Community Development: Focused Strategies 17 Facilitating Community Development: Broad-Based Strategies A Unified Approach 18

18

Summary 19 References 21 v Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

vi

CONTENTS

Chapter 2 The Evolution of the Community Counseling Model A People’s History of the Counseling Profession 25 The Progressive Movement

23

27

Jesse Davis: The Genesis of School Guidance Counseling 28 Frank Parsons: The Father of the Counseling Profession 28 The Mental Hygiene Movement The 1910s and 1920s 30 The Impact of World War I The 1920s–1930s 31

29

31

Dealing with the Challenges of the Great Depression The 1940s–1950s 33 The Impact of Carl Rogers’s Counseling Theory

32

33

Advocating Governmental Support for World War II Veterans Extending Vocational Counseling Services to Women During the 1940s 35

34

The Development of New Counseling Organizations in the 1950s 36 Unprecedented Growth of Counselor Education Programs in the 1950s 37 The 1960s and 1970s 38 Lessons Learned 39 New Developmental Counseling Approaches

39

Broadening the Counseling Profession’s Perspective and Effectiveness 40 The Passage of the Community Mental Health Centers Act Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) in the 1970s The 1980s and 1990s 42 The Continued Professionalization of Counseling Acknowledging Professional Contradictions 44

40

41

43

The Rise of the Multicultural Counseling Competency Movement 45 New School Counseling Initiatives in the 1990s 46 Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ) Summary 48 References

47

50


vii

CONTENTS

Chapter 3 Counseling in Context 53 The RESPECTFUL Counseling Framework Religious/Spiritual Identity

54

Economic Class Background Sexual Identity 56

55

Psychological Maturity Ethnic/Racial Identity

53

57 57

Chronological/Developmental Challenges 58 Trauma and Other Threats to One’s Well-Being Family Background and History

59

60

Unique Physical Characteristics 60 Location of Residence and Language Differences

61

Relevance of the RESPECTFUL Framework 61 The RESPECTFUL Counseling Model and Counselor Self-Assessment 62 Assessment 62 The Collaborative Approach to Assessment Strengths-Based Assessment 65 Balancing Demands and Resources Client Conceptualization

63

66

67

Minority Identity Development 70 Counseling Approaches with a Social Justice Orientation Empowerment-Focused Counseling Ecological Counseling 77

74

Feminist Counseling and Therapy Relational-Cultural Therapy 83

79

Summary References

73

84 85

Chapter 4 Outreach to Distressed and Marginalized Clients Addressing Community-Wide Trauma 91

90

Multicultural Competence 91 Community Recovery 93 Addressing Personal Crises 94 Definition of Crisis 94


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CONTENTS

The Phases of Crisis

95

Suicide Prevention 97 Addressing Difficult Transitions Model Outreach Programs

99

101

Reaching Out to Marginalized Populations 115 Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Latinos/Latinas: The Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción 116 Gaza Community Mental Health Programme 118 Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Public Health (IBISS) Summary 121 References

120

123

Chapter 5 Developmental/Preventive Interventions An Equation for Psychological Health A Rationale for Prevention 129

127

127

Multicultural Considerations 130 Conceptualizations of Stress 131 The Cultural Specificity of Stress Reactions

132

The Universality of Stress Reactions 133 Stress Management Interventions 133 Altering the Environment 134 Altering Cognitive Responses to Stress Lifestyle Changes 135 Altering Physiological Responses to Stress The Stress Management Workshop

134 136

138

Health Promotion/Wellness Programs 139 Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program Team Awareness 141 Wellness Outreach at Work

141

142

Botvin Life Skills Training Health & Wellness Program

142

Parenting and Family-Focused Programs 143 Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) Strengthening Families Program Parenting Programs 144

143

144

Life Skills Training: Promoting Personal Competence Effectiveness of Life Skills Training Programs 146 Promoting Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies

145 147


CONTENTS

Gazda’s Life Skills Training Model

ix

148

The Prepare Curriculum: Goldstein’s Problem-Solving Program 149 Building Social Justice and Advocacy Skills

151

School-Based Programs 151 Community-Based Programs 153 Workshop Development Summary 155 References

154

156

Chapter 6 Client Advocacy 165 Both/And: Decision Points in the Counseling-Advocacy Process 166 The Counseling-Advocacy Process: Examples Example 1: A Runaway Youth 170

170

Example 2: A Physically Challenged Adult 171 Example 3: A Mature Woman Continuing Her Education Client Advocacy and Multiple Oppressions

172

173

The Guerrero Family 173 The Soto/Torres Family 174 Carlos 175 Ramon 176 Fostering a Responsive Helping Network Coalition Building 178 Community-Based Planning

177

179

Summary 181 References 182 Chapter 7 Community Collaboration and Advocacy

184

Community Collaboration 186 Neighborhood Programs 187 Self-Help Organizations

191

Family and Community Projects Community Advocacy 201 Overcoming Powerlessness Summary 203 References

199

203

204


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CONTENTS

Chapter 8 Social/Political Action Strategies The Counselor’s Contribution to Social/Political Activism 207 Stories to Tell 207 Organizing Skills to Offer Expertise to Share Risks and Benefits

206

207

208 208

Counselors and Social/Political Advocacy: Beginning with the Client 209 Amber and Her Family 210 Linguicism and Immigration Issues Issues Affecting Women 217

214

Chris: An Experience of Middle School Bullying Social/Political Advocacy: The Big Picture Summary 223 References

219

221

223

Chapter 9 Community Counseling in Diverse Community Agency Settings 226 Community Mental Health

227

Facilitating Human Development 227 Facilitating Community Development 231 Career, Vocational, and Employment Settings Facilitating Human Development 234 Facilitating Community Development Family Counseling 237 Facilitating Family Development

232

236

239

Facilitating Community Development 240 Population-Specific Agencies and Programs 242 Populations Defined by Culture, Ethnicity, or National Identity 242 Populations Defined by Gender or Age Group

244

Summary 246 References 247


CONTENTS

xi

Chapter 10 Community Counseling in School Settings 251 A Brief History of School Counseling: Striving for Comprehensiveness 252 The Comprehensive School Guidance Program 252 American School Counselor Association National Standards

253

National Initiative for Transforming School Counseling 254 American School Counselor Association National Model for School Counseling Programs 255 The Current Challenge: Comprehensiveness and Systemic Change 256 School Counseling Components 258 Group Work and Individual Counseling Educational Interventions

259

260

Student Advocacy 260 Systemic Interventions 261 Unifying the Program Components Multicultural Programming 262 Programming for Safe Schools

261

264

Summary 267 References 267 Chapter 11 Managing the Community Counseling Program Planning 270 Needs Assessment

269

270

Goal Setting 273 Decision Making 273 Planning for Implementation

274

Organizing 274 Contrasting Two Organizational Models Future Organizational Challenges Leadership and Supervision 278

275

277

Leadership Style 278 The Five Components of Effective Leadership The Supervisory Relationship Multicultural Supervision Evaluation 288

280

281

284


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CONTENTS

Process Evaluation

289

Outcome Evaluation 289 Unique Managerial Challenges Summary References

290

291 292

Chapter 12 Preparing the Competent Community Counselor Counselor Education

295

296

Program Missions 296 Curriculum Infusion 298 Expansive and Contextual Approaches to Counseling Experiential Learning 304 Lifelong Learning

303

306

Summary 309 References 309 Appendix A Multicultural Counseling Competencies

311

Appendix B American Counseling Association (ACA) Advocacy Competencies 316 Appendix C Competencies for Counseling Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Clients 321 Appendix D Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment Survey CREDITS

326

328

AUTHOR INDEX S UBJECT INDEX

329 334


Preface

W

ith the advent of the 21st century, helping professionals have begun to view their work quite differently from their 20th-century counterparts. In the past, helpers usually scrutinized their clients through the equivalent of a microscope, attempting to identify individual problems that needed attention. Now, the most effective helpers try to use instead a wide-angle lens that helps them see their clients in the broadest possible context. This book’s community counseling model helps to move this change process forward by providing both cutting-edge theory and practical methods for combining counseling and social justice advocacy. This edition rests on the foundation of an updated definition of community counseling: Community counseling is a comprehensive framework that is grounded in multicultural competence and oriented toward social justice. Because human behavior is powerfully affected by context, community counselors use strategies that facilitate the healthy development both of their clients and of the communities that nourish them. This definition informs the organization of the text. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the assumptions and strategies underlying community counseling and provide a historical perspective on the evolution of the community counseling model. The second section of the book, Facilitating Healthy Human Development, addresses the concepts and methods that community counselors use to facilitate the development of their clients. Chapter 3, “Counseling in Context,” helps readers learn how to use assessment and counseling methods that are consistent with a multicultural-social justice orientation. Chapter 4 focuses on outreach to distressed and marginalized clients and Chapter 5 describes developmental/prevention interventions that are designed for the community at large. The book’s third section, Facilitating Healthy Community Development, focuses on environmental interventions, with Chapter 6 addressing client advocacy, Chapter 7 discussing community collaboration methods, and Chapter 8 emphasizing social/political activism. The final section of the book is Implementing the Community Counseling Model. The authors describe practical applications of community xiii Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

xiv

PREFACE

counseling in diverse community agency settings (Chapter 9) and in school settings (Chapter 10). Chapter 11 concentrates on managing community counseling programs and Chapter 12 describes successful methods for preparing the competent community counselor.

NEW IN THIS EDITION

The previous editions of Community Counseling all made the case for a comprehensive and multifaceted approach to helping that combined direct services to clients with indirect, environmental interventions. This edition preserves the material related to program development but has a new, individual focus as well. Readers will see how clients are helped by broad community change strategies and how individual counselors can achieve success through the community counseling model. This approach will prove helpful for students who might feel distant from the possibility of designing a program but hungry for information about how they, personally, can become competent community counselors. The following material is new to this edition: 1. Examples of individual clients and families are introduced in Chapter 1 and revisited throughout the book as readers learn how to work with the clients from a multicultural-social justice perspective. 2. Chapter 3, “Counseling in Context,” examines strengths-based approaches to assessment. 3. Also in Chapter 3, the authors identify counseling approaches that are consistent with a social justice orientation and show, through examples, how they can be used with clients. 4. Chapter 4 presents multicultural and international examples of outreach strategies for reaching distressed and marginalized people. 5. Chapters 6 and 7, which focus on client advocacy and community collaboration, provide ongoing examples of advocacy on behalf of clients who are affected by multiple oppressions. 6. Chapter 8, “Social/Political Action Strategies,” introduces the process for beginning with the needs of the individual client and moving in the direction of advocacy in the larger public arena. In addition to this focus on the individual counselor and client, this edition has several completely new chapters and appendices that did not appear in the previous edition. The new chapters include Chapter 2, which follows the evolution of the counseling profession from the early 1900s to the present as it has moved in the direction of the community counseling model; Chapter 10, which is devoted to the application of the community counseling model to school settings; and Chapter 12, which provides examples of successful models for preparing competent community counselors.


PREFACE

xv

The emphasis on competent practice can also be seen in the new appendices: Appendix A, The AMCD/ACA Multicultural Competencies; Appendix B, The ACA Advocacy Competencies; Appendix C, The Competencies for Counseling Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Clients (Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling); and Appendix D, Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment Survey (Ratts and Ford). Finally, the emphasis on competent practice can also be seen in the expansion of the Competency-Building Activities, which appear in every chapter and encourage creative thinking among students and, in fact, among all readers.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors of this book recognize the importance of the Multicultural Competencies and the Advocacy Competencies in helping to pave the way for this new issue, with its clear emphasis on multiculturalism and social justice. We would like to applaud the work of Derald Wing Sue, Patricia Arredondo, and Roderick McDavis, the authors of the Multicultural Competencies, and Thomas Parham, who, as president of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, charged Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis to take on this important task. We would also like to acknowledge Mary Smith Arnold, Reese House, and Rebecca L. Toporek, the co-authors of the ACA Advocacy Competencies, and Jane Goodman, the American Counseling Association president who appointed the Advocacy Competencies Task Force. We also thank Manivong Ratts, who was kind enough to give us permission to use his Advocacy Competencies SelfAssessment Survey. These competency documents have been cited in this book because they have been so important to the efforts of helping professionals like ourselves who value the multicultural and social justice perspectives. We would like to acknowledge the reviewers of previous editions whose wise counsel led us toward significant improvements. Reviewers who helped to guide this edition and gave us permission to acknowledge their work include G. Miguel Arciniega, Arizona State University; Evelyn Biles, Regent University; Nancy G. Calley, University of Detroit, Mercy; Dana Comstock, St. Mary’s University; Jerry Fischer, University of Idaho; Karen Koch, National-Louis University; Christopher Maglio, Truman State University; Shon Smith, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; and Cirecie West-Olatunji, University of Florida. And finally, we want to recognize our publisher, especially Seth Dobrin and the outstanding staff who supported us in completing this project. We always recommend Brooks/Cole Cengage to talented authors who are looking for excellence in publishing.


About the Authors

Judith A. Lewis, PhD Dr. Judith A. Lewis retired in 2008 from Governors State University, where she served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Addictions Studies and Behavioral Health. She is a past president of the American Counseling Association and is first author of the ACA Advocacy Competencies. Dr. Lewis is the co-author of several texts for Brooks/Cole Cengage, including Substance Abuse Counseling and Management of Human Service Programs. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan and is a licensed psychologist in Illinois as well as a National Certified Counselor. She is very active in social justice advocacy. Michael D. Lewis, PhD Michael D. Lewis received his master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University in 1964 and his doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1969. His first awareness of the need for a newer approach to counseling rose out of his experience working with children at the Hawthorn Center in Michigan. This awareness increased while he worked as a high school counselor and grew as he became one of the first elementary school counselors in the nation. Teaching the community counseling model during his years as a college professor, he went on to train students throughout the world. He worked for ten years as a consultant for the National Institute for Mental Health, where he advocated for grants to agencies and universities utilizing the community counseling model. He discovered early on that the community holds the keys to both cause and cure. As president of Educational World Charities, he continues to give back through scholarships and grants to programs that advocate prevention, many of them highlighted in this book. Judy Daniels, PhD Judy Daniels is a professor at the University of Hawaii and currently the president of Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association (ACA). She has been a counselor educator for 20 years. Dr. Daniels has received xvi Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

xvii

numerous awards, including several teaching awards at the University of Hawaii, the prestigious Fellow award, and the Wrenn “Counselor of the Year” award from ACA. She uses the community counseling model in her work as a counselor educator, an advocate, and change agent in organizational settings. Michael D’Andrea, PhD Michael D’Andrea is executive director of the National Institute for Multicultural Competence. Michael D’Andrea received his master’s degree in school counseling from Fairfield University in 1975 and his doctoral degree from Vanderbilt University in Human Development Counseling in 1982. He has served as a counselor educator, researcher, theorist, and advocate for more than 35 years. Dr. D’Andrea has used and continues to use the community counseling framework extensively when training graduate students as well as in his counseling practices and organizational development consultation endeavors. Michael has also drawn from the community counseling model when implementing leadership initiatives as the 2009–2010 president of Counselors for Social Justice and the president of the Hawaii Counseling Association (2007–2009), and when holding many other leadership positions in the fields of counseling and psychology.


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CHAPTER 1

Community Counseling for the 21st Century

C

ommunity counselors play a vital role in society, helping countless clients as they try to bridge the gaps between the lives they are currently living and the lives they seek. Sometimes these gaps seem vast and the challenges daunting. Consider the following examples: A counselor who works primarily with Spanish-speaking clients in an urban mental health agency is optimistic about his ability to help his new client, Ramon. Ramon’s mental health concerns have become complicated by a recently developed heroin habit, but he is unequivocally motivated toward change and could benefit from the services provided by the agency’s methadone program. Unfortunately, the methadone program is required to check for United States citizenship, and this young man, who was born in Mexico, is afraid to take the chance of even walking through the door of a program that is located right down the hall. A family counselor has been working with a white middle-class family through the coming-out process of their only child, a fourteen-year-old son. The parents are glad their son trusted them enough to talk with them about his sexual orientation and they want to be supportive. At the same time, they feel very cautious about the family’s privacy and wish that secrecy were 1


2

CHAPTER

1

possible in their small, conservative town. Now their son, Chris, is having a problem with bullying at his middle school. The teachers and administrators have not been helpful and have suggested that Chris might do well to modify his own behaviors in the direction of masculinity. At this point, the parents’ feelings have begun to change from nervous protectiveness to helpless anger. A counselor is employed at a community mental health agency that bases its services on the recovery model. The counselor is committed to this model, appreciating its emphasis on self-direction and empowerment for people grappling with mental health-related concerns. Sometimes, however, she and her clients feel frustrated at the difficulties faced by people who simply want to participate fully in their communities. Several consumers of the agency’s services have joined together in a peer support group to share their hopes and challenges. Marie, George, and Rachel find that they are all coming up against the same barrier of stigmatization as they seek to meet basic needs like housing, employment, education, and health care. A counselor at a Vet Center in a southern town enjoys helping combat veterans make successful transitions to civilian life. This Vet Center, like hundreds of others, is part of the network of community-based services provided by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA). One of the counselor’s most difficult challenges is helping veterans deal with problems related to what the VA terms military sexual trauma, which encompasses sexual harassment and sexual assault in military settings. Currently, he is counseling Jeanette, a young white woman who experienced ongoing gender harassment while in the military. Coming from a large family that could not afford higher education, Jeanette had hoped for a military career that would give her opportunities for education and advancement. Her experience of harassment, however, made her feel that her dreams had been unrealistic. Having left the military, she is now having difficulty making a transition to civilian employment. She knows that sexual harassment can happen anywhere, and she can no longer picture herself as a respected member of a workplace team. A community counselor with extensive experience in crisis intervention and disaster response is providing assistance to families whose lives have been disrupted by a tornado that almost destroyed their small Midwestern city. One of these families, the Townsends, felt fortunate at first when they realized that their home had been spared from the worst of the disaster and


COMMUNITY COUNSELING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

3

remained habitable. Unfortunately, the garage where Ned Townsend made his living as a mechanic has been destroyed and the owner has decided to close the business and not rebuild. Margaret Townsend’s position as a teacher’s aide does not come close to providing enough income to pay the mortgage on the house. They know that they and their three children will have to give up their home, possibly to live with relatives in another state. Although it might seem obvious that the fault for this crisis is not their own, Ned and Margaret both express a deep sense of shame for having to uproot their children from the lives they knew. A mental health counselor in private practice has as a client an African American woman who has experienced mild depression and anxiety since the birth of her second child. When Carole and her husband, Franklin, were married ten years ago they both had active and stimulating corporate careers. Carole’s career has suffered as she has tried to balance child care and work. At the same time, Franklin’s career has flourished and his current executive job places high demands on his time. He reminds Carole that he is the first African American to reach this level in his company and reminds her that there are people who opposed his promotion. Franklin has been vehement in insisting that Carole stay home after her current maternity leave has ended, saying that once they have paid for child care her salary has no effect on their family income except to put them in a higher tax bracket. Carole wanted her children and enjoys being a parent, but she is surprised—even disappointed—about the direction her life has taken. The clients who serve as our examples differ across a number of variables, including culture, race, gender, sexual orientation, geography, and family dynamics. The concerns they bring to the counseling process vary in kind and in gravity. Yet, these exemplars also share some key commonalities that should not be overlooked. Their commonalities include the following: (a) the things that are most important about each of them include their strengths and resources—not just their problems, (b) the desire for positive change is present in all of them, and (c) many of the barriers that disrupt their development come not from their own characteristics or behaviors but from their environments. Their counselors exhibit variation as well, both in professional settings— from private practice to small agencies to large bureaucracies—and in specialization. But they, too, share a common viewpoint. Experience has taught them to “avoid using the psychological equivalent of a microscope to magnify and define the deficits within their clients” (Lewis, 1997, p. 95). They use, instead, the equivalent of a wide-angle lens.


4

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1

21ST-CENTURY COMMUNITY COUNSELING: FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS

Twenty-first-century community counseling has moved definitively away from the diagnostic microscopes of a previous era and toward the contextual strategies made possible by the wide-angle lens. This movement reflects more than anything else a major change in the attitude and perspective of the typical counselor and in the profession as a whole. But this change in attitude has practical implications for the day-to-day work of the professional counselor as well. When counselors began to take note of the context within which people live, they also opened their eyes to a host of new ways to help their clients. The fundamental assumptions underlying 21st-century community counseling include the following: 1. Human development and behavior take place in environmental contexts that have the potential to be nurturing or limiting. 2. Even in the face of devastating stress, people who are treated respectfully can demonstrate surprising levels of strength and access resources that a pessimistic helper might not see. 3. Attention to the multicultural nature of human development is a central component of community counseling. 4. Individual development and community development are inextricably linked.

Environmental Contexts

Conyne and Cook (2004) look with a critical eye at what they term the “person-oriented” counseling focus of the past: A client’s behavior (or thinking or feelings) seems to be getting him or her into some type of trouble. The obvious solution is to help the client change this problem so that the difficulties ease. The target of the behavior change process is the client; the problem is some aspect of his or her functioning; the goal of counseling is substitution of a more adaptive way of being. The counselor serves as a remediation expert, skilled at identifying the nature of one’s personal dysfunction and helping the client develop alternatives that are more satisfying (pp. 3–4). Although some counselors remain comfortable with this limited focus (the microscope), “the limitations of the person-focused paradigm have become increasingly obvious in recent years” (Conyne & Cook, 2004, p. 5). Jordan (2010) refers specifically to the devastating impact of oppressive environments in her discussion of the need for a broader perspective: If we constantly work only at the individual level of understanding, we become complicit with the existing forces of disconnection and oppression in the culture. We fail our clients and a society that needs healing as well. (Jordan, 2010, p. 3) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Jordan emphasizes the fact that her theoretical perspective, RelationalCultural Therapy, remains hopeful even in the face of oppression. “While [Relational-Cultural Therapy] recognizes the power of relationships to violate and hurt, most importantly it recognizes the power of relationships to heal us, to help us grow, to nourish us, to free and empower us” (Jordan, 2010, p. 99). Counseling theories that emphasize the connections between person and environment have become central tenets of 21st-century counseling because the power of the environment to nurture or limit human development has become increasingly clear. People continually interact with their surroundings in ways that help or harm them. As people develop, they rely on their interpersonal environment as a source of learning and support, meeting their needs chiefly through interactions with others. Even so, the environment can also affect them negatively, stunting growth and limiting their development. Because the environment affects people so significantly, counselors who use the 21st-century paradigm realize that attempts to promote their clients’ psychological development without also dealing with their social systems are often ineffective. Environmental factors clearly contribute to the development of almost any kind of problem a client may face. Sometimes the connection between such factors and an individual’s personal problems is clearly definable. For instance, political policies may place unnecessary barriers between individuals and their goals. (This happened in the case of our earlier example, Ramon, who was actually barred from the help he needed for his heroin problem because of harsh immigration-related policies.) Clear connections between the environment and personal problems are also present when racism or sexism denies people career options, as happened overtly with the military veteran, Jeanette, and more subtly with Carole, whose challenges involve conflicts between career and parenthood that her husband is spared. When an ex-offender or a person with chronic mental health problems cannot gain free entry into the mainstream, as happened with Marie, George, and Rachel, the connection between marginalization and individual harm is undeniable. Sometimes clients develop in a psychologically noxious environment; when counselors focus only on their clients’ personal attributes (such as depression, apathy, and anger), they inadvertently undermine their clients’ sense of personal power. Without the support to deal with and change environmental conditions that negatively impact their lives, clients usually feel increasingly powerless, lack a sense of purpose in counseling, and continue to feel trapped in highly restricted roles and unrewarding relationships. Although the environment can work against an individual’s growth, it can just as surely aid personal development. In this regard, people vary in their ability to cope with life’s stresses. At least some of this variation proceeds from differences in the degree and type of social support available to them. An actively supportive environment tends to foster healthy development. Because the environment affects people in so many ways—both negative and positive—counselors do well when they focus on both individual and community empowerment. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Client Strengths and Resources

At least since the time of Aristotle, scholars, philosophers, and religious leaders have pondered the question “How can we become lastingly happier?” Yet until recently, the only guiding question in clinical psychology and psychiatry has been “How can we reduce suffering?” (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005, p. 420) At times in the history of the counseling profession, counselors also lost sight of their clients’ strengths, resources, and potential for happiness and focused their microscopes narrowly on the internal sources of suffering. This emphasis on the negative often had the unintended consequence of increasing a client’s pessimism and decreasing his or her sense of self-efficacy. Now the trend has clearly turned in a new direction. Seligman et al. (2005) point out that “psychotherapy has long been where you go to talk about your troubles,” and suggest that “the psychotherapy of the future may also be where you go to talk about your strengths” (p. 421). For community counseling, this positive future may well have arrived. Helping clients recognize and build on their strengths and resources is a central tenet of the community counseling approach. Use of a narrow and negative focus on problems has been particularly devastating for clients who are marginalized and stigmatized because of the particular challenges they face in their lives. The people who are most in need of a respectful and optimistic approach are the ones who have been most likely to receive the opposite! Consider, for example, two groups that share the characteristics of marginalization and stigmatization: clients dealing with long-term mental health concerns and clients dealing with the effects of substance abuse. For both of these populations, the judgmental approaches of the past are giving way to respectful approaches that emphasize empowerment and self-direction. Mental Health. Marie, George, and Rachel, who served as examples at the opening of this chapter, find it difficult to get people to see beyond their personal histories. They want to have useful roles in their community, but come up against prejudice and stereotyping when they try to meet such basic needs as housing and employment. Fortunately, the mental health agency that provides them with ongoing support and treatment, as needed, is based on a model that reinforces consumers’ strengths and resources.

The recovery model emphasizes that responsibility and control of the recovery process must be given in large part to the person who has the condition.… Mental health interventions are designed to be empowering, enabling the persons themselves to take responsibility for decisions about their lives. (Frese, Stanley, Kress, & Vogel-Scibilia, 2003, p. 22) The components of the recovery model include the following (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2004): Self-direction Individualized and person-centered Empowerment Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Holistic Non-linear Strengths-based Peer support Respect Responsibility Hope With these components in place, “mental health recovery not only benefits individuals with mental health disabilities by focusing on their abilities to live, work, learn, and fully participate in our society, but also enriches the texture of American community life” (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2004, p. 2). Substance Abuse. People grappling with substance abuse also find it difficult to be accepted as valuable members of their communities. This predicament has often been exacerbated by the fact that even professional helpers may assume that the respect accorded other clients should be withheld for clients whose presenting issues relate to drug or alcohol use.

In the field of substance abuse, a set of myths has been disseminated throughout the United States. This mythology as a whole is built on the premise that people who are grappling with issues related to addictions or substance abuse somehow belong in a different category of species from other human beings. The implication of the myths is that the collaborative partnerships that counselors like to build with their students and clients must suddenly be put aside when alcohol or other drugs find their way into the conversation. The stereotype about how substance abuse counselors must operate has become a self-propelling “conventional wisdom” that inspires avid belief with no basis in fact. (Lewis & Elder, 2010, p. 161) This “conventional wisdom” has been largely discredited, as it has become apparent that a respectful and collaborative approach to substance abuse counseling is, in fact, an evidence-based practice. A counselor who has a respectful attitude toward people grappling with addiction recognizes that clients hold the ultimate responsibility for their own recovery. Encouraging clients to accept this challenge is not just humane; it is also empirically supported. (Lewis, Dana, & Blevins, 2011 p. 7) It has long been known that “people’s belief that they can motivate themselves and regulate their own behavior plays a crucial role in whether they even consider changing detrimental health habits or pursuing rehabilitative activities” (Bandura, 1997, p. 119). In recent years, a solid body of research support has also been built around Motivational Interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2002; Hettema, Steele, & Miller, 2005; Rubak, Sandboek, Lauritzen, & Christensen, 2005). The spirit of this approach to helping “arises from the basic idea that the motivation for change comes from within the client and is elicited by a skilled Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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and supportive interviewer who recognizes that the client holds the decisionmaking power for his or her own life” (Lewis, Dana, & Blevins, 2011, p. 7). Hope. Counselors who recognize their clients’ strengths and respect their potential for self-direction can nurture optimism in people who have long since abandoned hope. Ongoing problems frequently lead to an erosion of a client’s hope for a better future. Because the absence of such hopefulness compromises one’s psychological health and well-being in many ways, the community counseling model emphasizes that counselors serve a crucial function in promoting hopefulness among their clients. Hopefulness refers to an inner anticipation of new potentials and a greater sense of satisfaction and connection with life. It fuels the belief that though we are who we are at the present time, we are also capable of developing new insights, new skills, and new interpersonal connections that will bring about a greater sense of personal well-being. Multiculturalism

Sue (2006, p. 16) quotes a traditional Asian saying: “All individuals, in many respects, are (a) like no other individuals, (b) like some individuals, and (c) like all other individuals.” The tripartite framework (Sue, 2001) reflects these three levels of personal identity. At the individual level, a person is identified in terms of his or her unique qualities. The group level of identity reflects the cultural groups that affect a person’s worldview and, at the same time, reflect the way the individual may be viewed by society. The universal level of identity recognizes the common human characteristics and experiences that cross all boundaries. In general, people—even helping professionals—tend to feel comfortable with thinking about the uniqueness of an individual or the universality of human nature. They feel less comfortable with the complexities of the group level of identity. Focusing on the group level, Sue cites a number of variables that relate to human similarities and differences, including race, sexual orientation, marital status, religious preference, culture, disabilities/abilities, ethnicities, geographic location, age, socioeconomic status, and gender. Any one individual has multiple cultural identities, some of which, such as marital status or geographic location, may be changeable while others are assumed to be permanent. At any given moment in a person’s life, one or more of his or her group identifiers may gain special importance. For Margaret and Ned Townsend, the couple whose lives were changed by the tornado that hit their town, geographic location and socioeconomic status gained a central place in their lives that might not be permanent. For Jeanette, the veteran who had been subjected to sexual harassment, the financial problems that had been fundamental to her enlistment ceded centrality to gender identification. The practice of competent counseling necessitates that counselors understand the complexities of culture and group identity as their clients experience them. Remaining “uncomfortable” with any level of identity is not an option. In fact, community counselors who are steeped in multiculturalism take a further step beyond understanding to action. It is a short step from becoming aware of the impact of the cultural milieu to noticing the role of oppression in our clients’ lives. Once we begin to Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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notice systemic oppression, it is just one more short step to accepting our responsibility for social action. (Lewis & Arnold, 1998, p. 51) The Link between Individual and Community Development

As counselors attempt to respond to the needs of community members, especially the most vulnerable people, the need to negotiate environmental changes becomes apparent. Their work brings counselors face to face with the victims of poverty, racism, sexism, and stigmatization; with political, economic, and social systems that leave individuals feeling powerless; with governing bodies that deny their responsibility to respond; with social norms that encourage isolation. In the face of these realities, counselors have no choice but to promote positive changes in the systems that affect the well-being of their clients. Community counselors know that human beings constantly interact with their surroundings and that these interactions influence their development. The reason counselors have this knowledge is their direct experience. In our work with students and clients we see firsthand the impact of detrimental environments on vulnerable individuals. We are often the first to notice a systemic problem because we see its effects. Once we do take note of a problem, we have human-development knowledge to share with the public and human-relations skills to work with others toward common solutions. (Lewis, Toporek, & Ratts, 2010, p. 241) In fact, the connection between the counselor as direct-service provider and the counselor as social-change agent mirrors the connection between individual and community development. “The empathy of the counselor and the courage of the advocate” (Lewis, Toporek, & Ratts, in press) are inextricably linked. In terms of the counseling profession, the concept of advocacy has been defined as “action taken by a counseling professional to facilitate the removal of external and institutional barriers to clients’ well-being” (Toporek & Liu, 2001, p. 387). In addition to confronting unhealthy aspects of the environment, however, community counselors also recognize the potential for healing that healthy environments provide. For this reason, counselors work to facilitate both healthy human development and healthy community development.

COMMUNITY COUNSELING DEFINED

The fundamental assumptions that underlie community counseling lead in the direction of a multifaceted approach to helping. The model of community counseling that is explored in this book can be defined as follows: Community counseling is a comprehensive helping framework that is grounded in multicultural competence and oriented toward social justice. Because human behavior is powerfully affected by context, community counselors use strategies that facilitate the healthy development both of their clients and of the communities that nourish them. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Because this definition imparts the central theme of the book and lays the groundwork for discussion of practice strategies, we will provide more detailed explanations of each of the definition’s primary components. The following sections provide detailed definitions of (a) community, (b) multicultural competence, (c) social justice, and (d) healthy development of clients and communities. Community

The word community means different things to different people. To some it may refer to people living in a specific geographic area (e.g., a rural versus an urban community). To others it may mean a group of people related by their unique cultural, ethnic, or racial background, such as the Asian American community. Still others may use the term to refer to the interdependence each has to one another as members of a much broader “global community.” In this book, we refer to community as “a group or gathering of people who share common interests and needs” (Paisley, 1996). When we refer to communities as systems we mean that they have unity, continuity, and predictability. Individuals, groups, and organizations that compose a community are interdependent. Communities also link individuals to other communities, including the greater society. Thus, communities serve as a medium through which individuals can act on the world and through which society as a whole transmits norms. Under this working definition, families and neighborhoods can be communities, as can a school, a hospital, or a corporation. Accordingly, an individual may belong to more than one community at a time. Also, communities have such presence and power that anyone working with individuals as a helper must, at some point, examine how they are affected by the various communities of which they are a part. We purposely chose a general definition of the term community because we intend it to include a wide range of human collectives—from families and schools to larger communities, such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender groups, and further to much larger and more complex sociopolitical systems, such as the North American community. Because this definition implies that community members have both a direct and an indirect impact on one another, human connections and interdependence serve as important concepts on which we base the community counseling model. Dr. Martin Luther King (1963) insisted that developing a healthy and respectful sense of interdependence as members of a national and world community was the single most important challenge of his time. Although he presented this message decades ago, we believe that Dr. King’s insight applies directly to counselors today as they seek new ways to address the mental health needs of the 21st century. We hope that counselors will find the community counseling model helpful as they strive to foster the mental health of clients as well as to promote more tolerant, responsive, and caring communities. To do so, mental health practitioners must acquire the types of multicultural competencies that are necessary to work effectively, ethically, and respectfully with persons who come from diverse groups and backgrounds. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Multicultural Competence

The multicultural counseling movement represents a revolutionary force that has clearly taken center stage in the counseling profession. This force is forging a paradigm shift in which culturally biased constructions of such fundamental concepts as mental health, psychological maturity, human development, psychological disorder, and appropriate helping strategies are being expanded to include more culturally respectful and responsive ways of thinking. (Cartwright, Daniels, & Zhang, 2008, p. 318) A sizable portion of this momentum toward multiculturalism can be attributed to the multicultural counseling competencies that were first published in 1992 (Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). The authors of the competencies, Derald Wing Sue, Patricia Arredondo, and Roderick McDavis, developed the competency document in response to a charge from the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD). The quality and importance of the document were quickly recognized, leading to its concurrent publication by both AMCD and the American Counseling Association. Over the decades since their introduction to the profession, the Multicultural Counseling Competencies (see Appendix A) have proven successful in disseminating the idea that counseling competency without multicultural competency is impossible. The competency document is organized around three major areas: (1) counselor awareness of own cultural values and biases, (2) counselor awareness of client’s worldview, and (3) culturally appropriate intervention strategies. Within each of these sections, the competencies are listed under the categories of (a) attitudes and beliefs, (b) knowledge, and (c) skills. It is important to note that the first section highlights the importance of the counselor’s awareness of his or her own cultural values and biases. The quest for competency is an ongoing process that begins with self-interrogation and never stops. Sue and Sue (2002) provide the following definition of the culturally competent helping professional: First, a culturally competent helping professional is one who is actively in the process of becoming aware of his or her own assumptions about human behavior, values, biases, preconceived notions, personal limitations, and so forth. Second, a culturally competent helping professional is one who actively attempts to understand the worldview of his or her culturally different client…Third, a culturally competent helping professional is one who is in the process of actively developing and practicing appropriate, relevant, and sensitive intervention strategies and skills in working with his or her culturally different client. Sue and Sue go on to point out that “these three goals make it clear that cultural competence is an active, developmental, and ongoing process and that it is aspirational rather than achieved.” Multicultural competence is in fact a living, growing concept. Proof of this notion can be found in the degree to which proponents of multicultural Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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counseling have expanded the boundaries of multiculturalism to attend to sociopolitical change (Arredondo, Tovar-Blank, & Parham, 2008) and find common cause with social justice counseling (Crethar, Torres Rivera, & Nash, 2008). Social Justice

What do we mean when we say that community counseling is oriented toward social justice? Because community counselors use the wide-angle lens to view their clients in context, they have every reason to know that their clients need and deserve a just and equitable community environment. Social justice involves promoting access and equity to ensure full participation in the life of a society, particularly for those who have been systematically excluded on the basis of race/ethnicity, gender, age, physical or mental disability, education, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics of background or group membership. Social justice is based on a belief that all people have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of societal resources. (Lee, 2007, p. 1) When community counselors become aware that their clients are denied these rights, they know that the time has come for environmental intervention in the form of social justice advocacy. For counselors, guidance in selecting and carrying out environmental interventions is provided by the American Counseling Association (ACA) Advocacy Competencies (Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2002). The Advocacy Competencies (see Appendix B) are organized around three intervention levels: the client or student, the community or school, and the broader public arena. At each level of intervention, competencies for bringing about change are outlined. At the level of the individual client, the competencies are categorized as client empowerment and client advocacy. At the level of the community, the competencies are focused on community collaboration and systems change. Finally, in the broader public arena, counselors carry out public-information programs and social/political advocacy. The ACA Advocacy Competencies provide a vehicle for counselors to bring about change, whether the immediate task involves an opportunity to create positive change or the need to redress an injustice. Levy and Sidel (2006) provide an interesting set of definitions for social injustice. They define social injustice first as “the denial or violation of economic, socio-cultural, political, civil, or human rights of specific populations or groups in the society based on the perception of their inferiority by those with more power or influence.” This definition of course represents the polar opposite of the typical definitions of justice. Their second definition of social injustice, however, takes the discussion in a new direction. This second definition of social injustice refers to policies or actions that adversely affect the societal conditions in which people can be healthy. Although this type of social injustice is more communitywide, nationwide, or even global, the populations described in our first definition of Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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social injustice—especially the poor, the homeless, the ill or injured, the very young, and the very old—usually suffer more than others in the population as a result of these policies and actions. (Levy & Sidel, 2006) This second definition of social injustice is relevant to our discussion of the community counselor’s role in facilitating human and community development. What the community counselor hopes to accomplish in facilitating community development is to create communities that make healthy human development possible. Healthy Development of Clients and Communities

The question of what constitutes healthy human development is complicated at best. Traditional theories of human development that were prominent throughout the 20th century emphasized development in the direction of individual autonomy. These theories and their utility for counseling and therapy are now being called into question. Relational-Cultural Therapy (RCT), for instance, “challenges not only the prevailing developmental theories, which frame independence as the hallmark of mature development, but some of the basic tenets of 21st century culture, which celebrates autonomy, self-interest, competition, and strength in isolation” (Jordan, 2010, pp. 1–2). RCT criticizes individualistic human development tenets because they suggest as ideal the state of isolation, which is actually a source of suffering, rather than connection, which is a source of growth. The autonomy-focused ideology has also been reproached as a basis for counseling because it is based on a narrow, Euro-American view of the human experience that is not shared across cultures (Sue & Sue, 2002). Many counselors have inadvertently damaged their clients by emphasizing individuation at the expense of interdependence. Consider, for instance, the commonly held view that the important tasks of adolescence include separating from the family of origin and gaining an independent self-identity.… Placing a premium on the adolescent’s attainment of individualism and independence reflects a value that is central to the dominant culture in the United States but that is not shared by all ethnic groups … helpers who overemphasize the goal of personal autonomy may inadvertently be imposing definitions of normality that are at odds with a client’s culture. (Lewis, 2007, p. 4) Community counselors need a broader perspective on what constitutes healthy human development. The following definition of human development comes from the Human Development Reports, which fall under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme. Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. Enlarging people’s choices is achieved by expanding human capabilities and functioning. At all levels of development the three essential capabilities for human development are for people to lead long and healthy lives, to be Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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knowledgeable and to have a decent standard of living. If these basic capabilities are not achieved, many choices are simply not available and many opportunities remain inaccessible. But the realm of human development goes further: essential areas of choice, highly valued by people, range from political, economic and social opportunities for being creative and productive to enjoying self-respect, empowerment and a sense of belonging to a community. (Human Development Reports, nd) This conceptualization of human development provides a comfortable fit for counselors due to its emphasis on expanding people’s choices and building capabilities. The fit with the community counseling model is especially strong because stress is placed on empowerment and the sense of belonging within community. In work that is complementary to the direction taken by the Human Development Reports, Nussbaum (1999) lays out the capabilities that should be available to all human beings. These capabilities include life; bodily health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination, and thought supported by freedom of expression; emotions, including attachments to things and persons outside ourselves; practical reason; affiliation; concern for other species; play; and control over one’s environment. Nussbaum believes that human beings, by their very nature, possess basic capabilities that can develop into the high-level capabilities that appear on her list. Human capabilities exert a moral claim that they should be developed.… When these capabilities are deprived of the nourishment that would transform them into the high-level capabilities that figure on my list, they are fruitless, cut off, in some way but a shadow of themselves. They are like actors who never get to go on the stage, or a person who sleeps all through life, or a musical score that is never performed. (Nussbaum, 1999, p. 43) Nussbaum’s thoughts help to shed light on the role of the community counselor. Effective counselors believe that all their clients have the potential for growth in the direction of complex and fulfilling lives. These counselors have always known that they can best facilitate this growth through respectful, positive, and empowering relationships and methods. What the community counseling model offers is an expansion of these basic assumptions. The client’s progress depends not just on the excellence of the direct service the counselor provides but also on the sustenance provided by the larger community environment. Nussbaum explains—and the community counselor understands—that the difference between the person who sleeps through life and the one who is zestful and awake depends on the ability of the community to provide sufficient nourishment and support.

COMMUNITY COUNSELING STRATEGIES

Because they hold the assumption that individual development and community development are inextricably linked, community counselors acknowledge that their professional responsibilities include both serving their clients directly and Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


T A B L E 1.1

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The Community Counseling Model FACILITATING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

FACILITATING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Focused Strategies

Counseling in Context Outreach to Distressed and Marginalized Clients

Client Advocacy Community Collaboration

Broad-Based Strategies

Developmental/Preventive Interventions

Social/Political Advocacy for Macro-Level Change

working to build nurturing environments. The counselor’s role, then, includes strategies that facilitate human development and strategies that facilitate community development. Across both of these two categories, the counselor uses focused strategies that address the needs of particular individuals or groups and broad-based strategies that affect the general population. The four quadrants of the community counseling model are shown in Table 1.1. The comprehensive nature of the community counseling model affects both the way programs are designed and the way individual counselors assist their clients. Community counseling programs are planned so that interventions are offered in each of the model’s facets. Community counselors, no matter where they might be employed, move comfortably across the four quadrants, demonstrating the characteristics of optimism, activism, and vision that give the community counseling model its zest. Facilitating Human Development: Focused Strategies

The fact that 21st-century counselors pay heed to the community environment does not mean that they reject the role of providing direct, person-to-person services that make full use of their helping skills. It does mean, however, that the way they ply their skills should reflect their awareness of context. There needs to be an unbroken line between counseling and advocacy strategies. That line abruptly breaks when a therapeutic approach involves diagnosing deficits and focusing attention solely on intra-psychic phenomena. Counselors can find a sense of wholeness in their work only if the theoretical perspectives that inform their direct counseling are broad enough to encompass a variety of roles. (Lewis, Toporek, & Ratts, 2010, p. 241) In order to find that sense of wholeness, community counselors tend to use contextual and strengths-based perspectives that serve them well in the counseling office and also adapt well across all facets of their work. Focused strategies for facilitating human development include not only office-based counseling but outreach activities as well. Community counselors know that people go through times in their lives when they confront powerful stressors. The sources of their distress may originate in crisis situations or in ongoing experiences of oppression or marginalization. In either case, counselors use Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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active outreach methods to make sure that individuals and groups in distress have access to supportive and empowering assistance. Consider the situation of Ned and Margaret Townsend, whose lives were turned upside down when a tornado destroyed the garage where Ned made his living. It was important that the family have access to crisis counseling services like the ones provided by their community counselor. Individual Crisis Counseling Services assist disaster survivors in understanding their current situation and reactions, reviewing their options, addressing their emotional support and linking with other individuals and agencies who may assist them. During individual services, crisis counseling staff are active listeners who provide emotional support. (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA, nd]) This is precisely the kind of help that the Townsend family needed, but they might not have sought out assistance of any kind if they had not been the recipients of active outreach efforts. As SAMHSA states, “Crisis counselors take services into the communities rather than wait for survivors to seek them out.” In an ideal situation, person-to-person outreach is joined by educational efforts that help individuals and communities understand their new challenges and learn the skills they will need for dealing with them. These educational efforts can strengthen people’s ability to deal with stressors and, in some cases, prevent long-lasting effects on mental health.

Facilitating Human Development: Broad-Based Strategies

Developmental/preventive interventions allow community counselors to educate or train members of the population at large. Sometimes, as in the case of disaster relief in Ned and Margaret’s town, a particular situation provides a teachable moment when training in specific coping mechanisms meets an immediate community need. Just as often, these educational interventions are entirely developmental and preventive in that they are offered to community members who do not necessarily see themselves as having “problems” of any kind. The purpose of such broad-based strategies for facilitating human development is to help community members gain new knowledge and skills that are useful in dealing with the as-yet-unknown challenges that they are likely to encounter in their lives. Participants increase their awareness of potential life challenges and develop skills that can help them deal with these challenges more competently. Such programs may run the gamut from values-clarification seminars to assertiveness training, from courses in decision making and life planning to workshops in cross-cultural understanding, from relaxation training to cross-cultural activities. The possibilities are endless. For each of these and many other programs, counselors have developed techniques, concepts, and even course outlines. The simple challenge for practitioners is to implement these programs, techniques, and concepts among a broad range of people. By using preventive educational



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programs such as these, counselors can help people experience their own competence. Counselors and community members alike come to recognize that effective life skills serve to prevent a variety of problems. The emphasis on prevention makes community counseling highly active. One should not wait passively for the next task, the next problem, or the next crisis to appear. Instead, practitioners continually look for situations in which they can help, planning and initiating new programs to meet the needs of clients and their communities. This emphasis on prevention also makes the community counseling model a more viable and relevant framework than the traditional direct-counseling-only paradigm for working with people who are uncomfortable with or distrustful of the counseling experience. Facilitating Community Development: Focused Strategies

In many situations, the counselor’s empowerment-focused approach is all that is needed to prepare clients to be their own self-advocates. Often, however, individual clients or families need additional voices to speak up on their behalf. Advocacy is integral to the counseling process. When counselors become aware of external factors that act as barriers to an individual’s development, they may choose to respond through advocacy. The client/student advocate role is especially significant when individuals or vulnerable groups lack access to sorely needed services. (Lewis et al., 2002) The Townsend family again provides an example of a case in which the complexity involved in accessing services might necessitate additional help. The barriers between the Townsends and their well-being might be too high to be surmounted without assistance. The family needed social, economic, career, educational, and crisis services at the precise time that the community service network was likely to be stretched beyond normal capacity. The counselor’s role in that case would include identifying scarce resources and negotiating services on the family’s behalf. Of course, the barriers confronting the Townsend family would not be unique to them. The counselor would take note of the fact that similar community-based barriers affected any number of individuals and families. When counselors identify systemic factors that act as barriers to their students’ or clients’ development, they often wish that they could change the environment and prevent some of the problems that they see every day. Counselors who view themselves as change agents and who understand systemic change principles are able to make this wish a reality. (Lewis et al., 2002) In their role of facilitating community development, counselors identify factors that negatively affect their clients’ development and take action—often in collaboration with others—to bring about necessary changes. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Facilitating Community Development: Broad-Based Strategies

The community counselor’s experience in advocacy within the immediate community that affects his or her clients is often a step toward recognizing that advocacy at a broader level is necessary. Counselors regularly act as change agents in the systems that affect their own students and clients most directly. This experience often leads toward the recognition that some of the concerns they have addressed affect people in a much larger arena. When this happens, counselors use their skills to carry out social/political advocacy. (Lewis et al., 2002) Competencies in the broader public arena focus on the counselor’s ability to “distinguish those problems that can best be resolved through social/political action” and “identify the appropriate mechanisms and avenues for addressing these problems” (Lewis et al., 2002). Community counselors may be uniquely qualified to recognize and act on the need for change. First, the practice of counseling makes counselors particularly sensitive to environmental problems that affect human development. Second, the nature of the counseling profession itself means that counselors possess the requisite knowledge and skills to communicate about the need for change and to embark on collaborative actions. Our vision of advocacy must expand so that we see as part of our domain the act of influencing policy on a broader stage. This change in vision will help us become more actively involved in advocating for the kinds of social, political, and economic changes that tend to counter oppression in all its forms. (Lewis & Arnold, 1998, p. 61) A Unified Approach

The community counseling model has both programmatic and professional implications. In terms of program, the model suggests that services should be offered across all four of the quadrants presented in the Community Counseling Table. In professional terms, the model suggests that the community counselor should be prepared to view his or her role as broad and multifaceted. By combining the four components of community counseling into a unified framework, counselors can begin to conceptualize the types of intervention strategies likely to have the greatest impact on the largest number of clients. When using the community counseling model, counselors need not choose between helping individuals or acting as agents of social change. The skills involved in facilitating human development and facilitating community development complement each other. In addition to being programmatic, the community counseling model asks counselors to develop a more complex set of competencies than what would



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be needed if their roles were limited to direct, one-to-one services inside the walls of a small office. But counselors can take heart from the fact that the multifaceted nature of community counselors does not require piling on new responsibilities. Rather, their responsibilities to client and community are woven from the same cloth. Their counseling makes them better advocates; their advocacy makes them better counselors.

SUMMARY

The fundamental assumptions underlying the practice of 21st-century community counseling include the following: (1) human development and behavior take place in environmental contexts that have the potential to be nurturing or limiting; (2) even in the face of devastating stress, people who are treated respectfully can demonstrate surprising levels of strength and access resources that a pessimistic helper might not see; (3) attention to the multicultural nature of human development is a central component of community counseling; and (4) individual development and community development are inextricably linked. These assumptions lead toward a comprehensive and multifaceted definition of the community counselor’s role. Community counseling is a comprehensive helping framework that is grounded in multicultural competence and oriented toward social justice. Because human behavior is powerfully affected by context, community counselors use strategies that facilitate the healthy development both of their clients and of the communities that nourish them. Fidelity to this definition entails a community counseling program based both on facilitating human development (providing direct interventions with clients and community members) and facilitating community development (using advocacy interventions to build positive environments and break down external barriers to client well-being). Each of these two areas of emphasis includes focused strategies, which are designed to meet the needs of particular individuals or groups, and broad-based strategies, which are more developmental and preventive in nature. The community counseling model has not only programmatic implications but also professional implications for competent counseling practice. The competencies required for effective community counseling go beyond the more limited skills that would be needed if the definition of the counseling role were constrained by a narrow definition of the counselor solely as deliverer of direct services to one client at a time. The role of the 21st-century community counselor goes beyond the four walls of a traditional office but, fortunately, the work contained in the four quadrants of the community counseling model is highly complementary. Among effective practitioners of community counseling, this can be said: their counseling makes them better advocates; their advocacy makes them better counselors.


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EXHIBIT 1.1 Competency-Building Activity

Evaluating Real-Life Programs When using the community counseling framework, it is important that counselors are able to evaluate the degree to which a particular program is providing comprehensive services. Visit a local community agency. Using the community counseling model as a tool, take a few minutes to answer the following evaluation questions: What kinds of focused strategies are used to facilitate human development? What kinds of broad-based strategies are used to facilitate human development? What kinds of focused strategies are used to facilitate community development? What kinds of broad-based strategies are used to facilitate community development?

1. In what ways does the program address the unique cultural, ethnic, and/or racial backgrounds of the clients?


Program Development The community counseling framework emphasizes a comprehensive approach. This competency-building activity is designed to help you carry out program planning for clients/community members who come from particular groups in our society. With this background in mind, think about a particular group or population. What social, economic, political, or psychological pressures affect the well-being of this population? Taking these factors into account, develop some ideas for appropriate services for the population you have selected. You will probably notice that direct counseling services alone are unlikely to meet the group’s needs! Beginning with a clear statement of your goals, lay out your general ideas for what kinds of services should be included if you were designing a community counseling program for this population. Be sure to pay attention to each of the four quadrants in the community counseling framework, but you can keep your ideas fairly general for now. As you read later chapters, you will be able to develop your ideas for more specific strategies.



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REFERENCES Arredondo, P., Tovar-Blank, Z. G., & Parham, T. A. (2008). Challenges and promises of becoming a culturally competent counselor in a sociopolitical era of change and empowerment. Journal of Counseling and Development, 86, 261–268. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. Cartwright, B. Y., Daniels, J., & Zhang, S. (2008). Assessing multicultural competence: Perceived versus demonstrated performance. Journal of Counseling and Development, 8, 318–322. Conyne, R. K., & Cook, E. P. (Eds.). (2004). Ecological counseling: An innovative approach to conceptualizing person-environment interaction. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Crethar, H. C., Torres Rivera, E., & Nash, S. (2008). In search of common threads: Linking multicultural, feminist, and social justice counseling paradigms. Journal of Counseling and Development, 86, 269–278. Frese, J., Stanley, J., Kress, K., & Vogel-Scibilia, S. (2003). Integrating evidence-based practice and the recovery model. In R. Drake & H. H. Goldman (Eds.), Evidencebased practices in mental health care (pp. 21–28). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Hettema, J., Steele, J., & Miller, W. R. (2005, April). Motivational interviewing. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, I, 91–111. Human Development Reports (nd). Glossary of terms. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev/glossary/. Jordan, J. V. (2010). Relational-cultural therapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. King, M. L. (1963). Strength to love. New York: Walker. Lee, C. C. (2007). Social justice: A moral imperative for counselors. (ACAPCD-07). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Levy, B., & Sidel, V. (2006). Social injustice and public health. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lewis, J. A. (2007). Challenging sexism: Promoting the rights of women in contemporary society. In C. C. Lee (Ed.), Counseling for social justice (2nd ed., pp. 95–110). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Lewis, J. A., & Arnold, M. S. (1998). From multiculturalism to social action. In C. C. Lee & G. R. Walz (Eds.), Social action: A mandate for counselors (pp. 51–64). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association and Educational Resources Information Center Counseling and Student Services Clearinghouse. Lewis, J. A., Arnold, M. S., House, R., & Toporek, R. L. (2002) ACA advocacy competencies. Retrieved February 3, 2009, from http://wwwcounseling.org/ Publications. Lewis, J. A., Dana, R. Q., & Blevins, G. A. (2011). Substance abuse counseling (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Lewis, J. A., & Elder, J. (2010). Substance abuse counseling and social justice advocacy. In M. Ratts, R. Toporek, & J. Lewis (Eds.), ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 161–172). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.


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Lewis, J. A., Toporek, R. L., & Ratts, M. (2010). Advocacy and social justice: Entering the mainstream of the counseling profession. In M. Ratts, R. Toporek, & J. Lewis (Eds.), ACA Advocacy Competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 239–244). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2002). Motivational interviewing: Preparing people for change (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. Nussbaum, M. C. (1999). Sex and social justice. New York: Oxford University Press. Paisley, P. O. (1996, January). Creating community: Group work and the arts. Presentation made at the annual meeting of the Association for Specialists in Group Work, Athens, GA. Rubak, S., Sandboek, A., Lauritzen, T., & Christensen, B. (2005). Motivational interviewing: A systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of General Practice, 55(513), 305–312. Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410–421. DOI: 10. 1037/0003-66x.60.5.410. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (nd). Federal Emergency Management Agency crisis counseling assistance and training program guidance. Retrieved 12/19/09 from http://download.ncadi.samhsa.gov/ken/pdf/cmhs/CCP_Program_ Guidance_ver1.1.pdf. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2004). National consensus statement on mental health recovery. Retrieved 11/27/09 from http://download.ncadi .samhsa.gov/ken/pdf/SMA05-4129/trifold.pdf. Sue, D. W. (2001). Multidimensional facets of cultural competency. The Counseling Psychologist, 29, 790–827. Sue, D. W. (2006). Multicultural social work practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Sue, D. W., Arredondo, P., & McDavis, R. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70, 447–486. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2002). Counseling the culturally diverse. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Toporek, R. L., Lewis, J. A., & Crethar, H. C. (2009). Promoting systemic change through the ACA advocacy competencies. Journal of Counseling and Development, 87, 260–268. Toporek, R. L., & Liu, W. M. (2001). Advocacy in counseling: Addressing race, class, and gender oppression. In D. B. Pope-Davis & H. L. K. Coleman (Eds.), The intersection of race, class, and gender in multicultural counseling (pp. 285–413). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.


CHAPTER 2

The Evolution of the Community Counseling Model

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hapter 1 outlines fundamental assumptions and concepts upon which the community counseling model is built. It also discusses a broad range of intervention strategies counselors can use to promote healthy human development when implementing this theoretical model in their work. Among this helping model’s distinguishing features include the recognition that clients’ environmental contexts often perpetuate different forms of injustice, oppression, and stressors that negatively impact people’s mental health and psychological well-being. As stated in Chapter 1, practitioners operating from the community counseling model instill hope by supporting their clients’ empowerment potential and promoting a greater level of social justice in the environments where their clients live and work. Upon reading Chapter 1, some individuals may think that this model represents a new, more expansive, and very different way of thinking about the professional counselor’s role and functions. However, a close examination of the history of the counseling profession indicates that many people in the field have promoted similar changes among individual clients and the social contexts in which their clients were situated for more than 100 years. Besides being rooted in a long history of helping services provided by many counselors over an extended period of time, it is important to point out that the 23 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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application of the community counseling model is not limited to community agency settings. On the contrary, the community counseling model’s multifaceted framework has been used in different ways by counselors working in a broad range of settings. This includes using various aspects of the community counseling framework in schools, universities, career counseling agencies, rehabilitation agencies, community mental health centers, and other public- and private-funded mental health care organizations across the United States. Thus, rather than viewing the community counseling theory as a new framework that is relevant for a single work setting, it is important to view this helping system as being comprehensive in its perspective, application, and history. Its perspective is grounded in a broad range of human development, psychological, and multicultural counseling theories. Its application includes numerous interventions that build on people’s intrapsychic strengths and foster environmental change strategies that promote justice and support healthy human development. Its history is directly tied to the genesis and continuing development of the counseling profession. The present chapter traces the history of the counseling profession with particular attention directed to the evolution of the community counseling model. There are a couple of reasons why it is important to describe the historic context from which this model has developed early in this book. First, many students and practitioners are simply not aware of the various factors and people who have contributed to the development of the community counseling theory over an extended period of time. This includes the implementation of a broad range of education, empowerment, prevention, and advocacy services by numerous people from the late 1800s and early 1900s through the present time. Without this historical knowledge, individuals may misperceive the community counseling framework as a theoretical model that is new and untested. Second, it is important to clarify how the roots of the community counseling framework are historically grounded in intervention strategies that have been used to address different forms of inequality, injustice, and oppression that adversely impacted millions of people in our society. Previous publications describing the history of the counseling profession tend to downplay the many ways that a social justice advocacy perspective has and continues to be an important aspect of this field. These historical accounts have primarily focused on issues related to the professionalization of counseling in the United States. It is indeed important to be knowledgeable of the people and events that contributed to the professionalization of counseling in this country. However, it is equally important to know how the pioneers of the counseling profession


THE EVOLUTION OF THE COMMUNITY COUNSELING MODEL

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and many counselors who followed them promoted social justice, equality, and fairness throughout the “people’s history of the counseling profession” (Toporek, Lewis, & Crethar, 2009, p. 260). Howard Zinn (2003), one of this nation’s foremost historians and social justice advocates, emphasizes the importance of taking the people’s perspective into consideration when describing historical phenomena. As Zinn notes: If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past’s fugitive moments of compassion. (Zinn, 2003, p. 11) By grounding this chapter in a people’s history of the counseling profession, we extend previous historical publications that describe the professionalization of counseling. We do so by illuminating how the evolution of the profession has and continues to be impacted by many people who are committed to fostering healthy human development. This involves documenting the factors that led many mental health practitioners to implement counseling services that were designed to stimulate individual/intrapsychic changes as well as using a broader set of environmental interventions to stimulate a greater level of justice in society. Upon reading this chapter, you will gain a new understanding of the ways that many historic figures refused to accept various environmental factors that adversely impacted healthy human development. This will increase your understanding of the types of advocacy, community organizing, educational, organization development, and individual counseling services and methods that characterized the work that has been done by many people in the profession over an extended period of time.

A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE COUNSELING PROFESSION

The origin of the counseling profession in the United States can be traced to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time, the United States was undergoing significant changes in its social-economic landscape. These changes were largely attributed to the unprecedented shift in our nation from an agrarian society to one where large numbers of people moved to growing industrialized urban areas in search of new work and prosperity. The movement of large numbers of people from farming areas to rapidly expanding industrialized urban


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locations was catalyzed by three major factors. This included substantial changes in our country’s means of economic production, new technological advancements in many workplaces, and a growing need for workers to do new work tasks. The unprecedented transformation of the United States from an agrarian society to an industrialized nation during a 50-year time period (from the 1880s to the 1930s) resulted in numerous psychosocial problems among large numbers of people. These problems included a dramatic rise in violence and substance abuse; increased reports of alienation, depression, and suicide; the breakdown of many families; and negative reactions to the influx of new immigrants—to name a few. Aubrey (1986) describes the connections between the industrialization of the United States and the increasing stressors that compromised people’s mental health during this time in the following way: The industrialization of America did not benefit everyone. There were many losers in the not-so-gradual transition from an agrarian and small village society to one of metropolitan living (remember, no suburbs as we know them today existed at this time in history). Among the losers were individuals who previously had taken pride in making clothing, furniture, utensils, and tools by hand. Many now found themselves on assembly lines, putting together pieces stamped by machinery. Instead of creating their own products from beginning to end, they now complemented machinery in a boring and tedious hourly routine. Although life on farms and in small villages was arduous and routine, individuals had some say in what tasks they would do and when they would do them. It was a major adjustment, therefore, for individuals to find their lives suddenly highly regulated by time clocks, the need to travel to a place of employment, the loss of family mealtimes, insensitive supervisors, dangerous working conditions, and job uncertainty. In particular, an unwelcome regimentation of much of individuals’ waking hours led to a dehumanization of spirit and a loss of personal initiative. In terms of mental health, the combination of a loss of selfesteem in one’s work and manner of living and a growing feeling of powerlessness in coping with the external environment could hardly contribute to individual mental health. Indeed, it was a time when masses of people needed advocates, individuals who would intervene on their behalf and in their best interest. The injustices and suffering wrought by massive technological change shaped the early destiny of the guidance and counseling profession. The leaders of this emerging profession would come essentially from the ranks of idealistic and committed advocates and reformers for human rights. (Aubrey, 1986, pp. 3–5) Many social justice advocates worked to create reforms in various parts of society as the 19th century was ending and the 20th century beginning. Although using similar types of social justice advocacy interventions that would Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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be utilized by supporters of the community counseling model almost a hundred years later, the people seeking environmental reforms in the late 1800s and early 1900s were not called counselors per se. This is simply because the counseling profession had not yet been formally established. However, it was during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the seeds of the profession were planted by people who worked to make the kinds of reforms that were designed to stimulate the healthy development of those in marginalized groups. These reformers were committed to ensuring that the fundamental rights upon which the United States was founded applied to people who were harmed by the major social-economic transformation occurring at that time. This included ensuring that common people’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were guaranteed and not negated by those in power positions. However, as reflected in Aubrey’s (1986) documentation of the counseling profession’s history, the rights of many people were seriously undermined in ways that adversely impacted their physical and mental health in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This included violations of people’s right to life (e.g., by being subjected to dangerous work conditions resulting in high rates of workplace injuries and deaths), violations of many people’s liberty (e.g., by being denied the right to organize unions), and restrictions in people’s pursuit of happiness (e.g., as a result of the poor educational opportunities, oppressive work environments, and substandard housing conditions that characterized people’s lives at the time). These basic human rights violations resulted in much consternation and increasing activism by many people committed to promoting a greater level of justice, opportunity, and mental health in society. The activism manifested by these people was consistent with the goals and objectives of the Progressive Movement that was a part of the zeitgeist of the times. The Progressive Movement

The Progressive Movement represented an effort to cure many of the ills American society had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth in the last quarter of the 19th century. Although the domestic frontier had been conquered, great cities and businesses developed, and an overseas empire established at that time; not all citizens shared in the new wealth, prestige, and optimism of these accomplishments. Originating in the mid-1800s, the Progressive Movement advocated for a broad range of social-political changes to ensure that the majority of people in the United States were given the opportunity to exercise their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Such efforts included supporting the struggle for women’s rights, worker’ rights, racial justice, more humanistic approaches in the treatment of mentally ill people and prisoners, and new interventions in the public schools to assist young people to deal with the new demands of the emerging industrialized society of which they were a part. These educational interventions came to be known as guidance activities and marked the genesis of the counseling profession in the late 1800s and early 1900s (Aubrey, 1986). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Jesse Davis: The Genesis of School Guidance Counseling

Educational counseling historians generally credit Jesse B. Davis with the first efforts to systemize guidance into the accepted school curriculum (Aubrey, 1986; Brewer, 1942; Miller, 1971). Employed as a school administrator in the rapidly growing industrial city of Detroit between 1889 and 1907, Davis was concerned with the vocational, social, and moral problems students faced during a time of tremendous societal change. Interestingly, Davis selected English composition as the curriculum area he thought was best suited to implement “vocational and moral guidance” (Davis, 1914, p. 17). Davis used this subject area to foster the healthy psychological development of students in his school. He did so by incorporating classroom-based writing activities and discussion groups that focused on moral issues and vocational challenges students faced in their lives. As Davis (1914) explained: in assisting the pupil to gain a better understanding of his own character; it means an awakening of the moral consciousness that will lead him to emulate the character of the good and great who have gone before; it means a conception of himself as a social being in some future occupation, and from his viewpoint the appreciation of his duty and obligation toward his business associates, toward his neighbors, and toward the law. (Davis, 1914, p. 17) As you continue to read this book you will see how Davis’s goals, objectives, and methods are consistent with the empowerment, prevention, and social justice advocacy concepts described in the community counseling theory. Frank Parsons: The Father of the Counseling Profession

Commonly viewed as the father of the counseling profession (Aubrey, 1986) and founder of vocational psychology (O’Brien, 2001), Frank Parsons was a versatile individual who worked as an engineer and college professor and later as a social justice advocate in Boston in the early 20th century. His experiences growing up in Boston led him to become appalled by the inhumane living and working conditions that represented the downside of the Industrial Revolution among Boston’s poorest young residents. Working with other concerned social justice advocates, Parsons established a settlement house (the Breadwinners’ Institute) in Boston in 1908 (Fouad, Gernstein, & Toporek, 2006). In addition to establishing the Breadwinners’ Institute, Parsons also oversaw the creation of the first Vocational Bureau in the United States. This vocational agency addressed the needs of poor young adults who were adversely impacted by the oppressive and unjust aspects of the Industrial Revolution. Parson’s primary work in this area included training counselors, who provided vocational guidance, referral, and supportive services, to foster the healthy development of unemployed young adults (Aubrey, 1986). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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A close study of Parsons’s work reflects his understanding of the intimate linkages that exist between social justice and healthy human development. Writing about these issues Parsons (1909) pointed out that Not till society wakes up to its responsibilities and its privileges … shall we be able to harvest more than a fraction of our human resources to develop and utilize the genius … in each new generation. (p. 165) Parsons’s efforts to create community-based resources to help young people develop the knowledge and attitudes necessary to secure employment and his advocacy for their job placement were precursors to the preventive education and client advocacy services included in the community counseling model. His commitment to social justice was evident in the work he did as an advocate for youth, women, the poor, and the disadvantaged. These advocacy efforts were grounded in “principles of cooperation, love of justice, and hatred of oppression and discrimination reflected in the services provided by the Vocational Bureau” (Davis, 1969, p. 23). Despite his innovative work in these areas, Parsons’s efforts were met with ambivalence by some people in the fields of psychology and education at the time. Nevertheless, Parsons persisted in developing multifaceted interventions to meet the personal, moral, and vocational needs of young and poor individuals during this era in the people’s history in the United States. His emphasis on the importance of using multifaceted interventions to address people’s needs was another precursor to the community counseling model. The Mental Hygiene Movement

While efforts were being made to introduce vocational guidance counseling services in schools and community settings during the early 1900s, institutional initiatives were implemented by other mental health care advocates as well. These latter efforts were linked to what was referred to as the mental hygiene movement. Most historians credit Dorothea Dix as the founder of the mental hygiene movement in the early 1800s. Dix’s efforts were aimed at promoting a greater level of social justice among individuals experiencing emotional problems by humanizing the treatment these people received in government and privately run psychiatric institutions. Clifford Beers was credited with extending the impact of the mental hygiene movement in the early 1900s. Beers was born into an affluent family in 1876 in New Haven, Connecticut. He was one of five children, all of whom suffered from psychological distress requiring psychiatric hospitalizations, including Beers himself. Beers was first confined to a private mental institution in 1900 and treated for depression and paranoia. He was later transferred to another private hospital and eventually treated at a state-funded institution for his ongoing mental health problems. Having directly experienced it himself as well as witnessing serious maltreatment of other patients at the hands of the hospital staff, Beers (1908) wrote a book entitled, A Mind That Found Itself. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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This autobiographical account of Beers’s experiences drew interest from numerous people in the medical profession as well as other advocates for the humane treatment of the mentally ill. As Glosoff (2009) points out: The publication of this book served as a catalyst for the mental hygiene movement and studies of people with emotional and behavioral problems. Early studies of children with emotional problems supported the concept of providing counseling for all children in schools. (p. 8) In essence, Beers’s book resulted in the implementation of new outreach services to distressed and marginalized children as well as other advocacy initiatives. These early outreach and advocacy services have evolved over time to become important components of the community counseling model. Beers’ book also drew the attention of a respected physician named Dr. William Healy. Inspired by Beers’ work, Dr. Healy successfully advocated for the establishment of the first community psychiatric clinic for juveniles in the United States. This clinic called, The Juvenile Psychopathic Institute, was subsequently founded in Chicago in 1908. To accomplish its goals, the institute “used testing, modified psychoanalysis, and the involvement of family members” in the care of troubled juveniles (Glosoff, 2009, p. 9). Healy’s work included advocacy for macro-level changes to support the needs of juveniles and their families as well. These advocacy initiatives resulted in legislative funding for the establishment of child guidance clinics countywide in Illinois in 1909 (Glosoff, 2009). Jesse Davis, Frank Parsons, Clifford Beers, and William Healy all understood the powerful ways that social, economic, political, and institutional factors influence people’s development. The impact these individuals had on fostering a broad range of environmental changes as a result of their advocacy efforts is highlighted in this section because they represent important historical factors that contributed to the genesis of the counseling profession in general and the evolution of the community counseling theory in particular. THE 1910S AND 1920S

The budding counseling profession took a number of twists and turns during the 1910s and 1920s. Interest in vocational guidance and counseling services increased after Parsons and Davis’s groundbreaking work in these areas. As a result, additional school guidance services were introduced in the public schools in Seattle in 1910 (Brewer, 1942) and New York in 1916 (Reed, 1916). The increasing interest in guidance services during this era led to the formation of the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1913. Stressing the importance of the work that guidance counselors did for the nation at that time, Frank Leavitt, the first president of the NVGA, stated that “the economic, educational, and social demands for guidance and the counseling it entailed were necessary for the preservation of society itself” (cited in Glosoff, 2009, p. 9). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Increasing support for school-based guidance counseling services and the establishment of a national guidance organization helped a fledgling new profession secure a foothold in numerous school and community settings across the United States. As a result, educational and preventive interventions became the services of choice in nurturing the healthy development of children and adolescents and assisting other individuals to make informed vocational decisions. The Impact of World War I

The most significant event impacting the evolution of the counseling profession at this time related to the onset of World War I. Hollis (2000) summarizes the affect of this historic event on the early development of the profession, noting that “counseling became more widely recognized as the military began to employ people for testing and placement practices for great numbers of military personnel” (p. 45). The increased demand for testing and placement practices did enhance the professional identity of counselors during that time, but, at a cost. By directing counselors’ efforts to administering and scoring psychological tests among large numbers of people drafted into the army, newly hired counselors were responsible for matching draftees’ interests and skills with specific military jobs. This resulted in practitioners moving away from the multifaceted roles and services implemented by the early pioneers in the counseling profession as practitioners embraced a narrower professional role and function in society.

THE 1920S–1930S

The 1920s and 1930s would see counselors slowly increasingly their visibility and employment in diverse settings. This included the growing number of counselors employed as guidance workers in public school systems, student personnel workers in colleges and universities, job counselors hired in various government employment agencies, personnel workers in private business and industry settings, rehabilitation counselors in health clinics and hospitals, and testing and placement service providers for war veterans (Aubrey, 1986). The growing number of counselors working in these areas was accompanied by early efforts to promote their professional identity. Such efforts were manifested in the development of early certification standards for guidance counselors in Boston and New York during the 1920s. Additional support for the professional development of counselors came from Harvard University, which began to offer courses for people working in the newly emerging field of guidance counseling in 1921. These new course offerings were criticized, however, as being too narrow because they almost exclusively addressed vocational guidance issues in school settings (Gladding, 2009). The perpetuation of this narrow view of the counselor’s role and function was challenged by other practitioners dissatisfied by this limiting perspective. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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What ensued from this dissatisfaction were individuals who redirected attention to broader issues related to the work many counselors were doing in the field. This resulted in directing counselors’ attention to personality issues, human development, and the impact of family dynamics on their clients’ lives (Gladding, 2009). Abraham and Hannah Stone addressed the latter issue by founding the first marriage and family counseling center in New York City in 1929. The emphasis that these early marriage and family counselors placed on the need to address contextual issues when working with clients complements the community counseling model’s counseling in context concept that is discussed in Chapter 1. Another accomplishment that helped expand the view of counselors as professional development and systems change specialists came from the work of John Brewer in the 1930s. In a book entitled, Education as Guidance, Brewer (1932) described how teachers could be trained to greatly extend the work that was being done by guidance counselors. Brewer recommended that teachers be trained to address the knowledge and skills youngsters needed to lead productive and satisfying lives in the core of the school curriculum. The ideas that Brewer advocated in this regard are consistent with the broad-based preventive, developmental, and systems advocacy interventions that later became integral parts of the community counseling model. Dealing with the Challenges of the Great Depression

Beyond the important work that was done to expand the concept of guidance counseling in this era, the Great Depression of the 1930s challenged counselors to address the collective misery that millions of people experienced during this period in the people’s history of the United States. One of the practical ways that counselors addressed this challenge was manifested by faculty members and practitioners at the University of Minnesota. These persons developed and implemented the Employee Stabilization Project, a multifaceted approach to career counseling and development in the early 1930s (Fouad et al., 2006). This multiservice project included career education, counseling, assessment, and advocacy services to support the mental health and psychological well-being of many people adversely impacted by the Great Depression. The multifaceted nature of this intervention mirrors the community counseling model’s emphasis on using a broad range of services to effectively foster healthy human development. Other factors contributed to counselors’ expanded thinking about the potential roles they could play in promoting their clients’ mental health by implementing various advocacy services during the 1930s. One of these factors involved the publication of another book, entitled, Men, Women, and Jobs (Patterson, Darley, & Elliott, 1936). This groundbreaking publication discussed how systemic factors affect human and vocational development and described the roles counselors could play in addressing these variables. Such considerations expanded counselors’ thinking about the roles they could play as social-organizational change agents. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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They also complemented the community counseling model’s later emphasis on the need to implement systemic advocacy services to promote healthy human development. The evolution of the counseling profession was further enhanced by the printing of the first counseling theory textbook in 1939. Gladding (2009) discusses this historic accomplishment by noting that: the Great Depression influenced researchers and practitioners, especially in university and vocational settings, to emphasize helping strategies and counseling methods that related to employment. A highlight of the decade was the development of the first theory of counseling, which was formulated by E. G. Williamson and his colleagues (including John Darley and Donald Paterson) at the University of Minnesota. Williamson modified Parson’s theory and used it to work with students and the unemployed. His emphasis on a directive approach came to be known by several names—for example, as the Minnesota point of view and traitfactor counseling. His pragmatic approach emphasized the counselor’s teaching, mentoring, and influencing skills. (Williamson, 1939, p. 11) The emphasis Williamson and his colleagues’ placed on having counselors use educational strategies to promote clients’ development was another precursor to the community counseling model’s later emphasis on similar services. As discussed in Chapter 1, the use of such educational services is particularly important when counselors use the community counseling framework to facilitate human development and environmental-contextual changes.

THE 1940S–1950S

Four historic factors contributed greatly to the evolution of the counseling profession during the 1940s and 1950s. These factors included (1) the impact of Carl Rogers’s counseling theory; (2) new challenges counselors faced in addressing the needs of veterans returning from World War II; (3) the effect that World War II had on changing traditional sex roles, especially as they related to women’s career/vocational development; and (4) major breakthroughs in the professionalization of counseling. The Impact of Carl Rogers’s Counseling Theory

The most significant breakthrough for the counseling profession during the 1940s was the publication of Carl Rogers’s (1942) book entitled Counseling and Psychotherapy. This book ushered in an era of client-centered (later renamed as person-centered) counseling that swept aside existing models of trait-factor and directive counseling (Williamson, 1939). Rogers’s theory led many counselors to focus on the specific techniques they could use to build unconditional empathic relationships with clients that resulted Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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in positive counseling outcomes. The primary focus of this popular helping approach was the client’s intrapsychic experiences (D’Andrea, Ivey, & Ivey, 2011). The increased popularity of Rogers’s counseling theory dramatically increased the professionalization of the counseling field at that time (Aubrey, 1986). However, the individual and intrapsychic emphasis that characterized Rogerian counseling in the 1940s and 1950s redirected many counselors’ attention from external contextual-environmental stressors that adversely impacted people’s lives to clients’ internal experiences. It is interesting to note that Carl Rogers underwent his own personal and professional evolution during his career. In doing so, Rogers demonstrated how many principles associated with his counseling theory could be used in various social justice and peace advocacy initiatives that he implemented later in his life (Kirschenbaum, 2009). These latter developments in Rogers’s career are consistent with the evolution of the community counseling model’s emphasis on using similar advocacy services to promote healthy human development and social justice in different environmental settings.

Advocating Governmental Support for World War II Veterans

Counselors were also involved in a number of interventions that addressed the needs of the thousands of World War II veterans in the 1940s. Addressing the psychological needs of veterans, who experienced physical and emotional warrelated injuries, were among the services counselors were increasingly called upon to provide during this historic era. In addition to helping these people cope with their injuries, counselors also assisted veterans in adjusting to civilian life and securing gainful employment in a postwar workforce. While this often involved the use of individual counseling interventions, many counselors also advocated for increased governmental support for veterans’ educational and vocational training benefits (Fouad et al., 2006). As a result of these advocacy efforts, a number of systemic developments occurred that contributed to the evolution of the counseling profession in the 1940s. Reporting on these developments, Glosoff (2009) points out that In 1944, the War Department established the Army SeparationClassification and Counseling Program in response to the emotional and vocational needs of returning soldiers. The Veterans Administration (VA) established counseling centers within hospitals for injured veterans (Shertzer & Stone, 1986). The VA coined the term counseling psychology and established counseling psychology positions and training programs to fill these positions. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was established just after World War II and created a series of training stipends for graduate programs in professional counseling and psychology. (p. 12) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Other advocacy efforts resulted in the establishment of the U.S. Employment Service that was initiated under the War Manpower Commission in 1944. This government-funded program established 1,500 offices across the country where counselors provided a host of vocational testing, training, and placement services (Glosoff, 2009). The passage of the George-Barden Act in 1944 was another example of successful legislative advocacy efforts. This federal action provided government support for the establishment of additional counseling training programs. The programs funded from this act primarily focused on training individuals to provide vocational guidance and counseling services to WWII veterans.

Extending Vocational Counseling Services to Women During the 1940s

In addition to addressing the needs of veterans, other people in the civilian population also required assistance in facing unique challenges during the 1940s. As a result of WWII, many people in the United States faced years of family disruption, geographical moves, and serious stressors associated with warrelated deaths and disabilities of family members. Then, suddenly, peacetime came. But with it arose uncertainties about massive social and economic changes occurring during that epoch in the people’s history of the United States (Aubrey, 1986). One of the important social-economic changes that occurred during and after World War II related to the new roles women played in the workforce. In the absence of many male workers, women were called upon to meet the needs of a wartime industrial and manufacturing base. As Gladding (2009) points out: Many women worked outside of the home during the war, exemplified by such personalities as Rosie the Riveter. Women’s contributions to work and the well-being of the United States during the crisis of war made a lasting impact. Traditional occupational sex roles began to be questioned, and greater emphasis was placed on women’s personal freedom. (p. 13) The personal freedom that some women experienced as a result of these historic phenomena resulted in a new sense of psychological liberation that contributed to the desire to move beyond the confining sex roles traditionally perpetuated in society. These dynamics challenged counselors to rethink the services they used when previously addressing the needs of female clients. Recognizing that systemic factors contributed to the unequal treatment of women in society in general and in the workforce in particular, some counselors implemented new system advocacy services to address this injustice and stimulate women’s development during the 1940s (Gladding, 2009). These social justice advocacy services were similar to comparable efforts enacted later by counselors operating from the community counseling model. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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The Development of New Counseling Organizations in the 1950s

Additional events impacting the history of the counseling profession included organizational initiatives that took place during the early 1950s. As the counseling professional expanded in scope and purpose in the 1940s and 1950s, it became evident that there was a need for a professional organization to unify the diverse concerns of counselors. This certainly could not be the American Psychological Association (APA) because many practicing counselors were not psychologists, nor were they eligible for membership in APA. Also, at a fateful conference in 1950 at Boulder, Colorado, clinical psychology closely aligned itself with the psychiatric community. This meant a close and almost exclusive focus on the use of a medical model which proved to be too narrow a focus for the vast majority of practicing counselors in the 1950s. As a consequence, in July 1952, the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA) (now called the American Counseling Association) was formed. APGA represented a merging of numerous guidance, education, and counseling organizations. This included the National Vocational Guidance Association (now called the National Career Development Association) and the American College Personnel Association with the cooperation of the National Association of Guidance and Counseling Trainers (now called the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision) and the Student Personnel Association for Teacher Education (now called the Association for Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development). One year later, in 1953, the American School Counselor Association would join APGA. (Aubrey, 1986, p. 13) These organizational initiatives greatly increased the professionalization of counseling as well as the perceived legitimacy of the field among people in other disciplines and the general public. One of the mainstays of these organizational initiatives was the acknowledgement of the ways that the counseling profession was distinguished from other professional groups. Among the differences emphasized were the ways that counselors implemented prevention services to foster human development and their commitment to working to promote both individual and environmental changes in their practices (Aubrey, 1986). As previously discussed, the impact of Carl Rogers’s counseling theory at this time led many counselors to direct increasing attention to individual-intrapsychic factors when working with clients. Despite the popularity of Rogers’s theory, numerous counseling practitioners employed in diverse settings (especially school counselors) implemented intervention strategies that were intentionally designed to stimulate both individual and environmental changes. In doing so, these practitioners contributed to the evolution of the community counseling model that is described in this book.



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Unprecedented Growth of Counselor Education Programs in the 1950s

Another historic phenomenon occurring in the 1950s was the anxiety, fear, and concern the general citizenry experienced in response to the perceived scientific and technological superiority of the Soviet Union. This national concern was greatly heightened when the Soviet Union successfully launched the first earthorbiting satellite, called Sputnik, in October of 1957. The heightened national anxiety associated with the launching of Sputnik led to bipartisan legislative support for the passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 by the Congress of the United States. As a result of this legislative action, the number of counselors in our nation’s public schools quadrupled in a few short years. The ratio of counselors to students in public schools decreased from 1 to 960 in 1958–1959 to 1 in 450 by the middle of the next decade. There were also unprecedented gains in the number of counselor education programs instituted across the United States during this historic period as a result of fiscal support appropriated by the NDEA (Aubrey, 1986). The significant expansion in the number of counselor education programs and practitioners in the late 1950s was accompanied by substantial advancements in the knowledge-base from which they operated. The expanding knowledgebase included new thinking about human development and psychological distress from research findings generated in such diverse disciplines as psychiatry, psychology, sociology, and social work. Psychodynamic counseling theories were also gaining popularity in the mental health professions during this time. These theories generally stressed individualintrapsychic approaches to mental health care. However, in the 1950s a number of psychodynamic theorists described how these theories could be used to promote environmental changes in schools, workplaces, and communities-at-large so that larger numbers of people would realize increased mental health and psychological well-being (Fromm, 1955; Sullivan, 1953). About the same time, Lewin’s (1951) field theory further delineated the interactional nature of human development, mental health, and people’s environmental settings. Lewin’s simple formula, B = f(P, E,), noted that one’s behavior (B) is a function of the individual’s personal characteristics (P) and environmental interactions (E). Lewin’s theoretical perspective further affected the way counselors conceptualized the etiology of people’s problems and the need to promote environmental changes to foster healthy human development in the 1950s. The insights gained from this expanded knowledge-base led counseling theorists and practitioners to explore how new intervention strategies might be used in school settings to stimulate the development of larger numbers of clients than could be achieved by using individual counseling interventions alone. One of the first writers to formally publish guidelines related to the use of a developmental framework in counseling was Robert Mathewson (1949). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Mathewson’s developmental views were different than the trait-factor and Rogerian counseling approaches used by most counselors at the time. In distinguishing his approach from other theoretical orientations, Mathewson wrote: Of crucial importance in this stage of cultural development in American democracy is the question of whether we can any longer depend solely upon the individual’s natural motivation for such essentials as civic responsibility, effectiveness in human relations, and the congruent matching of talents and tasks in work settings. (p. 66) Mathewson (1949, 1962) outlined guidelines that counselors were encouraged to use in creating environmental conditions in schools and communities that nurtured healthy human development. Growing interest in the roles counselors could play to promote such conditions was an important factor that contributed to the on going evolution of the community counseling model.

THE 1960S AND 1970S

The 1960s and the 1970s represented times of substantial changes in the counseling profession and the evolution of the community counseling model. These changes occurred during an era characterized by much questioning of many of our nation’s social, political, and cultural institutions and established ways of operating. Describing the impact of this historic epoch on the counseling profession, Aubrey (1986) indicated that The counseling profession in the 1960s faced a number of serious questions and challenges. One of these problems centered on clientele. Should the profession deal exclusively with the normal developmental concerns (and their ups and downs) of individuals, or should it tend to the psychological problems of a smaller and needier portion of the population? On the surface, this dilemma seemed clear and amenable to resolution. Events in the 1960s, however, would blur this simple dichotomy by suddenly expanding counseling audiences to include minority groups, dissenters to the war in Vietnam, returning veterans, alienated hippie and youth movements, experimenters and advocates of the new drug culture, disenchanted students in high schools and colleges, victims of urban and rural poverty, and disenfranchised women. Like all societal institutions, the counseling profession was being subjected to its own questioning and challenges from individuals within and outside of the field. (pp. 16–17) Two factors were particularly challenging when it came to addressing the needs of the new client populations mentioned above. First, most of the people in these groups needed support in developing the knowledge and skills necessary to realize their individual and collective empowerment. Assisting clients in Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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becoming empowered meant supporting these persons in acquiring new competencies that enabled them to make the individual-intrapsychic and environmental changes that were necessary to lead healthy and satisfying lives. Unfortunately, many counselors were unable to effectively implement counseling strategies that resulted in these outcomes, largely due to a second, related, historic phenomenon occurring at the time. The second phenomenon was that the counseling profession had become inundated with a plethora of new theories that gained much popularity during the 1960s. The new theoretical models used by many counselor educators and practitioners at the time included behavioral counseling, reality therapy, existential therapy, person-centered counseling, and psychodynamic counseling theories. These theories expanded counselors’ counseling skills and techniques in many ways. They did not, however, match up well with the needs and interests of many new clients counselors were called upon to serve. This was largely due to the fact that the new theories mentioned above overemphasized the importance of helping clients make the kinds of personal adjustments that were necessary to meet the demands of their environmental contexts. However, the problems that many clients experienced in their lives were often rooted in toxic, unjust, and oppressive environmental conditions that were in need of change themselves. Consequently, the mismatch between the counseling strategies used by many practitioners and the needs of many clients often resulted in ineffective outcomes and heightened frustrations among clients and counselors alike. Lessons Learned

In hindsight, it is clear that the overuse of counseling strategies that focused on the clients’ intrapsychic experiences without addressing other relevant environmental-contextual factors greatly contributed to the abovementioned ineffective outcomes and frustrations. These negative outcomes represented important learning opportunities that contributed to the evolution of the community counseling model. The primary lesson learned in this regard related to the need for counselors to use multifaceted approaches in their work. Implementation of such multifaceted approaches included the use of outreach services to distressed and marginalized clients, client advocacy services, social/political advocacy initiatives to foster macro-level changes, and new developmental/preventive interventions. New Developmental Counseling Approaches

The evolution of the community counseling concept in the 1960s was further enhanced by advancements made in the application of human development theories in counseling practices. The first book on this subject, bearing the title Developmental Counseling, was written by Donald Blocher in 1966. Other counseling theorists began increasing their attention to lifespan development theories as a basis for their counseling interventions as well. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Like the plethora of new counseling theories discussed above, developmental counseling strategies focused on stimulating individual changes that reflected clients’ growth potential. The new developmental counseling approaches that were increasingly used by counselors in the 1960s distinguished counselors from many other practitioners in the mental health professions. This distinction would be further illuminated in the 1970s when the community counseling theory formally emerged as a multifaceted helping framework in the field.

Broadening the Counseling Profession’s Perspective and Effectiveness

Aubrey (1986) explained why the counseling profession worked to broaden its perspective and effectiveness in the following way. The broadening of counseling perspective in the later 1960s and early 1970s was accomplished largely through direct pressure by those seeking help. Many of these individuals sought help from those proclaiming to have skills in counseling and psychotherapy. Counselors, psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists, pastoral counselors—all were approached as potential helpers. Few of the potential helpers, however, were able to satisfy these individuals. Numerous help seekers, in fact, found more relief within their own groups (Alcoholics Anonymous, Synanon, Daytop, women’s and other self-help groups) than they did from professional counselors. Much of this resulted from counselors’ failure to address the causative factors underlying clients’ problems while many of the newly emerging self-help groups made important headway into dealing with such environmental conditions. (p. 21) Another factor that contributed to a broadening of counselors’ professional perspective involved a growing recognition of the ways that group interventions were being used to foster the empowerment of numerous clients experiencing similar problems in their lives. A third factor that led counselors to broaden their professional perspective was an increasing willingness to reconnect with the longstanding tradition of using prevention, advocacy, and environmental change strategies in the field. The Passage of the Community Mental Health Centers Act

Efforts to expand the use of prevention and advocacy services in the 1960s and 1970s were bolstered by the passage of the 1963 Community Mental Health Centers Act. This legislative action was considered “to be one of the most crucial laws dealing with mental health that has been enacted in the United States” (Glosoff, 2009, p. 15). The passage of this historic legislation occurred, in part, because of the advocacy efforts of many counselors, psychologists, social workers, and their professional organizations. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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The Community Mental Health Centers Act mandated the creation of more than 2,000 mental health centers nationwide. This enabled counselors to provide direct counseling services to tens of thousands of people in local communities as well as implementing a broad range of advocacy, consultation, outreach, preventive education, and training services. These services not only held the potential to positively impact clients’ psychological well-being but also to elevate the mental health of entire communities. Such is the intent of counselors operating from the community counseling theory described in this book; to foster the healthy development of individual clients and the mental health of broader environmental contexts in which they are situated (see Chapter 1). Unfortunately, the lack of ongoing funding for this national communitybased initiative undermined counselors’ efforts to realize the full potential of the mental health care system in the United States. Initial plans for expanding and maintaining a comprehensive, community-based mental health care system in this nation were replaced by new managed care organizations (MCOs). These privately operated MCOs greatly increased during the 1970s and thereafter.

Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) in the 1970s

MCOs have existed in the United States for decades. However, there was a substantial boost to the financial arrangements made for the reimbursement of medical care in general and mental health care services in particular during the early 1970s. The passage of the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 was a major factor that contributed to this boost in financial payments for mental health care services to privately operated MCOs at that time. These shifting financial arrangements for mental health care payments resulted in an agreement for MCOs to reimburse licensed practitioners for services rendered. The specific payment agreements were limited to qualified mental health professionals who adopted a medical model in their work. Adopting such a model for financial reimbursement from MCOs resulted in increasing provision of individual, intrapsychic-focused counseling and psychotherapy services for clients in need (Cooper & Gottlieb, 2000). The rising medicalization of mental health care in the 1970s and the decades that followed was, in many ways, antithetical to the community counseling perspective. This was largely due to the fact that reimbursable services from MCOs did not include many of the other interventions that are associated with the community counseling model. Among the services not reimbursed by these financial entities included contextually based counseling services, outreach services to marginalized and distressed clients, client and system advocacy services, developmental/preventive interventions, and social/political macrosystem-change services. Despite these barriers, two factors contributed to the ongoing evolution of the community counseling model. The first factor involved the publication of the first two textbooks on community counseling in the 1970s (Amos & Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Williams, 1972; Lewis & Lewis, 1977). The second factor was the birth of the multicultural movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s (D’Andrea et al., 2001). At this time, a small group of Black counselors and psychologists publically called for changes in the mental health professions to ameliorate the cultural biases and institutional racism that was perpetuated by the fields of counseling and psychology. These professional advocacy efforts resulted in the founding of the Association for Non-White Concerns (now referred to as the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development [AMCD]) in the American Counseling Association and an independent organization called the Association for Black Psychologists in the early 1970s. Leaders in these newly developed professional organizations were particularly critical of the ways that practitioners’ continued to implement a culturally biased approach to mental health. Such an approach involved directing an inordinate amount of time and energy on individual clients’ intrapsychic issues while failing to also address environmental factors and social injustices that were known to adversely impact the mental health of millions of people in culturally and racially marginalized and devalued groups in the United States. Researchers affiliated with these organizations provided evidence that substantiated the ineffective and harmful counseling outcomes that ensued from such practices. These multicultural researchers also supported proposals for increasing the use of preventive, outreach, educational, client, and system advocacy services as well as macro-system change strategies to increase counselors’ effectiveness when working within a culturally diverse society. The critical analysis and recommendations made by multicultural advocates led to the creation of numerous multicultural counseling competencies that all counselors were encouraged to acquire to work more effectively and ethically with culturally diverse clients (Ivey et al., 2007). These competencies called for new forms of individual counseling as well as the implementation of the kinds of advocacy, educational, preventive, and environmental change services that are key components of the community counseling model (Sue & Sue, 2007).

THE 1980S AND 1990S

According to Aubrey (1986), the public that counselors faced in the 1980s was largely characterized by “apathy, rootlessness, fear and despair” (p. 26). The tumultuous times of the preceding two decades contributed to these psychological reactions as millions of people continued to face steady challenges related to changes in family structures, an everincreasing divorce rate, two futile wars, an increase in the possibility of nuclear annihilation, drug abuse on an unprecedented scale, a rise in street crime, excessive political transgressions, erosions in our economic system coupled with high unemployment, the spectrum of high technology forcing people out of work or into lower-paying jobs, an Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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increase in school dropouts for the first time in two decades, and new forms of media that bring instantaneous change to one’s attention around the clock during the 1980s. (Aubrey, 1986, p. 26) The apathy, rootlessness, fear, and despair exhibited by many people in the general public proved to be fertile terrain for an increasingly conservative mood in our society. The rising conservative zeitgeist was manifested in many ways including the election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States in 1980 and 1984 as well as popular support for a steady flow of conservative governmental policies and legislative actions. This broad-based conservative sentiment served as a balm that soothed many people’s frustration and fatigue with the transformative changes that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. Many counselors found solace from the growing sense of apathy, rootlessness, fear, and despair that plagued much of the nation in the 1980s by embracing a myopic professional identity in their work. As a result, many counselor educators and practitioners based their professional efforts on intrapsychicfocused, rehabilitative counseling approaches without directing much time and energy in supporting or implementing ecological, habilitative, and culturally responsive practices. In short, it seemed as though these counseling professionals found refuge from the controversies and revolutionary spirit of the 1960s and 1970s by embracing helping strategies that maintained the existing status quo (Sue & Sue, 2007). The Continued Professionalization of Counseling

These conservative reactions were accompanied by numerous efforts intended to enhance the professionalization of counseling during the 1980s. Among such efforts included the implementation of a host of organizational development and professional advocacy projects that were designed to (a) standardize counseling training programs, (b) create mechanisms for national counselor certification, and (c) lobby support for new counselor licensure laws in state legislatures across the country. Gladding (2009) summarized these accomplishments in the following way: The move toward standardized training and certification was one that began early in the decade and grew stronger yearly. In 1981, the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) was formed as an affiliate organization of APGA (The American Personnel and Guidance Association [now called the American Counseling Association]). It refined the standards first proposed by ACES (the Association of Counselors Educators and Supervisors) in the late 1970s and initially accredited four programs and recognized others that had been accredited by the California state counselor association and ACES (Steinhauser & Bradley, 1983). In 1987, CACREP achieved membership in the Council of Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA), bringing it “into a position of accreditation power parallel to” such specialty accreditation areas as the APA (Herr, Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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1985, p. 399). CACREP standardized counselor education programs for master’s and doctoral programs in the areas of school, community, mental health, and marriage and family counseling as well as for personnel services for college students. Complementary to CACREP’s efforts, the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), which was formed in 1982, began to certify counselors on a national level. It developed a standardization test and defined eight major subject areas in which counselors should be knowledgeable: (a) human growth and development, (b) social and cultural foundations, (c) helping relationships, (d) groups, (e) lifestyle and career development, (f) appraisal, (g) research and evaluation, and (h) professional orientation. To become a National Certified Counselor (NCC), examinees have to pass a standardized test and meet experiential and character reference qualifications. By the end of the 1980s, there were approximately 17,000 NCC professionals in the United States. Finally, in collaboration with CACREP, the National Academy of Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselors (NACMHC), an affiliate of AMHCA (the American Mental Health Counselors Association), continued to define training standards and certify counselors in mental health counseling, a process it had begun in the late 1970s (Seiler, Brooks, & Beck, 1987; Wilmarth, 1985). It also attracted thousands of new professionals into counseling and upgraded the credentials of those already in the field. (Gladding, 2009, pp. 18–19) Acknowledging Professional Contradictions

The abovementioned efforts to professionalize counseling had both a positive and a negative impact on the evolution of the community counseling model. On a positive note, the abovementioned CACREP accomplishments resulted in the increased legitimization of the community counseling concept in general and professional training programs that focused on this specialty area in particular. On a negative note, the conservative perspectives that were reflected in some of the professional advocacy efforts of the 1980s resulted in a narrower view of the value of community counseling than had been previously manifested by allies of this helping perspective. Aubrey (1986) pointed out that From the perspective of the 1980s, what seemed to be a major evolutionary leap appears to be as yet incomplete. Counselors have learned to feel comfortable dealing with groups as well as with individuals. They have also come to regard training as a natural ally of counseling. They have ventured into new settings and dealt with new audiences. Despite this increase in the number and focus of interventions, the basic perspective of counselors has not changed to the extent one might expect. Counselors still tend to overlook the impact of environmental factors on individual functioning, to distrust the efficacy of preventive interventions, and to narrow the scope of their attention to the individual Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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psyche. If anything, a careful observer can begin to see the return of trends away from “giving skills away” and toward professional protectiveness, away from educational approaches and toward the traditional concept of therapy vis-à-vis the medical model. As difficult economic times threaten their survival, counselors like many other mental health professionals, seem to be falling back on the methods that seem safe and familiar. (pp. 26–27)

The Rise of the Multicultural Counseling Competency Movement

The safe and familiar methods Aubrey (1986) referred to largely involved the continued overuse of individual-intrapsychic counseling theories that were based on culturally biased assumptions about mental health and human development. Despite the conservative backlash at this time, multicultural counseling advocates remained united in expressing concern about this situation. They did so by noting how the continued overuse of culturally biased counseling interventions resulted in ineffective and even harmful outcomes when used in multicultural settings. These expressed concerns frequently resulted in antagonistic and hostile resistance by conservative counselor educators and practitioners. The negative reactions to the growing multicultural movement during the 1980s and 1990s suggested that many counseling professionals were more interested in perpetuating individual counseling practices that were grounded in a host of cultural biases than supporting the paradigm shift that was being promoted by multicultural advocates as well as supporters of the community counseling model (D’Andrea et al., 2001). Multicultural counseling advocates responded constructively to the reactionary antagonisms that many counseling professionals manifested during the 1980s and 1990s. These responses included efforts to develop more detailed professional competencies that counselors were urged to acquire to work more effectively and ethically in a culturally diverse 21st-century society. The culmination of these efforts resulted in the publication of a set of 31 multicultural competencies that were developed and formally endorsed by the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) in 1992 (Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). Three additional multicultural competencies focusing on organizational development, advocacy, and racial identity development issues emerged from a multicultural competency task force convened by Division 17 The Society of Counseling Psychology in the American Psychological Association in the mid-1990s (Sue et al., 1998). A copy of the 34 multicultural counseling competencies that have been developed and formally endorsed by various counseling organizations are included in Appendix A. Upon reviewing Appendix A, you will note that several multicultural competencies complement various aspects of the community counseling model. This includes multicultural counseling competencies that underscore the importance of having counselors become proficient in implementing advocacy, educational, Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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empowerment, and systems-change services in their work. The specific multicultural counseling competencies that complement the community counseling model in this regard include: Multicultural Competency #27. Culturally competent counselors are able to exercise institutional intervention skills on behalf of their clients. Multicultural Competency #31. Culturally competent counselors strive to eliminate biases, prejudices, and discriminatory practices. They are cognizant of clients’ sociopolitical contexts when conducting evaluations and providing interventions. They also continually attempt to develop greater sensitivity to issues of oppression, sexism, and racism, especially as they affect their clients’ lives. Multicultural Competency #32. Culturally competent counselors take responsibility in educating their clients to the processes of psychological intervention by talking about goals, expectations, legal rights, and the counselor’s orientation early in the helping process. Multicultural Competency #34. Culturally competent counselors are able to engage in psychoeducational and systems-intervention roles, in addition to their clinical roles. Although conventional counseling and clinical roles are valuable, other roles such as consultant, advocate, adviser, teacher, and facilitator of indigenous healing practices may prove more culturally appropriate for many of the culturally diverse clients served by counselors. New School Counseling Initiatives in the 1990s

Professional school counselors initiated a number of transformative projects during the 1990s that rebuffed the myopic trends associated with the professionalization of the field described earlier in this chapter. Like the multicultural counseling competency movement, these school counseling initiatives contributed to the evolution of the community counseling model in a number of ways. Among these initiatives is the Transformational School Counseling Initiative (TSCI). Toporek and her colleagues (2009) describe this initiative in the following way: The 1990s brought new concepts about the school counselor’s role. The TSCI of the Education Trust involved the development of a new vision for school counseling that had advocacy at its core (House & Martin, 1998; Martin & House, 1999). As described by Martin and House (1999), the Education Trust model views school counseling as “a profession that focuses on the relations and interactions between students and their school environment with the expressed purpose of reducing the effect of environmental and institutional barriers that impede student academic success” (p. 1). This focus on systemic change and advocacy is central to the American Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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School Counselors Association National Model (2003). To reach this goal, school counselors must be assertive advocates for all students, focusing especially on poor and minority children who would otherwise continue to experience an achievement gap. This rethinking of the central goal of the school counseling program brings with it a new set of ideas about the scope of counselors’ work. Moreover, the model of partnerships between counselor education programs and school districts has brought many new counselors into the profession with advocacy competencies in their repertoires. When one counseling specialization or setting moves in the direction of innovation, a radiating effect to other areas of practice can be expected. (p. 261) The TSCI emphasizes the need for school counselors to expand their role and function beyond providing one-to-one counseling for students’ experiencing problems and fulfilling quasi-administrative responsibilities that occupy an inordinate amount of their time, energy, and attention (House & Martin, 1998). Its emphasis on implementing advocacy services to foster environmental changes in school settings to stimulate the healthy development of all students builds on the precedent set by Jesse Davis, Frank Parsons, and supporters of the community counseling model. In doing so, the TSCI counteracted the narrower views of the role and function of professional counselors that resurfaced during the 1980s and 1990s. Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ)

A number of counselors met on several occasions during the 1990s to informally discuss their concerns about the conservative trends in the counseling profession. Individuals, who attended the meetings, specifically talked about the need to recapture the historic precedent for more expansive professional roles and services in the work counselors do. These meetings contributed to the ongoing development of the counseling profession and the community counseling model in several ways that are briefly discussed below. First, the meetings provided opportunities for counselors from across the country to come together to discuss the present and future directions of the counseling profession. Such discussions involved reminders of the history of the profession as a force that advocated for both individual-intrapsychic and progressive environmental changes to foster healthy human development. Second, these meetings provided a chance for concerned counselors to analyze the conservative social-political zeitgeist of our society in general and its impact on the counseling profession in particular. Third, the meetings ultimately led the participants to make a commitment to implement a number of formal organizational development initiatives. These initiatives were aimed at moving the profession beyond the narrow perspectives that were being articulated during the 1990s. The counselors involved in implementing the organizational initiatives that emerged from the meetings hoped to build on the counseling profession’s progressive legacy as well as the Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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contemporary multicultural counseling movement by developing a new organizational entity. The initiatives described above ultimately resulted in the formation a new division in the American Counseling Association (ACA) called Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ). Initially organized as an ACA Interest Group in the late 1990s, CSJ was later accepted as a formal ACA division in 2001. The primary rationale for moving from outsider to official status was that, as a division of the largest counseling association in the world, CSJ would be in a good position to (a) act as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of scholarship concerning the impact of oppression on human development, (b) develop collaborations with other entities, and (c) maintain a visible and accessible support network for counselors involved in social justice advocacy activities. The existence of CSJ as a division of ACA means that counselors will always have a venue for developing and disseminating cutting-edge information about the macrosystems that affect their clients and students. CSJ is committed to disseminating information, including information related to the ACA Advocacy Competencies, through collaborations with counselors in all settings and organizations. The presence of an entity devoted to such efforts reinforces the recognition of the centrality of social justice advocacy in the work counselor’s do. (Toporek et al., 2009, p. 266) Professional initiatives like the TSCI and CSJ provided an alternative view of counseling goals and methods than those espoused by more conservative members of the profession during the 1980s and 1990s. This alternative perspective was not new but, rather, built on many of the historic precedents described earlier in this chapter.

SUMMARY

In closing, this chapter describes the history of the counseling profession in general and the antecedents of the community counseling model in particular. As a result of reading this chapter you will better understand how the evolution of the community counseling model has been an inherent part of the profession for more than a century. The following chapters will further expand your knowledge of specific aspects of this model. Particular attention is directed to the ways that counselors can implement the different services that compose this model when working with diverse client populations. We hope that your increased understanding of the historic antecedents and evolution of the community counseling model will further stimulate your interest in and motivation to use this model when addressing the unique needs and circumstances of people you will work with in the future. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Developing New Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills Instructions: This competency-building activity encourages you to reflect on and further develop your professional competencies as they relate to the community counseling model. In doing so, you are encouraged to direct your attention to three components of your current level of professional competence. These components include issues related to your professional awareness, knowledge, and skills as they relate to the community counseling model. This competency-building activity will require about 20–30 minutes to complete and should be done in a place where you can reflect on the following points without interruption. You will need a pen and paper to write down how your awareness and knowledge of the community counseling model has been impacted by reading this chapter and in describing one action strategy you will implement in the near future that will further increase your competence in this area. Step #1: Take a few minutes to reflect on the information presented in Chapter 2. After you have had a chance to think about the new information you have gained as a result of reading this chapter, write down how your awareness of the counseling profession has changed by learning about the history of the counseling professional and the evolution of the community counseling model. Step #2: After you have completed Step #1, take time to write down how you think your work as a professional counselor might be affected as a result of learning about the history of the counseling profession and the evolution of the community counseling model in Chapter 2. Step #3: Your awareness of the evolution of the community counseling model is likely to have been expanded by the new knowledge you acquired about the specific events and interventions that various persons have been involved in and used throughout the history of the counseling profession. Take a few minutes to write down as specifically as you can how your thinking about the role and function of the professional counselor has changed as a result of reading Chapter 2. It is particularly important to describe the specific actions, skills, and interventions that various people used in contributing to the history of the counseling profession in general and the evolution of the community counseling model in particular when completing Step #3. Step #4: Now that you have taken time reflect on some of the new awareness and knowledge that you gained as a result of reading Chapter 2, it is important to move to the skill component of the professional competency framework. With this in mind, take a few minutes to think of the various intervention strategies that underlie the community counseling model and the specific skills that are necessary to use when utilizing these interventions effectively in the future. Then, write down one action strategy you will Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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take in the next 30 days that is intentionally designed to increase your competence in one of the interventions that has evolved over time as a part of the community counseling model. Among the actions that one can take in completing Step #4 include: [a] Reviewing the multicultural counseling competencies that are presented in Appendix A and deciding to take specific action to increase your competence level on one of these competencies in the next 30 days; [b] Reviewing the ACA Advocacy Competencies listed in Appendix B and making a commitment to try out one of the specific advocacy competencies in your work as a practitioner or as a student in your professional training program; [c] Making a list of the specific preventive education programs and services you might be interested in using in your work as a mental health professional and doing an Internet search on one specific preventive intervention to find information as to how other professionals implemented this sort of intervention among a client population you are likely to work with in the future; and/or [d] Taking time to make a telephone call, send an email message, or write a letter to an elected official in your area to express your support for or position against an issue that is of particular relevance for your community.

The suggestions listed above represent only a few examples of the many concrete actions you can take to exercise different skills that are necessary to effectively implement the community counseling model in your future professional practices.

REFERENCES Aldarondo, E. (2007). Rekindling the reformist spirit in the mental health professions. In E. Aldarondo (Ed.), Advancing social justice through clinical practice (pp. 3–18). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Amos, W. E., & Williams, D. E. (1972). Community counseling: A comprehensive team model for developmental services. St. Louis, MO: Warren H. Green. Aubrey, R. F. (1986). The professionalization of counseling. In M. D. Lewis, R. L., Hayes, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), An introduction to the counseling profession (pp. 1–35). Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock. Beers, C. W. (1908). A mind that found itself. New York: Doubleday. Blocher, D. (1966). Developmental counseling. New York: Ronald Press. Brewer, J. M. (1932). Education as guidance. New York: Macmillan. Brewer, J. M. (1942). History of vocational guidance. New York: Harper. Cooper, C. C., & Gottlieb, M. C. (2000). Ethical issues with managed care: Challenges facing counseling psychology. The Counseling Psychologist, 28, 179–238.



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D’Andrea, M., Daniels, J., Arredondo, P., Ivey, M. B., Ivey, A. E., Locke, D. C., O’Bryant, B., Parham, T. A., & Sue, D. W. (2001). Fostering organizational changes to realize the revolutionary potential of the multicultural movement: An updated case study. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), The handbook of multicultural counseling (2nd ed., pp. 222–253). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. D’Andrea, M., Ivey, A. E., & Ivey, M. B. (2011). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A multicultural perspective (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Davis, H. V. (1969). Frank Parsons: Prophet, innovator, counselor. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Davis, J. (1914). Vocational and moral guidance. Boston: Ginn. Fouad, N. A., Gerstein, L. H., & Toporek, R. C. (2006). Social justice and counseling psychology in context. In R. L. Toporek, L. H. Gernstein, N. A. Fouad, G. Roysircar, & T. Israel (Eds.), Handbook for Social Justice Counseling Psychology: Leadership, vision, and action (pp. 1–16). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Fromm, E. (1955). The sane society. New York: Holt, Rhinehart, & Winston. Gladding, S. T. (2009). Counseling: A comprehensive profession (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Glosoff, H. L. (2009). The counseling profession: Historical perspectives and current issues and trends. In D. Capuzzi & D. R. Gross (Eds.), Introduction to the counseling profession (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson. Herr, E. L. (1985). AACD: An association committed to unity through diversity. Journal of Counseling and Development, 63, 395–404. Hollis, J. W. (2000). Counselor preparation: Programs, personnel, trends (10th ed.). Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development. House, R. M., & Martin, P. J. (1998). Advocating for better futures for all students: A new vision for school counselors. Education, 119, 284–291. Ivey, A. E., D’Andrea, M., Ivey, M. B., & Simek-Morgan, L. (2007). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A multicultural perspective (6th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Kirschenbaum, H. (2009). The life and work of Carl Rogers. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science. New York: Harper & Row. Lewis, J. A., Arnold, M. S., House, R., & Toporek, R. L. (2002). ACA advocacy competencies. Retrieved January 1, 2010, from http://www.counseling.org/Publications. Lewis, J. A., & Lewis, M. D. (1977). Community counseling: A human services approach. New York: Wiley. Martin, P., & House, R. (1999, June). Counselors as leaders: Behaving as if you really believe in all children. A paper presented at the meeting of the American School Counselor Association, Phoenix, AZ. Mathewson, R. (1949). Guidance policy and practice. New York: Harper & Row. Mathewson, R. (1962). Guidance policy and practice (rev. ed.). New York: Harper & Row. Miller, C. H. (1971). Foundations of guidance (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row. O’Brien, K. M. (2001). The legacy of Parsons: Career counselors and vocational psychologists as agents of social change. Career Development Quarterly, 50, 66–76.


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Parsons, F. (1909). Choosing a vocation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Patterson, D. J., Darley, J., & Elliott, J. (1936). Men, women, and jobs. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Reed, A. Y. (1916). Vocational guidance report 1913–1916. Seattle, WA: Board of School Directors. Rogers, C. R. (1942). Counseling and psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton. Romano, J. L., & Netland, J. D. (2008). The application of the theory of reasoned action and planned behavior to prevention science in counseling psychology. The Counseling Psychologist, 36, 777–806. Seiler, G., Brooks, D. K. Jr., & Beck, E. S. (1987). Training standards of the American Mental Health Association: History, rationale, and implications. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 9, 199–209. Shertzer, B., & Stone, S. C. (1986). Fundamentals of counseling. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Steinhauser, L., & Bradley, R. (1983). Accreditation of counselor education programs. Counselor Education and Supervision, 25, 96–108. Sue, D. W., Arredondo, P., & McDavis, R. J. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70, 477–486. Sue, D. W., Carter, R. T., Casas, J. M., Fouad, N. A., Ivey, A. E., Jensen, M., LaFromboise, T., Manese, J. E., Ponterotto, J. G., & Vasquez-Nuttal, E. (1998). Multicultural counseling competencies: Individual and organizational development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sue, D. W. & Sue, D. (2007). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (5th ed.). New York: Wiley. Sullivan, H. S. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: W. W. Norton. Toporek, R. L., Lewis, J. A., & Crethar, H. C. (2009). Promoting systemic change through the ACA advocacy competencies. Journal of Counseling and Development, 87, 260–268. Williamson, E. G. (1939). How to counsel students: A manual of techniques for clinical counselors. New York: McGraw-Hill. Wilmarth, R. R. (1985, Summer). Historical perspective, part two. AMHCA News, 8, 21. Zinn, H. (2003). The people’s history of the United States. New York: HarperCollins.


CHAPTER 3

Counseling in Context

D

espite the importance of prevention, outreach, and advocacy, direct counseling interventions remain an essential part of the community counseling model. Counselors, by definition, do counsel, helping clients directly through individual, family, or group counseling. Although the provision of direct, one-on-one services should not be viewed as the only avenue toward promoting clients’ mental health, it should be seen as a basic building block in the community counseling framework. In order for direct counseling to complement the overall framework of the community perspective, it would have to be characterized by multicultural competence, a strengths-based approach, and a strong focus on context. The discussion in this chapter will emphasize theoretical perspectives and counseling strategies that adhere to these criteria. The RESPECTFUL approach (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1997, 2001) lays the groundwork for an approach to assessment and counseling that is based on a broad and deep appreciation for multiculturalism, diversity, and social context. THE RESPECTFUL COUNSELING FRAMEWORK

The RESPECTFUL counseling framework (a) recognizes the multidimensional nature of human development and (b) addresses the need for a comprehensive model of human diversity that has practical utility for the work of mental health professionals (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1997, 2001). Because the community counseling model addresses many concerns that have been raised by multiculturalists over 53 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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the past several years, it is important to clarify what we mean by cultural diversity in terms of its practical application in direct services. The RESPECTFUL model of assessment and counseling embraces a broad and inclusive definition of the term cultural diversity. This comprehensive diversity framework consists of 10 factors. These factors were selected because they are noted to affect clients’ psychological development and personal well-being in many important ways. It is important to realize, however, that the components contained in this model do not represent an exhaustive listing of all the factors that impact human development. Following are the specific factors to which the RESPECTFUL framework directs attention: R—religious/spiritual identity E—economic class background S—sexual identity P—level of psychological maturity E—ethnic/racial identity C—chronological/developmental challenges T—various forms of trauma and other threats to one’s sense of well-being F—family background and history U—unique physical characteristics L—location of residence and language differences The 10 factors that make up the RESPECTFUL counseling framework represent what we consider to be important aspects of “cultural diversity.” Thus, although ethnic/racial considerations are indeed addressed in the community counseling model that is presented in this book, many other factors are viewed as representing vital “cultural” considerations that counselors need to address when working with persons from diverse client populations. In presenting this perspective, it is acknowledged that women constitute a cultural group that is uniquely distinguishable from the way men are generally socialized in our society. The differences that are typically manifested in the language usage, unique life situations, and challenges that poor, middle-class, and upperclass persons routinely experience represent what we consider to be additional cultural distinctions that markedly distinguish persons in these groups. Additional cultural differences are noted between gay/lesbian/bisexual persons and heterosexual individuals, physically challenged persons and people who are temporarily able, and individuals who develop within different geographic/regional locations. The following description of the 10 components of the RESPECTFUL counseling framework is provided to enhance understanding of the various factors that are associated with our broad definition of cultural diversity. Religious/Spiritual Identity

The first component of the RESPECTFUL counseling model focuses on the way that individuals personally identify with established religions or hold beliefs Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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about extraordinary experiences that go beyond the boundaries of the strictly objective, empirically perceived world that marks Western, modern, psychological thought (D’Andrea, 2000; D’Andrea & Daniels, 2001). As used in the RESPECTFUL counseling framework, religion and spirituality generally refer to a person’s belief in a reality that transcends physical nature and provides individuals with an “extra-ordinary” meaning of life in general and of human experience in particular (Kelly, 1995). Because clients’ religious/spiritual identity may play an important role in the way they construct meaning-of-life experiences, interpret personal difficulties they encounter in life, and cope with stressful situations, it is important that counselors assess the degree to which this factor impacts a client’s psychological development early in the counseling process. Beyond making such individual assessments within the context of counseling, it is also apparent that individuals who exhibit different religious/spiritual identities (e.g., those persons who adhere to Jewish or Muslim beliefs) are often stereotyped, discriminated against, and oppressed by persons who identify with various Christian groups in American society. Because this stereotyping, discrimination, and oppression often result in unique stressors that have the potential to adversely impact the psychological wellbeing of those persons who identify with these and other religious/spiritual groups, it is important to use intervention strategies that are intentionally designed to promote ecological changes that foster positive changes among larger numbers of people in our society. This includes using preventive psycho educational interventions with school-aged youngsters that are aimed at increasing a more respectful and accurate understanding of persons who come from diverse religious groups and backgrounds, organizing community projects that involve persons from diverse religious groups, and advocating for the development and implementation of laws and institutional policies in schools, universities, workplaces, and communities that support the rights and dignity of persons who manifest different religious/spiritual identities. Besides thinking about the types of intervention strategies that are useful in promoting the mental health of persons who manifest different religious/spiritual identities, it is equally important for counselors to recognize that they are susceptible to developing negative attitudes and views about persons whose religious/ spiritual identities are different from their own. For this reason, it is vital that counselors take time to consider how their religious/spiritual identity and beliefs may positively or negatively impact on the work they do with clients who embrace different perspectives in these areas. Economic Class Background

Numerous researchers have explained how a person’s attitudes, values, worldview, and behaviors are all affected by one’s economic class standing and background. Recognizing the influence that this aspect of clients’ multidimensionality has on their development, mental health practitioners need to be attentive to the ways in which this factor contributes to individuals’ identified strengths and expressed problems in direct counseling settings. However, because poverty Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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clearly has an adverse physical and psychological effect on the lives of millions of persons in the United States, it is important for counselors to use their advocacy skills to support various ecological changes that are intentionally designed to eradicate the problems that poor people routinely experience in their lives. Ivey et al. (2002) also note that many counselors develop inaccurate and negative views and prejudices about persons who come from economic class backgrounds that are different from their own. For this reason, it is important that mental health professionals evaluate their own class-based assumptions, biases, and stereotypes when working with individuals from diverse economic class groups. It is particularly important for practitioners to examine closely how economic factors impact the psychological health and personal well-being of poor clients and to be mindful that traditional counseling theories were developed by middle-class individuals who did not usually give these issues enough weight. Sexual Identity

One of the most complex, though often understudied, aspects of an individual’s psychological development involves the sexual identity development of persons from diverse groups and backgrounds in our society. As used in the RESPECTFUL counseling model, the term sexual identity relates to a person’s gender identity, gender roles, and sexual orientation. The term gender identity refers specifically to an individual’s subjective sense of what it means to be either male or female. A person’s gender identity is clearly affected by the different roles men and women are socialized to play within a given cultural/ethnic context. A person’s sexual identity is also influenced by one’s sexual orientation. There are a number of ways to conceptualize this dimension of a person’s sexual identity. Generally, sexual orientation includes such concepts as bisexuality, heterosexuality, and homosexuality. Bisexuality refers to individuals who demonstrate a sexual interest in both males and females. Heterosexuality, in contrast, relates to individuals whose sexual interest is directed toward persons of the opposite sex. A third way of viewing this dimension of one’s sexual identity involves the concept of homosexuality, which is a term that has been used to identify individuals whose sexual orientation involves persons of the same sex. In light of the negative stereotypes that have historically been associated with the term homosexuality, terms such as gay males, gays, and lesbians are considered more acceptable and respectful in describing this dimension of a person’s sexual identity (D’Andrea & Daniels, 2001). Ethical counseling practice necessitates respectful acknowledgment and acceptance of a client’s unique sexual identity. However, given the intense negative views and reactions that many people have toward feminist advocates and gay/lesbian/bisexual persons in our nation, counselors must work beyond the confines of individual counseling settings if they are to promote the dignity and healthy development of larger numbers of persons who exhibit diverse sexual identities. Such efforts may include, but are not limited to, providing preventive education, outreach, consultation, advocacy, and organizational development Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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services that are specifically designed to foster ecological changes that promote more respectful treatment of persons who adhere to different sexual identities. Given the antifeminist and heterosexist attitudes and beliefs that exist in our society, it behooves counselors to assess how their own personal beliefs and biases about sexual identity may negatively impact the work they do with persons who are different from themselves in this regard. Psychological Maturity

Counselors often work with clients who share similar identities (e.g., religious/ spiritual, ethnic/racial, and sexual identities) and demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, and economic class) but who appear to be very different psychologically. In these situations, we might refer to one client as being “more psychologically mature” than another client who is the same age, identifies with the same ethnic/racial group, and shares a similar sexual and/or religious/spiritual identity as other persons with whom one works. Some descriptors that are commonly used by mental health professionals to describe “immature” clients include statements such as “He demonstrates limited impulse control in social interactions” or “She has a low capacity for self-awareness.” Statements that are commonly used to describe “more mature” clients include the following: “He is able to discuss his problems with much insight,” “She is highly self-aware,” and “She has developed a much broader range of interpersonal and perspective-taking skills than many of my other clients.” Structural-developmental theories view psychological development as a process in which individuals move from simple to more complex ways of thinking about themselves and their life experiences. This movement can be traced along a set of invariant, hierarchical stages that reflect qualitatively different ways of thinking, feeling, and acting in the world (Sprinthall, Peace, & Kennington, 2001). From the perspective of the community counseling framework that is presented in this book, we suggest that persons operating from these psychological stages reflect what might be considered to be uniquely different psychocultural mind-sets that represent qualitatively different attitudes, beliefs, and views of themselves and the world. When assessing clients’ levels of psychological maturity, counselors are better positioned to design intervention strategies that are more respectfully tailored to meet their unique psychological strengths and needs. It is also important that mental health professionals take time to reflect on their own development, as the helping process can easily be undermined when practitioners are matched with persons who are functioning at a higher level of psychological maturity than they are themselves.

Ethnic/Racial Identity

Tremendous psychological differences exist among persons who come from the same ethnic/racial groups. This sort of psychological variation is commonly referred to as “within-group” differences. Given the within-group variation Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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that is notably manifested among persons from the same ethnic/racial groups, it is important that counselors develop the knowledge and skills necessary to assess accurately these important differences and respond to them in effective and respectful ways in their work settings. It is also very important that mental health practitioners understand how their own ethnic/racial experiences have affected their development, the way they construct meaning of the world, and the types of biases they have acquired toward others in the process. Recent findings from the U.S. Census underscore the transformational changes that are occurring in the ethnic/racial makeup of the United States. These findings indicate that the United States is rapidly being transformed into a country in which most of its occupants will come from nonwhite, non-western European, non-English speaking backgrounds (D’Andrea & Heckman, 2008). Mental health care practitioners are increasingly realizing that it is not possible to work effectively or ethically within the context of a pluralistic society without acquiring an awareness of the broad range of issues related to human diversity and racial/ethnic group identity development. Because many of the stressors that persons from different ethnic/racial groups routinely experience emerge from various forms of stereotyping, discrimination, and racism that are perpetuated in various forms in our contemporary society, counselors are increasingly expected to work outside their offices. They are encouraged to do so to promote ecological changes that are designed to eradicate these environmentally based social toxins. Given the rapid ethnic/racial transformation that is occurring in the United States, it is expected that mental health professionals will continue to be called on to promote both individual and contextual-environmental changes that foster a greater level of respect for the rights and dignity of persons who come from ethnic/racial groups that have historically been marginalized. Chronological/Developmental Challenges

Age-related developmental changes represent what are referred to as “chronological challenges” that individuals face at different points across the life span. Mental health practitioners are familiar with many of these developmental challenges, because they represent characteristics commonly associated with childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The specific changes individuals predictably develop from infancy through adulthood include physical growth (e.g., bodily changes and the sequencing of motor skills development), the emergence of different cognitive competencies (e.g., the development of perceptual, language, learning, memory, and other types of thinking skills), and the manifestation of a variety of psychological skills (e.g., the ability to manage one’s emotions and the demonstration of more effective interpersonal competencies) that occur over time. Human development researchers have greatly helped counselors refine their thinking regarding the unique challenges individuals face at different points across the life span. Practically speaking, this knowledge enables practitioners to work more effectively with persons who face difficult chronological challenges in their lives by implementing age-appropriate intervention strategies in the Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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counseling setting. This also allows practitioners to be mindful of the challenges they are likely to encounter when significant chronological differences exist between themselves and their clients. Elaborating on this point further, D’Andrea and Daniels (1997) suggest that many young practitioners are likely to encounter major challenges in terms of gaining a high degree of trust, respect, and professional validation when working with some clients who may be much older than they are. Much progress has been made in terms of gaining a greater understanding of the types of counseling interventions that are thought to be appropriate when working with clients of different ages in individual and small-group counseling settings. Despite the advanced understanding that has occurred in this area, it is clear that many youngsters and older adults are subjected to various types of environmental stressors (e.g., child abuse and neglect, physical assaults, and lack of financial resources to secure basic needs among many older adults) that compromise the mental health and personal well-being of millions of children, adolescents, and elderly persons in our society. Because individual, remedial counseling services represent inadequate responses to the types of environmental barriers that many youngsters and older adults encounter in their lives, other intervention strategies are needed to positively impact the lives of large numbers of persons who are subjected to various forms of age-related, environmentally based conditions that are unfair, unjust, and oppressive. The community counseling model describes numerous services and programs that are intentionally designed to promote positive ecological changes that are specifically aimed at fostering the overall health, well-being, and dignity of persons of all ages and particularly those children, adolescents, and older persons who are vulnerable to a host of mental health problems as a result of being subjected to the types of environmental stressors they face in their lives. Trauma and Other Threats to One’s Well-Being

Trauma and threats to one’s well-being are included in the RESPECTFUL counseling model to emphasize the complex ways in which stressful situations put people at risk of psychological danger and harm. Such harm typically occurs when the stressors that individuals experience in their lives exceed their ability to cope with them in constructive ways. One’s personal resources (coping skills, selfesteem, social support, and an individual’s sense of personal power) may be overtaxed when one is subjected to ongoing environmental stressors. Individuals who experience stressors for extended periods of time are vulnerable to future mental health problems. Such problems are often grounded in the different ways people are marginalized as a result of being a part of a devalued group in our society. Counselors are frequently called on to work with persons in various vulnerable groups, including poor, homeless, and unemployed people; adults and children in families undergoing divorce; pregnant teenagers; individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS); persons with cancer; and individuals who are victimized by various forms of ageism, racism, sexism, and cultural oppression. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Because culturally competent mental health practitioners are aware of the ways environmental stressors threaten personal well-being, they implement intervention strategies that can help ameliorate these problems. For instance, counselors who work with persons from historically marginalized ethnic/racial groups need to be particularly aware of the ways in which intergenerational trauma is sustained over time. It is also important for practitioners to consider how various life stressors and traumatic events may have had a lasting impact on their own psychological development. Family Background and History

The rapid cultural diversification of the United States includes an increasing number of families that are very different from the traditional notion of “family” that many counselors have historically used as a standard for determining “normal family life” and “healthy family functioning.” The different types of families (e.g., single-parent families, blended families, extended families, and families headed by gay and lesbian parents) that mental health practitioners increasingly encounter in their work challenge them to reassess the traditionally held concept of the nuclear family that has been typically used as a standard to which all other types of families have been compared. In the 21st century, counselors are pressed to (a) understand the unique strengths that clients derive from these diverse family systems and (b) implement interventions that are intentionally designed to foster the healthy development of these familial units. In addition to learning about the personal strengths that individuals derive from these diverse family systems, mental health practitioners are encouraged to assess their own assumptions and biases about family life. If left unexamined, these biases and assumptions may adversely impact the helping process that involves clients who come from diverse family systems. Unique Physical Characteristics

The RESPECTFUL counseling framework emphasizes the importance of being sensitive to the ways in which our society’s idealized images of physical beauty negatively impact the psychological development of many individuals whose physical characteristics may not fit the narrow view of beauty fostered by our dominant culture. When working with clients whose physical characteristics may be a source of personal stress and dissatisfaction, it is important for counselors to consider how the myth of idealized physical beauty may lead many persons to internalize negative views and stereotypes about themselves. It is also important for mental health practitioners to consider how this myth may lead them to make inaccurate assessments and misinterpretations of our clients’ personal strengths. When counselors work with women and men whose psychological development is negatively affected by some aspect of their unique physical nature, practitioners need to be able to assist them in understanding the ways in which gender socialization contributes to irrational thinking about their own sense of Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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self-worth. Counselors need to be particularly sensitive to and knowledgeable about issues related to physical disabilities when working with persons who experience various types of physical challenges in their lives. This includes being knowledgeable of the environmental barriers that compromise physically challenged persons’ ability to realize their personal potential and sense of wellbeing. To address all these considerations, counseling practitioners need to operate from a comprehensive helping model, such as the community counseling framework that is presented in this book. Location of Residence and Language Differences

The location of one’s residence refers to the geographic region and setting where one resides. D’Andrea and Daniels (2001) identify five major geographic areas in the United States: the northeastern, southeastern, midwestern, southwestern, and northwestern regions. These geographic areas are distinguished by the types of persons who reside there and differ in terms of climate patterns, geological terrain, and to some degree the types of occupations and industry available to workers who reside in these locations. When mental health practitioners work with persons from geographic regions that are different from their own (including rural, urban, and suburban settings), it is important to reflect on the possible stereotypes and biases they may have developed about such persons and locations. This is particularly important when working with persons who use a different dialect or language in interpersonal interactions. As is the case with the other components of the RESPECTFUL counseling model, this sort of self-assessment is very important because unexamined biases about clients from different locations who use varied linguistic styles may unconsciously lead to unproductive and even negative outcomes in the counseling process. Relevance of the RESPECTFUL Framework

There are three aspects of the RESPECTFUL counseling model that are particularly relevant for the community counseling framework. First, it repeatedly emphasizes the need for counselors to address the multidimensional nature of human development in their work. As was mentioned earlier, although the 10 factors that make up the RESPECTFUL counseling model do not represent an exhaustive listing of all the factors that underlie the diversity that counselors commonly face when working with clients, they do constitute important considerations that practitioners are encouraged to keep in mind when working with persons from diverse groups and backgrounds. Second, this model underscores the need for counselors to use multiple helping approaches to promote the psychological health and personal well-being of large numbers of persons from diverse client populations. Although counselors will always be expected to provide individual counseling services to persons who are having difficulty coping with various stressors in their lives, research findings suggest that individual, remedial counseling is in and of itself insufficient to meet Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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the rising mental health needs of persons in the United States. To this end, it is argued that counselors will need to foster positive changes in clients’ environments by taking an ecological approach in their work (Neville & Mobley, 2001). Failing to do so, professional counselors are likely to be increasingly viewed in irrelevant and obsolete terms by many individuals whose personal well-being is undermined by environmental toxins that are embedded in many of our institutions, organizations, and communities (Locke et al., 2001). Third, the RESPECTFUL framework repeatedly emphasizes the need for counselors to assess themselves on each of the factors that make up this model. This is important because, like anyone, counselors are vulnerable to developing inaccurate beliefs, stereotypes, and biases about persons who are characterized by the various components of the RESPECTFUL model as a result of their own life experiences. When left unexamined, these beliefs, stereotypes, and biases can unintentionally and adversely affect the work that counselors do with persons who come from diverse client populations. Thus, the adage, “Counselor, know thyself,” is a central consideration that underlies the theory of counseling that is presented in this book. For this reason, the first competency-building activity is designed to assist you in reflecting on your own development and the multiple factors that have impacted your growth as a person. The RESPECTFUL Counseling Model and Counselor Self-Assessment

We are all “multidimensional” beings who have been and continue to be affected by the various factors listed in the RESPECTFUL counseling model. All these factors influence the way we construct meaning of ourselves, the people in our lives, and the world in which we live. Inevitably, all of us make inaccurate assumptions and develop biases about others as a result of the way these factors influence our own development. With this in mind, it is very important that counselors take time to reflect on the assumptions and biases that they have developed regarding clients who are different from them. In some cases, the assumptions and biases we have developed may be helpful in terms of working with clients from diverse groups and backgrounds. On the other hand, it is possible that some of the assumptions and biases we have acquired may result in ineffective and even harmful outcomes when they are interjected into the work that counselors do. (See Exhibit 3.1.)

ASSESSMENT

Because the community counseling framework operates from an empowerment perspective, assessment is guided by the premise that clients are responsible for running their own lives. Counselors can help identify problem areas and suggest possible solutions. To be most effective, however, the assessment process must elicit the client’s active participation. By participating in assessment, clients can Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Using the RESPECTFUL Model for Counselor Self-Assessment Now that you have read about the RESPECTFUL counseling model, use this framework to evaluate yourself on each of the dimensions. After reflecting on the 10 components that make up the RESPECTFUL counseling framework, take a few minutes to write a short description of how your own development has been impacted by the different factors that are listed on this model (see the following list of factors). Be sure to identify as many personal strengths and biases as you have acquired from being impacted by the 10 components in this framework. Then briefly write a statement that describes the types of persons whom you are likely to be most effective working with given your own development. Finally, briefly describe the types of clients whom you are likely to be less effective with given the various assumptions and biases you have developed during your life. R—religious/spiritual identity E—economic class background S—sexual identity P—level of psychological maturity E—ethnic/racial identity C—chronological/developmental challenges T—various forms of trauma and other threats to one’s sense of well-being F—family background and history U—unique physical characteristics L—location of residence and language differences

both learn about themselves and begin to increase their sense of control over their actions. These benefits can occur only through a strengths-based, contextual, and culturally sensitive assessment process that is easily understood by clients. Unlike client evaluation approaches that are strictly diagnostic, the purpose of using this kind of assessment process is not just to place clients in appropriate treatment. Rather, the primary aim of such evaluation is to help clients devise a plan by which they can transcend problematic situations and improve the quality of their lives. From this perspective, the question to be answered through assessment is not “What is wrong with this person?” but “What is keeping this person from effectively managing his or her life right now?” and “How can these barriers be overcome?” The Collaborative Approach to Assessment

Regardless of what specific issues might bring people to a counselor’s office, most clients have in common the need to increase their sense of control over events Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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going on in their lives. What happens when the assessment process is taken out of a client’s hands to be performed by “experts”? The client’s presenting problems might be identified, but his or her sense of control and personal responsibility will ultimately be damaged. Assessment in the community counseling context, then, is a mutual effort in which both counselors and clients strive to identify barriers that can be overcome. Through this collaborative process, clients can make better use of their personal resources and increase their sense of empowerment. In the past, the clients who could benefit most from this respectful and collaborative approach were sometimes the ones least likely to receive it. Even now, people who are part of stigmatized groups or who are seen as particularly problematic are often distrusted, even by helping professionals, and assumed to lack the ability to participate actively in decisions about their own lives. In fact, however, the collaborative assessment process is demonstrably effective with these clients. Consider, for example, the use of the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) process with clients at risk for suicide (Jobes & Shneidman, 2006). Within CAMS there is a basic belief that suicidal thoughts and behaviors represent a fundamental effort to cope or problem-solve in pursuit of meeting legitimate needs (e.g., needs for control, power, communication of pain, or an end to suffering). From this perspective, a CAMS counselor approaches suicidality in an empathic, matter-of-fact, and non-judgmental fashion. Ironically, the counselor’s capacity to understand and appreciate the viability and attraction of suicide as a means of coping provides the essential ingredient for forming a strong therapeutic alliance where more adaptive methods of coping can be evaluated, explored, and tested. Philosophically speaking, CAMS emphasizes an intentional move away from the directive “counselor as expert” approach that can lead to adversarial power struggles about hospitalization and the routine and unfortunate use of coercive “safety contracts.” (Jobes, Moore, & O’Connor, 2007) Clients at risk for suicide have clearly been among the people least likely to be trusted with goal setting and decision making; yet, they can participate actively in a collaborative assessment and problem-solving process. Similarly, clients dealing with issues related to addictions have in the past been subjected to coercive treatment based on the belief that they could not be trusted to make decisions about their lives. Now, however, the research base showing the effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing (MI) for clients with addictions is too broad and deep to ignore (Hettema, Steele, & Miller, 2005; Rubak, Sanback, Lauritzen, & Christensen, 2005). A central purpose of MI is to help individuals resolve the ambivalence they feel when considering the possibility of change. Resolving ambivalence can be a key to change, and, indeed, once ambivalence has been resolved, little else may be required for change to occur. However, attempts to force resolution in a particular direction



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(as by direct persuasion or by increasing punishment for inaction) can lead to a paradoxical response, even strengthening the very behavior they were intended to diminish. (Miller & Rollnick, 2002) An assessment process that emphasizes diagnosis and attempts to move clients toward accepting a label for their problem often leads to defensiveness rather than movement toward change. In contrast, the spirit of MI is “collaborative, evocative, and honoring of patient autonomy” (Rollnick, Miller, & Butler, 2008, p. 6). Strengths-Based Assessment

Strengths-based and collaborative approaches to assessment are closely intertwined. Morgan (2004), in his discussion of strengths-based practice, emphasizes that these practices are based on building trusting relationships, empowering people to take the lead in decisions about their care, working collaboratively, and tapping into personal resources of motivation. Strengths-based assessment is “the measurement of those emotional and behavioral skills, competencies, and characteristics that create a sense of personal accomplishment; contribute to satisfying relationships with family members, peers, and adults; enhance one’s ability to deal with adversity and stress; and promote one’s personal, social, and academic development” (Epstein & Sharma, 1998, p. 3). In applying strengths-based assessment to children and their families, Epstein and Rudolph (2008) state that this approach is founded on four basic assumptions: Every child, regardless of his or her personal and family situation, has strengths that are unique to the individual. Children are influenced and motivated by the way significant people in their lives respond to them. Rather than viewing a child who does not demonstrate a strength as deficient, it is assumed the child has not had the opportunities that are essential to learning, developing, and mastering the skill. When treatment and service planning are based on strengths rather than deficits and pathologies, children and families are more likely to become involved in the therapeutic process and to use their strengths and resources (p. 5). In support of strengths-based assessment, especially with children and youth, several instruments have been developed. The Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS) (Epstein & Sharma, 1998) measures the domains of childhood strengths: interpersonal strength, family involvement, intrapersonal strength, and school functioning. The Social Emotional Assets and Resiliency Scales (SEARS) is “a strength-based assessment system, aimed at assessing positive social-emotional attributes of children and adolescents, including social and emotional knowledge and competence, peer acceptance and relationships, resilience in the face of


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difficulties, coping skills, problem-solving abilities, empathy, global self-concept, and other positive traits” (Cohn, Merrell, Felver-Grant, Tom, & Endrulat, 2009, February 7, p. 1). The SEARS is designed for children and adolescents from the ages of five to eighteen. The Youth Competency Assessment (YCA) was designed by the Northwest Professional Consortium, Inc. (2004) with a focus on youth in the juvenile justice systems, where strengths-based approaches can be especially important. Whether they are young people or adults, clients who have traditionally been the recipients of deficit-based assessment are the ones who are most likely to benefit from a strengths-based approach. Balancing Demands and Resources

Clients generally have no trouble understanding that anyone could, because of genetic or other physiological factors, be vulnerable to specific stress-related problems or disorders. This susceptibility might never be triggered, however, if the individual were not subjected to severe and prolonged levels of stress. Even under stress, people protect themselves from dysfunction by mobilizing social support, using effective coping skills, and maintaining their self-esteem, all of which stimulate increased feelings of personal power. Counselors and clients can use the assessment process to focus both on demands and resources, stressors and strengths. Seeing their situations in this way helps clients to understand that they can take steps to reduce stress and/or to strengthen their resources and personal power. They can then more responsibly plan action strategies to address the issues that have come to light during the assessment. Purely personal change, without attention to context, may be impossible, impractical, or damaging to the individual’s integrity. Counselors who use the community counseling framework, therefore, should help clients do the following: Identify and own their strengths and resources. Make plans for increasing these resources if necessary. Identify and draw on sources of help in the environment. Make plans for reducing stressful elements in the environment, whether by avoiding them or directly confronting and changing them. The counselor and the client must jointly identify possible sources of support. No one can tell another person what his or her support system should be. Relationships are supportive and helpful only if people experience them that way. Thus, no objective standard can help one distinguish between a “good” environment and a “bad” one. Rather, the interaction between individuals and their surroundings determines this distinction; therefore, only the people involved can know when their own needs are being met in ways that promote positive and constructive psychological outcomes. The attention given to the environment distinguishes the community counseling model from other traditional counseling approaches. Most counselors have, in the past, assumed that the attitudes, feelings, or behavior of the client Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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should be the objects of change. Counselors are becoming more aware, however, that the obstacles to clients’ meeting their goals may lie in the environment rather than in the clients themselves. Intervention in the environment is therefore often imperative if an individual’s problems are to be truly resolved. At the same time, even when environmental factors have clearly contributed to the development of a problem, as when economic changes cause an individual’s unemployment, one must separate responsibility for the etiology of the problem from responsibility for the resolution of the problem. Otherwise, as Romano and Hage (2000) note, clients may suffer feelings of passivity, helplessness, and immobilization if they are portrayed as victims of economic and social circumstances beyond their control. Personal and environmental factors are closely interrelated. To choose sides, that is, to insist that most client problems arise either within the individual or from a destructive environment, is unrealistic and counterproductive. An assessment process that addresses both clients and context can lay the groundwork for practical and effective action plans. Client Conceptualization

Although it is readily apparent that strengths-based and contextual approaches to assessment and counseling are valuable, it is not always easy for counselors to put aside a natural inclination to focus on deficits. Counselors are more likely to conceptualize their clients’ situations from a positive and empowering perspective when they make purposeful efforts in that direction. The client conceptualization (what is often called a case conceptualization) reflects the way the counselor perceives the client, which in turn affects the helping strategies the counselor chooses. It takes structure to move a counselor in a direction that is in harmony with the community counseling model. Counselors should consider structuring their conceptualizations by asking themselves the following questions about each of their clients: 1. How can this client’s issues or problems be redefined in an empowering way? What strengths and competencies can be identified and encouraged? 2. How has this client been affected by oppression, injustice, or marginalization? 3. What counseling strategies can be used to overcome oppression-based barriers to healthy functioning? 4. What positive environmental resources might be available to this individual? Comparable questions can be asked not just about individual clients but also about families. 1. How can this family’s concerns be redefined in an empowering way? What strengths and competencies can be identified in individual family members and in the family as a whole? 2. How has this family or its members been affected by oppression, injustice, or marginalization? Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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3. What counseling strategies can be used to overcome oppression-based barriers to healthy functioning? 4. What positive environmental resources might be available to this family? Carlson, Sperry, & Lewis (2005) make the following case for a family counselor’s use of this type of conceptualization: The value of these questions lies in the necessity of helping family members and the family as a whole recognize their potential for strength. Oppression is insidious because external discrimination is combined with socialization processes that bring about internalized oppression; victims learn to accept the negative views of themselves that have been inculcated by the mainstream society.… The therapist’s ability to view families as having adaptive strengths … makes the first steps toward empowerment possible. (p. 137) Consider, as an example, a family that was introduced in Chapter 1 of this book. A family counselor has been working with a white middle-class family through the comingout process of their only child, a fourteen-year-old son. The parents, George and Carla Sparks, are glad their son trusted them enough to talk with them about his sexual orientation and they want to be supportive. At the same time, they feel very cautious about the family’s privacy and wish secrecy might be possible in their small, conservative town. Now their son, Chris, is having a problem with bullying at his middle school. The teachers and administrators have not been helpful and have suggested that Chris might do well to modify his own behaviors in the direction of masculinity. At this point, the parents’ feelings have begun to change from nervous protectiveness to helpless anger. Each member of this family is in pain, and it would be easy to fall into the trap of concentrating the counseling process solely on identifying and alleviating the pain. The counselor’s work can be enhanced, however, if he or she makes a conscious effort to identify strengths and to focus on the larger systems affecting the nuclear family. The Sparks family is clearly demonstrating that they have important strengths, including intense loyalty to one another, mutual supportiveness, and courage in facing a very difficult social environment. These strengths are clearly needed because of the fact that they are being forced to take a stand against a virulent form of oppression: heterosexism. Chris is being marginalized within the school, not just by other students but by educators as well. The family system is, in effect, standing up to an assault. This conceptualization of the situation carries implications regarding appropriate counseling strategies. In working with this family, the counselor should make sure to emphasize the strengths that the family has shown, helping to buoy up their courage. Oppression (in this case, heterosexism) is a powerful stressor that often leads individuals to look within themselves for the source of problems that are, in reality, externally based.



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Oftentimes these questions lead queer clients/students to negatively internalize heterosexist values, beliefs, and ideals. This is a process referred to as internalized heterosexism, and addressing internalized heterosexism is an empowering form of client/student advocacy. (Singh, 2010, p. 32) The “helpless anger” that George and Carla Sparks are feeling is understandable, but might interfere with their ability to achieve their primary goal: helping their son. Ideally, the counselor can help the family members recognize that their strengths have the potential to make them a powerful force. If their feelings of frustration can be channeled toward action, the quality of family life can be enhanced. It would of course be inappropriate for the counselor to press the family toward action that they might find too risky for their security and well-being within the community. The best step here is to follow up on the fourth question of the client conceptualization format: What positive environmental resources might be available to this family? Their caution in reaching out to a community characterized by conservatism might be warranted, but they should not assume that no support at all is available. Part of the process of counseling within the community counseling framework is to help clients assess their environments and seek positive sources of support. Added to the potential for support from people they know are organizations that have specific missions of advocacy. For example, Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) can provide valuable help and support to George and Carla. Even if there is no PFLAG group in their own community, they can make use of the wealth of materials provided by the national organization. Similarly, an organization like the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) can provide significant help, given their mission of working toward schools that are safe for everyone. GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/ expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 2010) The middle school attended by Chris may not have a gay-straight alliance in place, but awareness of GLSEN could help the family access information about what they have the right to expect from their school and what actions have proven useful to others. Through advocacy organizations, clients like Chris and his parents can gain access to resources that might not otherwise have reached their awareness, including such clearly applicable materials as Bullying among Children and Youth on Perceptions and Differences in Sexual Orientation, a tip sheet disseminated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as part of its Stop Bullying Now project (Health Resources and Services Administration,


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Client Conceptualization Exercise Is there a person you know, either personally or professionally, who worries you? Someone who seems to be dealing with difficulties that he or she cannot seem to overcome? Think about that person—or, if no one comes to mind, choose one of the client examples in Chapter 1. Conceptualize the person’s situation by using the Client Conceptualization Questions. 1. How can this client’s issues or problems be redefined in an empowering way? What strengths and competencies can be identified and encouraged? 2. How has this client been affected by oppression, injustice, or marginalization? 3. What counseling strategies can be used to overcome oppression-based barriers to healthy functioning? 4. What positive environmental resources might be available to this individual?

2010). Finally, the Sparks family might be able to find sources of support within the school. An especially promising possibility, of course, would be the school counselor, who would want to help Chris directly and who might decide to move in the direction of impacting school policy. Minority Identity Development

When working with clients from diverse populations, counselors must understand how a person’s cultural, ethnic, and racial background affects his or her psychological development (Sue & Sue, 1999). The Minority Identity Development (MID) model (Atkinson et al., 1998) provides an interesting explanation of how people from nonwhite minority groups develop a sense of personal identity within the context of a social environment that frequently devalues their cultural, ethnic, and racial background. In this model, minority refers to people who continue to be oppressed by the dominant societal group “primarily because of their group membership” (Atkinson et al., 1998, p. 13). This model is extremely relevant to the RESPECTFUL counseling framework that was outlined earlier in this chapter, as it directs attention to how a person’s group membership and environmental experiences impact his or her psychological development. Although they focus on people from diverse cultural/racial backgrounds, Atkinson et al. (1998) note that this definition allows women to be considered “minority group members,” even though they constitute a numerical majority in the United States, because they continue to endure various forms of oppression. The MID model is “anchored in the belief that all minority groups experience the common force of oppression, and as a result, will all generate a strong sense of Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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self- and group-identity in spite of their oppressive conditions” (Ponterotto & Pedersen, 1993, p. 45). Although the MID framework presents stages, the authors point out that one can best conceptualize it as a continuous process in which the characteristics of the various stages blend into one another without clear or abrupt demarcations (Atkinson et al., 1998). The MID model comprises five stages. Each of these stages is defined with respect to one’s (a) attitudes toward oneself, (b) attitudes toward others from the same racial/ethnic background, (c) attitudes toward people in other minority groups, and (d) attitudes toward the white majority in the United States. Though not intended to serve as a comprehensive personality theory, the MID model serves as a framework to help counselors understand minority clients’ attitudes and behaviors. The model can help counselors become more sensitized to the following: 1. The role oppression plays in a minority person’s psychological development 2. The differences that can exist between members of the same minority group with respect to their cultural identity 3. The potential developmental changes that people from various cultural, ethnic, and racial groups may manifest during their life span These developmental changes have been described in the following stages. The Conformist Stage. Minority individuals operating at the conformist stage show an unequivocal preference for the dominant cultural values over those of their own cultural-racial group. Their choice of role models, lifestyles, and values all follow the lead of the dominant societal group. Those physical and cultural characteristics that single them out as minorities cause them pain and embarrassment; they often view these characteristics with disdain or repress them from consciousness. Unlikely to seek counseling services for issues related to their cultural identity, clients at the conformist stage instead tend to seek out counselors from the dominant cultural group rather than those with the same minority background as themselves. Such clients usually present issues amenable to decision-making, problem-solving, and goal-oriented counseling approaches and techniques. The Dissonance Stage. In the dissonance stage, people from minority groups encounter information and experiences inconsistent with the values and beliefs associated with the conformist stage. These experiences and information stimulate an increased level of cognitive dissonance that leads these people to question and perhaps even challenge attitudes acquired in the conformist stage. At this stage, individuals are preoccupied with questions concerning their personal identity, self-concept, and self-esteem. They typically perceive personal problems as related to their cultural identity and background. Emotional problems may develop when they cannot resolve conflicts that arise when dominant cultural views and values conflict with those of their minority group. Clients at this stage prefer to work with counselors who possess a good working knowledge of their cultural, ethnic, and/or racial group. Recommended counseling Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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approaches for clients operating at this stage include those that facilitate selfexploration and the acquisition of stress management skills. The Resistance and Immersion Stage. In this stage of development, clients experience strong discontent and discomfort with the views and values of the dominant cultural group. These feelings are accompanied by a heightened desire to eliminate the oppression and injustice that minority groups experience. At this stage, clients typically express negative reactions and anger toward members of the dominant societal group. The likelihood that people functioning at the resistance and immersion stage will seek formal counseling is slim. However, those instances when counseling is sought tend to occur as responses to immediate personal crises and with a counselor from the same minority group as the client’s. Clients at this stage usually view all psychological problems as a product of their oppression. Useful counseling strategies include group process interventions and referrals to community or social action groups and organizations. The Introspection Stage. Clients operating at this stage manifest discontent and discomfort with many of the rigidly held views associated with the resistance and immersion stage. As such, they often focus on their personal and psychological autonomy. Clients at the introspection stage are torn between identification with their minority group and the need to exercise greater personal freedom and decision making. Much more likely to seek counseling than those at the resistance and immersion stage, people at the introspection stage generally prefer counselors from their own cultural group. These clients, however, may view counselors from other cultural backgrounds as credible sources of help if their worldviews resemble those of the clients. Counseling approaches recommended at this stage include problem-solving and decision-making methods as well as techniques that promote stress management skills and encourage self-exploration of culturally relevant issues and concerns. The Synergistic Articulation and Awareness Stage. At this stage, clients feel self-fulfillment regarding their personal and cultural identity. The conflicts and discomforts manifested at the introspection stage have generally been resolved, allowing individuals to experience a greater sense of personal control and flexibility in their lives. Clients objectively examine the cultural values of other minority groups as well as the dominant group and accept or reject them on the basis of experience gained in earlier developmental stages. Clients at the synergistic articulation and awareness stage manifest a heightened desire for psychological freedom. Their sense of minority identity is wellbalanced by a genuine appreciation of other cultures. Attitudinal similarity between the counselor and the client, rather than issues related to the client and counselor’s group membership similarity, becomes an important determinant of successful counseling outcomes (Atkinson et al., 1998). The MID model complements the community counseling framework because it focuses on how the broader sociopolitical environment influences Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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the psychological development of people from devalued groups. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the community counseling model centers on the belief that counselors need to be keenly aware of the ways in which the environment impacts clients’ development and be able to provide counseling services that foster their ability to constructively negotiate oppressive environmental circumstances. Using the MID model can greatly help counselors understand how participation in various environmental institutions, organizations, and systems can affect culturally diverse clients’ psychological development.

COUNSELING APPROACHES WITH A SOCIAL JUSTICE ORIENTATION

Ratts (2009) suggests that a social justice paradigm “is related to a growing need to connect human development issues with toxic environmental conditions” (p. 163). Ratts accentuates the fact that this paradigm has impact on the counselor’s view of the locus of client problems. Environmental factors, such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism, can delay people’s growth and development and hinder people’s ability to reach their potential. This is especially true for clients who have been historically marginalized in society, such as people of color, those in poverty, and individuals who are lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT). Helping clients recognize the presence of oppressive factors is important because it prevents them from blaming themselves for their plight. (Ratts, 2009, pp. 163–164) Ratts emphasizes the social justice counselor’s role of advocacy and social activism, stating that “a social justice counseling approach uses social advocacy and activism as a means to address inequitable social, political, and economic conditions that impede on the academic, career, and personal/social development of individuals, families, and communities” (Ratts, 2009, p. 160). It is clear, however, that the assumptions underlying the social justice paradigm and the community counseling model have relevance for direct counseling services as well. A social justice orientation would lead a counselor toward (a) approaching each client with an understanding of the situation in the broadest possible context, (b) helping the client gain this understanding as well, and (c) working from a strengths-based perspective. In other words, the counselor would use the wideangle lens, rather than the microscope. This general paradigm leaves room for different theoretical perspectives. Among the counseling theories or approaches that adhere to the social justice paradigm are (a) empowerment-focused counseling, (b) ecological counseling, (c) feminist counseling, and (d) relational-cultural counseling. Many other theories contain certain elements of this approach as well, but these four have a social justice orientation at their core. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Empowerment-Focused Counseling

In the past, counselors across most theoretical perspectives were encouraged to keep their clients’ focus on the things they could control. Counselors were trained to pass on to clients the belief that both the cause of problems and the solutions lay within the individual. But “problems are not always developed or solved inside one person’s skin” (Ratts, 2009, p. 163). As most counselors are aware, one’s mental health is affected by experiences of oppression.…Traditional counseling, however, has focused on working with clients on internal issues (e.g., depression, stress management) as opposed to external forces (e.g., racism, oppression, discrimination) that create stressors and disempowerment. (Holcomb-McCoy & Mitchell, 2007) Although it might seem counterintuitive at first, the fact is that clients can be more empowered—not less empowered—if they learn to recognize the ways they are affected by their environmental contexts. Exhibit 3.3 differentiates between empowerment and disempowerment. The fact that “awareness of context, including oppression” versus “selfblame” appears first in the empowerment-disempowerment table reflects the notion that dealing with this phenomenon lays the groundwork for the client’s readiness to move on to action. As long as the client is mired in self-blame, he or she will have difficulty meeting the challenges of developing life skills, finding sources of support, getting beyond victimization, and perceiving options that seemed invisible before. “Clients who recognize the role of oppression in their lives are most likely to be able to move from the morass of self-blame to the solid ground of self-management” (Carlson, Sperry, & Lewis, 2005, p. 128). The impact of oppression remains insidious until it is recognized for what it is. Oppression can be defined as “the systemic disadvantaging of one group by another group that holds the collective power of the state or society” (Arnold,


Empowerment versus Disempowerment Empowerment

Disempowerment

Awareness of context, including oppression

Self-blame

Skills for self-management

Lack of self-management skill

Mutual support

Isolation

Self-esteem

Victimization

Ability to recognize options and make choices

Perceived lack of choices



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1997). Oppression differs from prejudice because, unlike prejudice, oppression has the power of culture, society, and the state behind it. The power of systemic oppression is what makes internalized oppression so pervasive. Internalized oppression is the acceptance, most often unconscious, of the myths, misinformation, and stereotypes the dominant culture constructs about a person’s own group. Victims take on the values and norms of the dominant group and cast aspersions on the experiences and traditional values of their own group. (Lewis & Arnold, 1998, p. 53) Systemic oppression, with the accompaniment of internalized oppression, makes positive individual action difficult. Consider, for example, the impact on women of sexism, which is one form of oppression. Many women lack awareness that the boundaries confining them are constructed as part of the apparatus of oppression. Without this awareness, they become mired in self-blame. “Why,” they ask, “can’t I get a job that’s good enough to support my kids?” “What is it about me that makes me so disorganized that I can’t seem to do my job, take care of the house, be patient with my children, and take better care of my aging parents?” “What should I have done differently to keep my husband from hitting me?” “Why did I make the mistake of going to a place that put me in danger of being raped?” “Why do other people seem to be able to take action and get what they need when I can’t?” “Why am I stuck?” Empowerment involves, first, recognizing that these problems do not stem from a defect within the individual but are instead violations of her selfhood. Perhaps what the client needs to be asking is “How can we get past a situation in which women’s salaries are a fraction of white men’s?” “How can we get past a situation in which women are expected to carry out all of these family roles without the responsibilities being shared and without support from the community?” “Why is even unpaid family leave being questioned by the government?” “How can women and men work together to end the culture of violence and victimization?” “Now that I realize these things that have happened in my life are not my fault, how can I get out of stuckness and into action?” (Lewis, 2007, p. 103). The effect of sexism on women is no more or less than the effects of the other “isms” on victims of oppression. In fact, everyone is hurt by oppression, even those in positions of power. We often act as if oppression hurts only the victim of oppression. Therefore, we think that sexism hurts women and not men, that racism wounds people of color and not White people, and that gay oppression has no impact on heterosexuals. It is important to note that victims and oppressors are hurt differently but that each is still hurt. People who identify with their oppressor status often feel that they have a stake in maintaining what they believe is their power. However, many persons Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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are totally unaware that the cost of holding on to such “power” is disconnectedness and alienation from one’s self and others. Another cost is having their own lives constrained and limited by the prescriptions that oppression imposes. (Arnold, 1997, p. 42) An empowerment approach, then, is appropriate for all clients, not just those whom the counselor perceives as being minority-group members. The competencies that underlie an empowerment-based approach to counseling are explicated in the ACA Advocacy Competencies (Lewis et al., 2002): Advocacy-oriented counselors recognize the impact of social, political, economic, and cultural factors on human development. They also help their clients and students understand their own lives in context. This understanding helps to lay the groundwork for effective self-advocacy.… In direct interventions with clients and students, the advocacy-oriented counselor is able to: Identify the strengths and resources that clients/students bring to the counseling process. Identify the social, political, economic, and cultural factors that affect the client/student. Recognize the signs indicating that an individual’s behaviors and concerns reflect responses to systemic or internalized oppression. At an appropriate developmental level, help the individual identify the external barriers that affect his or her development. Train clients and students in self-advocacy skills. Help clients and students develop self-advocacy action plans. Assist clients and students in carrying out self-advocacy action plans. The situation of Jason, a 17-year-old African American high school student provides an example of empowerment-based counseling (Lewis & Elder, 2010). Jason is an all-A student at a predominantly white suburban high school. Jason and his parents chose this school because its reputation for academic excellence seemed appropriate, given his goal of attending a good Ivy League university. He has always seemed well adjusted in the school environment, but has in fact had some problems being assigned to honors and advanced-placement classes. He hasn’t always felt that he fit in, so when a popular, athletic, and academically superior classmate invited him to join a group outside while his girlfriend was in the restroom he was flattered and happy to do so. When it turned out that this group of male students was drinking beer, he joined them even though he had no interest in drinking. When they reentered the school, Jason was singled out by a teacher he didn’t know, accused of showing the effects of alcohol, and referred to the principal for disciplinary action. Jason was worried that he might actually get suspended or expelled and thereby lose all hope of achieving his dreams for college. Fortunately, he was allowed to see Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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his counselor before being disciplined. The purpose of the counseling visit, he was told, was so that the counselor could evaluate his drinking problem. When the counseling appointment began, Jason expressed his anger that he had been singled out for discipline, given that he was the only student of color included in the group and none of the others had been confronted. Some counselors might have insisted that he focus on his own mistakes, but this empowerment-oriented counselor knew how important it was to spend time exploring the possibility that racism had played a part in this crisis. Counselor and client talked about the fact that he had often experienced less-than-respectful treatment from people, whether students or teachers, who did not know him. Those experiences were more subtle, of course, and this situation was potentially disastrous. Once the exploration of the role of race in this situation was explored in an open and respectful way, Jason was ready to begin looking at plans for lessening the damage to his life plan (Lewis & Elder, 2010, p. 165). JASON: My parents being disappointed in me might be the worst thing. I can’t look my mother in the eye. COUNSELOR: So as much as you know that there’s racism involved in this and you’re mad about that, you’re also mad at yourself for being in a position that this teacher could get at you. JASON: I should never have let myself be in that position. Never … I’d been feeling like I’d like to hang out with these other guys. Like maybe I didn’t have to be so super-careful any more. What a joke. I wasn’t brought up to ever think that. At this point, the counselor could help Jason and his parents to develop some plans for self-advocacy. Because the counselor had understood the urgency of exploring the racism underlying this crisis, she was accepted as an advocate and able to play a strong role in helping the family through an all-important conference with the principal. Once the pervasive impact of racism is acknowledged as a force in a Black family’s experience, the family can move on to confront other issues. But if the impact of racism is ignored, it’s unlikely that therapy will go anywhere. (Franklin, 1993, p. 36) Once Jason’s crisis situation was addressed the counselor would also need to look clearly at what actions she would need to take to address what appeared to be a systemic problem in the school as a whole. Ecological Counseling

Conyne and Cook (2004) differentiate between a traditional, person-oriented focus, on the one hand, and an ecological focus on the other. A client’s behavior (or thinking or feelings) seems to be getting him or her into some type of trouble. The obvious solution is to help the client change this problem so that the difficulties ease. The target of the Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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behavior change process is the client; the problem is some aspect of his or her functioning; the goal of counseling is substitution of a more adaptive way of being. The counselor serves as a remediation expert, skilled at identifying the nature of one’s personal dysfunction and helping the client develop alternatives that are more satisfying. This characterization of counseling has widespread support, and for good reason: it has helped countless clients live happier lives. Yet this view is only part of a broader perspective on what constitutes, maintains, and changes human behavior. This broader perspective … has the potential to dramatically increase a counselor’s scope for action—and his or her success with a broad range of client concerns (pp. 3–4). It is noteworthy that Conyne and Cook are respectful in their assessment of person-oriented counseling. They recognize that counseling has always been, and continues to be, a power for good. They also recognize, however, that viewing clients from a broader perspective adds value to the counselor-client interaction and to the effectiveness of the counseling profession as a whole. This attitude is in keeping with the notion of social justice counseling as the “fifth force” in counseling, following chronologically the predominance of the psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, existential-humanistic, and multicultural forces (Ratts, D’Andrea, & Arredondo, 2004). Social justice counseling does not serve as a replacement for what came before, but rather adds a key ingredient that might previously have been overlooked. This new ingredient can give added meaning to the forces that came before. That process certainly describes what took place with the advent of multicultural counseling as the fourth force: now every counselor, regardless of theoretical perspective, is expected to be multiculturally competent. What was once perceived as a theory to be differentiated from others is now recognized as a basic building block of all approaches to counseling. Those approaches are not erased, but they are clearly enhanced. Ecological counseling is “contextualized help-giving that is dependent on the meaning clients derive from their environmental interactions, yielding an improved ecological concordance” (Conyne & Cook, 2004, p. 6). The environmental interactions are many, since each individual is part of an ecosystem that is the “sum total of interacting influences operating in a person’s life, including such diverse factors as biological makeup, interpersonal relationships, the physical environment, and the broader socio-cultural context” (Conyne & Cook, 2004, p. 11). The concept of ecological concordance involves “a mutually beneficial interaction between person and environment” (Conyne & Cook, 2004, p. 24). The counseling process can help clients make changes—whether focused on themselves, their environments, or the person-environment interaction—to enhance ecological concordance. Just as important is the idea that the counselor working from an ecological framework has a number of options in terms of intervention targets, including the following: Counseling an individual client. Carrying out counseling or educational interventions with a primary group, e.g., a counseling group or a family. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Intervening at the level of an associational group, e.g., carrying out organizational consultation. Intervening at an institutional level by carrying out community development, social advocacy, primary prevention, or system change. The ecological counseling model gives further clarity to the case of Jason, which was discussed in the previous section of this chapter. The concept of ecological concordance, for instance, sheds light on Jason’s life in several aspects of his eco-system, including his family, his friendships, and his school. His life had appeared to be going smoothly, with his trajectory toward his life goals solidly in place. The situation he encountered opened up the need—and the opportunity— for counselor and client to look more closely at his ecosystem and the meaning he derived from it. At first glance, Jason’s goals are his own and his parents’ role is one of support. Yet, it would be worth exploring his family niche to get a better sense of the balance between support and pressure. The problems related to ecological concordance in Jason’s relationship to his peers and his school are more obvious. Because his academic life had been going well, even he, himself, thought his school was a comfortable fit for him. Did he hold to an expectation that he could expect nothing more from his school than a first-class diploma and a good college recommendation? Might this current predicament provide him with an opportunity to think more about what kind of environment his school should provide and what kind of personal support he should expect? The ecological model provides guidance for ways in which the counseling experience can help in the search for answers to these questions. Moreover, the model lays the groundwork for the counselor to decide on appropriate intervention targets. In this case, interventions should clearly focus on the individual, the family, and the school. Moreover, because Jason’s experience is far from unique, the counselor might focus on social advocacy and system change at an institutional level.

Feminist Counseling and Therapy

The feminist wave of the 1960s and 1970s brought with it the concept that “the personal is political.” Many women began to realize that problems that they perceived to be their own were, in fact, systemic. They began to perceive that what they thought were personal shortcomings were actually rooted in social/political realities. How else could they explain the coincidence of their shared realities? The means for exploring this concept involved a network of “consciousnessraising” groups through which women’s stories could be expressed—and compared. We are learning that it has to be more than coincidence that almost all of the bright, competent women we know are bogged down by nagging doubts about their own ability to think, work, or live effectively. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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We are learning that we don’t have to see ourselves as nit-picking weirdos doomed to go through life without personal support because we object to being called Mrs. John Jones… We are learning that experiences we thought were unique to our own lives have been shared by women of different ages, localities, and backgrounds—just because they are women… We are learning that we no longer have to accept male-oriented economic values that classify men who work for bread as persons, women who work for bread as semi-persons, and women who work in their homes as nonpersons. We are learning that we do have options and role choices—personal as well as vocational—and that these options and choices can be enhanced through our solidarity and mutual support. (Lewis, 1972, p. 148) The consciousness-raising groups followed an egalitarian model and did not make use of helping professionals as leaders and did not take place in institutional settings. We are going that route because we must, for fear of what would happen to us if we depended on professionals. We are afraid that counselors would try to make us content with being called Mrs. John Jones. We are afraid that counselors might force us to ignore the commonality of our experiences. We are afraid that counselors would “help” us adjust to values that are harmful to our own self-concepts. We are afraid that counselors would actually limit our options. And we know that, even if we found professionals who wanted us to get strong individually, they might never care whether we got strong collectively. (Lewis, 1972, p. 148) These fears were all too often based in reality. “Therapy can easily take the political and make it highly private and personal; a political stance of anger about discrimination can quickly be transformed by a therapist into a ‘dysfunctional cognition’ or a sign of ‘issues with parents’” (Brown, 1994, p. 37). Feminist counseling and therapy grew out of the realization among helping professionals that the status quo in counseling and therapy was too damaging to continue. The impact of cultural norms, social expectations, and political structures in the lives of women was virtually ignored. Therapeutic approaches developed by and based on culturally empowered White men were indiscriminately and systemically misapplied to culturally disempowered women (and other disempowered people). (May, 2001, p. 6) Feminism has always concentrated on gender as a political construct and still does to this day. But the fact that “the personal is political” has obvious implications not just for women but for other oppressed groups as well. Consider again,



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for example, the case of Jason. If his counselor had narrowed the focal point of the counseling process only to his own behaviors, without exploring systemic racism in the school, her intervention would have failed. Many counselors and therapists view the feminist model as appropriate for men as well as women and use it to increase their understanding of all forms of oppression. The feminist movement itself, however, did not progress smoothly in this direction. “It has been the challenge of the modern feminist movement to integrate issues of race, culture, and class into feminist philosophy and feminist therapy practice” (Evans, Kincade, Marbley, & Seem, 2005, p. 273). This conflict has played out not just at a theoretical level but also in the day-to-day experience of women of color, many of whom viewed the feminism of the 1960s and 1970s as being too focused on the needs of white women to be helpful to them. Due to the oppressive, brutal, and violent nature of slavery and racism over the last four centuries, sexism is viewed by many African Americans, both male and female, as a factor of minimal importance. The prevailing sentiment was, and still remains, that the survival of the African American family and community is primary. (Evans et al, 2005, p. 273) The overwhelming presence of racism affects male-female relationships and makes it necessary for counselors—especially family counselors—to understand the reality of multiple oppressions. Women of color share racist oppression with the men in their lives: their fathers, brothers, male relatives, friends, lovers, and sons. Counselors need to be aware of important aspects of the dynamics that influence male-female relationships among people of color, including (a) racial barriers that hinder men of color from performing the provider role and (b) feelings of fear for, and protectiveness toward, men of color that have been inculcated in women of color…. Feminists, for the most part, recognize that all men are not equally powerful in this society given race and class differences. However, many feminist family counselors do not understand the concerns of women of color regarding the safety and protection of the men in their lives. (Arnold, 2001, p. 23). The complexity of relationships that exist in a context of multiple oppressions is illustrated by Carole and Franklin, a couple introduced in Chapter 1 of this book. A mental health counselor in private practice has as a client an African American woman who has experienced mild depression and anxiety since the birth of her second child. When Carole and her husband, Franklin, were married ten years ago they both had active and stimulating corporate careers. Carole’s career has suffered as she has tried to balance child care and work. At the same time, Franklin’s career has flourished and his


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current executive job places high demands on his time. He reminds Carole that he is the first African American to reach this level in his company and reminds her that there are people who opposed his promotion. Franklin has been vehement in insisting that Carole stay home after her current maternity leave has ended, saying that once they have paid for child care her salary has no effect on their family income except to put them in a higher tax bracket. Carole wanted her children and enjoys being a parent, but she is surprised— even disappointed—about the direction her life has taken. A feminist counselor would recognize that the limitations Carole feels in her life are a function of the social/political context that goes far beyond her immediate family. Her husband, Franklin, was not the inventor of the idea that women’s careers are less important than men’s. Not only Franklin but Carole as well have internalized stereotypical and limiting messages about gender that remain ubiquitous even in the 21st century. Not only are women’s careers assumed to be less important than men’s but men’s attention to parenting is viewed as less important than women’s. Carole’s feelings of sadness and frustration are focused inwardly and she has not yet made the connection between her personal situation and the cultural imperatives that have made it what it is. Carole’s counselor would, of course, help this client to explore what she has learned about the nature of family life and the gender roles that men and women are expected to play. The feminist counselor would also be aware, however, of the devastating effects of competing oppressions. One of the reasons Carole hesitates to confront her husband is her recognition that what he says about his own career is true: as an African American man, his job, even at this high executive level, can be in jeopardy. Both Carole and Franklin have work to do as a couple in analyzing the impact of the forms of oppression that are hurting them both. Arnold (2001) suggests that counselors can help their clients best if they recognize the complexity of relationships that are affected by competing oppressions. This process includes “assuming the best about each client and not blaming clients for the double-bind that they find themselves in with intimate partners because of racism and sexism” (p. 24). The womanist movement, as described by Evans et al. (2005), provides a broad conceptualization that helps to move the conversation from a focus on a single example of oppression to a focus on multiple oppressions. Womanists participate in combating racial, gender, heterosexual, and class oppression simultaneously so that they can honor and confront the multiple oppressions faced by woman of color. For womanists, the belief that the “personal is political” is as critical as it is for those who call themselves feminist. The womanist, however, is less focused on uplifting females in isolation or in using gender as its primary focus to combat oppression. Womanists are primarily concerned with uplifting an entire culture and, in doing so, believe that women will be uplifted as well. (p. 274)



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Relational-Cultural Therapy

Relational-cultural therapy represents a model that has become broader and deeper over the years since its creation as self-in-relation. The progress of this model has been much more direct and purposeful than is the case with feminist therapy. This model has always had a home in the Stone Center at Wellesley University, and the scholars associated with the Center published each expansion of the theory through a series of working papers. Early publications ( Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991; Miller, 1976) used the term self-in-relation to introduce the idea that, for women, the self was relational. While women’s development took place in the context of connections and relationships, psychological and developmental theories told a different story, emphasizing autonomy and separation as the ideals toward which people should strive. The contrast between what was true for women and what was expected by a society valuing separation was seen as harmful for women, especially when “therapeutic practices reflect the dominant culture of separation and power over others” ( Jordan & Walker, 2004). The second set of Stone Center papers was published as Women’s Growth in Diversity ( Jordan, 1997). This publication held firm to the centrality of connection but now used the term relational model, continuing to emphasize relations but moving away from the concept of self. Moreover, “Women’s Growth in Diversity … sought to move the model away from the biases of white, middle-class, heterosexual experience, from woman’s voice to women’s voices” (Jordan & Walker, 2004). The Complexity of Connection ( Jordan, Walker, & Hartling, 2004) built on this foundation, underlining culture to the extent that the term relational-cultural therapy now describes with accuracy the work of counselors and therapists who follow the model. Relational-cultural therapy not only emphasizes culture in working directly with clients but also views the counselor-client relationship within the context of a culture—and a psychology—that can harm all of society’s members. As Jordan and Walker (2004) point out, Theories about human development must answer the question: What purpose and whose interests does the theory serve? The history of psychological theory is replete with evidence of complicity with cultural arrangements and power practices that divide people into groups of dominants and subordinates. In therapeutic practice, counselors and therapists work with their clients in accordance with a very different view of healthy human development. Relational-cultural theory (RCT) is built on the premise that, throughout the life span, human beings grow through and toward connection. It holds that we need connections to flourish, even to stay alive, and isolation is a major source of suffering for people, at both a personal and cultural level. ( Jordan, 2010, p. 1) The cultural context within which the individual develops can be positive or negative, depending on the degree to which relationships are encouraged or disrupted. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Theory Application Earlier in this chapter, Exhibit 3.2 (Client Conceptualization) suggested that you identify an individual about whom you were concerned and answer the Client Conceptualization Questions with this individual in mind. Now, think again about the same individual. Choose one of the four counseling models discussed in this chapter. If you were a counselor using this theory, what ideas would you have about how you would work with this client?

RCT practitioners believe in the validation of the client’s experience, including naming the power of contextual factors to create psychological suffering. RCT pays particular attention to the effects of privilege, racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism. This includes acknowledging all the ways that our contexts affect us. ( Jordan, 2010, pp. 57–58) Even a cursory review of the clients whose situations have been reviewed in this book makes the contribution of RCT clear. Consider Jason, who seems on the surface to be well adjusted in his school life. A counselor knowledgeable in RCT would see how isolated he actually is in the school environment and how powerfully racism feeds into that isolation. Carole and Franklin perceive themselves as people who should be pleased with their lives, but each is to some extent alone within the family relationship. Carole feels the lack of connection and suffers from it. Chronic disconnections result from the unresponsiveness of important people in our lives. When we are hurt, misunderstood, or violated in some way, when we attempt to represent our experience to the injuring person and we are not responded to, we learn to suppress our experience and disconnect from both our own feelings and the other person. If, on the other hand, we are able to express our feelings and the other persons respond with care, showing that we have had an effect, then we feel that we are effective in relationship with others, that we matter, that we can participate in creating growth-fostering and healthy relationships. Ultimately we feel anchored in community and we experience relational competence. ( Jordan & Walker, 2004) These healthy experiences require not just mutually empathic relationships with other individuals but a cultural context that supports them. SUMMARY

Direct counseling interventions are an essential component of the community counseling framework, especially if these interventions are characterized by multicultural competency, a strengths-based approach, and a strong focus on context. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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This chapter emphasized assessment and counseling perspectives that adhere to these criteria. The RESPECTFUL framework gives direction to both assessment and counseling by helping to focus the counselor’s attention on multiple factors affecting human development. Assessment processes should be collaborative and strengths-based, helping the client to balance demands and resources. A client conceptualization that helps the counselor move away from a natural inclination to focus on deficits asks counselors to (a) recognize the client’s strengths and resources; (b) consider how the client has been affected by oppression, injustice, or marginalization; (c) identify counseling strategies that can be used to overcome oppression-based barriers to healthy functioning; and (d) cite environmental resources that could be of help to the individual. Counseling theories that are oriented toward social justice were reviewed in this chapter. These theories include empowerment-focused counseling, ecological counseling, feminist counseling, and relational-cultural counseling. EXHIBIT 3.5 Competency-Building Activity

Program Development Consider once again your own hypothetical community counseling program—the one you began designing after Chapter 1. Given what you have read in Chapter 3, you should be ready to address part of the quadrant listing focused strategies for facilitating human development. Given the client population you selected, what ideas do you have about the counseling strategies you would use? What particular aspects of the environment would influence the counseling process?

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CHAPTER 4

Outreach to Distressed and Marginalized Clients

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hen people are forced to contend with environmental stressors that outweigh their personal resources and coping abilities, they need help that is practical, positive, and empowering. Sometimes a person is forced to deal with completely unexpected pressures, whether caused by a personal crisis or by a disaster affecting an entire community. In other situations, people are victimized by the chronic, unceasing stress of oppression and marginalization. Whatever the immediate stressor, an individual might feel pessimistic, distrustful, or even fearful at the thought of seeking out a member of the helping professions. Even when people desire counseling, impediments to immediate access might exist. In the case of a community-wide disaster, for instance, an officebased, single-client model might be impractical and even unmanageable. Often, the potential clients who are most in need of assistance are the ones least likely to receive it. Fortunately, the community counseling model, with its emphasis on outreach, empowerment, and community context, provides a way forward. In a discussion of strategies for dealing with emergency situations, Solomon (2003, p. 12) points out that “although professionals working in the mental health arena are seldom trained or prepared to work at a broader community level, the scale of these emergencies may require abandoning dyadic interventions for 90 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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those that can be implemented via community action using a public health approach.” Community counselors tend to be comfortable with this stance.

ADDRESSING COMMUNITY-WIDE TRAUMA

Recognition that a strength-based, community-focused approach should be used in emergency situations has reached the level of consensus, with this model guiding the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Crisis Counseling and Assistance Training Program (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, nd). Helpers in disaster situations are trained to offer services based on the following general principles (pp. 14–15): Strengths based. Crisis counselors assume natural resilience in individuals and communities, and promote independence rather than dependence … Outreach oriented. Crisis counselors take services into the communities rather than wait for survivors to seek them. More practical than psychological in nature. Crisis counseling is designed to prevent or mitigate adverse repercussions of disasters rather than to treat them … Diagnosis free. Crisis counselors do not classify, label, or diagnose people.… Services are supportive and educational in nature. Conducted in nontraditional settings. Crisis counselors make contact with survivors in their homes and communities, not in clinical or office settings. Culturally competent. Crisis counselors strive to understand and respect the community and the cultures within it … Designed to strengthen existing community support systems. Crisis counselors support, but do not organize or manage, community recovery systems. Provided in ways that promote a consistent program identity. It is especially noteworthy that the concept of multicultural competence is recognized as being central to effective practice. Multicultural Competence

Marsella, Johnson, Watson, and Gryczynski (2008) point out that the effectiveness of disaster mental health workers depends on their ability to demonstrate multicultural competence. Absent that competence, the best of intentions have frequently gone awry. Responses to disasters often failed to consider the variations in the cultural worldviews, values, and lifestyle preferences of disaster victims. Too often, the assistance that is rendered is based upon a preconceived Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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set of assumptions and policies rooted within the Western cultural traditions of the providers, especially ideas about how one must construe a disaster and what is necessary for recovery and rehabilitation from a disaster’s impact. (p. 4) Fortunately, notions of the centrality of culture have found their way into accepted practices for intervening in situations of community-wide trauma. Consider, for instance, the principles for cultural competence disseminated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2003), which include the following: 1. Recognize the importance of culture and respect diversity. 2. Maintain a current profile of the cultural composition of the community. (Listed factors include race and ethnicity, age, gender, religion, refugee and immigrant status, housing status, income and poverty levels, percentage of residents living in rural versus urban areas, unemployment rate, languages and dialects spoken, literacy level, number of schools, and number and types of businesses.) 3. Recruit disaster workers who are representative of the community or service area. 4. Provide ongoing cultural competence training to disaster mental health staff. 5. Ensure that services are accessible, appropriate, and equitable. 6. Recognize the role of help-seeking behaviors, customs and traditions, and natural support networks. 7. Involve as “cultural brokers” community leaders and organizations representing diverse cultural groups. 8. Ensure that services and information are culturally and linguistically competent. 9. Assess and evaluate the program’s level of cultural competence. Culture is a key factor not just in addressing the immediate aftermath of a disaster but also in dealing with the longer-term impact on the community. “While there are obvious variations in cultural factors that should optimally be considered in the acute and emergency phases … many of the cultural determinants of responses to disasters emerge in the subsequent phases involving rehabilitation, rebuilding, and reconstruction” (Marsella et al., 2008, p. 4). Norris and Alegria (2005) suggest that, in the aftermath of disasters, culturally responsive interventions focus on providing accessible services, reducing stigma and mistrust, validating both feelings of distress and help-seeking actions, accepting the fact that interdependence is as valid a goal as independence, and promoting community action. Norris and Alegria also remind mental health service providers to leave a legacy, given the fact that “disasters create opportunities to educate the public, destigmatize mental health problems, and build trust between providers and minority communities” (Norris & Alegria, 2008, p. 29).



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Community Recovery

Community counselors may have a role to play in helping to facilitate the collaborative efforts that make renewal and rejuvenation possible. Consider, for instance, the experience of Greensburg, Kansas, which was almost totally destroyed by a tornado in 2007. Subsequently, “the town has made a remarkable comeback, reinventing itself as a model for sustainable building and green living now recognized around the world” (Greensburggreentown.org, 2010). Although the visible results of Greensburg’s efforts may be the measured in ecologically sound buildings and solar electrical systems, collaborative efforts among community members made progress possible. As GreenTown executive director Daniel Wallach stated in an interview with Mother Earth News (Phelps, 2009, AugustSeptember), It’s all about community. I talk about that a lot, that there are roots and shoots. The shoots are green building, renewable energy, everything that’s material. But the roots are where all of that started. And that’s about caring, shared visions, shared problem solving. That’s one thing our organization wants to help with, to be sure the community doesn’t lose that shared bond—because once you’re out of crisis mode it’s really easy to slip back into the status quo. When community collaboration is needed, counselors could conceivably be part of the effort to “leave a legacy” after an immediate crisis has ended. Another example of rejuvenation can be seen in a location that is halfway around the world from Greensburg, Kansas: Sri Lanka. The Foundation of Goodness has worked since 1999 to narrow the gap between urban and rural life in Sri Lanka, creating sustainable development programs and addressing the problem of rural poverty (Gunasekera, 2009). The horror of the December 2004 tsunami could have interrupted this progress, but instead “compassion overpowered destruction” (Gunasekera, 2009). On the fifth anniversary of the tsunami, Geuter (2009, December 28) wrote, But out of the destruction that took away all hope, somehow, in our villages hope has been reborn. Though lives will be forever touched by sadness, there is energy of achievement and opportunity amongst the children and youth of the Seenigama region. The work of the Foundation of Goodness, along with the compassion and support of donors worldwide, the hard work of volunteers from many different walks of life, and the enthusiasm and incredible learning capacity of villagers and the Foundation of Goodness team, stands as testimony to successful post-disaster relief management and long-term, sustainable community development. The Foundation includes among its many programs the Rebuilding Lives Psychosocial Support Unit. The counseling sessions offered through this project not only help villagers process the trauma caused by the tsunami but also use a more developmental approach to enhance self-esteem and confidence. Individual


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counseling sessions are complemented by group workshops designed for empowerment and life-skill development. The Foundation also provides programs in several other categories. Programs in the category of livelihoods help villagers move from the illegal industry of coral mining toward more sustainable and rewarding work, including new industries and self-employment opportunities. Health care programs provide medical care and health education services. Programs related to children and education are designed to provide young people with the tools they will need to take advantage of new opportunities. The Environmental Management Programme focuses both on environmental education and on such practical applications as recycling, composting, and individual gardens for consumption. Programs related to sport give young people new opportunities for community involvement and leadership. The force of water, which hit Sri Lanka and South East Asia on 26 December 2004, destroyed much of our previous work and tragically took hundreds of lives, leaving the Seenigama village lying in rubble. But our spirit has not been broken and we are completely committed to rebuild and fulfill all the needs of the village people. We will turn this catastrophic setback into a blessing. (Foundation of Goodness mission statement, nd)

ADDRESSING PERSONAL CRISES

Just as community-wide crises hold the potential for rejuvenation and growth, so do crises that are experienced by individuals. When an individual possesses effective coping skills, strong social support, and a sense of personal power, he or she has the tools that are needed to withstand stress. When an individual lacks these assets, even temporarily, he or she might respond to a crisis by underestimating the options that might be available, becoming depressed, or even contemplating suicide. The community counseling framework includes practical strategies for intervening with clients in crisis and implementing suicide prevention programs. Definition of Crisis

A crisis is a critical phase in a person’s life when his or her normal ways of dealing with the world are suddenly interrupted. A personal crisis may stem from a sudden life-affecting change or from a combination of problems. Distinctions among crises may have to do with the level of severity or the degree to which the situational stressors relate to life transitions that might be expected to occur. If an individual is having difficulty coping with an anticipated life transition, the counselor and client might pursue a strategy of crisis prevention. But if the individual has been victimized by crime or stricken with unexpected illness, the counseling focus would turn the search for new coping mechanisms. Regardless of the cause, the suddenness, or the severity of the situation, people in crisis find they have lost an even keel. They typically need help Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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from others in exploring the immediate problem, finding appropriate resources, and developing a practical plan to deal effectively with the crisis. People in crisis also need personal support and encouragement to cope with their feelings of helplessness and frustration. (Ivey et al., 2002) Although crises represent highly stressful situations, they do not imply pathology. Rather, personal crises can occur at any time to any person who is in a situation that requires problem-solving abilities and other resources he or she has not yet developed or used. Personal crises are usually temporary. They can, however, have long-lasting effects on individuals’ physical health and psychological wellness. The likelihood that long-term negative outcomes will occur largely depends on the way individuals respond to their particular crisis. It is useful, therefore, for counselors to help clients think of a crisis as a process that follows a set of predictable phases. The Phases of Crisis

In the first phase in crisis, a person is confronted with a new or unexpected event that causes anxiety, depression, and/or other types of stress. Second, individuals often find that their usual problem-solving methods do not work. Third, this leads most people to try new ways of dealing with the immediate problem. Finally, individuals either emerge stronger if the new approaches were effective or experience continued and perhaps even greater levels of stress than before if the new approaches were not effective. It is often noted that the Chinese characters that represent the word “crisis” mean both danger and opportunity. The impact of a crisis can carry a degree of danger if the individual does not navigate the shoals of change successfully. On the other hand, however, the opportunity for positive change is also implicit in the situation. In a crisis, then, the timeliness of the intervention is very important. Accordingly, crisis counseling serves mainly to affect the outcome of the crisis positively. This sort of counseling is, of course, temporary; it aims at helping clients (a) regain a sense of control over their lives and (b) develop the resources they need to experience an increased level of wellness after the crisis has passed. Crisis interventions may take place in an agency specifically designed for that purpose, such as domestic violence centers; in an organization with a wider service mandate, such as community mental health centers; or in school counseling programs. Regardless of the setting, crisis counseling adheres to the same principles: 1. It focuses on specific, time-limited treatment goals. Attention is particularly directed to helping clients reduce the level of tension that currently exists in their lives. The time limits associated with crisis counseling can enhance and maintain clients’ motivation to examine new ways of dealing with the crisis and attain specified goals. 2. Crisis interventions involve helping clients clarify and accurately assess their perceptions of the source and the meaning of the stressors. This method of counseling entails an active and directive approach that facilitates clients’ cognitive restructuring of the perceived stressors. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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3. Crisis counseling is designed to help clients develop more effective and adaptive problem-solving mechanisms so that they can return to their precrisis level of functioning. 4. Because crisis intervention is reality oriented, it is specifically designed to help clarify clients’ cognitive perceptions, to confront denial and distortions, and to offer emotional support without providing false reassurances. 5. Whenever possible, and especially when working with people from diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds, crisis intervention strategies usually include members of the client’s existing relationship networks to help determine and implement effective coping strategies. 6. Crisis interventions may serve as a prelude for further counseling and development services in the future. (Ivey et al., 2002) All these principles point to the importance of making crisis counseling practical and realistic. As such, counselors need to focus on the client’s current situation, encouraging the client to identify the salient points of the problem as he or she experiences it. Because the client may have difficulty focusing on the problem and identifying alternative solutions, the counselor should be prepared to use a directive approach, following organized problem-solving procedures to help the client identify relatively permanent sources of support in his or her environment. This process typically includes the following steps: 1. Assess the nature of the crisis: The counselor’s first step in crisis counseling is to learn as much as possible about what precipitated the crisis, what coping mechanisms have been attempted, and what patterns of coping the individual usually follows. Of course, counselors must also assess the seriousness of the situation by asking the question, “Is the individual or family in any immediate danger?” If the answer to this question is yes, mental health practitioners are ethically responsible to take whatever action is necessary to help protect the safety of the client and his or her family. 2. Help the client clarify the immediate problem: As mentioned earlier, clients in crisis usually find it hard to make a realistic assessment of the major issues associated with their crisis. Counselors can help clients frame problems in concrete and realistic terms. 3. Make the problem manageable: Individuals in crisis typically feel overwhelmed by the demands they must face. However, clients can begin to increase their sense of control and personal power over the problem once they have broken it down into manageable parts. As action is taken to resolve aspects of the problem, individuals can begin to regain equilibrium and a sense of personal power. 4. Identify additional sources of support: As clients prepare to address the crisis, counselors should encourage them to identify sources of social support from family members, friends, and others. In reaching out, clients can gain emotional support and assistance.



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5. Identify personal strengths: In a crisis, individuals can lose sight of their own positive attributes. Helping them identify personal resources can increase a sense of their personal assets and self-responsibility. 6. Explore feelings: Normally, a crisis stirs up deep emotions. Clients can deal with these feelings most effectively if they can identify and express them. 7. Develop a strategy for coping with the situation: The counselor should work to increase the client’s problem-solving abilities. The strategies employed during this phase of crisis counseling resemble those used with clients not in crisis. However, the client in crisis needs concrete direction and more emotional support when trying out new problem-solving strategies. 8. Plan for the prevention of future crises: As clients return to a less stressful level of functioning, counselors can encourage them to take stock of the crisis situation and identify possible ways to prevent problems. If new problemsolving skills are accompanied by attempts to maintain an increased level of personal resources, the crisis can cause the client to grow. Suicide Prevention

The early development of crisis counseling models in the late 1950s and early 1960s paralleled an increased interest in suicide prevention. Contemporary approaches to suicide prevention are based largely on the groundbreaking work of Farberow and Shneidman at the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center (Farberow, 1974; Farberow & Shneidman, 1961). This center developed the concept of the 24-hour telephone crisis line and was the first to train volunteers to provide crisis counseling services by telephone. After workers at the center studied and developed effective methods of telephone counseling, they shared this information widely so that crisis intervention programs could be initiated throughout the nation. The escalating number of suicides and suicide attempts reportedly occurring among people of all ages and backgrounds in the United States at that time was viewed as an urgent national problem, one needing study and active preventive measures. The Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center served as a model not only because it broke ground in developing scientific methods of intervention but also because it consistently generated significant research on the nature of suicidal thinking and behavior. This research began with Farberow and Shneidman’s (1961) discovery and analysis of hundreds of suicide notes. McGee (1974) provided the following comments about the pioneering efforts of these two researchers: However one chooses to tell the story, certain elements must be included, such as the fortuitous discovery by two behavioral scientists of several hundred actual suicide notes filed in the office of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner. This discovery, together with the realization of its scientific worth, led Norman Farberow and Edwin Shneidman to make the first of many explorations into the psychological processes of a person [who takes] his own life. They analyzed the thinking processes and identified the “logic of suicide”; they looked into affective states and uncovered the ambivalence; they dissected Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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the communications and discovered the clues which foretell an act of selfdestruction. Thus, they became convinced that suicide could be prevented. (p. 5) These initial research efforts continued, with Shneidman (1987) developing a detailed postmortem mental history that provided much insight into the thoughts of people who chose suicide as their only option. Shneidman (1987) coined the term “psychological autopsy” when referring to these findings. The highly personalized nature of the information Shneidman gathered in conducting his studies led him to draw the following conclusions: Suicide, I have learned, is not a bizarre or incomprehensible act of selfdestruction. Rather, suicidal people use a particular logic, a style of thinking that brings them to the conclusion that death is the only solution to their problems. This style can be readily seen, and there are steps we can take to stop suicide, if we know where to look. (Shneidman, 1987, p. 56) Shneidman used his research findings to develop a number of guidelines for preventing suicide. For example, he pointed out that because suicidal people usually experience a great deal of unendurable pain in their lives, counselors should work to reduce that feeling of distress as quickly as possible. Sometimes this requires them to include significant others in the suicide prevention strategy. Furthermore, because Shneidman’s (1987) research findings clearly indicate that suicidal people act out of different needs, mental health practitioners must remember to tailor their crisis counseling interventions to each individual. Because suicidal people cannot themselves find alternative solutions, counselors need to point out repeatedly that other options are indeed available. Finally, because many suicidal people hint at their intention, counselors can learn to read some of the warning signs of suicide accurately and intervene in time. Although people of all ages commit suicide, its occurrence among adolescents has dramatically escalated over the past few decades (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000). Drawing a single portrait of the typical teenage suicide victim is nearly impossible. However, some of the conditions most often linked with adolescent suicide include families plagued by divorce; communication barriers between parents and teenagers; dual-career families; drug and alcohol addiction; parental, academic, and peer pressures; rootlessness and family mobility; fear of future jobs and opportunities; and personal relationship problems. (Peach & Reddick, 1991, p. 108) Researchers have noted that some teenagers tend toward suicide more than others. The characteristics associated with such at-risk adolescents include the following: A previous suicide attempt Suicidal gestures (e.g., cutting off one’s hair, self-inflicted cigarette burns, other abuse of self) A tendency to be socially isolated (having no friends or only one friend) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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A record of school failure or truancy A broken home or a broken relationship with a significant other (family member, boy/girlfriend) Talk of suicide, either one’s own or that of others A close friend or relative who was a suicide victim Not living at home Preoccupation with death or dying A recent significant loss or the anniversary of one Sudden disruptive or violent behaviors Being more withdrawn or uncommunicative and isolated from others than usual (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000) Schools are excellent settings for implementing suicide prevention programs. The professional counseling literature suggests that to be effective, school-based suicide prevention programs must be comprehensive and systematic. Using the community counseling framework as a guide, counselors can implement the following microcosm of the community counseling model: Facilitating Human Development: Focused Strategies—provide individual and small-group counseling, as well as educational and referral services, to students identified as at risk for suicide. Facilitating Community Development: Focused Strategies—offer in-service training that helps teachers identify suicide warning signs; develop a written statement that describes specific criteria that administrators, counselors, and teachers can use to assess the lethality of suicidal students; and make suicide prevention materials available to parents Facilitating Human Development: Broad-Based Strategies—develop and distribute suicide prevention materials to students; implement classroombased prevention projects; and conduct schoolwide psychological screening activities to identify at-risk students. Facilitating Community Development: Broad-Based Strategies—work with school administrators and teachers to develop a written formal suicide policy for the school; develop a set of written procedures to address the needs of students identified as at risk for suicide; and consult with people in the greater community who have expertise in suicide prevention counseling.

ADDRESSING DIFFICULT TRANSITIONS

A transition, broadly speaking, is any event or non-event that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles. Transitions include not only obvious life changes (such as high school graduation, job entry, marriage, the birth of one’s first child, and bereavement) but Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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also subtle changes (such as the loss of career aspirations or the nonoccurrence of anticipated events such as an expected job promotion that never comes through). (Goodman, Schlossberg, & Anderson, 2006) Transitions are of course a normal part of everyday life and in no way lead inevitably to crises. Often, however, they do require adaptive skills and behaviors that might not have been used before. Some life transitions are inherently difficult and people going through them can be helped by outreach methods designed to facilitate successful navigation and prevent problems. Counselors can help prevent or mitigate many problems by recognizing potentially stressful situations and reaching out to people when they are most vulnerable. By reaching out, we mean that counselors will leave the office and work directly with clients in their homes, schools, churches, neighborhoods, and workplaces to help them learn new ways of coping with their life stressors. Such programs target individuals and groups that, at particular times, might be more vulnerable to stress than the general population and therefore need more focused programming. Preventive outreach occurs when counselors identify certain situations as particularly stressful and intervene to help healthy individuals develop the resources to cope with them. When prevention is not possible and chronic problems or crises occur, counselors use outreach services to provide support and assistance. Counselors can help clients significantly improve their own wellbeing by assisting them to learn better ways to cope with new or difficult situations. Any situation that makes demands on an individual can cause stress or damage. However, whether a situation will cause stress depends on such factors as one’s view of one’s ability to handle new demands, previous success in dealing with similar situations, the degree to which one feels in control of events, one’s perception of being overloaded or having conflicting needs, and the standards one sets for one’s own performance. In choosing methods to enhance their clients’ positive coping abilities and decrease stress-related dysfunctions, counselors need to consider those factors that mediate the effects of potential crises. Once mental health practitioners become aware of the personal characteristics and situations that favor successful coping, they can intentionally design counseling strategies that foster similar conditions with their clients. Researchers have identified several factors that characterize people who successfully adapt to trying conditions: 1. Successful persons tend to have strong social support systems: The availability of supportive associates serves as a buffer against the effects of stressful situations. These relationships provide both personal validation and practical assistance. For example, when faced with troublesome situations, successful copers reportedly turned to family members, friends, or associates for information, advice, and concrete resources as well as emotional sustenance. 2. Successful copers tend to have a sense of control over the environment: Whether we term this factor “self-efficacy” or “internal locus of control,”



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we know that people who cope effectively do so because they believe their actions can have an effect on the world. Individuals differ in their general belief systems concerning their ability to exert power and control when needed. In addition, the sense of control in a specific situation can be affected by the appraisal of the stressor and the presence or absence of adequate personal and environmental resources. 3. Successful copers have the information and tools needed for effective problem solving: Individuals’ coping success depends, at least in part, on their ability to solve immediate problems and develop appropriate new behaviors. This factor involves both general life competencies and situation-specific knowledge. 4. Successful copers tend to be confident that they can adapt to new situations: Realistic feelings of confidence come from the availability of adequate personal and financial resources and from having coped successfully with similar transitions in the past. One aspect of confidence building, then, is recognizing commonalities between the current situation and prior experiences. For example, although the victim of a job loss may never have been fired in the past, he or she has been successful in obtaining a position. Thus, the planning skills that were used to secure past employment positions may still be valid and useful in the current situation (Ivey, D’Andrea, Ivey, & SimekMorgan, 2002; Sue & Sue, 1999). These factors are interrelated. People’s support systems help them solve problems, increasing both their sense of control and their confidence. Confident people are more likely to have strong social support systems and to apply their problem-solving skills effectively. Recognizing that social support systems help buffer the debilitating effects of environmental stressors, counselors can strive to become “buffer builders,” creating new opportunities for clients to develop the social resources they need to survive and grow during periods of heightened stress. For example, when counselors help clients form peer support groups, they simultaneously help build new social support systems, provide the context for skill development, and help people experience a greater sense of control over their lives. In this way, counselors can help their clients create and maintain buffers against present and future stressors. Buffer-building efforts can assist people dealing with expected transitions, unexpected crises, or ongoing stressors. However, the key to providing this sort of outreach service is the ability to recognize those stressors and situations likely to lead to major personal crises. Model Outreach Programs

Successful helping programs that follow the community counseling framework build on what is known about high-risk situations and the resources that enable people to cope with them. Ideally, outreach programs for vulnerable clients should adhere to the following guidelines:


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1. Use all available sources of client support, including family members, extended family members, peers, co-workers, church affiliates, counselors, and others who can serve as role models for successful coping. 2. Provide opportunities for clients to help themselves and one another. 3. Inform clients about the nature of the new roles or situations they face. 4. Help clients develop the coping skills they will need to manage their specific situations effectively. 5. Use methods that enhance clients’ sense of control over their situations and their lives. 6. Implement services that reflect an accurate understanding of and demonstrate a genuine respect for the cultural integrity and needs of clients. Such actions help clients gain confidence and a greater sense of control as they learn to cope with life’s challenges more effectively. Many programs that serve diverse populations have successfully helped clients face high-risk situations. These programs commonly use various types of outreach services to help empower people in vulnerable populations. The following sections discuss several programs designed to empower people in specific at-risk groups. The diverse populations served by these programs include adults and children dealing with marital disruptions, teenagers making the transition to parenthood, at-risk high school students, and battered women. Here, then, are several models of outreach interventions used to address the needs of vulnerable populations. Keep in mind, however, that counselors who use the community counseling model must adapt such programs to meet the special needs and characteristics of their own clients. Helping Adults Cope with Marital Disruption. Marital separation and divorce are consistently identified as among the most stressful events of an adult’s life. It is no wonder that marital disruptions put people at risk for mental and physical health problems. When a marriage breaks up, family members must cope with radical life changes while their social support systems are severely disrupted. Given the general agreement that marital disruption is a high-risk situation, counselors can intervene preventively by developing programs for people going through this transition. Ideally, such programs should focus on rebuilding support systems and developing newly relevant skills for life planning and problem solving. Bloom, Hodges, and Caldwell (1982) developed one such program. Although this program was developed decades ago, it represents a prototype on which many other marital disruption counseling services and programs have subsequently been based. With this 6-month preventive program, Bloom et al. (1982) focused on recently separated people living in Boulder, Colorado. Using mass media and mailings targeted for appropriate referral sources, the program developers recruited 153 people, 101 of whom were assigned to the intervention program and 52 of whom composed the untreated control group. Participants in the separation and divorce program were offered two types of services: individual Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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assistance from paraprofessional helpers and study groups that addressed issues of special concern to newly separated people. Each participant was assigned to a paraprofessional counselor who was to provide emotional support, intervene in possible crises, and link the individual with other components of the program. Referred to as “program representatives,” these paraprofessionals played an active outreach role, contacting the participants on a regular basis, developing opportunities for social interaction on both a group and an individual basis, making referrals to other parts of the program and to appropriate community agencies, and following up with their clients throughout their participation in the intervention program (Bloom et al., 1982). As mentioned, the program participants were encouraged to take part in regularly scheduled study groups that focused on practical issues commonly faced by recently separated or divorced persons. These groups included the following: Career planning and employment: This study group helped participants find or change jobs, make long-range career plans, and develop marketable skills. Legal and financial issues: Led by an attorney, this group explored ways to establish credit, loan eligibility, child custody and visitation, child support, and the divorce litigation process, among other issues. Child-rearing and single-parenting: In this group, participants could discuss their children’s reactions, visitation issues, behavior problems, and ways to help their children adjust to the separation or divorce. Housing and homemaking: This group, led by a home economist, stressed such issues as finding a new place to live, making home repairs, managing money, purchasing and preparing food, and managing time. Socialization and self-esteem: This group helped participants deal with their loneliness, damaged self-concepts, and feelings of social and personal inadequacy. A formal evaluation of this program indicated that those who participated in the intervention group reported significantly fewer physical and mental health problems than the control group 6 months after their separation or divorce. Members of the intervention group also demonstrated a significant decrease in general psychological problems across time, along with a reduction in psychological distress, maladjustment, and anxiety (Bloom et al., 1982). A separate study was also conducted to determine the long-term impact of the program 2½ years after the participants completed their involvement in the project. The results of this investigation indicated that “the early gains were either maintained or increased over time. These findings suggested that the program achieved its primary prevention objective, i.e., to forestall the psychological fallout that often follows marital dissolution” (Cowen, 1985, p. 36). Helping Children Cope with Family Disruption. Researchers have identified a number of cognitive, affective, behavioral, and psychological problems commonly manifested among children whose parents have divorced (Amato, 1993; Behrman & Quinn, 1994; Carbone, 1994). Recognizing the special needs that Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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children may have during the transition from an intact to a separated family has led counselors to develop several preventive outreach projects. One such intervention is the Divorce Adjustment Project, a “structured twopart primary prevention program intended to enhance pro-social skills and to prevent acting out, the development of a poor self-concept, and academic failure among children of divorced families” (Stolberg & Garrison, 1985, p. 113). Designed for psychologically healthy children who had never before used mental health services, the program offered both school-based Children’s Support Groups (CSGs) and community-based Single Parents’ Support Groups (SPSGs). The CSGs taught cognitive-behavioral skills to and provided emotional support for 7- to 13-year-olds to help them adjust to their parents’ divorces. In this highly structured, 12-session program, the children discussed issues directly related to divorce and received training in skills such as problem solving, controlling anger, communication, and relaxation. The assumption underlying the complementary SPSGs was that the children’s ability to adjust could be enhanced indirectly by improving the parenting skills and postdivorce adjustment of their primary caregivers. This support and skill-building program, also 12 weeks long, assisted divorced mothers who had custody of their children develop new skills and attitudes that would help them meet the challenges of being single persons and parents. Personal development topics incorporated into these study groups included “The Social Me,” “The Working Me,” “The Sexual Me,” and “Controlling My Feelings.” Parenting topics included “Communicating with My Child,” “Disciplining My Child,” and “Communicating with My Former Spouse about Child-Rearing Matters” (Stolberg & Garrison, 1985). This well-researched project evaluated outcomes among four different groups of children: (a) children who participated in the CSG alone, (b) children who participated in the CSG and whose parents took part in the SPSG, (c) children whose only treatment was their parents’ participation in the SPSG, and (d) a control group of children receiving no treatment. The researchers found that the self-concepts and social skills of the children who participated in the CSG alone (Group 1) improved substantially. Further, the children in Group 3 appeared more psychologically adjusted in follow-up studies than the children in the other groups. Thus, the combination of the two interventions did not necessarily bring about the strong improvements expected. A modified version of the CSG was implemented in Pedro-Carroll and Cowen’s (1985) Children of Divorce Intervention Program. While helping youngsters develop new skills that would increase their ability to cope with their parents’ divorces, this intervention also included activities designed to enhance the children’s emotional adjustment and development. These activities included group discussions and role playing, which encouraged the children to explore their emotional responses to their parents’ divorces. In the first three sessions, the children concentrated on getting to know one another, sharing common experiences, and discussing divorce-related anxieties and other feelings. Sessions 4 through 6 focused on problem solving and Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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cognitive-skill building. These group sessions specifically involved teaching the youngsters various methods for resolving interpersonal problems and dealing with negative feelings related to their parents’ divorce. During these sessions, counselors directed particular attention toward helping the children understand that they were not responsible for their parents’ divorce. The counselors also focused on increasing the youngsters’ understanding of the types of problems that were beyond their control and thus not solvable (e.g., parental reconciliation) versus those that lay within their control (e.g., appropriately communicating their feelings to others). Once the children understood the importance of disengaging from their parents’ conflicts, they began to work more diligently on expressing and controlling their anger. In the last session, the children had a chance to evaluate their group experience and discuss their feelings about its ending. The program evaluation indicated that the participants made significantly greater gains in adjustment than did youngsters in a comparable control group. Pedro-Carroll and Cowen (1985) have attributed these gains, in part, to the supportive group context that allowed the children to break through their sense of isolation and talk about their feelings about their parents’ divorce. The researchers also consider the skill-building aspects of the program to be equally important in promoting these positive outcomes. As they point out, However important a supportive environment is in helping children to identify, express, and deal with salient feelings about their parents’ divorce, it may not by itself be enough…. Acquiring specific competencies for dealing with the concrete challenges that parental divorce pose is a co-equal need. Interpersonal problem-solving strategies, including the communication and anger control skills that the program offered, stressed a differentiation between problems that could and could not be solved and, for the latter, stressed ways of disengaging from their parents’ disagreements. Thus, the intervention’s positive effects appear to reflect a combination of its support and skill building components. (p. 609) Programs for Stepfamilies. Effective coping skills are also needed to deal with the new stressors brought about when one or both partners remarry. Stepfamilies—that is, families formed through remarriage—represent a promising, though sparsely researched, area of intervention:

Because remarriage families start with children and yet have had no time to build a history, the family must deal with the tasks required of more mature families while possessing the skills of a family just starting out. Because they lack a common set of experiences, remarriage families typically hold limited or unrealistic expectations that paralyze them into inaction or galvanize them into a reaction against people or events they little understand. (Hayes & Hayes, 1988, pp. 473–474) Such blended families need to clarify and stabilize members’ roles and relationships, replace myths with realistic expectations, develop appropriate limits for Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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children, and acknowledge the impact of children’s allegiances to noncustodial parents. Hayes and Hayes (1988) suggest that counselors can help blended families accomplish these tasks in the following ways: Encouraging family members to identify and relinquish myths they may hold about the remarriage family Helping blended family members understand their new family system, its differences from their past family, and involvement of non–family members in the new system Teaching members more effective communication skills Helping blended family members, especially children, to mourn the loss of previous relationships and encouraging the development of new relationships Providing a forum in which blended family members can work out their relationship differences with new family members and explore their feelings about the absent parent Offering structured programs of parent training and lists of readings that family members can use as self-instructional devices Informing members of the latest research findings and clinical evidence that may be helpful in understanding the blended family reorganization process Identifying the tasks of parenting and the relationships that are necessary to enact those roles Running groups for remarriage parents in the community or for stepchildren in the schools (pp. 474–475) The comprehensiveness of such an approach to working with blended families makes it an appropriate model for preventive outreach. The Family Development Project: Helping Pregnant Adolescents. Each year, nearly 1 million adolescent girls in the United States get pregnant (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000). Researchers have identified a variety of negative outcomes that can follow pregnancy during the high school years. These include forgoing one’s education by dropping out of school prematurely, becoming dependent on government support at a young age, and attempting to deal with one’s own personal and social development while simultaneously trying to meet an infant’s 24-hour needs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001; Hanson, 1992). The community counseling model’s emphasis on outreach and preventive services particularly suits this vulnerable population because it stresses positive prevention, for example, assisting young parents in developing new coping skills. Providing such services implies going beyond a crisis-oriented and restorative intervention orientation and, essentially, focuses on strengthening and adding to the client’s set of skills and competencies. Thus, rather than viewing a teenage pregnancy as a personal deficit or a psychological problem, counselors who use the community counseling model



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interpret this phenomenon as a unique developmental crisis that can result in either negative or positive outcomes (Brodsky, 1999). The following discussion of the Family Development Project (FDP) demonstrates how the communitycounseling framework was used to promote the well-being of a group of pregnant African American adolescents residing in an economically impoverished urban area. Sponsored by the Meharry Community Mental Health Center in Nashville, Tennessee, the FDP was entirely funded by private donations. Using the community counseling model as their guide, the program developers built on several theoretical premises: 1. Adolescents’ interactions with their environment can have either negative or positive effects on their mental health and personal development. 2. A multifaceted approach is more efficient than a single-service approach. 3. Outreach, prevention, and educational services are more appropriate to use in promoting the personal development of teenage mothers than remedial services. 4. When providing counseling services to vulnerable populations, counselors need to be sensitive and responsive to the unique cultural, ethnic, and racial characteristics of the persons in the targeted group. (D’Andrea, 1994, p. 186) The first step in planning the FDP program involved soliciting input and support from several key persons in the schools and community within the targeted service area. With this in mind, the program’s counseling coordinator set up several “community meetings” with key persons in the targeted areas to see whether they perceived a need for a primary prevention program for pregnant youth in their schools and community. The persons who attended these meetings included an obstetrical-gynecological physician, a clinical psychologist, a licensed nurse-midwife, several social workers, three school counselors, four high school teachers, and the FDP counseling coordinator (D’Andrea, 1994). During these community meetings, participants not only indicated the vital need for such a program but also expressed a willingness to plan the FDP. After several meetings, which focused primarily on community assessment and program-planning issues, all agreed that a preventive counseling program would best meet the needs of the pregnant adolescents in the community. As a prevention program, the FDP emphasized the need to support teenagers who, while in the midst of a major life crisis, had not yet manifested any outstanding psychological problems. The program developers also hoped that by providing this at-risk group of youth with opportunities to develop basic parenting skills, the new parents could learn to care for their infants in ways that would enhance their children’s overall health and avert potential problems. While those who attended the program-planning meetings unanimously agreed that the FDP should focus primarily on prevention, they also indicated that many pregnant teenagers experience personal crises during their pregnancy and shortly after the birth of their babies. Thus, the need to incorporate remedial counseling services within the FDP program was clearly acknowledged and supported. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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On the basis of these and other suggestions, a comprehensive program plan developed. This plan included the following components: preventive education, outreach-consultation, individual counseling, and program research and evaluation. Given their limited financial resources, the program planners agreed that they must immediately recruit and train paraprofessionals in the community. To address this need, the FDP coordinator set up meetings with several officials at a local university. This outreach effort aimed at identifying undergraduate students willing to help adolescents in the program. With the university’s permission, the FDP counselors visited undergraduate classes at Tennessee State University to solicit support. As a result, 15 African American women from the departments of education, psychology, and social work volunteered. These students agreed to take part in 32 hours of training (8 hours per week for 4 weeks) during which they covered issues related to early childhood and adolescent development. These training sessions also introduced the volunteers to the community counseling framework and helped them develop basic individual counseling and interviewing skills. Having successfully completed this training, the university students began direct work with the adolescents who were referred to the FDP. The program coordinator provided clinical supervision to these volunteers throughout their involvement in the project (D’Andrea, 1994). The adolescents who participated in the FDP were referred from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Meharry Medical College and the Nashville Metropolitan School System’s Office of Guidance and Counseling. To qualify as a participant in the project, one had to be at or below the federal guidelines for poverty, between 12 and 18 years old, pregnant for the first time, a resident of one of the city’s public subsidized housing communities, and currently enrolled in high school. On entering the program, the teenagers were assigned to one of the paraprofessionals, who were directly responsible for their case management. The paraprofessionals’ duties included setting up individual interviews with the adolescents to assess their personal concerns and needs (e.g., medical, food, housing, and financial), evaluate their educational needs and develop a plan to help them avoid dropping out of school, and identify community resources. By consulting with the other FDP counselors and the program coordinator about the information gathered from those interviews, the paraprofessionals developed an individualized action plan for each participant. These plans included making referrals to local human service agencies, such as Medicaid and the Metropolitan Public Housing Office; consulting with the schools’ counselors and teachers about their clients’ academic progress; and setting up individual counseling sessions to give the adolescents additional opportunities to explore other personal concerns, interests, and goals in a supportive and confidential environment (D’Andrea, 1994). All the adolescents in the FDP project were also encouraged to participate in a series of parenting classes. The classes met every other Thursday evening and lasted 2 hours. Transportation was provided. Because the classes overlapped with most of the participants’ dinner times, a nutritious meal was also provided. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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These classes helped the adolescents understand healthy prenatal care and the birth process as well as examine ways they could promote their infants’ overall health and well-being. Particular attention was given to the types of things the teenagers themselves could do to help cope with the stress of raising a child. Further, these parenting classes offered opportunities for the teenagers to learn about helpful community resources. Finally, the classes provided a source of mutual support; the participants became increasingly comfortable discussing common interests, concerns, frustrations, personal fears, goals, and values with others experiencing similar challenges. As a result, the class meetings evolved into what was later referred to as an “empowerment group,” where new friendships were established and maintained months after the adolescents gave birth. The FDP used an ecological-systems approach to promote the participants’ development (Neville & Mobley, 2001). For example, by participating in the FDP parenting classes, the adolescents became an integral part of a new human system (the class) that provided opportunities to increase their sense of selfesteem and personal power. The direct client services just mentioned were designed to promote these positive developmental outcomes. In addition to these services, the FDP staff sought to strengthen the natural social support networks to which the pregnant teenagers already belonged. To accomplish this objective, the counselors and paraprofessionals used several outreach-consultation services, including visiting the adolescents’ homes and consulting with school personnel. These efforts aimed at fostering environments in which the teenagers would find greater support and respect. The FDP staff made home visits throughout the duration of the project, with the paraprofessionals making at least one home visit per month. However, they often made two and even three visits a month as the adolescents’ parents found how resourceful the paraprofessionals were in supporting their daughters’ needs as well as serving as a sounding board for many of the parents’ own frustrations and concerns. For example, most parents wanted their daughters to graduate from high school. To address this concern, the FDP staff regularly consulted with the adolescents’ teachers and school counselors regarding their academic performance. They often found that the teenagers needed tutorial help to keep up with their teachers’ expectations and academic assignments. This need became particularly apparent when the adolescents’ schooling was temporarily interrupted by their infants’ birth. As such, the FDP counselors and paraprofessionals worked especially hard to maintain the link between the new mothers and their schools by continuing to make regular home visits and having ongoing contact with teachers. These efforts aimed at preventing the adolescents from dropping out of school for an extended period. Program evaluation formed another important component of the FDP. The results of these evaluative efforts indicate that the FDP participants manifested higher positive self-concept scores and a significant increase in the level of social support they experienced during their pregnancies compared with a control group of teenage parents who did not take part in the program (D’Andrea, 1994). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Beyond these formal evaluation efforts, the counselors and paraprofessionals obtained additional data from numerous other sources, including comments made by the participants and their parents, teachers, and school counselors. Reactions to the program consistently reflected strong support for it. The adolescents themselves stated that they had learned a great deal about their infants’ needs and reported acquiring many useful parenting skills. They had also learned many new ways to cope with the multiple stressors associated with the transition to parenthood. The adolescents’ parents consistently expressed appreciation for the types of outreach services that the program offered and the genuine sense of concern extended by the staff. The teachers and school counselors noted that the project provided a host of mental health services that were clearly important for pregnant adolescents but lay beyond the purview of the schools’ resources. These school officials also said that the project’s success was due largely to the high level of commitment manifested by the FDP counselors and paraprofessionals, who had initiated and maintained numerous types of outreach services on behalf of the teenagers. These program evaluation efforts were important for three reasons. First, they provided the program planners with data that allowed an assessment of the FDP’s overall effectiveness. Second, these efforts generated valuable information about the program’s strengths as well as weaknesses. Third, the evaluation results provided documentation of the FDP’s success, which was used to lobby for additional funding from persons in the public and private sectors. The results of these formal and informal evaluations demonstrate that the strategies employed by the FDP staff helped strengthen several variables listed in the numerator of the equation presented earlier in this chapter. As a result of participating in a program that offered a variety of individual, preventive, outreach, and consultative services, members of this vulnerable population reported developing new coping skills, increased self-esteem, greater social support, and a heightened sense of personal power. Promoting the Wellness of Battered Women. Although domestic violence has existed for centuries, communities across the United States have only recently begun to address this problem in any substantial way. In response to the rising number of women who report domestic violence each year, many human service agencies and shelters have been established to address the needs of battered women and their children. Hage (2000) reports that since the 1970s, the battered women’s movement has resulted in the formation of more than 1,500 shelters for victims of domestic violence in the United States. Shelters for battered women and their children fall generally into one of two categories: first-stage or second-stage shelters. In describing the difference between these two categories, Donaghy (1995) explains that “first-stage shelters primarily focus on short-term, immediate care, and second-stage shelters focus on integrating women into society after they have left their batterers” (p. 4). An increasing number of domestic violence shelters incorporate “transitional second-stage” intervention strategies into their



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programs by providing women with opportunities to move toward independent living at their own rate (Roberts, 1996; Sullivan, 1991). Along with the trend to help battered women move toward independent living, interest in the total wellness of this population has recently risen. Adopting a wellness perspective in battered women’s shelters means making a commitment to using multidimensional interventions intentionally designed to increase clients’ coping abilities, social support, self-esteem, and sense of personal power. This approach requires counselors to provide a broad range of direct and indirect client and community services. Donaghy (1995) discusses a model program for victims of domestic violence. This program originated at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. Like the other projects described in this book, it reflects the goals and objectives of the community counseling framework. The program also shows how counselors can use preventive and wellness strategies while also providing remedial and supportive counseling to battered women. In discussing the types of programs available to battered women in the United States, Roberts (1996) notes that, with the exception of occasional support groups, few wellness-oriented programs exist for survivors of domestic battery. Thus, the preventive and wellness counseling strategies that Donaghy (1995) describes represent new ways of thinking about and working to empower the victims of domestic violence. In discussing reasons to use a wellness approach with this population, she notes, An advantage of a wellness program is that many of its components reflect a preventive orientation. Not only can a person’s enhanced wellbeing work to reduce the chance for future incidents, but the empowerment arising from a sense of increased personal well-being can serve to reduce the chance that women will be placed in a position of economic or emotional vulnerability in the first place. (p. 7) A wellness approach to counseling battered women starts with an initial assessment of each client’s needs. By taking the time to assess these needs, counselors can design counseling strategies tailored to their clients’ unique situations. Counselors interested in using a wellness model in battered women’s shelters should conduct a holistic appraisal of their clients’ disposition, which includes the following: 1. Assessing each woman’s history of being battered 2. Identifying each client’s short- and long-term needs and goals 3. Evaluating each battered woman’s overall state of wellness Unstructured intake interviews provide excellent opportunities to gather this sort of evaluative information. Donaghy (1995) recommends two structured assessment tools to complement this evaluation process: the Lifestyle Assessment Questionnaire (LAQ) (Elsenrath, Hettler, & Leafgren, 1988) and the Conflict


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Tactics Scale (CTS) (Herzberger, 1991; Straus, 1989). The results of these instruments provide much useful information that a counselor should share with the client as they work together to develop a plan of action. Program administrators may also find these instruments useful for evaluating the impact of wellness programming on this population. These instruments generate information related to five dimensions of a person’s wellness: physical, emotional, intellectual, occupational/career, and spiritual. The following discussion examines these dimensions in more detail and outlines the types of community counseling services that help victims of domestic violence realize a greater degree of physical health and psychological wellness in their lives. The physical dimension of wellness encompasses many behaviors and factors that directly and indirectly affect a person’s physical health. Nutrition, alcohol and drug misuse, stressors, frequency of physical exercise, sexual activity, body esteem, and average amount of sleep all influence physical wellness. Further, a battered woman’s overall physical wellness is clearly compromised by the threat of being subjected to domestic violence in the future. Both the actual battering and the psychological stress that accompany domestic violence adversely affect the client’s general physical health and body esteem. Interventions to enhance battered women’s physical wellness may include helping them obtain a temporary restraining order to increase their sense of personal safety, offering stress management workshops, securing free passes to the YWCA and other organizations that have exercise facilities, and providing direct counseling services that help clients address issues and plan strategies for improving their body esteem. Emotional wellness involves “the person’s ability to own and express one’s emotions in a healthy manner” (Donaghy, 1995, p. 10). To help nurture this wellness, survivors team up to express a full range of feelings and reactions regarding the violence their spouses have inflicted on them. The important work counselors do with battered women usually occurs during individual and group counseling sessions. When provided with opportunities to examine the emotional dimension of their own wellness, battered women not only gain important insights into themselves and their interpersonal needs but also begin to change the way they relate to people in their environment. Because family members and friends are often surprised and perhaps even confused by these changes, offering indirect client services (e.g., consultations) to them is important. By sharing with family members and close friends the emotional needs and changes battered women normally experience, counselors can help expand the family’s understanding and encourage their continued support. The intellectual dimension of wellness is also a key element. One can easily overlook the importance of battered women’s intellectual development while addressing other, more basic needs. However, the cognitive-intellectual dimension is an important component of wellness. This sort of wellness involves using



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“formal and informal means that enhance an individual’s level of knowledge and enlightenment” (Donaghy, 1995, p. 10). Strategies counselors might use to stimulate growth in this dimension include the following: 1. Working with educational professionals in the community to set up a General Education Degree (GED) program at battered women’s shelters 2. Offering psychoeducational workshops that specifically focus on relationship issues 3. Providing small peer counseling groups where battered women can discuss their concerns and learn from others’ experiences 4. Using bibliotherapy as a way to help survivors understand the dynamics of abusive relationships The occupational/career dimension of wellness refers to a person’s vocational/career experiences and skills, past and present employment satisfaction, and past and current income levels. As Donaghy (1995) emphasizes, Many unskilled, unemployed battered women remain in abusive situations due to economic dependency on their abusers. Another deterrent for many women is that the salary of an unskilled laborer is insufficient to live on with the added expense of child care; therefore, many of them enter the welfare system and remain dependent. (p. 9) Counselors can do much to support occupational wellness by offering vocational/career counseling services and encouraging and assisting survivors to enroll in occupational training programs. Counselors can also recruit volunteers from the greater community to provide instruction in writing resumes and help clients develop employment interview skills. The spiritual dimension of wellness may be the most elusive and least discussed dimension of wellness. In attempting to define the spiritual dimension of wellness, Donaghy (1995) states, Because spirituality carries with it many different connotations, it can be perceived in as many ways as there are individuals. Spirituality can be expressed within the tradition and structure of a church setting, or experienced simply through an engagement with nature, in a moment of quiet contemplation, or while engaging in a simple day-to-day activity such as changing a baby’s diaper. (p. 9) McFadden (1992) adds that spiritual wellness can be experienced within the self, in meaningful and healthy relationships with others, in connections with one’s environment, or with a higher being. During the recovery process, battered women may experience the need to reconnect with their own spirituality. Counselors can help address this need simply by acknowledging the importance


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of the spiritual dimension for a person’s overall well-being. The ethics of community counseling, however, do not allow mental health professionals to impose any religious beliefs on clients. Instead, they can encourage battered women to take time for themselves (perhaps even away from their children and the shelter) to reflect on their own spiritual development. Outreach to Children Who Witness Domestic Violence. The psychological effects on children who witness domestic violence are well documented in the professional literature (Alessi & Hearn, 1998; Carlson, 1996; Hage, 2000). These children have been specifically noted to be at risk for a host of psychological problems that include the manifestation of aggressive behaviors in solving problems, abusive language, a high degree of anxiety, the tendency to somaticize their feelings, and expressing a sense of responsibility for the conflict their parents experience (Alessi & Hearn, 1998). The community counseling model’s emphasis on providing outreach services to persons in vulnerable populations is well suited to address the needs of children who witness domestic violence. In fact, intervention on behalf of children exposed to domestic violence has emerged as one of the newest areas of early intervention and prevention over the past several years (Hage, 2000). Using a model that was initially developed by Wilson, Cameron, Jaffe, and Wolfe (1986), Hage (2000) illustrates how counselors who use the community counseling model can effectively provide outreach services to this at-risk group of children. In describing this intervention strategy, Hage (2000) emphasizes the need for counselors to use preventive, educational, and support services when working to promote the psychological development and personal well-being of children who have been exposed to domestic violence. The intervention strategy that Hage (2000) discusses is a psychoeducational, group-oriented approach designed for children between the ages of 8 and 13 years who have been exposed to familial violence during their childhood. Hage (2000) notes that children who fit this criteria are invited to participate in 10 weekly group sessions that intentionally “focus on learning how to label feelings, how to deal more effectively with anger, and how to keep themselves safe in conflict situations as well as on skills promoting social competence” (Hage, 2000, p. 806). Counselors who use this group model are also encouraged to help children understand the nature of family violence and separate themselves from responsibility for parental violence. Although such counseling strategies offer much potential in meeting the needs of young children in this vulnerable population, little research has been done to assess the impact that these kinds of interventions have in helping youngsters overcome the forceful impact of domestic violence on their longterm psychological development. For this reason, Hage (2000) stresses the ethical need for counselors to evaluate such programs and services, including the use of longitudinal research approaches that utilize both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess the degree to which such interventions are indeed useful in promoting the psychological health of persons in this vulnerable population. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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REACHING OUT TO MARGINALIZED POPULATIONS

People who are marginalized are denied power and access to resources in their communities or societies. Their potential contributions to the community are overlooked and they tend to be stigmatized as incapable of accomplishment. The process of marginalization is so ubiquitous that it can occur on a continuum from the disempowered individual to the oppressed population. Marginalization is at the core of exclusion from fulfilling and full social lives as individual, interpersonal and societal levels.… People who are marginalized have relatively little control over their lives and have few resources available to them; they become stigmatized and are often at the receiving end of negative public attitudes. Their opportunities to make social contributions may be limited.… (Kagan & Burton, 2005, p. 296) When individuals experience a similar kind of stressor for extended periods, they may become just as vulnerable as people who are grappling with personal crises. Counselors commonly work with such marginalized population as poor, homeless, and unemployed people; individuals dealing with acute or chronic health problems; and people victimized by ageism, racism, heterosexism, sexism, and the other forms of oppression. Although these populations differ from one another, they routinely experience a higher level of environmental stress than anyone should be expected to bear. The realities of marginalization and oppression make it clear that the role of community counselors must be to work with their clients within the broadest possible context. “Because oppression likely contributes to marginalized individuals’ vulnerabilities to mental health problems, individualistic interventions must be accompanied by societal and systemic solutions” (Israel, 2006, p. 151). Community counselors can help marginalized clients develop a greater sense of personal power in four fundamental ways: 1. End the self-devaluing and internalized oppression that result from external limitations and labeling. 2. Bring marginalized individuals currently excluded from various aspects of school or community life into the mainstream of social interaction. 3. Facilitate efforts to increase the power of the marginalized group to strive for needed social changes. 4. Increase community responsiveness to the needs and rights of marginalized individuals and groups. It is important to note that, as much as marginalized individuals might benefit from the help of community-oriented counselors, they might be among the most unlikely to seek the services. People are frequently victimized by the very systems and institutions that have been set up to serve them. Impersonal bureaucracies such as Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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welfare and child protective services may intrude in and constrict the lives of individuals through the imposition of dominant cultural values. Health care, educational, and legal systems often play abusive roles in the lives of people who should be able to receive help them from them.… Because of these negative experiences with the human service network, people who are members of oppressed groups may distrust counseling and the counseling process. (Lewis & Arnold, 1998, p. 57) Within this context, the provision of competent help depends on outreach strategies that are practical, empowering, and community-based. Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Latinos/Latinas: The Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción

The United States has a long legacy of racial divide, which continues in the various forms of individual, institutionalized, and cultural racism manifested in communities and campuses across this country ( Jones, 1997). Such racism sometimes results in physical violence. More often, however, people of color experience increased psychological stress from regular exposure to subtler types of discrimination and prejudice (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1998; Locke, 1998; Sue & Sue, 1999). Despite this psychological vulnerability, the U.S. mental health care system has generally failed to address effectively the unique mental health needs of people from diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds (Atkinson et al., 1998; Surgeon General Report, 2001). As a result, marginalized individuals have had to choose between two relatively negative options when they need psychological services: (1) choosing treatment that is not provided in a culturally sensitive or appropriate manner or (2) refusing to work with mental health practitioners at all, even when in obvious need of such services (Sue & Sue, 1999). Fortunately, the number of organizations that serve the unique needs of diverse cultural, ethnic, and/or racial groups has increased. One such model program, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), was designed to support the needs of Latinos and Latinas residing in a major urban setting in the eastern part of the United States. IBA is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1968 to empower a predominantly Latino community called Villa Victoria, located in Boston’s South End. IBA emerged when the Latino community came together in the mid-1960s to fight the city’s proposal to displace most of the people residing in the Villa Victoria area. The community rallied to lobby support for an alternative plan: to create subsidized housing units for low- to moderate-income Latino families who resided in the area. These efforts ultimately led to the building of 857 apartments, which currently house more than 3,000 residents (Merced, 1994). IBA has evolved and changed since its inception in 1986. Today, this community organization is dedicated to three goals: 1. Promoting the psychological, social, and economic well-being of the Villa Victoria residents Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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2. Advocating for Latinos and Latinas citywide 3. Perpetuating the rich Latino cultural and artistic heritage in the greater Boston area (IBA Factsheet, 1994) This community organization uses a proactive, holistic approach that includes a wide range of outreach, educational, and counseling services to promote the psychological and cultural well-being of the residents in Villa Victoria. These services aim primarily to foster the leadership skills of adolescents and adults living in the community, provide support for resident-driven community change projects, and organize other sociocultural awareness programs designed to enhance the empowerment of the families in the area. The following discussion briefly examines some of the services offered by the IBA staff and explains how these services fit into the community counseling model. IBA’s direct-service mission is shaped by the belief that community members are the ideal agents for solving the critical psychological, social, and economic problems occurring in their neighborhoods. This organization’s philosophy stems from three general premises about the health of their community. That is, the overall health of the entire community improves when residents (a) strive to lead health-promoting lifestyles, (b) participate in projects that elevate the community from a devalued to a valued status, and (c) avoid behaviors that put them at risk for physical and/or mental health problems (IBA Factsheet, 1994). To help the Villa Victoria residents achieve these goals, IBA provides leadership training services and peer counseling projects for children, adolescents, and adults living in the community. The emphasis placed on these training opportunities reflects IBA’s strong commitment to preventive education and the value that the organization places on working with local residents to enhance their sense of pride and responsibility for the entire community. In the IBA youth programs, youngsters learn to help their peers see the dangers of leading an unhealthy lifestyle and see ways to cope with various developmental and cultural stressors. Topics covered in these peer counseling programs include the physical and psychological effects of abusing alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; unsafe sex; school desertion; alternatives to violence; and issues related to racism and discrimination. These adolescents frequently work with adults learning how to organize various community projects, including workshops, dances, neighborhood video projects, and other events that send a positive message and encourage healthy choices among their peers (Merced, 1994). In addition to providing leadership training and preventive education services, IBA also offers one-to-one and small-group counseling services, support groups, academic tutoring, crisis intervention services for adolescents and adults, translating for adults, recreational programming, and art classes. These direct client services complement IBA’s community-wide prevention programs by extending assistance and support to those individuals who manifest various personal, educational, and social needs or problems (Merced, 1994). In addition to direct services, IBA also works in the community. Those who try to empower community residents must face many environmental factors Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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counterproductive to their clients’ physical health and psychological well-being. These factors include dealing with various forms of racism and discrimination, poverty, language and cultural barriers, high unemployment rates, and a lack of sensitivity in and responsiveness by many elected city officials regarding these problems. The IBA counselors use several indirect community services to address these negative environmental conditions. In commenting on these services, Merced (1994) notes, IBA politicizes residents, builds coalitions with persons and organizations in other communities, collaborates with human service providers, registers and educates voters, trains residents to be community leaders, supports members of the community in their efforts to become elected representatives on the City Board of Directors, and conducts public demonstrations against or in support of policies which affect the Villa Victoria community. (p. 2) Many of the IBA’s clients have gone through experiences that have left them feeling personally devalued. This is especially true for clients living with the negative social stigma imposed on people with chronic mental health difficulties and/or clients who have been involved in antisocial behaviors such as illegal, violent acts. The devaluation that these people experience in society tends to both undermine their sense of personal power and heighten their sense of powerlessness. Recognizing the negative long-term consequences that these environmental dynamics tend to have on clients’ psychological well-being, the IBA counselors work to help guarantee that they receive the treatment and services to which they are entitled. In attempting to support clients’ rights, the IBA counselors spend much time and energy advocating with other community officials for housing services, entitlement benefits, family services, health care services, appropriate school services, and legal aid for these clients. These types of interventions are important in developing comprehensive, culturally appropriate services for diverse client populations. Gaza Community Mental Health Programme

The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme provides services to a community that is characterized by a high level of stress and a low level of resources. The Gaza Strip—one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with two thirds of the population being refugees and 50% being younger than sixteen years—has witnessed extreme forms of violence and suffering.…This has made the extent of mental health problems in the Gaza reach unprecedented levels. (Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, 2010a, p. 1) Given these pressing needs, the Mental Health Programme strategies include both public awareness campaigns and outreach focused on the most vulnerable groups: children, women, and victims of violence. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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The program’s public awareness efforts attend both to community members’ need for mental health-related information and to the importance of breaking through the cultural barriers to help seeking. “Public meetings, brochures, posters, articles, lectures, workshops, and other tools are being utilized to reduce the ignorance about mental health and erase the stereotype linking it with insanity” (Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, 2010a, p. 2). The program’s direct-service outreach methods are also influenced by the stigma attached to mental health issues. Although mental health clinics do exist as part of the program’s services, a majority of the work takes place in community locations. Home visits work better than asking people to come to the clinic because of the stigma. If you come to the clinic, all of your friends and relatives think you’re sick. Instead, you enter the house, where you’ll find an extended family and a number of children. You bring information about trauma so that adults can take note of symptoms among the children. Then you try to see as many people as possible within the informal setting. It can take a long time—up to as much as three hours. (Celinska, 2009) Programming for Children. The programming for children is almost completely dependent on community outreach, with clinic visits tending to be reserved for the more serious mental health problems. Play therapy is provided by units that are located within the schools. The outreach methods are designed not just to provide direct assistance but also to build a network of helpers who are trained to recognize signs of trauma. In the schools, training is provided for students, teachers, counselors, and parents. A large kindergarten program enlists kindergarten teachers, teaching them how to detect problems and provide help. The trained teachers, with assistance from mental health professionals, then carry out workshops for parents. Additional outreach for children is provided through summer camp projects. Women’s Empowerment Project. The Women’s Empowerment Project addresses the needs of women, particularly those who have been victims of violence. Services are located in several centers in order to reach women who reside in the cities of Gaza or in the refugee camps. The activities offered in each center include the following (Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, 2010b):

Psychotherapy Counseling (social, psychological, legal) Legal rights and awareness Follow-up of cases Court representation Vocational training Training of trainers Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Weekly lectures covering topics raised by participants Educational/awareness lectures Physical fitness Workshops conducted by local professionals covering issues of concern within the community Community meetings conducted by the community development leaders Coordination/liaison by staff with other professional, local/international organizations/institutions Child care Community development leaders work alongside professional staff after receiving training in the areas of human rights, leadership, basic counseling, conflict resolution, communication, and public health issues. As residents of the refugee camps in which they work, they are aware of local issues and problems as they arise, and appropriate methods for their solutions. Developing these key positions within the community ensures that the leaders will reach groups who may otherwise be indifferent or reluctant to intervention. (Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, 2010b) Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Public Health (IBISS)

The distance between the favelas (slums or squatter settlements) of Rio de Janeiro and the rest of Brazilian society is so vast as to virtually define the concept of marginalization. In a Radio Netherlands interview carried out by Beauchemin in 2006, IBISS executive director Nanko Van Buuren described his organization’s efforts in the favelas this way: “We work in the most violent and socially excluded slums,” says van Buuren, “where the government and the police don’t enter. These favelas form a state within a state and are ruled by organized crime.…You have to understand that these slums are really socially excluded: there are no schools, no health posts, nothing.” (Beauchemin, 2006, p. 2) The IBISS teams were initially able to enter a favela because they began by establishing a relationship with an association that represented the people living within its environs. Little by little—one small project after another—they have made progress toward goals that can readily be recognized as ambitious. Van Buuren (2009) describes the healthy environment that should replace the current social exclusion of the favelas in terms of the following list: Access to public services Social and economic inequality minimized Exploitation of child labor eradicated



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Human rights respected Racism and discrimination eliminated Crime and violence reduced The IBISS approach is holistic and involves “building bridges between the socially and economically excluded and the society as a whole” (Van Buuren, 2009). Each project is small-scaled but each plays a role in the forward momentum toward health. Consider, for example, the unique project entitled Soldados Nunca Mais (Soldiers Never More). This program reaches out to the very young men who work as armed “soldiers” on behalf of the drug trade. Many of these youthful “soldiers,” some as young as 10 or 11, would prefer to get out of the drug trade. They believe that they lack other options but, when given an opportunity, they accept it or even seek it out (Soldados trailer video, 2008). The Soldados Nunca Mais project includes the following components (Van Buuren, 2009): Providing alternative experiences that are attractive to the soldiers, e.g., the chance to play soccer or to participate in hip-hop music activities Negotiating with drug bosses to release soldiers who want to leave the drug trade Negotiating with prosecutors Referrals to schools Vocational training, including an IBISS-developed Vocational Training Center Jobs program What does it mean to move from drug-trade soldier to student and employee? What does it take to shift from complete marginalization toward the possibility of playing a role as an accepted member of the larger community? For residents of the Brazilian favela, for children growing up in the refugee camps of Gaza and even for Americans subjected to discrimination, change can take place only when empowering outreach is combined with efforts at systemic change.

SUMMARY

An important part of the community counseling role involves reaching out to people who are contending with environmental stressors that may outweigh their resources and coping skills. Whether the specific event reflects a community-wide disaster or a personal transition, people grappling with overwhelming stress need help that is practical, positive, and empowering. In the case of a traumatic event affecting an entire community, help to individuals should be based on an assumption that people will be resilient if they receive assistance that is accessible, practical, and culturally competent. Once


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the immediate emergency has passed, community-wide efforts also should focus on collaborative efforts at rebuilding. Examples of drawing positive opportunities from calamitous situations include the Greensburg, Kansas, progress toward a sustainable green community and the post-tsunami community development strategies of Sri Lanka’s Foundation of Goodness. Just as disasters can hold the potential for community growth, so can personal crises bring positive growth for individuals. Whether individuals can cope with acute stress may depend on buffers such as their social support systems, sense of self-efficacy, and problem-solving skills. In addition to providing structured and supportive counseling to clients in the midst of crisis, community counselors also identify groups of people, for example adults or children dealing with family disruption or violence, whose life transitions make them vulnerable to developing mental health-related problems. Outreach to these potential clients can help them adapt more effectively to their current situations and prevent future problems. Stressful situations are not limited to sudden emergencies. Many people, because of their membership in oppressed and marginalized groups, are subjected to unrelenting stress that may continue through their lifetimes. Community counselors can play a role in alleviating barriers to development and enhancing positive life experiences through outreach programs. Examples of these programs include Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, for Latinos and Latinas; the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and the Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Public Health, for residents of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. All of these programs have in common a duel strategy of empowering marginalized individuals while seeking systemic change in oppressive environments.


Program Development As you consider the community counseling program you have been developing, you will probably realize how important it is to have outreach programs that meet the needs of your client population. As you make your plans for these human development strategies, take into account the following questions: 1. In what ways might the clients served by your program be considered marginalized? Are there certain sub-groups that might be marginalized even if the same isn’t true for the entire population? What outreach programs might you want to design? 2. Think, too, about the potential for your clients to deal with the stress of immediate crises or transitions. What outreach programs might help?



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Marsella, A. J., Johnson, J. L., Watson, P., & Gryczynski, J. (2008). Essential concepts and foundations. In A. J. Marsella, J. L. Johnson, P. Watson, P., & J. Gryczynski (Eds.), Ethnocultural perspectives on disaster and trauma: Foundations, issues, and applications (pp. 3–14). New York: Springer. McFadden, S. (1992, April). The spiritual dimensions of a “good old age.” Paper presented at the 38th Annual Kirkpatrick Memorial Conference on Mental Health and Aging, Ball State University, Muncie, IN. McGee, T. F. (1974). Crisis intervention in the community. Baltimore: University Park Press. Merced, N. (1994). Description of IBA’s community counseling strategy. Boston: Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción. National Institute of Mental Health. (2000). Suicide facts. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Available: www.nimh.gov/research/suifact.htm. Neville, H. A., & Mobley, M. (2001). Social identities in contexts: An ecological model of multicultural counseling psychology processes. The Counseling Psychologist, 29, 471–486. Norris, F. H., & Alegria, M. (2005). Summary: Mental health care for ethnic minority individuals and communities in the aftermath of disasters and mass violence. Retrieved January 6, 2010, from http://www.diversitypreparedness.org/Topic/ Subtopic/Record-Detail/18/resourceId__17760/. Norris, F. H., & Alegria, M. (2008). Promoting disaster recovery in ethnic-minority individuals. In A. J. Marsella, J. L. Johnson, P. Watson, & J. Gryczynski (Eds.), Ethnocultural perspectives on disaster and trauma: Foundations, issues, and applications (pp. 15–38). New York: Springer. Peach, L., & Reddick, T. L. (1991). Counselors can make a difference in preventing adolescent suicide. School Counselor, 39, 107–110. Pedro-Carroll, J. L., & Cowen, E. L. (1985). The children of divorce intervention program: An investigation of the efficacy of a school-based prevention program. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 603–611. Phelps, M. (2009, August-September). Rebuilding green: Greensburg, KS. Mother Earth News. Retrieved January 6, 2010, from http://www.motherearthnews.com/greenHomes/Rebuilding-Greensburg-Eco-Homes.aspx. Roberts, A. R. (Ed.). (1996). Helping battered women: New perspectives and remedies. New York: Oxford University Press. Shneidman, E. S. (1987, March). At the point of no return. Psychology Today, 54–58. Snyder, C. R. (1995). Conceptualizing, measuring, and nurturing hope. Journal of Counseling and Development, 73(3), 355–360. Solomon, S. D. (2003). Introduction. In B. L. Green, M. J. Friedman, T. V. M. Joop, & S. D. Solomon et al. (Eds.), Trauma interventions in war and peace: Prevention, Practice, and policy (pp. 3–13). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Sprenkle, D. H. (1990). The clinical practice of divorce therapy. In M. R. Textor (Ed.), The divorce and divorce therapy book (pp. 37–91). Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. Stolberg, A. L., & Garrison, K. M. (1985). Evaluating a primary prevention program for children of divorce. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13, 111–124. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (2003). Developing cultural competence in disaster mental health programs: Guiding principles and recommendations 2003.


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Retrieved December 15, 2009, from http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/ allpubs/sma03-3828/default.asp. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (nd). Federal Emergency Management Agency crisis counseling assistance and training program guidance, Version 1.1. Retrieved December 15, 2009, from http://download.ncadi.samhsa.gov/ken/pdf/ cmhs/CCP_Program_Guidance_ver1.1.pdf. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1999). Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley. Sullivan, C. M. (1991). The provision of advocacy services to women leaving abusive partners: An exploratory study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 6, 45–54. Surgeon General Report. (2001). Mental health: Culture, race, and ethnicity. Department of Health and Human Services. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. SWBBrasil (2008). Soldados trailer video. Retrieved January 1, 2010, from http://swbbrasil .blogspot.com/ U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2000). Household and family characteristics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Van Buuren, N. (2009, Dec. 15). Health care plenary keynote. Pathways to Reconciliation Summit, Amman, Jordan. Wilson, S. D., Cameron, S., Jaffe, P. G., & Wolfe, D. (1986). Manual for a group program for children exposed to wife abuse. London, ON: London Family Court Clinic.


CHAPTER 5

Developmental/Preventive Interventions

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his chapter reviews broad-based strategies for facilitating human development and preventing mental health problems that might otherwise occur. Nelson and Prilleltensky (2005) differentiate among universal, selective, and indicated approaches to prevention, stating that “everyone is served in a universal intervention, only those who are ‘at risk’ are served in a selective intervention, and only those who are already showing signs of a problem are served in an indicated intervention” (p. 80). The broad-based interventions described in this chapter can be equated with universal intervention or with what is usually termed primary prevention. The activities encompassed by broad-based strategies are designed to be of use to the general population that a community counselor might serve. They strengthen people’s ability to withstand stressors, thereby enhancing healthy development and preventing the onset of problems.

AN EQUATION FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH

One can use the following equation to conceptualize the delicate balance between people’s resources and their life circumstances in the development of mental health problems: 127 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Coping Skills Self Esteem Social Support Personal Power Stress Powerlessness Organic Factors

This equation represents a modified version of one devised by George Albee and cited by the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) Commission on the Prevention of Mental-Emotional Disabilities (1986, p. 13). We have added two factors, powerlessness and personal power, to Albee’s original equation. In the previous chapters, we have alluded to many parts of this equation, including environmental stressors, coping skills, and social support. However, we have not yet defined what is meant by organic factors, feelings of powerlessness, and personal power, nor have we examined how these variables usually impact one’s mental health and psychological well-being. Organic factors refer to those biological conditions that compromise a person’s mental or physical functioning. Examples include individuals born with congenital defects or natural brain damage. A combination of these conditions and ineffective and inappropriate environmental responses to them produces stress that tends to adversely affect a person’s overall psychological well-being and that frequently nurtures a sense of personal hopelessness and powerlessness. McWhirter (1994) describes powerlessness as a condition in which individuals cannot direct the course of their own lives because of societal conditions and/or power dynamics that place them in devalued positions in society. These power dynamics often hinder many individuals from acquiring the life skills needed to lead satisfying and productive lives. These dynamics also frequently undermine a person’s belief in his or her own ability to develop the personal competencies needed to prevent negative situations. Finally, as used in the equation, personal power refers to two important processes. First, it reflects the belief that one can control one’s life in ways that lead to positive and health-promoting outcomes. Bandura (1982) refers to this aspect of personal power as “self-efficacy.” Second, personal power depends largely on the acquisition of a variety of life skills one can use to negotiate developmental and environmental challenges effectively (Salzman & D’Andrea, 2001). Many environmental factors influence a person’s ability to develop a broad range of life skills and use these skills productively in society. For example, it has been well established that the complex set of variables associated with living in poverty negatively impacts an individual’s ability to realize her or his career/ economic, educational, social, and psychological potential (Langston, 1995; Persell, 1993). The Albee equation makes clear the idea that there are two routes to enhancing the mental health of a client population: (a) taking steps to change the environment so that stress and powerlessness are lessened or (b) improving people’s ability to withstand environmental stress by increasing such factors as coping skills, social support, and personal power. The next section of this book, Facilitating Healthy Community Development, reviews strategies for lessening environmental stressors.This current chapter focuses on educational interventions that are available to the client population as a whole.


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EXHIBIT 5.1 Mental Health Equation Exercise

Is there a person you know, either personally or professionally, who you are worried about? Someone who seems to be dealing with difficulties that he or she cannot seem to overcome? Think about that person—or, if no one comes to mind, choose one of the client examples in Chapter 1. Now, draw a copy of Albee’s equation. Fill in what you think might be some of this individual’s “above-the-line” and “below-the-line” factors. What might be some ways to increase the values of the individual’s positive factors through educational interventions? How might these educational interventions help to prevent further problems?

A RATIONALE FOR PREVENTION

The 21st century has brought with it an increased interest in prevention. It makes sense that individuals want to learn about and implement preventive strategies that positively affect their daily lives. Simply stated, more and more people see it as smarter, more economical, and more fun to avoid developing an addiction to cigarettes than to have lung cancer, to brush their teeth with fluoride than to lose teeth, and to exercise regularly than to develop a stress-related illness. Counselors are well positioned in the educational, employment, and health care systems to initiate preventive programs and services that positively impact their clients’ development. Whether employed in mental health centers, schools, universities, career settings, human service agencies, or other settings, counselors often work with clients who as a group manifest similar difficulties and challenges. This includes people whose psychological problems stem from their inability to effectively manage stress, individuals who lack information about their physical and psychological wellness, and people who have not developed an adequate array of life skills to meet the demands of a highly complex, rapidly changing, 21st-century society. This chapter discusses the limitations of individual counseling and emphasizes the importance of having counselors expand their impact by incorporating preventive education strategies into the work they do. Professionals who counsel clients on a one-to-one basis often spend hours on hours helping them solve problems the clients might have avoided if they had developed certain life skills earlier on. Commenting on the overuse of the traditional counseling paradigm, Conyne (1987) discusses several reasons why the repeated use of individual counseling services does not work: It is a no-win proposition because these remedial services are after-thefact approaches that can do nothing to stem the tide of new cases. It is no-win because the access to traditional clinical services is becoming


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increasingly more difficult and expensive as cost containment and efforts to monopolize the health care industry become commonplace. It has always been a no-win situation for the typically underserved—or nonserved—in our society. Thus, the poor, the unemployed, the culturally different, the homeless, and the untold others who are most in need are least able to get this sort of help. And it is a no-win situation because professional counseling, counseling psychology, and other helping professions are restricting the list of available practitioners in their efforts to protect the consumer (and the provider) through licensing, registries, and the like. (p. 12) Recognition of these limitations has caused many counselors to reassess the overall effectiveness of individual counseling (D’Andrea et al., 2001; Sue & Sue, 1999), not to abandon direct counseling services but to enhance their effectiveness in fostering clients’ development. In this regard, many have noted that professional counselors are particularly well suited to take on the roles of psychological educator and life-skills trainer to foster the mental health and well-being of their clients (Donaghy, 1995; Goldstein, 1992; Robinson & Howard-Hamilton, 2000). The community counseling model strongly supports these alternative roles because they reflect the proactive and preventive values on which the framework is based.

MULTICULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS

Preventive counseling involves helping people develop effective ways of dealing with daily stress. All human beings experience similar needs that, when left unsatisfied, stimulate heightened stress levels. Maslow’s description of the hierarchy of human needs provides a useful framework to conceptualize those needs common to all people. According to Maslow (1970), individuals experience stress when their basic needs (e.g., the need for food) go unsatisfied for an extended time. This is also true when their sense of personal safety and/or self-esteem is threatened over prolonged periods. Clearly, universal stressors exist. Even so, many people of color, for example, experience unique stressors because of the various types of interactions, discrimination, and oppression they experience (D’Andrea, Locke, & Daniels, 1997; McNeilly, 1996). People of color have a long history of oppression, discrimination, and marginalization in the United States. Although much of the current rhetoric in the counseling profession embraces cultural diversity, most practitioners would readily agree that racism and prejudice continue as institutionalized sources of stress for many people (D’Andrea et al., 1997; Hwang, 2000). The rise in racially based violence that has occurred in the United States over the past 10 years is a particularly destructive source of stress (Boland, 1992; D’Andrea & Daniels, 1995; Harvey, 1991). Beyond the threat of physical violence, people of color must also routinely face unique environmental barriers that limit their ability to realize their own occupational (Arbona, 1990; McWhirter, Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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1992), educational (Carter & Wilson, 1993; National Research Council, 1991), and economic (Kozol, 1991) potential. Given the unique stressors that people of color experience in a racist society and the ineffectiveness of many traditional remedial counseling services to meet their needs, preventive counseling interventions present a much more useful and ethical way to promote the psychological wellbeing of persons in culturally diverse populations (D’Andrea et al., 1997; Sue & Sue, 1999). Whether providing preventive or remedial counseling services to people from diverse backgrounds, counselors must become culturally competent service providers in the 21st century. Recognizing the importance of this issue, the community counseling model emphasizes that ethical counseling practice in a pluralistic society requires practitioners to develop the specific competencies outlined by the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) (Arredondo et al., 1996; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). By developing these competencies, counselors can best help people from diverse backgrounds learn ways to prevent problems in their lives. Typically, this involves assisting individuals to expand their repertoire of coping and life skills. Some of the many promising preventive strategies found effective across a broad range of client populations include stress management programs, health promotion projects, life skills training, parenting classes, and programs oriented toward oppression reduction and social justice. Conceptualizations of Stress

Stress is an inevitable part of life. Although people have directed much attention to the debilitating effects of stress, some level of stress is necessary for growth and development to occur. Thus, the community counseling model is not designed to help people live a “stress-free life” but rather to help create opportunities in which individuals team to develop a broad range of stress management skills they can use in different situations throughout their lives. Two fundamental premises underlie this approach to counseling. First, individuals can best realize their own optimal level of personal health and well-being when they learn how to manage their unique life stressors. Second, physical illness and mental health problems can often be avoided by strengthening an individual’s or group’s capacity to handle environmental stressors and life crises effectively (Conyne, 2000; Romano & Hage, 2000). Romano and Hage (2000) state that stress management programs are exceptionally well suited for preventive counseling and educational interventions. Mental health practitioners should, however, have a well-defined understanding of what stress is before attempting to train others to manage their reactions to stressful life events and situations. Ivancevich and Matteson (1980) define stress as “an adaptive response, mediated by individual characteristics and/or psychological processes, that is a consequence of any external action, situation or event that places special physical and/ or psychological demands upon a person” (pp. 8–9). Using this definition as a guide, the following section provides a brief overview of three different theories Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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of stress that are useful for one to keep in mind when planning preventive interventions among a broad range of clients. The Cultural Specificity of Stress Reactions

Many events and interactions can cause stress-related problems and challenge a person’s sense of well-being. However, few experiences are universally stressful. Only those situations an individual views as personally threatening seem stressful to him or her. Stressors often relate to such contextual factors as gender ( Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991), age (Craig, 1992), socioeconomic class (Bassuk, 1993; Knitzer & Aber, 1995), and cultural/ethnic/racial background (Slavin, Rainer, McCreary, & Gowda, 1991). Despite the importance of considering these variables when planning stress management interventions, counselors frequently fail to address one or more of these factors when working with clients (D’Andrea, 1995). Several researchers note that traditional models of psychological stress minimize or completely fail to address the role that one’s cultural, ethnic, and/or racial background plays in determining the presence of and reactions to stressful situations (Ivey et al., 2002; Slavin et al., 1991). Given the rapid cultural diversification of the United States, counselors must expand their understanding of stress from an ethnic/racial perspective. In attempting to extend the monocultural frameworks that have dominated the thinking of most mental health professionals in the past, Slavin et al. (1991) have developed a more expansive, culturally sensitive theoretical framework of stress. By identifying several culturally relevant issues that many people of color routinely experience in their lives, these researchers provide a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of some of the underlying cultural and racial determinants of stress. These investigators identify four specific variables that contribute to an increased level of stress but frequently go unnoticed by white counselors. First, many people in underrepresented groups in the United States experience stress simply because they are identified as members of a “minority group.” For example, African American adolescents may often find themselves to be the only one of their race in a restaurant, store, or classroom; they may have difficulty finding a hairdresser who is skilled in handling their hair; or they may find themselves called upon regularly in classroom discussions to represent their race. (Slavin et al., 1991, p. 158) Second, these researchers refer to the stress that occurs from the discrimination and prejudice that plague people of color. Discriminatory acts may be overt and intentional, such as being taunted with racial slurs or stopped by the police for no apparent reason, or they may be covert, such as being addressed in a patronizing manner by white people (D’Andrea, 1996; Locke, 1998; Ridley, 1995). Third, a disproportionate number of people from nonwhite cultural groups are often overrepresented in the lowest socioeconomic class. Without Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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political or financial clout, these economically disadvantaged persons are more vulnerable to such stressful life events as criminal victimization, eviction, interference by state agencies in family life, not having enough money to eat, and not being able to secure adequate health care. Because these factors are often interrelated, Slavin et al. (1991) report that the occurrence of one of these events tends to catalyze other stressful situations. Fourth, members of some cultural groups experience unique stressors directly related to the customs of their group. For example, a Cambodian American woman may experience heightened stress because of her parents’ expectations of an arranged marriage (Slavin et al., 1991). The community counseling model not only emphasizes the environmentalinteractional dimensions of stress but also recognizes that a person’s interpretation of stressful situations is often culturally determined. Thus, a particular cultural, ethnic, or racial group may find certain events stressful, but others may not interpret them as such. When using the community counseling framework to help clients learn more effective ways of coping with life’s challenges, counselors conceptualize stress from a contextual perspective. In doing so, mental health practitioners will gain a better understanding of how clients’ cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds relate to the unique stressors they experience in their lives. The Universality of Stress Reactions

Whereas one’s cultural background, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and age may affect the types of situations one finds stressful, one’s physiological responses to threatening events are universal. That is, given an event perceived as personally threatening, all people show similar physical reactions. To cope with stressful situations, the human body automatically prepares for vigorous physical activity. This involuntary reaction, or “fight, flight, or freeze” response, occurs regardless of the nature of the stressor. These physical reactions stimulate one to take adaptive action when confronted with a stressful situation. However, when these stress responses build up tension that is not released, they use energy that is not restored. Over time, this can ultimately lead to physical and psychological exhaustion. When this occurs, the stress response is not adaptive and tends to cause problems instead of helping one solve them. The ongoing effects of stress are many. Individuals consistently under stress may find themselves troubled with such physical symptoms as respiratory problems, backaches, chronic high blood pressure, generally low energy levels, and even cardiovascular diseases. Stress also affects psychological health, frequently resulting in depression and anxiety. STRESS MANAGEMENT INTERVENTIONS

Because stress-related difficulties result from a combination of external demands, individual perceptions, cultural factors, and physiological responses, one can reduce them by providing interventions at any of these points. Counselors can help individuals examine the stressors in their lives, study their own responses, Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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and make purposeful choices to manage and reduce the stress they will likely experience. The options for interrupting the stress-response cycle include the following: Taking action against the stressor by altering the environment Altering one’s cognitive responses to the stressor Making lifestyle changes Learning how to modify one’s physiological responses to stress Altering the Environment

People can lower stress by learning to control their environments effectively. As a first step toward this end, counselors can help clients examine those stressors amenable to change. Although they will always experience some stress, individuals can learn to control environmental stressors by developing and implementing problem-solving, time management, and interpersonal skills in their daily lives. Another important mechanism people use to cope with stress involves social support. Having supportive people in one’s life greatly improves one’s ability to withstand stress. These people not only provide a buffer from life stressors but also can encourage and reinforce change. Helping clients develop strategies aimed at expanding their social support networks is especially important in work with people who value collectivism over individualism. Whereas many European Americans extol the latter, those from non-European backgrounds might have learned to favor a collectivistic orientation (Carter, 1991; Sue & Sue, 1999). Thus, strengthening existing support networks and encouraging people to participate in support groups can help culturally diverse clients alter some of the stressful conditions associated with their environments (Parham, White, & Ajamu, 1999). African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos/Latinas, Native Americans, and people from Pacific Island groups often experience stressors directly related to their membership in a minority group in the United States. As we have mentioned earlier, ethnic discrimination and racism continue to represent insidious sources of stress for many. The community counseling model emphasizes the importance of addressing these culturally based stressors from a preventive perspective. This may involve helping expand oppressed clients’ social support by referring them to culturally specific self-help, political, or social action groups that strive to create changes at the community, state, or national level. Clients’ involvement in such groups offers a powerful way to help them become a part of broad-based environmental modification efforts (McWhirter, 1994; Parham et al., 1999). Altering Cognitive Responses to Stress

Besides learning to influence external conditions, people can also learn stress management skills and techniques that give them greater control over the way Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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they react to environmental situations. For example, counselors can teach clients how to reframe the way they think about stressful situations in their lives. Ellis (1993) has written extensively about the types of dysfunctional thinking that lead people to experience self-induced stress. According to Ellis’s Rational Emotive Behavior theory, stress reactions can be self-induced when individuals use faulty thinking to interpret their situations and experiences. Beck and Weishaar (1995) discuss several types of dysfunctional thinking that create stress reactions: All-or-nothing thinking leads people to think in dualistic terms; that is, they view situations and/or people as being either good or bad or right or wrong; they do not consider a middle position. Perfectionistic thinking causes people to believe that anything less than perfect is unacceptable. Overgeneralizations occur when individuals make broad generalizations about other people and/or experiences, with little evidence to back them up. Catastrophizing refers to interpreting events and bodily sensations as much worse than the available information suggests. Self-punishing thinking involves excessive blaming of oneself when events do not happen as one wishes. Each type of faulty thinking produces heightened levels of self-induced stress. Thus, counseling aims at helping clients restructure the way they have learned to think about themselves, others, and events in their lives. In doing so, individuals begin to gain a greater sense of internal control over the types of stress they experience. This process is referred to as cognitive restructuring (or rational restructuring) (Ivey et al., 2002; Neimeyer, 1993). The use of cognitive restructuring techniques to help clients alter their mental processes involves five steps: 1. Counselors help clients recognize that cognitions mediate emotional arousal. 2. Clients examine the irrationality of their dysfunctional thinking style. 3. Counselors help their clients understand the ways in which unrealistic cognitions affect clients’ maladaptive emotions and promote stress reactions. 4. Clients explore ways to change their faulty thinking. 5. Counselors support clients as they strive to restructure their thinking; they also help clients evaluate the outcomes of these efforts. Lifestyle Changes

Another major component of stress management relates to a person’s ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Whereas providing clients information about the dangers of smoking, using drugs and alcohol, eating poorly, and refraining from exercising may not be new for many counselors, identifying the relationship between living a healthy lifestyle and managing stress may be (Romano, 1992). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Psychoeducational and life skills training interventions are excellent strategies for reaching more people in at-risk populations who will benefit from learning how to manage stress effectively. When providing these services, counselors must help clients understand that unhealthy lifestyle behaviors represent faulty attempts to manage stress, such as using alcohol to reduce social anxiety (Romano, 1992). Psychoeducational interventions that encourage people to develop a broad range of health-promoting, stress management behaviors work particularly well in school, business, and community agency settings. Some examples of the types of psychoeducational interventions that help clients learn to alter their lifestyles constructively include smoking cessation programs; classes that focus on weight reduction and healthy nutrition; parental training; assertiveness training; conflict resolution classes; comprehensive health courses in the elementary, middle, and secondary schools; and classes designed to promote problem-solving and decision-making skills. Altering Physiological Responses to Stress

One cannot always control environmental factors or one’s cognitive responses. Counselors, however, can help individuals learn to intervene at the physiological level of the stress response. Through such techniques as biofeedback training, relaxation training, mental imagery, self-hypnosis, and meditation, people can constructively deal with stressors and thus avoid the long-term negative effects stress could have on their physical health and psychological well-being. Biofeedback training teaches individuals ways to control their physiological functioning when they experience stress. By using instruments that provide immediate feedback about certain physiological functions less involuntary than scientists once thought, clients can learn to bring stress-related physical symptoms under control and achieve an increased state of calm at will (Heil & Henschen, 1998; Wolpe, 1990). Similarly, relaxation training can help people gain control over the physical tension that occurs from acute or chronic stress. Counselors can use a variety of relaxation training techniques in helping clients of all ages to alter their physiological reactions to stress (Forman, 1993; Taylor, 1998). Mental imagery involves teaching people to relax by picturing scenes they associate with comfort and ease or through related techniques, such as muscle relaxation. In this method, clients alternately tense and relax each of their major muscle groups as they picture this movement in their minds. After clients learn to distinguish between tensed and relaxed states, they can consciously trigger physical relaxation during stressful situations by focusing on muscle groups (Forman, 1993; Gould & Damarjian, 1998). Intentionally striving to achieve a relaxed state is the first step in self-hypnosis. However, this technique differs from relaxation training in that in self-hypnosis, individuals imagine that what is being suggested is actually happening: Doing hypnosis successfully requires the subject to shift into a literally extraordinary frame of mind. While ordinarily we direct our mental processes toward coping with the outer world as we reconstruct or



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define it within our self-interactions, in hypnosis you shift your attention away from the objective universe, to focus instead upon the imaginary universe you construct internally. In doing so, you literally forget about the “real world” and concentrate upon the ever-shifting inner reality you are creating for yourself as you think, feel, and imagine along with the suggestions. (Straus, 1982, p. 51) The suggestions used in self-hypnosis training can relate to changing behavior, modifying attitudes and perceptions, or learning to manage specific environmental stressors. Some important self-suggestions are those for absolute calmness and total relaxation. These kinds of deep-relaxation suggestions, which are typically given sub-vocally to oneself while alone, with eyes closed, are especially helpful for relieving stress and tension and for alleviating psychosomatic ailments (Barber, 1982, p. v). Another effective tool for relieving stress and tension involves the use of meditation. The meditative experience produces a level of consciousness best described as a state of inner calmness and clarity, which is both self-empowering and pleasurable. One can meditate in many ways, including the popularized breath meditation, transcendental meditation techniques, and other, more sophisticated approaches ( Jaffe & Scott, 1984; Wallace, D’Andrea, & Daniels, 2001). Breath meditation is an easy way for clients to gain control over stressrelated physiological reactions. This technique requires approximately 10 to 20 minutes per day and involves four basic steps. First, clients must locate a quiet, safe place where they will be free from interruptions. Second, after finding a comfortable sitting position, they must close their eyes and consciously shift their attention from the outside world to their own breathing. Their concentration should specifically focus on the air going into their lungs and out again. While directing their attention this way, they continue to concentrate on their breathing patterns for the first few minutes. If their minds begin to wander, they should gently refocus attention on their breathing. Third, after taking a few minutes to focus on their breathing, individuals then begin silently to count, “One,” as they inhale through their nose and mouth. As they begin to exhale, they say, “And.” At the next inhalation, they continue their count—“Two”—and as they exhale silently say, “And.” When they have counted to four, they begin the count over again, following this procedure in a focused and relaxed manner for about 10 to 15 minutes or as long as they feel comfortable doing so. Finally, they slowly open their eyes and sit still for about a minute to reflect on their own inner feelings. It is important to remind clients (particularly those new to meditation) that distracting thoughts usually occur when one initially begins practicing these sorts of exercises. So that they do not get frustrated with these normal distractions, individuals need the counselor’s encouragement to accept them when they do occur and to let them go as they turn their attention back to their breathing (Wallace et al., 2001). These and other meditation techniques are derived largely from Eastern religious groups and traditions. As a result, they may prove particularly comfortable


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for people with Asian backgrounds. The increased popularity that various forms of meditation have received in the United States over the past several decades gives counselors additional resources to help others learn new ways of altering their physiological reactions to stress. THE STRESS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

Providing stress management workshops in school, business, and community settings is a practical way of fostering this important life skill among people of different ages and backgrounds. Stress management workshops generally use a preventive education format designed to provide a safe and mutually supportive environment in which clients can develop new insights and skills to cope with stress. Although one clearly needs to tailor these workshops to meet the participants’ unique developmental and cultural needs, most share the following characteristics: 1. Identifying stressors: Stress management begins with accurately recognizing the stressors that occur in one’s life. To promote self-awareness and build mutual support within stress management groups, the workshop leader can divide participants into small groups and ask them to generate lists of typical work, school, or social stressors. After sharing their lists of stressors in the small groups, the workshop participants discuss commonalities and potential solutions to the problems presented by the group members. 2. Cognitive restructuring: The workshop leader can deepen participants’ selfawareness by inviting them to look for patterns in how they deal with stressful situations. To accomplish this, the leader asks participants to list recent events that made them anxious. By analyzing these situations and their reactions to them, clients can discover what kinds of events they tend to perceive as threatening and stressful. A short lecture and discussion can then help them consider alternative ways to deal with stress in their lives. 3. Stress reduction: The workshop leader usually provides an overview of the universal physiological reactions people have to stress. Once participants know more about the body’s physical fight-or-flight response to stress, they are better positioned to learn new ways of coping with their particular life stressors. By focusing on ways to relieve anxiety, such as enhancing their own ability to relax, workshop participants receive the opportunity to explore the methods that work best for them. 4. Identifying successful strategies: This exercise requires participants to talk about ways they have successfully dealt with specific stressors in their own lives. As they discuss these strategies, participants often notice that the commonly used stress reduction tactics run the gamut from environmental problem solving through changes in one’s thoughts to physical relaxation methods. Because this exercise invites participants to talk about their successes rather than their problems, it provides an encouraging counterpoint to the workshop’s early focus on their stressors and problems. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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5. Making stress management plans: Creating personalized stress management plans can enhance the long-term benefits of the stress management workshop. Counselors encourage each participant to select several stress-related situations and generate immediate strategies for dealing with them. A follow-up session helps monitor and reinforce clients’ successes in managing stress.

HEALTH PROMOTION/WELLNESS PROGRAMS

Many contemporary health problems are preventable. To prevent health problems, however, clients often need assistance in developing new attitudes and behaviors that enhance wellness. The importance of using preventive educational interventions seems clear if only because vast expenditures on traditional remedial health care services have not reduced the occurrence of preventable health problems that millions of people experience in the United States each year. A century ago, infectious diseases were the leading cause of death in this country. During the 20th century, however, health patterns changed. Because of scientific advancements, diseases such as tuberculosis, measles, poliomyelitis, influenza, and pneumonia are no longer the killers they once were. Although these diseases have mostly subsided, other threats to people’s health and wellbeing have greatly increased. This includes a rise in the number of people whose health is seriously compromised by conditions linked to their lifestyle. Such conditions include lung cancer, major cardiovascular disease, drug and alcohol abuse, and motorcycle and drug-related automobile accidents (Lewis et al., 1993; Romano & Hage, 2000). Even those infectious diseases currently on the rise in the general population, such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), correlate highly with lifestyle variables. Today, many early deaths can be avoided or at least mitigated by changes in the way one lives (Conyne, 2000; Witmer & Sweeney, 1992). Cardiovascular disease alone accounts for half the annual mortalities among Americans. Cancer and accidents are also major causes of death in the United States. Often preventable, these problems do not respond well to traditional medical interventions (Lewis et al., 1993; Romano & Hage, 2000). Experts have noted how individuals can both improve the state of their health and reduce the costs of medical care during their life span (Zimpfer, 1992). These health-promoting behaviors include eliminating cigarettes and misuse of alcohol, minimizing excess calories and fats, exercising moderately each day, undergoing periodic screening for the early detection of major disorders such as high blood pressure and certain cancers, adhering to traffic laws, and using seat belts (Lewis et al., 1993). In the community counseling model, counselors foster these types of behaviors by developing programs designed to promote the well-being of targeted populations. When developed in schools, community agencies, hospitals, or business settings, health promotion programs affect large numbers of people. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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More important than a program’s setting, a holistic approach to the enhancement of wellness requires two fundamental considerations. First, one must consider the physiological, environmental, psychological, and cultural factors that affect a client’s health and well-being. Second, at its core, the holistic approach involves encouraging clients to take personal responsibility for their own health. Thus, a key element in this preventive approach is the individual’s willingness and ability to take greater control of his or her wellness. Wellness refers to a holistic way of thinking about one’s overall well-being. Witmer and Sweeney (1992) claim, The concept of wellness is inextricably connected with several major themes related to wholeness in mind, body, spirit, and community. As individuals and families strive to meet their daily responsibilities in work, friendships, and love relationships, there is a need to maintain a perspective not only on what is adequate health and what is normal but also what is necessary and desirable for optimum health and functioning. (p. 140) Health promotion programs designed to promote “optimal functioning” direct counselors to foster a greater understanding of wellness, to help clients discover their power to prevent illness through personal initiative, and to encourage clients to take responsibility for meeting their own health needs. In these ways, counselors can help clients acquire a sense of personal power that enhances what Kobasa (1979) has referred to as “psychological hardiness.” Many have cited psychological hardiness as one of the most important factors in helping people avoid chronic illness (Lichtenberg, Johnson, & Arachtingi, 1992; Romano & Hage, 2000). Kobasa (1979) has also pointed out that, among people facing comparable degrees of stress, the factors distinguishing those who remained healthy from those who became ill included a vigorous attitude toward the world, a strong self-commitment, a sense of meaning in life, and an internal locus of control. Other researchers have added to Kobasa’s list by pointing out that people who had faith in themselves, believed that they could control events through their own behavior, and experienced a sense of mutual support within the context of a meaningful community manifested a psychological hardiness that protected them against psychological stress and illness (Albee, 2000; Lewis et al., 1993). These observations suggest that health-promotion programs should be designed to accomplish three central purposes: Helping people adapt to immediate health concerns so that longer term effects on mental and physical health can be prevented. Helping people develop attitudes that foster an orientation toward personal wellness. Helping people learn how to implement behaviors associated with optimal levels of health and well-being.



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Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program

The Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program (SCCIP) (Kazak et al., 2004; Surviving cancer competently intervention program, 2008) provides a good example of helping people adapt to health problems so that long-term, negative effects can be avoided. SCCIP is an intensive, one-day intervention that addresses the needs of teenage cancer survivors and their parents and siblings. The program is designed “to promote individual and family coping, competence, and resilience” (Surviving cancer competently intervention program, 2008, p. 1). Structured sessions are conducted with groups of families. Four sequential group sessions are conducted on a Saturday or Sunday with six to eight participating families. The two morning sessions emphasize the use of cognitive-behavioral skills to reduce persisting distress around the cancer experience. These sessions are conducted separately for teenage survivors, mothers, fathers, and teenage siblings. Session 3, the first session of the afternoon, starts with separate group conversations with survivors, mothers, fathers, and siblings about the cancer experience and concludes with the sharing of these discussions with the whole group. The final session asks the families to identify what they have learned about the impact of cancer on different family members and how this knowledge can help place the cancer experience into a historical context that allows them to move on with their lives individually and as a family unit. (p. 1) This program, which is identified by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as an evidence-based program, has implications across all of the central purposes of health and wellness programs, helping participants to adapt to immediate health concerns in the interest of preventing long-term effects and focusing on both cognitive and behavioral competencies. Team Awareness

The Team Awareness program also focuses on a health problem: in this case substance abuse prevention. Unlike many substance abuse prevention programs, which tend to be designed for youth, this one reaches adults in their work settings. Moreover, the program emphasizes not just individual attitudes and behaviors but also the workplace as an environment that affects all employees. The training focuses on six components: the importance of substance abuse prevention; team ownership of policy (embracing policy as a useful tool for enhancing safety and well-being for the whole workgroup); stress, including stressors, individual coping styles, and other methods for coping; tolerance and how it can become a risk factor for groups; the importance of appropriate help-seeking and help-giving behavior; and access to resources for preventive counseling or treatment…. Training is highly interactive and includes group discussions, Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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videos, role-playing, quizzes, games, communication exercises, and optional homework assignments. (Team awareness, 2007, p. 1) This workplace-oriented program helps to illustrate the fact that, even when developmental/preventive interventions are designed as direct services for participants, the interaction between person and environment always remains a key factor. Wellness Outreach at Work

The workplace may well provide an ideal setting for reaching adults who can benefit from wellness-oriented educational interventions. When the Wellness Outreach at Work (2008) program is offered in a workplace, employees have access to health screening with follow-up. The program also provides developmental/preventive education. Within the context of personalized, one-on-one coaching for cardiovascular health improvement and cancer risk, wellness coaches provide employees with education and counseling on alcohol use, tobacco use, weight control, and health management. Employees attend one to four 20-minute individual sessions per year thereafter. Computerized records allow employees to track their own health status and to access tools and information that can help them sustain their progress. Individual employees’ health information is confidential, but profiles of changing risk factors for the workforce as a whole are made available periodically to employees and to management. The program includes long-term support for employees, both directly and through the corporate environment (e.g., alcoholfree public functions, peer encouragement of health promotion). (Wellness outreach at work, 2008, p. 1) This program, like Team Awareness, makes good use of the workplace setting by influencing the work environment as well as the workers. Botvin Life Skills Training Health & Wellness Program

Botvin’s Life Skills Training programs, which are recognized as evidence-based practices, have long been offered in school settings (Botvin, 2009). His Life Skills Training Health & Wellness Program uses similar practices but focuses on wellness interventions for adults in the workplace. The program empowers employees to successfully balance their work and personal lives by developing skills in seven essential areas: goal setting, problem-solving, stress and anger management, effective communication and conflict resolution, time and financial management, healthy behavior, and workplace safety. Participants learn behavioral, social and cognitive coping strategies while building key skills for work and life. (Botvin life skills training, nd, p. 1)



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This skill set prepares individuals with the skills that are needed for healthy development and work effectiveness. At the same time, the program also provides tools for preventing personal health problems such as substance abuse and health-related stress. PARENTING AND FAMILY-FOCUSED PROGRAMS

The wellness and health promotion programs described in the previous section make clear that the health of an individual is closely connected with his or her immediate setting. The evidence-based programs that have been discussed are all designed to influence both personal behaviors and environmental factors, with each program attending to either a workplace or a family context. The context of family life is a key factor in facilitating healthy development and preventing new problems from arising. Parenting programs, of course, have obvious impact on child development, but they also affect the stability of life for all family members. Parenting programs and a variety of other family-focused preventive strategies play important roles in healthy human development. Individual wellness requires relational wellness (Prilleltensky, Dokecki, Frieden, & Wang, 2007). Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP)

The Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program is usually offered to groups of three to eight couples but can also be adapted for use with still larger groups. The goal of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) is to modify or enhance those dimensions of couples’ relationships that research and theory have linked to effective marital functioning, such as communication, problem-solving skills, and protecting positive connections and expectations. Using techniques of cognitivebehavioral marital therapy and communication-oriented marital enhancement programs, PREP aims to help couples maintain high levels of functioning and prevent marital problems from developing. (Prevention and relationship enhancement program, 2006, p. 1) Among the topics addressed through group interactions and homework assignments are the following: Communication Conflict management Commitment Friendship Sensuality Problem-solving Emotional supportiveness Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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The effectiveness of this program has been implemented with various populations, including at-risk couples (Halford, Sanders, & Behrens, 2001) and in diverse settings including, for instance, marriage education programs in military settings (Stanley, Allen, Markman, & Saiz et al., 2005) and in religious organizations (Markman, Whitton, Kline, & Thompson et al., 2004). Strengthening Families Program

The Strengthening Families Program is designed to increase family resiliency and to prevent problems such as substance abuse (DeMarsh & Kumpfer, 1986). The program includes an interesting combination of skill-training courses: (a) parenting skills sessions, (b) children’s life skills sessions, and (c) family life skills training sessions. The Parenting Skills sessions are designed to help parents learn to increase desired behaviors in children by using attention and rewards, clear communication, effective discipline, substance use education, problem solving, and limit setting. The Children’s Life Skills sessions are designed to help children learn effective communication, understand their feelings, improve social and problem-solving skills, resist peer pressure, understand the consequences of substance use, and comply with parental rules. In the Family Life Skills sessions, families engage in structured family activities, practice therapeutic child play, conduct family meetings, learn communication skills, practice effective discipline, reinforce positive behaviors in each other, and plan family activities together. (Strengthening Families Program, 2007, p. 1) Once families have participated in the initial skill training sessions, they have opportunities to take part in continuing family support groups and booster sessions. Parenting Programs

A number of evidence-based programs focus very specifically on parenting. Active Parenting Now, for instance, applies Adlerian theory and “teaches parents how to raise a child by using encouragement, building the child’s self-esteem, and creating a relationship with the child based upon active listening, honest communication and problem solving” (Active Parenting Now, 2008, p. 1). Parenting Wisely is a preventive program that was designed to help parents communicate effectively with children and youth who might otherwise be at risk for developing problems with substance abuse, delinquency, or school dropout. Based on social learning, cognitive-behavioral, and family systems theories, the programs aim to increase parental communication and disciplinary skills. The original Parenting Wisely program, American Teens, is designed for parents whose preteens and teens are at risk for or are exhibiting behavior problems such as substance abuse, delinquency, and Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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school dropout. Parents use this self-instructional program on an agency’s personal computer or laptop, either on site or at home, using the CD-ROM or online format. During each of nine sessions, users view a video enactment of a typical family struggle and then choose from a list of solutions representing different levels of effectiveness, each of which is portrayed and critiqued through interactive questions and answers. Each session ends with a quiz. All nine sessions can be completed in 2 to 3 hours. Parents also receive workbooks containing program content and exercises to promote skill building and practice. (Parenting Wisely, 2008, p. 1) Additional Parenting Wisely programs have been developed for other groups, including parents of young children. Parenting Through Change also focuses on the skills of effective parenting, helping parents learn such practices as setting limits, solving problems, maintaining positive involvement in their children’s lives, and using positive reinforcement rather than coercion. In this program, the focus is placed on skill development for recently separated single mothers (Parenting Through Change, 2006, p. 1). These family and parenting programs represent developmental/preventive interventions that strengthen families and improve children’s chances for healthy growth toward adulthood. At the heart of these programs one can always recognize the key role played by life skills training. Parenting is an important life skill, but it is only one of many.

LIFE SKILLS TRAINING: PROMOTING PERSONAL COMPETENCE

Everyone faces myriad challenges, conflicts, confusion, and difficult choices in life. How people react to these challenges affects their physical health and psychological well-being. In attempting to navigate the various environmental demands and stressors they encounter at different points in their development, people rely on many life skills. Life skills refer to those competencies that enhance one’s ability to realize a personally satisfying and productive life in the face of challenging and stressful times. Though acquiring a broad range of such skills does not guarantee personal success and satisfaction, an absence of these skills clearly makes it more likely that individuals will experience unhealthy levels of psychological stress over which they have little control (Danish, Nellen, & Owens, 1998). The idea that helping professionals have a role to play in the area of life skills training is not new. In fact, the importance of teaching desirable behaviors that promote psychological health was supported by many in the American educational establishment during the early part of the 20th century. The Character Education Movement in the 1920s represents one of the first organized efforts


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to help youngsters systematically acquire such important life competencies as effective decision-making and problem-solving skills within the public school system (Goldstein, 1992). The Character Education Movement foreshadowed other life skills projects, including the moral education and values clarification programs implemented in public schools during the 1970s and 1980s (Kirschenbaum, 1975; Kohlberg & Turiel, 1971). These programs were specifically designed to help students develop the cognitive reasoning abilities necessary to make responsible decisions. Several other innovative life skills training projects also found a tremendous degree of popularity during the 1970s. Often referred to as “psychological skills training” (Goldstein, 1992) or “deliberate psychological education” (Mosher & Sprinthall, 1971), these programs gained a strong foothold in counseling and psychology at a time when the public had begun to seriously doubt the effectiveness of many traditional counseling and psychotherapeutic interventions. Various life skills training programs currently operate in public schools, community colleges, universities, mental health agencies, hospitals, and businesses across the United States. Further, hundreds of thousands of people purchase self-help books to learn how to realize their human potential, develop healthy lifestyles, acquire effective interpersonal skills, and become proficient decision makers and life planners. Given the increasing demands of a rapidly changing, complex, technological society and the broad-based interest in life skills training among the general public, counselors should understand this popular and important area of work. Effectiveness of Life Skills Training Programs

Empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of life skills training programs, especially those designed to promote clients’ social and problem-solving abilities, has steadily increased. Researchers have noted that the emphasis on the prevention and the development of personal competencies—the core of most life skills training programs—has substantially enhanced the successful adjustment and personal satisfaction of people of diverse backgrounds and ages (Albee, Bond, & Monsey, 1992; Albee & Ryn-Finn, 1993; Bond & Compas, 1989; Commission on Prevention of Mental/Emotional Disorders, 1987; Salzman & D’Andrea, 2001). Bloom (1984) asserts that an individual’s level of personal competence, particularly in social situations, can moderate many of the negative effects of stressful life events. From his own research, Bloom concludes, Much human misery appears to be the result of a lack of competence— that is, a lack of control over one’s life, a lack of effective coping strategies, and the lowered self-esteem that accompanies these deficiencies. This opinion is emerging out of an analysis of a substantial body of research from a variety of domains that appears to converge on competence building as one of the most persuasive preventive strategies for dealing with individual and social issues in many communities. (p. 270)



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Thus, even without knowing the unique biological, social, or psychological source of a particular problem, one may be able to prevent that problem, along with others, by strengthening the coping skills and general competency of people who have not yet developed dysfunctions. Preventive intervention strategies found to be effective include stress management (Baker, 2001; Romano, 1992), health promotion (Gebhardt & Crump, 1990; Winett, 1995), parenting (D’Andrea, 1994), prejudice reduction (Ponterotto & Pedersen, 1993; Salzman & D’Andrea, 2001), and school-based (Baker, 1996; McCarthy & Mejia, 2001) and community-based (Danish et al., 1998; Goldstein, 1992; Wilson & Owens, 2001) life skills training. Promoting Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies

The life skills training perspective is primarily preventive in theory and practice. Interventions designed to promote life skills view individuals less as clients than as students who would benefit from opportunities to foster various intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies. Intrapersonal competencies refer to those attitudes and skills that allow individuals to negotiate their social environments in constructive, responsible, and assertive ways (Kieffer, 1984; McWhirter, 1994). This includes but is not limited to developing a positive sense of self-esteem (Bowman, 1992), self-efficacy (Bandura, 1982), and self-management skills ( Jaffe & Scott, 1984; Wallace et al., 2001). The intra personal dimension of life skills training also involves acquiring a broad range of decision-making skills and coping strategies that one can use in stressful situations. Interpersonal competencies, on the other hand, include skills that increase one’s ability to communicate effectively with others. To do so, individuals must learn to converse with others in ways that reflect an understanding of one’s own perspective as well as respect for that of any other person with whom one interacts (Salzman & D’Andrea, 2001; Selman, 1980). McWhirter (1994) points to interventions designed to help individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds develop the types of interpersonal skills that “facilitate an individual’s efforts toward greater self-direction, an increased sense of personal competency and mastery, and greater effectiveness in communicating, relating to, and working with others” (p. 51). These interventions include school-based leadership training for culturally diverse student populations (Fertman & Long, 1990); school-based conflict resolution, mediation training, and violence prevention among youngsters from multiracial backgrounds (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1996; Larson, 1994); public speaking classes for culturally diverse adult clients (Powell & Collier, 1990; Wallace et al., 2001); and assertiveness training for Asian Americans (Sue & Sue, 1999). Although many psychological and life skills training models have appeared over the past several decades, the developmental approach (Gazda, 1984; Ivey, 1993) is particularly consistent with the community counseling framework.


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Gazda’s Life Skills Training Model

A training model designed by Gazda and others (Danish et al., 1998; Gazda, 1984; Gazda, Childers, & Brooks, 1987), which they call “Life Skills Training,” successfully applies developmental theory to the task of building personal competence. This model emphasizes four basic skills: (a) interpersonal communication and human relations, (b) problem solving and decision making, (c) physical fitness and health maintenance, and (d) identity development. Assumptions. Gazda and his colleagues have identified more than 300 life skills, categorizing them according to their age appropriateness and the area of human development to which they relate. Here is a summary of the basic assumptions that underlie their Life Skills Training model:

1. Across the seven dimensions of human development—psychosocial, physicalsexual, vocational/career, cognitive, ego, moral, and affective—there are stages through which all people must progress to lead effective lives. Some of these are age related; some are not. 2. Satisfactory progression through each stage depends on the successful accomplishment of developmental tasks specific to each. 3. Accomplishment of these developmental tasks depends on the mastery of life skills appropriate to a given stage and task. 4. Each person encounters many agents (parents, siblings, teachers, peers, social institutions, and so on) through which she or he may learn life skills. 5. There are certain age ranges during which particular life skills can be most easily teamed. 6. Though individuals inherit their capacity for learning, the degree to which they can achieve their maximum potential depends on their environment and life experiences. 7. Individuals achieve optimal functioning when they fully acquire fundamental life skills. 8. Neuroses and functional psychoses result from a failure to develop life skills. Persons experiencing such dysfunctions usually suffer from multiple life skills deficits. 9. Life skills can be taught most effectively through small groups, provided that members are developmentally ready. Therefore, the most satisfactory means of ensuring positive mental health and of remediating psychological dysfunction is through direct teaching/training in life skills, especially if two or more life skills deficits are addressed concurrently (Gazda, 1984, p. 93). Four Steps. In accordance with these general principles, Gazda’s Life Skills Training program fosters various competencies by analyzing the coping behaviors appropriate to the tasks of a given age or stage across the seven dimensions of human development mentioned in the first assumption. Gazda and his colleagues use small-group settings to teach life skills appropriate to the needs and strengths Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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of the individual participants. The same approach applies to both prevention and remediation work. Regardless of the degree of dysfunction among the trainees, the goal of the training is the same: to escort the participants through a series of group sessions that help them move from being trainees through gaining competencies to becoming trainers themselves. Here are four steps that make up this training format: STEP 1. Training in generic life skills: 1. Tell: The trainers explain the purpose of teaching the generic life skill to be taught. 2. Show: The trainers model the behaviors or response(s) to be mastered. 3. Do: The trainees practice the skills in the group setting. 4. Transfer: The trainees receive homework assignments and try to apply the new skill(s) in their daily life. 5. Feedback: The trainers and trainees assess the progress the students have made toward achieving the skills. STEP 2: The trainees are encouraged to help other students develop those life skills they themselves have successfully learned during the group training sessions’ peer bonding. This involves co-training with a “master” trainer (usually a staff member or trainee who has “graduated” from Step 4). STEP 3: Training other trainees under the supervision of a “master” trainer. STEP 4: Conduct group training sessions alone (Gazda, 1984, p. 95). The Prepare Curriculum: Goldstein’s Problem-Solving Program

Another example of a systematic approach to life skills training is the Prepare Curriculum (PC) (Goldstein, 1992). The PC is based on more than 20 years of research on the effectiveness of interventions designed to promote the psychological competencies and prosocial behaviors of children and adolescents (Spivack & Levine, 1973; Spivack & Shure, 1974; Salzman & D’Andrea, 2001; Straink, 1981). Although originally designed to teach an array of prosocial skills to youngsters who manifested interpersonal deficits, the PC provides a useful preventive framework as well. The PC comprises 10 courses in which youngsters participate in structured learning activities designed to foster their cognitive, interpersonal, and moral development. These courses include training in the following areas: problem solving, interpersonal relations, situational perception, anger control, moral reasoning, stress management, empathy, cooperative learning and behaving, and understanding and participating in groups (Goldstein, 1992). These courses aim at building skills that will do the following: 1. Help youngsters develop realistic ways to achieve personal and interpersonal goals and acquire a better understanding of their self-concepts, emotions, and conflicts, as well as their wishes and goals 2. Help them learn more effective ways to elicit the help and cooperation that will enable them to meet their personal and career goals Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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3. Help youngsters learn ways to become more personally appealing to others who are important to them 4. Help them understand others’ self-concepts, emotions, conflicts, problems, desires, and goals 5. Help youth to more effectively help others by learning to offer suggestions for constructive change appropriately 6. Help youngsters understand and resolve problems between themselves and others in a constructive and enduring way—a way that takes all realities, including emotional ones, into account and that comes closest to satisfying all parties 7. Increase participants’ ability to enrich their relationships with people important to them in love, work, and play—that is, enable them to discover more ways to increase the enjoyment and productivity they experience in such relationships 8. Help participants increase their ability to generalize and transfer these skills to their daily life and to maintain them over time 9. Help participants increase their ability to teach significant others the skills necessary to accomplish these nine goals (Goldstein, 1992, pp. 8–9). The PC framework assumes that effective living depends on an individual’s ability to give understanding, to empathize with others, and to generate their empathy in return. In short, this training model teaches youngsters how to respond more effectively to others. To accomplish this, cognitive and behavioral instruction are systematically combined to help foster the following: 1. Expressive skills to promote self-understanding and the ability to communicate this understanding effectively to others 2. Empathic skills to help youngsters see the world as others see it, emotionally identify the feelings of others, and show respect and compassion to others 3. Mode switching to help them learn to use expressive and empathic skills appropriately 4. Interpersonal conflict and problem resolution skills to foster tolerance, understanding, and respect for human diversity 5. Facilitation abilities to help youngsters learn to elicit reactions from others that enrich their relationship with them as well as contribute to their own personal growth 6. Generalization and maintenance to encourage the youngsters to make the newly learned behaviors integral parts of their lives Although traditional counseling and therapy can nurture many of these attitudes and behaviors, Goldstein (1992) emphasizes the importance of basing this sort of training on educational models rather than clinical or medical ones. Consequently, the counselor acts as a trainer by (a) motivating, (b) explaining, (c) demonstrating, (d) modeling/prompting, (e) supervising skill practice within the



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training sessions, (f ) preparing the learner to be successful with homework, (g) assessing homework assignments, (h) preparing the learner to use the skills spontaneously in everyday living, (i) supervising the transfer of skills into everyday living, and ( j) supervising the acquisition of maintenance skills.

BUILDING SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ADVOCACY SKILLS

Prilleltensky et al. (2007, p. 19) say that “wellness cannot flourish in the absence of justice.” The equation that was introduced at the beginning of this chapter supports that viewpoint, showing that powerlessness puts people under severe stress, thus requiring stronger coping mechanisms than people should ever be expected to need. The community counseling model, of course, sees social justice advocacy as part of the counselor’s role. At the same time, the model also recognizes that the clients we serve reap benefits from understanding the impact of oppression and gaining skill in confronting injustice. School-Based Programs

As is the case with life skills programs, the bulk of the work in curriculum development for social justice and advocacy has taken place in school settings. Portman and Portman (2002) suggest that educating students in the knowledge and skills related to social justice serves two related purposes: “prevention of social injustice and promotion of social justice advocacy skills” (p. 17). Teachers for Social Justice (2004) also advocate for the idea that students should learn to “talk back” to the world. Stating that “schools must empower students to be decision-makers in their own lives and to become active participants in our society,” this group of educators recommends that social justice curricula should be Grounded in the lives of students Critical, in the sense that students should learn to pose critical questions about society and connect with real-world problems Multicultural, anti-racist, and pro-justice Participatory and experiential Hopeful, joyful, kind, and visionary Activist, with children coming to see themselves as “truth-tellers and change-makers” Academically rigorous Culturally and linguistically sensitive These principles have a good fit with the kind of educational interventions that are carried out in the context of community counseling programs. Good examples of appropriate and well-thought-out curricula abound. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Empowering Students for Social Justice is a structured group model developed by Portman and Portman (2002) for upper elementary, middle school, and junior high school students. The design calls for eight group sessions. In the first three sessions participants are introduced to the concept of social justice, learn about cultural populations, and explore oppression and prejudice in relation to diverse populations. Sessions 4 and 5 are devoted to increasing awareness of the historical context of social justice issues. With this knowledge in place, students are ready to embark on a social justice advocacy project of their own choosing. The goals of this learning project include the following: (a) to create a sense of empowerment for students that they can make a difference, (b) to instill a sense of altruism for helping others, (c) to create a sense of togetherness and community for students while contributing to the school or community, (d) to promote visible activity for addressing social justice concerns in the school and community, and (e) to encourage a sense of self-responsibility in students for addressing social justice concerns in an appropriate manner. (Portman & Portman, 2002, p. 28) Once debriefing of the social justice project has taken place, students move to examine their emotions, review their new learning, and recognize the personal power they can implement as social justice advocates. Youth action is also at the heart of Take Charge: A Youth Guide to Community Change published by the Constitutional Rights Foundation (2002). The guide takes students through five action steps for addressing a community problem. In carrying out Action Step 1, students get to know their own communities, exploring potential resources and profiling local organizations. With Action Step 2, students begin to identify problems in their community and learn how to use research tools to investigate problems in greater depth. Action Step 3 focuses on analyzing public policies that relate to the community problems that have been identified. With these first tasks having been completed, students are ready to move on to Action Step 4: exploring options for addressing the problem. Finally, Action Step 5 involves planning, implementing, and evaluating the action project. When the project has been carried out, students evaluate their progress, their results, and their own learning. Teachablemoment.org, a project of the metropolitan New York Educators for Social Responsibility, offers a detailed activity designed for grades 4–6. First Thoughts (teachablemoment.org, 2004) explores stereotypes through an experiential, small-group exercise. First, children list their “first thoughts” when think about “teenagers.” The resulting list of characteristics often includes negative ideas. The discussion asks Do some teenagers fit this description? Do all teenagers fit this description? Who can describe a teenager you know who is not like this? Is it fair to say or imply that all teenagers are like this?



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What negative results could come from people having stereotypes of teenagers? The exercise is repeated with the students exploring stereotypes of senior citizens or other groups that are subject to stereotyping and prejudice. Community-Based Programs

According to Bell (2007, p. 2), “the goal of social justice education is to enable people to develop the critical analytical tools necessary to understand oppression and their own socialization within oppressive systems, and to develop a sense of agency and capacity to interrupt and change oppressive patterns and behaviors in themselves and in the institutions and communities of which they are a part.” Clearly, most adults cannot look back at their childhood education and remember many occasions in which they were taught about interrupting or changing oppressive patterns. This is an area of study that is both new to and important for the adults who are served by community counselors. Social Justice Education for adults tends to take one of two alternate approaches: (a) educational interventions that facilitate learning about social justice (and its opposite, oppression) as a ubiquitous situation and (b) educational interventions that focus on one or more of the specific “isms” that oppression brings. Unlearning Oppression (Arnold, 1996; Arnold, 2002) is a workshop that has been conducted hundreds of times by Mary Smith Arnold and her colleagues. Defining oppression as “prejudice plus power,” the leader begins the workshop with an explanation of a set of assumptions about oppression, including the following: Oppression is pervasive; it is everywhere, like the dust. Oppression is not our fault, but it is our responsibility. It’s not our differences but our attitudes about our differences that cause problems. We all have multiple cultural identities; we all stand at times in the shoes of the oppressor and at other times in the shoes of the oppressed. We learned to fear difference and play our part in oppression; we can unlearn it. Unlearning oppression is a lifelong process. Exercises that simulate experiences of oppression give participants opportunities to examine and discuss the strategies that make oppression possible. Participants also explore their own participation in oppression through the “stand-up exercise.” In this exercise, the group leader calls out the names of various groups that can be characterized as oppressed. Participants who feel comfortable doing so stand up when a group with which they identify is called. When participants stand, they are self-identifying as one of many targets of oppression. When seated, they are playing, at least at that moment, the role of oppressor. In the


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ensuing discussion, participants explore their feelings when they are in the shoes of the oppressor or the shoes of the oppressed. They become aware of the ways in which they take part in oppressive processes and see the harm done when members of oppressed groups notice only their own victimization. The workshop ends with discussions of the ways in which people can embark on a path of anti-oppression in their own lives. The importance of “ally relationships” is emphasized. Many social justice training sessions focus on a particular issue, e.g., racism, but may still facilitate understanding of the complexities of oppression and injustice. Single-issue courses, although examining one form of oppression in depth, also notice how different issues intersect in order to help participants understand the many parallels and connections among different forms of oppression. For example, a course may have a single-issue focus on sexism but also examine how women from different social classes, racial groups, religions, abilities, or sexual orientations experience sexism. (Bell & Griffin, 2007, p. 68) Among the many established and published social justice curricula are a Racism and White Privilege Curriculum Design (Bell, Love, & Roberts, 2007), a Sexism Curriculum Design (Botkin, Jones, & Kachwaha, 2007), a Heterosexism Curriculum Design (Griffin, d’Errico, Harro, & Schiff, 2007), and a Transgender Oppression Curriculum Design (Catalano, McCarthy, & Shlasko, 2007).

WORKSHOP DEVELOPMENT

Central components of community counseling include identifying the needs of the community or school in which one works and implementing prevention programs capable of reaching large numbers of people who have not yet manifested dysfunctional behaviors. Preventive education programs can particularly help people of all ages acquire the types of life skills and competencies that will buffer the negative effects of stress and help maintain their physical and mental health. Such programs work best when they are tailored to the unique personal and cultural needs of people in the community or school where counselors work. One can, however, identify several general preventive approaches that hold a great deal of promise for general populations and people in at-risk groups. Some of the most useful intervention strategies for a broad range of client populations include stress management training, health and wellness promotion, parenting and family programs, life skills training, and curricula addressing problems of oppression and social justice. Use Exhibit 5.2 to try your hand at designing a workshop.



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Designing a Workshop Community counselors must frequently develop and implement workshops to foster physical health and psychological wellness, teach life skills, or address problems of oppression and injustice. They can do this most effectively if they plan the workshops step by step. Think of a particular topic and audience you would like to address and develop a workshop plan by following these steps: 1. Consider the specific audience you will be addressing. Direct particular attention to the developmental and cultural characteristics and needs of your audience. 2. State the specific objectives of the workshop. For example, you should ask yourself how the participants will be affected by participating in the workshop. What new skills, attitudes, or knowledge are you trying to instill? 3. Select the kinds of activities you think are most likely to meet your objectives. Consider lectures, discussion groups, case conferences, creative use of computers and other types of media, role playing, simulations, or other preventive education approaches that might meet the developmental and cultural needs of your participants. Which activities would increase the participants’ active involvement and ensure their interest in the workshop? 4. In planning the workshop, be sure to consider the resources likely to be available to you, including your own skills. 5. On the basis of your analysis so far, develop a detailed design for the workshop. 6. Design a general evaluation component that will help you determine whether the workshop’s objectives have been met.

SUMMARY

This chapter reviewed the rational and practical applications of developmental/ preventive interventions designed for the population at large. These broad-based interventions enhance human development and prevent problems, largely through educational methods. Early in this chapter, an equation that illustrated the delicate balance between people’s resources and their life circumstances in the development of mental health problems was introduced. The kinds of interventions described in this chapter are designed to strengthen people’s skills and resources, which can act as protective factors in the face of stressors. The educational approaches discussed in the chapter include training sessions devoted to stress management, parenting and family skills, health and wellness, life skills, and social justice.


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Program Development Continue your work on designing a hypothetical community counseling program. Consider the group of people you have selected as the population to be served by your program. How might you fill in the quadrant that is devoted to broad-based strategies for facilitating human development? What developmental/preventive projects would be likely to fit the needs of your clients?

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CHAPTER 6

Client Advocacy

A

dvocacy services are designed to serve two basic purposes: (a) increasing clients’ sense of personal and power and (b) fostering environmental changes (Lewis & Bradley, 2000). The ACA Advocacy Competencies (Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2002) help to shed light on the fact that these two purposes are complementary. According to the Competencies (see Appendix B), when advocacy-oriented counselors work with individuals or families, they may work with their clients by helping them develop skills for self-advocacy. Counselors may also work on behalf of their clients, standing up for their rights to gain access to the resources or services that they need. Advocacy is integral to the counseling process. When counselors become aware of external factors that act as barriers to an individual’s development, they may choose to respond through advocacy. The client/student advocacy role is especially significant when individuals or vulnerable groups lack access to sorely needed services. (Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2002, p. 1) In order to carry out effectively the role of client advocate the counselor must be able to Negotiate relevant service and education systems on behalf of clients and students. Help clients and students gain access to needed resources. 165 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Identify barriers to the well-being of individuals and vulnerable groups. Develop an initial plan of action for confronting the barriers. Identify potential allies for confronting the barriers. Carry out the plan of action. In this context, the community counselor’s direct services to clients and advocacy services on behalf of clients lead in the direction of empowerment. At their best counselors are engaged in the process of directly assisting clients to mobilize their personal resources so that they can more effectively function in their environments. This direct process of personal empowerment is typically referred to as counseling. … Frequently counselors work indirectly to alter systems or to facilitate change in individuals which will result in enhanced personal functioning on the part of clients…. Advocacy, like counseling and consultation, is an empowerment process. That is, it is concerned with the transfer of personal power to the client. However, unlike counseling, it is usually an indirect method of assisting clients. (Brown, 1988, p. 5) Ideally, the counseling process can lead clients in the direction of selfempowerment. Sometimes, however, clients face barriers that they do not have the power to overcome. When that happens, community counselors can be most helpful by using their own skills and their own stature in the community to speak up on behalf of their clients. BOTH/AND: DECISION POINTS IN THE COUNSELING-ADVOCACY PROCESS

It is helpful to consider counseling and advocacy as part of the same seamless process. As the helping process proceeds, the counselor and client may take note of a series of junctures, or points at which the counselor and the client together decide who has the power to address the issue at hand. The first choice point in the counseling process, as shown in Exhibit 6.1, begins the process of differentiating between issues that can be resolved through counseling and issues that might require client advocacy. Working together, the counselor and the client examine the types of changes the client can make to deal with specific problems and challenges identified during assessment. In considering alternatives to the current situation, the counselor and the client must initially consider whether the client actually has the power to implement the best possible solution. If the issue can be resolved and other challenges met by making personal changes, the client and the counselor work to bring about those changes. But if at this point in the counseling Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

CLIENT ADVOCACY

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EXHIBIT 6.1 The First Counseling-Advocacy Choice Point Clarify the immediate issue or problem to be solved.

Is it possible for the issue or problem to be resolved through change in the individual?

Yes

No

Attempt to bring about change in the individual.

Attempt to bring about change in the environment.

process the individual seems unable to change—if some destructive force in the environment is blocking change—then the two of them try to develop strategies aimed at influencing and changing the environment. Suppose, for example, that a counselor and client have decided the client can change in a way that will solve the immediate problem. Exhibit 6.2 indicates various considerations in following this juncture in the counseling process. In this situation, the next step is to choose interventions that will best facilitate the client’s change. For some clients, continuing one-to-one counseling may suffice; others may need more help. Counselors may try to foster closer ties between such clients and the people in their natural support systems or work directly with them in a group setting. Both direct counseling and consultation with a specialized helper might be used. Additional opportunities for clients to develop other life skills should also be discussed. In this regard, counselors could inform their clients of programmed materials in decision making and encourage their participation in seminars dealing with ways to increase self-motivation or interpersonal effectiveness. Whatever methods are used, the counselor and the client must ultimately evaluate the success of their action plan. If the client has been able to solve the problem, he or she can either end the counseling relationship or go on to deal with another issue or challenge. If the initial problem remains unresolved, both parties must decide whether the client needs additional help or whether they need to change the environment. If they decide to change an external factor, they must ask new questions. Exhibit 6.3 illustrates this juncture. If the client does not have the power to solve the immediate problem, who does? If a change in the attitudes or behavior of another person or group would solve the problem, an appropriate step might be to consult with that person or Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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EXHIBIT 6.2 Choice Points in Individual Change Attempt to bring about change in the individual.

Can individual change be accomplished through interaction between the counselor and the counselee alone?

Yes

Continue counseling process.

Link with other helper.

Link with support system.

No

Seek consultation.

Provide learning materials or information.

Link with selfhelp or counseling group.

Has problem been solved?

Yes

No

End process or continue to next issue.

Attempt further learning or reconsider change in environment.

group. The person who speaks on behalf of the client might be the counselor, the client, or someone else, such as a citizen advocate or a school official. If solving the problem requires a change in the rules or policies of some agency or institution, then a strategy for bringing about that sort of change must be devised. The appropriate person to lead this process might, again, be the counselor, the client, or another person or group. The counselor will most likely take an active role in promoting such a change if the rule or policy in question affects several clients. If the environment changes and the problem is solved, then counseling can end or else continue with other issues and challenges. If the problem is not solved, the counselor and the client can collaborate further about new ways to deal with the environment or consider once more the possibility that the individual must change. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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EXHIBIT 6.3 Choice Points in Environmental Change Attempt to bring about change in the environment.

Solution of the problem is possible through change in:

An individual

A group

Consultation/ advocacy

A rule or policy

Consultation/ advocacy

By counselor

Development of strategy for change

By counselor

By counselor

By other

By counselee

By other

By other

By counselee

By counselee

Has problem been solved?

Yes

No

End process or continue to next issue.

Plan additional strategies or reconsider change in the individual.

At each juncture, both decide what elements and action strategies they will emphasize at that time. When a counselor helps individuals make changes, he or she remains sensitive to the ways in which the clients’ changes might impact their environmental systems. This latter point is particularly important to consider when counselors help clients make changes that others in their environment may notice but not understand. For example, when counseling people whose cultural background encourages humility and discourages direct interpersonal conflict (such as many Asian American and Native American groups), counselors need to discuss with Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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the client how family members might react when they exercise their newly developed assertive skills. When counselors direct attention to environmental changes, they remain aware of the individual’s complex responses. By working with clients to examine ways to change specific aspects of the environment that lead toward positive outcomes, counselors help increase clients’ sense of hope and personal power. One should not, of course, oversimplify the interactive counseling process. At each juncture, the counselor and the client must determine not only what kind of change—individual, environmental, or both—will most effectively solve the problem at hand but also how ready the individual or significant others in the environment are for such changes. Thus, they must ask not only what change is possible but also what change is preferable. Counselors using the community counseling model need not choose between strengthening individuals’ personal resources or confronting environmental conditions; they need not choose between being counselors or agents of environmental change. Rather, the roles constantly interact. Dealing with the environment can and should be an important part of counseling individuals. As clients recognize that more than their own behavior must change, they learn to confront actively the systems that affect their lives. As a result, their attitudes and behavior also change.

THE COUNSELING-ADVOCACY PROCESS: EXAMPLES

The following examples illustrate the need to examine both personal and environmental factors in choosing strategies for change in counseling. Example 1: A Runaway Youth

An adolescent boy runs away from home and finds himself alone in an unfamiliar neighborhood. He turns to the local runaway center, where a counselor asks questions similar to the following: 1. Does your family give you emotional support? Can they give it? 2. What changes in your family might make your home supportive enough for you to consider returning? 3. What changes in your behavior might make the family more supportive of you? Can you make those changes yourself? 4. If the conflicts at home cannot be resolved, what alternative living situations are available? Do you know of a family or a group home where you could be comfortable? 5. What kinds of relationships do you have with relatives outside your immediate family? Are any of them potential sources of support? Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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6. Have you gotten into trouble with the police or been arrested in the past? 7. Can you support yourself ? What work skills do you have? What job opportunities are or might be open to you? 8. Do you or your family need financial aid? What sources of aid might be appropriate? 9. Do you have a group of friends you identify strongly with? How can they help you now? 10. What is your situation at school? Is that where the real conflict or support lies? Are there any people or programs at school that can provide additional support? Can any negative factors be changed at school? 11. Has anyone else tried to help you in the past? Have you two established any kind of relationship? 12. Is child abuse or substance abuse a factor in this situation? If so, what steps have been taken to deal with either issue in the past? These questions seem obvious, but it is surprising how many of them remain unasked in the immediacy of a crisis. The questions reflect a clear recognition that children do not run away in isolation from the context of their lives. They are usually running to or from something. It is more than coincidence that many youth runaway centers that initially concentrated on individual counseling have now developed group counseling programs for parents as well as youths. These group interventions are usually designed to affect the adolescent’s environment by working to build more effective support systems within his or her life. Example 2: A Physically Challenged Adult

A recent accident has left a young, single woman seriously physically challenged. As she prepares to leave the hospital, a counselor on the staff tries to help her answer the following questions: 1. What living situation would best suit you? Can you live alone? Are members of your family available to provide attendant care? Do you need to hire an attendant? 2. What financial assistance is available not only to help you meet your basic needs but also to cover attendants’ salaries or technical necessities? Do you need an advocate to obtain assistance in this regard? 3. What are your career goals? What work can you do? Do you need additional skills? What educational resources are available to you? 4. How are your relationships with family members and friends? Have they been able to offer psychological support throughout the crisis? How have they adjusted to your disability? Are they allowing you to be as independent as possible? 5. How can you maintain social relationships and continue to enjoy recreation? Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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6. Do you need help and information to deal with a potential crisis in your sexuality? 7. Do you have ready access to whatever legal and medical assistance you need? 8. How can you maintain the greatest possible degree of physical mobility and independence? 9. To what degree does the community provide the resources and accessibility you are entitled to? Following traditional approaches, one counselor might help this woman with her vocational goals, another with her physical needs, and still another with her psychological adjustment. Most likely, though, none would address her needs for socializing and recreation. In contrast, the community counseling model emphasizes the importance of seeing this woman as a whole person whose interactions with the total environment constitute her potential support system. The basic questions thus become, “Is her former support system holding up under the pressures of change, or does she need supplemental help to meet all her needs effectively?” “Where can she find additional support, and how can she be helped to make the most of the opportunities that now exist for her?” “To what degree does she need an advocate to maximize these opportunities?” Example 3: A Mature Woman Continuing Her Education

A woman who has worked full time at raising a family and maintaining a household decides to return to school, which had been interrupted by the birth of her first child. Her success, of course, depends on her own motivation, talent, and good fortune, but the environment does make an important difference. Counselors using the community counseling framework would ask the following questions: 1. Does your family support and show enthusiasm about your new endeavor? If not, how can they be helped to understand your situation more fully? 2. Do your friends and associates understand your goals? Are any of them in similar situations, or do their values differ? Are they likely to encourage or to discourage you? 3. Do you know of any other women taking similar steps who might offer support? 4. How does your move affect the family’s immediate finances? Is financial aid available? 5. Does the educational institution meet your special needs by providing such services as day care, flexible scheduling, and career counseling? 6. Are extracurricular activities on campus aimed solely at young, resident students, or do some apply to older students? Can new activities be developed? 7. What steps have been taken to integrate older students into campus life? What kinds of interaction exist between students of different age-groups? Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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8. Who is handling the household tasks that you used to do? Do other family members understand their responsibilities? 9. When you have completed your education, what job opportunities will you find? Do local businesses discriminate against women or middle-aged people in hiring? Is a part-time or flexible job possible? Could it be? In this instance, what appears to be an individual step really involves the family, the educational institution, and the community. A change in this one individual’s behavior creates stress on all her interactions. Her support system must adapt. If her former support system proves inadequate, new sources of help must be created or found, or some changes must be made. Each of these examples makes clear that counseling cannot focus merely on individual, intrapsychic change. Instead, one must consider multiple levels of the whole system, from the family to the culture as a whole. Thus, besides working to foster the healthy development of individual clients, counselors are encouraged to consider the importance of working to promote healthier families, schools and universities, workplaces, and communities in their role as mental health professionals.

CLIENT ADVOCACY AND MULTIPLE OPPRESSIONS

Individuals who are affected by multiple oppressions may be the ones who are most likely to face obstacles in accessing the resources and services that they need. The people described in the following examples have a great deal in common in that they all have been denied resources based on immigration status or language. They have also been stigmatized because of their substance abuse or criminal justice issues and marginalized by their poverty. In each instance, advocacy by a community counselor has been sorely needed. All of these situations of course call out for major social and political changes that community counselors should seek in the long run. Unfortunately, however, these clients cannot wait. They need help in navigating the system so that they can find the best shortterm solutions that are possible in the context of obvious oppression. The Guerrero Family

Ratts and Hutchins (2009) describe the dire situation faced by the Guerrero family when the father, Javier, lost his job. Javier and his wife, Anna, immigrated to the United States from Mexico and do not speak English. Their three children were all born in the United States and speak fluent English and Spanish. When Javier was laid off, his attempts to find work were hampered by the fact that he had no green card or work visa. His frustration turned to depression and then to heavy drinking. Anna works two jobs and is responsible for the household chores. She feels guilty for not being able to send more time with their three children. She is beginning to have chronic health problems. Because of the family’s economic crisis, the oldest child has taken on a fulltime job after school. His grades have suffered, he is no longer able to play on his Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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high school’s basketball team, and his demeanor in school has been worrisome to his teachers. All three children have been referred for counseling. Although empowerment-focused counseling is helpful, the family members also need more from a counselor. Ratts and Hutchins suggest that they need someone to advocate on their behalf, helping to connect them with the services they need, including, at a minimum, the following: Community groups that provide support for immigrant families Career placement specialists English as a second language programs Latino/a-based agencies and community leaders Community health care resources Spanish speakers in the 12-step community School personnel, including culturally competent teachers Relevant church groups and community organizations The Soto/Torres Family

A family described by Hendricks, Bradley, and Lewis (2010) is also confronting multiple barriers in their quest for problem resolution and support. Alberto and Margareta are the parents of children who have been caught up in the juvenile justice system. Margareta has a part-time, minimum-wage job but Alberto, who has seasonal employment in an agricultural processing facility, is not working at this time. With no public transportation available and gasoline too expensive to afford, Alberto does not believe he will be able to travel to work even when he is finally called back. Because of the transportation problem—and also because Margareta must be available for her part-time job whenever she is called in— these parents have great difficulty accessing what help the human service system might be able to provide. They have missed appointments with their son’s probation agent, which has made them vulnerable to labeling as a lost cause. The juvenile justice system representative who made the referral for counseling said, “Don’t expect much from his mom or dad. Neither one of them does anything to discipline these kids, and they can’t ever get anywhere on time for probation meetings or school. On top of this, they always make excuses; especially the mom who says that she can’t get here because,” he pauses dramatically and raises an eyebrow, “she ‘can’t get off work.’ ” He sighed, “These families are just a lost cause, and this one is really a mess. Stepdad just finished his time for a DUI and both kids are with us. Good luck, like you can do anything with this one!” (p. 188) Now a health crisis has put the family thousands of dollars in debt because of emergency room visits. The family would qualify for Medicaid but have had difficulty completing the complex paperwork involved in the application, only partly because of their lack of facility in English. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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This family is in the United States legally, but with the exception of the need for legal help regarding citizenship status, their needs for linkages to community support duplicate the Guerrero family’s list. In the case of the Soto/ Torres family, however, the counselor’s client advocacy efforts had to concentrate on two additional areas of concern: the family’s relationship with the juvenile justice personnel and the pressing need for Medicaid. As part of the direct counseling process, the counselor had helped Margareta and Alberto to develop some self-advocacy skills and take steps on their own behalf. Even then, follow-up advocacy on their behalf proved necessary. For instance, the counselor knew that Margareta and Alberto had filled out their Medicaid application correctly because she had reviewed it herself. Still, the family had had no response from the state. The counselor made a follow-up call herself, “knowing that she was more likely to find a listening ear at the agency” (Hendricks et al., 2010, p. 189). It was also absolutely necessary for the counselor to advocate on the family’s behalf in their interactions with the juvenile justice system. Parents always find it heartbreaking when their children are in trouble. They want to do whatever they can to advocate for their children, but they may find it grueling because … they lack the financial resources that could help them access legal assistance, and most of all, they do not know what rights their children have. In this case, because Laura (the counselor) was knowledgeable about the justice system and sensitive to the family’s needs, she was able to speak up for Carlos and Tomas, not to protect them from the consequences of their behaviors, but to make sure that their treatment was fair and equitable. (pp. 189–190) Carlos

Carlos is an individual who is described by Hutchins (2010) as a client seeing a mental health counselor in private practice. This example is especially noteworthy because, as is the case with the Soto/Torres family, the counselor’s knowledge about community resources is a key variable affecting client outcomes. The advocacy efforts described fly in the face of the widely held stereotype of a private practitioner seeing clients, one at a time or in small groups, within the confines of an office that is disconnected from the community in which it is located. In contrast, Hutchins (2009, p. 6) says, “I would like counselors and psychologists to embrace the view that our clients are not only the people coming into our offices; our clients are the community in which the people who come into our office must live.” Carlos is a 34-year-old Mexican American male who spent his earliest years in Mexico and California, with his parents crossing the California-Mexico border seasonally to work in the fields. As the child of migrant farm workers, Carlos sometimes attended elementary school in worker camps; as a high school student, he worked in the fields himself. His mother moved to Tucson when his father’s heavy drinking and abusiveness caused her to leave and resettle, along with the children, in the home of her sister. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Now, Carlos has just lost a job in another city and moved back to Tucson to live with his mother and siblings. He is at a crossroads in his life. He believes that he lost the job at least in part because of his difficulty with English. His five-year relationship with Todd, a 50-year-old Anglo, appears to be at an end; Todd has not made the move to Tucson with Carlos. (Carlos’s family does not know about his relationship with Todd. In fact, he has not come out to his family, although he believes that they know he is gay.) Carlos has been sexually active with men he met on the Internet but is afraid to go to a community health center to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases for fear of being sent back to Mexico. He wishes he could enroll in college, but he is afraid to apply— again, for fear of being deported. At this point in his life, he is depressed, anxious, and drinking heavily. He worries about becoming as angry as his father. As a client advocate, the counselor must help Carlos make connections with a variety of community resources that can help him. Carlos, as an individual, has unique needs. Certainly, the resources needed by various clients will always differ tremendously. But the very fact that clients have diverse needs makes it all the more important for a counselor to maintain ongoing relationships throughout the community’s helping network. For counselors, it is essential to have a network of resource professionals and volunteers to assist in creating realistic action plans. In this case, these include, but are not limited to, career specialists, English as a Second Language programs, immigration and discrimination law specialists, employment law resources, health care professionals, social service resources in the LGBT community, community college and university resources, group work opportunities, and resources throughout the Spanish-speaking community. (Hutchins, 2010, pp. 132–133) Ramon

Ramon was introduced at the beginning of Chapter 1 of this book. The obstacles he faces have much in common with those faced by the Guerrero family, the Soto/Torres family, and Carlos. A counselor who works primarily with Spanish-speaking clients in an urban mental health agency is optimistic about his ability to help his new client, Ramon. Ramon’s mental health concerns have become complicated by a recently developed heroin habit but he is unequivocally motivated toward change and could benefit from the services provided by the agency’s methadone program. Unfortunately, this methadone program’s policies require the intake worker to check for United States citizenship and this young man, who was born in Mexico, is afraid to take the chance of even walking through the door of a program that is located right down the hall. Ramon is up against serious obstacles in meeting his goal of a healthier life. First, the barriers he faces when seeking health care often seem insurmountable in comparison with the problems he might face if he were a United States citizen. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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EXHIBIT 6.4 Client Advocacy for Ramon

Consider the situation faced by Ramon. If you were the mental health counselor attempting to help Ramon, what client advocacy steps might you take? What community resources might you draw on?

In this particular instance, he is also up against an issue that relates to his treatment of choice, in that access to methadone programs has always been tightly controlled in comparison with other drug treatment options. Community counselors surely have a role to play in joining with others who seek reform in immigration policies or work to increase access to sorely needed substance abuse treatments. In the meantime, of course, Ramon needs immediate help. Fortunately, methadone is not the only option for heroin addiction treatment. Unfortunately, discrimination against Spanish-speaking people is prevalent in U.S. society and is reflected in the health and human service systems as well. FOSTERING A RESPONSIVE HELPING NETWORK

All of the examples we have reviewed help to demonstrate that community counselors can do their jobs best when they have knowledge of and access to a helping network that is responsive to client needs. In most communities, a number of human service agencies and institutions exist. Examples include the following: Mental health centers that treat or prevent psychological problems Educational and religious institutions Specialized agencies that deal with specific problems, such as substance abuse, legal or medical problems, family conflicts, disabilities, poverty, or homelessness Agencies that provide services to specific populations, such as the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community; women; children; adolescents; or the elderly Crisis or suicide prevention centers Employment or rehabilitation centers that help individuals gain the skills and opportunities they need to achieve independence and economic security Advocacy organizations that combine a social action agenda with support services for individuals and families, e.g., organizations that advocate for immigration reform while providing assistance for families that are negatively affected by oppressive policies. These entities may be government supported, charitable, or self-help; large or small; and formal or informal. All of them, however, help people who are experiencing personal difficulties, especially those coming from devalued and Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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stigmatized populations. In addition to agencies that are designed to provide human services to people in need, the helping network also includes people whose occupations give them special opportunities to be of assistance. For example, teachers, police officers, parole or probation agents, workers, and employers can all act as important helping resources if they are sensitive to the needs of the people around them. These individuals and organizations, in combination with self-help groups, constitute a helping network that makes up an important part of the social environment in every community (Brueggemann, 1996; Ezell, 2001). But the helping network is helpful only if it responds to the needs of the people it seeks to serve. Further, one can call it a network only if all its parts connect intentionally and purposefully. Community counselors have an important role to play in enhancing the quality and accessibility of the helping networks that their clients need, especially when they participate in coalition building and communitybased planning. Again, community counselors add value to these efforts because (a) they, themselves, are part of the community’s helping network; (b) they are acutely aware of gaps in accessibility because of their advocacy work with their clients; and (c) they have skills that can be put to use in developing communication and collaboration among organizations. Coalition Building

A coalition is a group of organizations working together for a common purpose. The combined resources of these groups can have a greater impact than can the same constituency groups working by themselves (Brueggemann, 1996; Ife, 1996). When planning to build a coalition with other mental health, educational, and advocacy groups in their community, counselors should keep in mind the following three stages: 1. Planning: In the planning stage, counselors must identify those constituency groups that might link with their organization to address an issue of common concern. This task includes making sure that those invited to attend the first coalition-building meeting really do have a common interest and stake in the given issue(s). 2. Consultation: Coalition building involves more than simply presenting an issue to each organization in a way that makes the members appreciate its importance and value. During the consultation stage, representatives from various organizations must discuss the ways in which joining a coalition with other groups will benefit each constituency. 3. Planning and Implementation: The planning and implementation stage of the coalition-building process determines the level of interest and commitment that individuals genuinely have regarding the issues of common concern to them. This is critical because individuals will likely demonstrate an increased commitment to a coalition when they feel they have been directly involved in the planning and implementation of beneficial strategies. Given their training and expertise in human relations, counselors are well equipped to Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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deal with the challenging task of facilitating group discussions that involve all participants during the planning and implementation stage. Indeed, the overall success of a coalition requires that all members own the work they have agreed to do. This sense of ownership increases when individuals (a) feel as though they have received the opportunity to express their views and (b) feel that their views have been heard and respected by the other members in the coalition during this stage. Coalition building represents another way counselors can foster the development of helping networks that promote the well-being of people from stigmatized and marginalized groups. Counselors of course always keep in mind that the primary purpose of building these networks is to help their clients become more responsible and empowered participants in society (Lewis & Bradley, 2000). Community-Based Planning

The effectiveness of the helping network in any community depends on the care people have taken in planning it. Responsive and well-organized helping networks share several distinctive characteristics, as follows. 1. Both those who deliver and those who use services actively plan and evaluate such programs: When using traditional approaches to helping, an agency or institution plans what services they will offer, then hires workers to perform specified roles in the service delivery system. Responsive helping networks tend to use community-based planning, whereby agency workers at all levels continuously attempt to evaluate community needs and create or adapt programs to meet them. A fluid process, community-based planning has no clear beginning and no end. Often, when workers or community members recognize the need for a particular kind of program, they use existing skills and resources in newly created programs or new locations. Ongoing assessment of services by those who actually use an agency’s services works most effectively in small agencies. Because such agencies lack the power and resources to influence community-wide planning, they need other means to this end. 2. Agencies work together in cooperative helping networks: In small agencies, workers and community members can feel a sense of ownership, a sense that the agency belongs to them. Small agencies can also provide ample opportunities for workers and community members alike to participate in planning the agency’s programs. Yet every community needs some kind of centralized planning. Because almost all communities have limited resources, each community must allocate them according to chosen priorities. Without cooperative networks, agencies find themselves simply competing against one another for limited funds. United, however, they can identify gaps in the community’s services, plan joint programs when appropriate, and share Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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valuable resources. Most important, agencies working together can influence the decisions of government officials and of established social planning agencies. Only then can the people who actually deliver services participate in community-wide planning. 3. The network has a coordinating organization that facilitates ongoing planning and includes workers and community members in the process: If members of the helping network are to be adequately represented in the planning process, they must be able to rely on some ongoing, stable structure—an organization or group of people assigned to keep track of community needs and changes in available resources. The advantages of such a body include the following: (a) network members can maintain ongoing relationships with other groups in the community, (b) planning can be continuous and developmental instead of reactive and limited, and (c) support can be mobilized immediately whenever needed. An ongoing group such as this can recognize problems when they arise, see the positive potential in legislative changes, and help coordinate efforts to promote these kinds of changes. As long as it maintains effective communication, a coordinating group can call on the participating agencies when necessary and keep them informed of changes in the community. 4. The helping network has a mechanism through which it can react to specific issues: In addition to making long-range plans, the helping network should be prepared to take advantage of opportunities when they arise and to deal intensively with specific issues when they emerge in the community. By forming alliances or coalitions with other community groups, network members develop a mechanism by which groups can act en masse to a relevant issue or opportunity. Such actions are most efficient when these groups communicate regularly. If a situation requires joint planning, separate organizations can quickly unite and forge effective work units. Another mechanism that can facilitate the helping network’s response to specific issues is a task force or research group that focuses on a particular topic. Research task forces can intensively study a community’s needs and resources in relation to particular areas. They can gain in-depth knowledge, create concrete plans, and share the results of their studies with other network members. This planning strategy is particularly efficient because it combines the strength of large numbers with the specialization of small groups. 5. Conventional planning agencies within the helping network are open to broad participation: So that volunteers and agency workers do not merely parallel the efforts of conventional planning agencies, they all must constantly exchange information and ideas. Such an exchange proves most effective when the planning agencies are open to participation by individuals representing a variety of community groups. Therefore, successful planning requires broad-based community involvement not only in direct service agencies but also in agencies that allocate funds. After all, a community implements its real priorities in its financial decisions. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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6. Government agencies, social planning agencies, direct service agencies, and community groups maintain an ongoing dialogue: Planning is most effective when the participants of a community’s helping network are interdependent and maintain a continuous exchange of ideas. Because people may feel compelled to promote the mission and philosophy of their own group, however, this exchange may, at times, prove confrontational rather than collaborative. As such, planners should try to resolve their philosophical differences in the interest of delivering efficient and relevant services. When diverse agencies and institutions can work together this way, the resulting plan will likely be efficient. Through open dialogue, participants can realistically analyze community needs and allocate resources. Networks make the most of each available dollar, property, and worker; consequently, competition for scarce resources decreases. Further, instead of duplicating services, agencies and community members can plan programs and services that complement one another well. Most important, the efficiency engendered by a broad-based planning process allows networks to give priority to the rights and interests of those who will ultimately be served by such programs and services. 7. The rights of consumers, as well as the uniqueness of each agency, are protected at all stages of the planning process: Community-based planning allows planners to remain sensitive to the needs of individuals and to the will of the community. Planners working in isolation can inadvertently overlook the rights of individuals. When a broad coalition of persons does the planning, however, the decision making will more likely represent all interests of the community. Further, agencies will also more likely retain the flexibility and informality they need to maintain their roots in the community. Thus, as the community changes, its helping network can change with it. The recent development and implementation of school-community-parent management systems in the public schools across the United States provides a good example of how coalition-building strategies can give parents and other community members a greater say in how schools are organized and managed. Regardless of the setting and participants, though, counselors need to use their human relations skills to facilitate the coalition-building process. The degree to which counselors can help facilitate this process depends on their ability to consult effectively with people from varied backgrounds and positions within school, business, and community settings.

SUMMARY

The American Counseling Association Advocacy Competencies state that “when counselors become aware of external factors that act as barriers to an individual’s development, they may choose to respond through advocacy.” When community counselors carry out client advocacy, their primary aims include negotiating Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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service and educational systems on behalf of their clients and helping clients gain access to resources that they need. Counseling and client advocacy are complementary to each other. The counseling-advocacy process involves a set of decisions made jointly by client and counselor. Among the questions addressed is whether change the part of the client alone will solve the problem at hand. If external barriers prevent the client’s healthy development, the question then is whose responsibility it is to confront these obstacles. Ideally, the counseling process helps the client learn self-advocacy skills. Even if that is so, the counselor might still need to raise his or her voice on behalf of a client whose power is not sufficient to bring about change in isolation. Client advocacy is especially important for clients who are affected by multiple oppressions. Several examples of clients who have been subject to discrimination on the basis of language or immigration issues were presented. In each case, the role of the counselor-advocate involved connecting the clients with community resources that they would not have been able to access without help. The counselor’s advocacy work on behalf of clients is vastly improved when the community is home to a responsive helping network. Community counselors can use their knowledge and skills to play roles in (a) building responsive helping networks and (b) helping to carry out community-based planning. EXHIBIT 6.5 Competency-Building Activity

Program Development Return now to the hypothetical community counseling program you have been designing. Now, you are beginning to fill in the quadrants related to facilitating healthy community development. Client advocacy is a focused strategy. Considering the population whose needs you have decided to address, what kind of advocacy needs might you expect your clients to have? REFERENCES Brown, D. (1988). Empowerment through advocacy. In D. J. Kurpius & D. Brown (Eds.), Handbook of consultation: An intervention for advocacy and outreach (pp. 5–17). Alexandria, VA: Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Brueggemann, W. G. (1996). The practice of macro social work. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Ezell, M. (2001). Advocacy in human services. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Books. Hendricks, B., Bradley, L. J., & Lewis, J. A. (2010). ACA Advocacy Competencies in family counseling. In M. J. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA Advocacy Competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 185–194). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Hutchins, A. M. (2009, Summer). Social justice work: It’s about who we are: An interview by Allison Browne & Lindsay Craft. Journal of Social Action in Counseling &


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Psychology, 2(1). Retrieved February 24, 2010, from http://www.psysr.org/jsacp/ hutchins-v2n1-09_29-35.pdf. Hutchins, A. M. (2010). Advocacy and the private practice counselor. In M. J. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA Advocacy Competencies: A social justice framework for counselor (pp. 129–138). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Ife, J. (1996). Community development: Creating community alternatives—Vision, analysis and practice. Melbourne: Longman. Lewis, J., & Bradley, L. (Eds.). (2000). Advocacy in counseling: Counselors, clients, and community. Greensboro, NC: ERIC. Lewis, J. A., Arnold, M. S., House, R., Toporek, R. L. (2002). ACA Advocacy Competencies. Retrieved May 27, 2008, from http://www.counseling.org/Publications/. Ratts, M. J., & Hutchins, A. M. (2009). ACA Advocacy Competencies: Social justice advocacy at the client/student level. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87, 269–275.


CHAPTER 7

Community Collaboration and Advocacy

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he community counseling definition that was introduced in Chapter 1 emphasizes the fact that, because human behavior is powerfully affected by context, community counselors use strategies that facilitate the healthy development both of their clients and of the communities that nourish them. Chapter 6 reviewed the counselor’s role as client advocate, helping people access the resources and services they need and working toward the creation of a responsive and well-organized network of helpers. Undoubtedly, the community counselor’s ability to advocate on behalf of individual clients is absolutely necessary—but is it sufficient? In the course of their work in a particular setting, community counselors often come across multiple examples of clients facing similar barriers to their development. Through their empathic relationships with clients, they come to realize that the community might not be doing all that is needed to nourish the health of its members. They begin to consider not just the unique needs of their individual clients but also the collective needs of their clients as a group. Knowing about the impediments in their clients’ paths, they begin to explore as well the sources of strength and support that the community might offer. They find themselves asking what the characteristics of a “good” community might be. The “goodness” of a community might best be evaluated in terms of the impact it has on its members. Assessing the quality of a community requires that 184 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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we ask this question: What do community members have a right to expect? At the very least, individuals and families should be able to count on the following: They can let themselves have “a dream of the future ahead of them” (Alinsky, 1969, p. 140) and a belief that their children might have the chance to live better lives than the ones led by their parents. They can move about their neighborhood with at least a degree of security, knowing that violence is not the norm. They can see that authentic efforts are being made on their behalf to address the desolation inherent in poverty and oppression. They can access educational and health resources that meet accepted standards of excellence. They can count on support within the community when they face obstacles that might otherwise seem insurmountable. They can sense that their voices are being heard. In many communities, the distance between what community members should be able to expect and what they do expect remains vast. Consider, for example, the lives of Amber and her children. Amber and her late husband, Ronald, grew up in an urban, African American neighborhood with high rates of poverty, unemployment, and school dropout. They had their children very young, but with grit and tenacity they both managed to complete high school and Ronald even managed to complete some community college courses. With his community college training, Ronald began to earn enough money to make it possible for the family to buy a small home in what they considered a much better neighborhood. When Ronald became ill, his long bout with cancer drained the family of whatever economic resources they had been able to put together. By the time he died, the family no longer had savings to draw on or means to pay the mortgage. When her young husband passed away, Amber was left with two young sons to raise and no means to maintain their hard-won lives as a middle-class family. Drawn back into poverty, Amber moved back to the neighborhood where she had grown up. At least there, she thought, she could get cheaper rent. Although the younger Amber had wanted to escape the neighborhood, the now 30-year-old Amber thought it might be comforting to go to a place that was familiar. Once she was back in the neighborhood, Amber found life more difficult than she could have imagined. It was almost impossible to get any work at all, least of all a full-time job with health benefits. She put together part-time employment in two or three jobs at a time just to get by. This left her Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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13-year-old, Andre, and her 12-year-old, Arthur, with little after-school supervision. Her worst fears were realized when she became aware that both of her sons, especially Andre, had been drawn into gang activity on their street. She tried to convince Andre and Arthur that their future well-being depended on their education but their answers were clear. First, there was no possibility of safety for a young man in their neighborhood with no gang affiliation. Second, their friends on the block were like family to them—better than family. Third, their middle school had nothing to offer them, especially since the material being covered was the same as what they had learned in elementary school in their old neighborhood. Amber became distraught when gunfire broke out on the block and Arthur had narrowly escaped being caught in the crossfire. She felt guilty that she could not spend time with her boys, giving them supervision and helping them with academic learning. Most of all, she felt guilty about the fact that she had brought her children back to the place where she had started. The hopefulness she had thought was part of her personality was gone. Clearly, the community has failed Amber and her family. Everything that Amber has a right to expect—a better life for her children, freedom from violence, access to good education and health care, support in difficult times, even hope itself—has been denied her. And Amber, of course, is not alone. Her experience is shared by countless others in the community. Of course, community counselors cannot single-handedly change the environment. What they can and should do, however, is to connect with other entities and groups that share their concerns for Amber and her cohorts in the community and, in concert with these others, simply do whatever they can. COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

The ACA Advocacy Competencies (Lewis et al., 2002) conceptualize community collaboration as follows: Counselors’ ongoing work with people gives them a unique awareness of recurring themes. Counselors are often among the first to become aware of specific difficulties in the environment. Advocacy-oriented counselors often choose to respond to such challenges by alerting existing organizations that are already working for change and that might have an interest in the issue at hand. In these situations, the counselor’s primary role is as an ally. Counselors can also be helpful to organizations by making their particular skills available to them: interpersonal relations, communication, training, and research. (p. 2) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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This conceptualization leads in the direction of the following counselor competencies: In support of groups working toward systemic change at the school or community level, the advocacy-oriented counselor is able to: Identify environmental factors that impinge on students’ and clients’ development. Alert community or school groups with common concerns related to the issue. Develop alliances with groups working for change. Use effective listening skills to gain understanding of the group’s goals. Identify the strengths and resources that the group members bring to the process of systemic change. Communicate recognition of and respect for these strengths and resources. Identify and offer the skills that the counselor can bring to the collaboration. Fortunately, community counselors who search for them can find strong allies in neighborhood programs, self-help organizations, and citizen action groups. Neighborhood Programs Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ). Among neighborhood programs, the Harlem Children’s Zone holds a place among the most comprehensive and best known. Speaking about the program in 2007, Barack Obama recognized the strengths of the model.

The philosophy behind the project is simple—if poverty is a disease that infects an entire community in the form of unemployment and violence; failing schools and broken homes, then we can’t just treat those symptoms in isolation. We have to heal that entire community. And we have to focus on what actually works. If you’re a child who’s born in the Harlem Children’s Zone, you start life differently than other inner-city children. Your parents probably went to what they call “Baby College,” a place where they received counseling on how to care for newborns and what to expect in those first months. You start school right away, because there’s early childhood education. When your parents are at work, you have a safe place to play and learn, because there’s child care, and after school programs, even in the summer. There are innovative charter schools to attend. There’s free medical services that offer care when you’re sick and preventive services to stay healthy. There’s affordable, good food available so you’re not malnourished. There are job counselors and financial counselors. There’s technology training and crime prevention. You don’t just sign up for this program; you’re actively recruited for it, because the idea is that if everyone is involved, and no one slips Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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through the cracks, then you really can change an entire community. Geoffrey Canada, the program’s inspirational, innovative founder, put it best—instead of helping some kids beat the odds, the Harlem Children’s Zone is actually changing the odds altogether. (Obama, 2007, July 18) When Geoffrey Canada first visualized this program, he began with questions like “What would it take to change the lives of poor children not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in a programmatic, standardized way that could be applied broadly and replicated nationwide?” and “which variables in a child’s life did you need to change?” (Canada, as cited in Tough, 2009, p. 19). The answers to these questions led the way toward a more comprehensive program than one would have been likely to imagine. “His [Canada’s] new approach was bold, even grandiose: to transform every aspect of the environment that poor children were growing up in; to change the way their families raised them and the way their schools taught them as well as the character of the neighborhood that surrounded them” (Tough, 2009, p. 19). And once the program was up and running, “he felt each morning as though he were going to work in a burning building, as though his job was simply to rescue as many kids as he could from the flames” (Tough, 2009, p. 22). From its beginnings, the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) has focused not so much on separate programs to address specific problems but on transforming children’s lives by transforming their community, not just one child at a time but one neighborhood at a time. After a 1-block pilot program, the original Zone neighborhood encompassed 24 blocks. By 2010, the HCZ covered almost 100 blocks in Harlem and served 8,000 children and 6,000 adults (Harlem Children’s Zone, 2009a). As the project grew, the original conceptualization remained firmly in place: For children to do well, their families have to do well. And for families to do well, their community must do well. That is why HCZ works to strengthen families as well as empowering them to have a positive impact on their children’s development. HCZ also works to reweave the social fabric of Harlem, which has been torn apart by crime, drugs and decades of poverty. The two fundamental principles of The Zone Project are to help kids in a sustained way, starting as early in their lives as possible, and to create a critical mass of adults around them who understand what it takes to help children succeed. (Harlem Children’s Zone, 2009b) Helping children in a “sustained way” has involved a pipeline that begins with outreach and workshops for parents of children aged 0–3, and continues through early preschool; preschool; elementary, middle, and high schools; and preparation and support for college. In addition to the pipeline for children, the HCZ facilitates community organizing and provides comprehensive services through its family, community,



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and health programs. Community Pride, for example, is an exemplary community-organizing effort. Community Pride organizes tenant and block associations, helping many hundreds of tenants convert their city-owned buildings into tenant-owned co-ops. The program combines social services for individuals and families with tenant organizing and community redevelopment initiatives. This comprehensive strategy allows Community Pride’s staff to operate simultaneously at three levels of intervention: families, building and block. The program also works with and impacts other stakeholders such as churches and police precincts. Community Pride’s work is guided by an overall community development philosophy that is based on the participation of community residents in all planning and decision-making activities. (Harlem Children’s Zone, 2009c) Additional family and health programs integrate a number of services that involve helping professionals and include the following: Single Stop, which provides free and accessible direct services in varying locations. Health services, which include the Asthma Initiative and the Healthy Living Initiative. Foster care prevention programs, including Keeping Families Together and the Family Development Program. Perhaps not surprisingly, an editorial in which David Brooks described the program (Brooks, 2009) ran in the New York Times under the title “The Harlem Miracle.” The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention. Like the Harlem Children’s Zone, the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention began in response to one person’s refusal to believe that a problem affecting urban youth was unsolvable. In 1995, Gary Slutkin had just returned to the United States after years of international work as an epidemiologist.

“I listened to hundreds of stories about ten-year-olds shooting twelveyear-olds, and about how incredibly unsafe American cities were becoming. I had heard nothing like that overseas—except for war zones,” Slutkin says. “There were all kinds of programs and projects, but I didn’t see a city that really had a strategy for reducing violent behavior—certainly not one that made any sense. I was touched by the stories I heard and puzzled by the problem. It seemed to me that this was a terrible trend that had to be reversed. Chicago, my hometown, was the national epicenter for violence, so I decided to begin here. I got support for my own salary and then an assistant and finally some staff. We just rolled up our sleeves and began.” (Slutkin, as cited by Diehl, 2005, pp. 2–3) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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As an epidemiologist, Slutkin brought a public health perspective to the problem, developing strategies based on the idea that “violence is a learned behavior and … epidemics of violence can be controlled by changing community behavioral norms” (p. 4). The Project began in one Chicago neighborhood—the area with the worst record of gun violence. Gradually, the project moved into additional neighborhoods, always enlisting the collaboration of civic leaders and neighborhood organizations. By 1998, when the project sought and received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the steering committee included representation from 20 city, county, state, and federal agencies. The plan laid out at that time included the following components (p. 5): 1. Strong community-wide coalitions and community work on norms 2. A unified message to those at the highest risk that shooting is out 3. Rapid and coordinated response to any violence, including prevention of retaliating 4. Identification of most at-risk persons and ensuring alternatives and linkages 5. Additional supervision of those most at risk (including those on probation) for gun use and involvement in violence 6. Increased availability, safety, use, and supervision of after-school programs and other safe havens 7. Increasing pressure on guns and gun movement at all steps 8. Prosecutions for violence and communication of prosecutions and sentences An important component of the Project’s work is CeaseFire-Chicago. Originally adapted from a Boston-based program, CeaseFire-Chicago is based on five core components (CeaseFire, 2010): Street-level outreach Public education Community mobilization Faith leader involvement Police participation Street-level outreach is carried out by (a) outreach workers, who have ongoing mentoring relationships with their “clients,” and (b) violence interrupters, whose role is to spend time in the streets and resolve conflicts as they arise. The outreach workers maintain supportive and stable relationships with their clients. In fact, for youth involved in the outreach program, the program evaluation discovered that, A striking finding was how important CeaseFire loomed in their lives. After their parents, their outreach worker was typically rated the most important adult in their lives. … Clients noted the importance of being Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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able to reach their outreach worker at crucial moments—when they were tempted to resume taking drugs, were involved in illegal activities, or when they felt that violence was imminent. (Skogan, 2008, p. 2) Violence interrupters play a different role: They are a group comprised largely of individuals who have served time in Chicago’s gangs. Rather than working with individuals as clients, they leverage their knowledge of the city to diffuse tensions and, hopefully, maintain peace by meeting with individuals, negotiating truces, and discouraging retaliation when conflicts erupt. They also speak with young people and urge them to seek nonviolent ways of achieving status with their peers and in their communities. (CeaseFire, 2010) Street-level outreach efforts take place in the context of long-term strategies to educate the public, mobilize communities, and build coalitions. Together, these efforts appear to be bearing fruit: An examination of the impact of CeaseFire on shootings and killings found that violence was down by one measure or another in most of the areas that were examined in detail. Crime mapping found decreases in the size and intensity of shooting hot spots due to the program in more than half of the sites. There were significant shifts in gang homicide patterns in most of these areas due to the program, including declines in gang involvement in homicide and retaliatory killings. (Skogan, Hartnett, Bump, & Dubois, 2008, p. iii) Projects like Harlem Children’s Zone and CeaseFire can be found in communities across the United States. Such programs may admittedly exist on a smaller scale, but they do provide community members with reasons to hope for a better future. Suppose a counselor’s roster of clients included Amber and/ or her children. That counselor’s effectiveness would depend on his or her willingness to reach out to the community and collaborate closely with organizations that exist to make differences in the lives of people like Amber and the other clients that have been discussed throughout the chapters in this book. These organizations include not just service-delivering entities but self-help organizations as well. Self-Help Organizations

In self-help organizations, people with common bonds can connect with and mutually support one another, request or offer active assistance, and deal with common problems in an understanding but realistic group setting. In most selfhelp organizations, group members are not categorized as service givers or service receivers, and all the members make decisions collectively. By operating in this manner, the members of self-help groups are considered both “helpers” and “helpees.” Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Ife (1996) lists several important ways self-help groups nurture clients’ sense of empowerment. In such groups, people can do the following: 1. Gain a positive personal identification within a peer group 2. Have their attitudes altered as a result of being around other people who emphasize the importance of taking collective and constructive action to address the common challenges and problems the group faces 3. Feel more confident about the way in which they communicate with others because of the common experiences shared by the group members 4. Avoid many of the cultural, racial, and ethnic barriers traditional counseling settings often manifest 5. Find opportunities and experiences that generally improve their socialization Self-help groups provide an environment in which clients can have free and open discussions about issues of common interest to others. As members of a “common community,” they can also receive emotional support and understanding in ways that differ from the support and empathy experienced in traditional counseling. Because of their commonalties, individuals in self-help groups can accept ideas from their peers in ways that remove their defensiveness and encourage them to take greater personal responsibility for their own lives. Most important, individuals find opportunities to develop and exercise leadership skills in the context of such groups. Although some self-help organizations allow professional participation or sponsorship, the participants in such groups recognize that their potential for success always rests on the active involvement and commitment of their members. As new members enter a self-help organization, they are encouraged to believe that the group and its members are special and that they can share in this specialness. Full membership is valued and is based on behaving according to the particular norms of the group. When a person first agrees to become a member of a self-help organization, he or she typically accepts the role of an “initiate” who is expected to conform to the expectations of the group. Moving from the role of an initiate to a full-fledged group member requires the individual to demonstrate his or her willingness and ability to help other members in the organization rather than just accept help. The fact that each member of a self-help group becomes a caregiver is the key to the empowering potential of this approach. In short, self-help groups convert problems or needs into resources. For example, instead of seeing 32 million people in the United States who are suffering from arthritis as a problem, it is possible to see these people as resources, as service givers, for dealing with the everyday concerns of the arthritic. At the same time, people commonly acquire a new sense of independence and empowerment as a consequence of dealing effectively with their own problems within a supportive community that consists of those with similar problems, concerns, and challenges (Brueggemann, 1996; Ife, 1996). The “Helper-Therapy” Principle. The “helper-therapy” principle provides a good explanation for why self-help groups succeed. Skovholt (1974) discussed Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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the benefits of “helper therapy” decades ago by noting that although receiving help is beneficial, giving help is even more so. Elaborating on this principle, Skovholt (1974) outlined the following benefits that people in self-help groups normally experience by providing help to others. That is, the effective helper often does the following: 1. Feels an increased level of interpersonal competence as a result of making an impact on another’s life 2. Feels a sense of equality in giving and taking between himself or herself and others 3. Receives valuable personalized learning acquired while working with a helpee 4. Receives social approval from the people he or she helps (p. 62) These factors remain as relevant today as they were in 1974. Just as important are the additional benefits identified by Gartner and Riessman (1984): 1. The helper becomes less dependent. 2. In struggling with the problem of another person who has a similar problem, the helper has a chance to observe his or her problem at a distance. 3. The helper obtains a feeling of social usefulness by playing the helping role (p. 20). A good example of the helper-therapy principle in action is Recovery Incorporated, an organization for self-described “nervous and former mental patients.” Although the organization’s initial impetus in 1937 came from a professional, Dr. Abraham Low, the group’s leaders are now all laypeople who came to the group as patients. In this context, patients are people recently discharged from inpatient settings or others who identify themselves as under psychiatric care or as having symptoms such as anxiety or depression. At weekly Recovery Incorporated meetings, group discussions are combined with structured panel presentations during which members contrast old and new ways of dealing with their personal problems. By planning and participating in these activities, the members experience an increased sense of psychological health and personal well-being by recognizing that they are not alone in their problems, by being exposed to successful and relevant role models, and by realizing that they can assist others while helping themselves. In addition to their regular meetings, experienced members of this group also present educational programs to other community groups. This service increases public knowledge and awareness about mental health issues and points to another strength of self-help groups: they can potentially give stigmatized people a collective voice that they would not have as individuals. Although the idea of helper therapy has existed for many years, counselors have been slow to incorporate this principle into their work. Recognizing its potential utility, D’Andrea (1994) reports on the success of using helper therapy among a group of chronically mentally ill clients who attended an adult


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day-treatment program in a community mental health center. All the clients who participated in this community-based program were African Americans diagnosed with serious mental health problems. Besides receiving a variety of traditional psychotherapeutic services, such as individual and small-group psychotherapy, these clients also met twice a week as a self-help group to plan activities that addressed other specific needs of theirs. Recognizing that much of their stress related directly to racism, these clients agreed to develop a strategy to address this complex problem. As a result, the clients designed and implemented a psychoeducational class entitled “Coping with Racism in Contemporary America,” which was held at the community mental health center where the self-help group met. This class consisted of several meetings in which the clients examined the different ways they experienced racism in their own lives and brainstormed effective strategies for coping with this difficulty. The clients had been viewed as having limited ability to develop and implement practical solutions to their psychological problems, but the meetings gave the clients opportunities to develop collective support and power. A second project that this group of clients developed involved planning and implementing several strategies that enhanced their participation in the community’s political process. To this end, they selected representatives from their group who were responsible for contacting local elected officials to set up times to discuss various issues related to mental health services in the community and the need to expand services for people with serious mental health problems. This project was developed primarily in response to proposed cutbacks in local and state spending for mental health services. The clients not only met with their elected officials but also testified at a number of legislative hearings organized to help state lawmakers better understand the potential impact of cutting funding for mental health services in the area. Though one of the counselors at the mental health center served as a resource person for the clients to turn to for help if needed, the clients were ultimately responsible for planning and implementing these and other self-help projects. Because they participated in these projects, several positive changes occurred in the clients’ overall psychological disposition. These changes included an increased sense of social purpose and self-esteem, the development of more effective interpersonal and problem-solving skills, and an enhanced pride in their identification with other members in the therapeutic community (D’Andrea, 1994). Mutual Support in Self-Help Groups. People join self-help groups in part because they need social support. Typically, these people experience gaps in their own social support networks, finding that their family members, friends, and associates are unable to help. Self-help programs provide an opportunity for emotional and social support that might be difficult to find in everyday interactions. This need seems especially important for individuals with health-related problems. In this regard, participation in mutual self-help groups enables clients Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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to realize that they are not alone in their fears and struggles and, at the same time, instills hope by introducing them to others striving positively to confront the challenges in their lives. A partial list of national health-related self-help groups follows: Alcoholics Anonymous AMEND (Aid to Mothers Experiencing Neonatal Death) American Schizophrenic Association Association for Children with Learning Disabilities Candlelighters (for parents of young children with cancer) The Compassionate Friends (for bereaved parents) Daughters United (for young women who have been victims of incest) DES-Watch (for women who took DES during pregnancy and for their daughters) Emotions Anonymous (a 12-step program for people with emotional problems) Epilepsy Foundation Families Anonymous Gamblers Anonymous Gay Men’s Health Crisis (for gay men concerned about AIDS) Gray Panthers Heart to Heart (a one-to-one visitation program for people with coronary problems) Juvenile Diabetes Foundation La Leche League Make Today Count (for people with cancer and their families) Muscular Dystrophy Association Narcotics Anonymous National Alliance for the Mentally Ill National Association for Retarded Citizens National Federation of the Blind National Foundation for Sudden Infant Death National Gay Task Force National Society for Autistic Children Neurotics Anonymous Overeaters Anonymous Parents Anonymous Parents of Premature and High Risk Infants Parents of Stillborns Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Parents without Partners Reach to Recover (for women who have had mastectomies) Recovery, Inc. Resolve, Inc. (for individuals who are infertile) Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers Share (for parents who have lost an infant) Smokenders Theos Foundation (for the widowed and their families) United Cerebral Palsy Widowed Persons The length of this partial list indicates the pervasiveness of the self-help phenomenon. Ironically, because of the important services they provide, self-help groups have entered the social mainstream. In these and other organizations designed to foster mutual help and support, people can experience a sense of empowerment. McWhirter (1994) describes empowerment as a multifaceted process in which people (a) “become aware of the power dynamics in their life context” and (b) “develop the skills and capacity for gaining some reasonable control in their lives,” (c) “which they exercise” (d) “without infringing on the rights of others but actively supporting the empowerment of others in their community” (p. 12). Each of the self-help organizations just mentioned addresses these dimensions of empowerment to a greater or lesser degree. In doing so, they facilitate the empowerment of people who either are vulnerable to or currently experience mental health problems. Central to the empowerment process is clients’ motivation and ability to help themselves and others who share similar threats to their psychological well-being (McWhirter, 1994). As Riessman (1985) notes, When people help themselves … they feel empowered; they are able to control some aspect of their lives. … Empowerment expands energy, motivation, and help—giving power that goes beyond helping one’s self or receiving help. In addition, this self-help-induced empowerment may have significant political relevance because, as people are enabled to deal with some aspects of their lives in a competent fashion, the skills and positive feelings they acquire may contagiously spread and empower them to deal with other aspects of their lives. (pp. 2–3) Self-Help and Political Action. Ife (1996) notes that self-help groups have traditionally been nonpolitical, focusing on strengthening individuals rather than on ameliorating adverse social conditions. Some organizations, however, have become more oriented toward political action, recognizing that the power and competencies their members have developed can affect larger issues. An advocacy focus involves helping clients discover the external factors affecting their problems. The basic self-help ethos supports the intrinsic strengths of the people



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involved. Feeling this sense of their own strength, people may find themselves able to muster the courage to participate in advocacy on behalf of their group. Of course, community counselors frequently make referrals to self-help groups when their clients need the experience of mutual help and support. Just as often, however, counselors join forces with advocacy organizations that seek community change on behalf of their members. Goodman (2010), in writing about advocacy for older adults, highlights the contributions of the AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons), the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Gray Panthers, the National Caucus and Center on Black Aged, and the Older Women’s League (OWL). Kenney and Kenney (2010) draw attention to the Association of Multiethnic Americans (AMEA), Project RACE (Reclassifying All Children Equally), and the MAVIN Foundation, all of which advocate on behalf of the multiracial population. Singh (2010) lists the Human Rights Campaign; the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network; and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) as potential community resources. Many of these self-help organizations have been able to act both as strong political advocates on the national scene and as community resources for individuals in need of support within their own neighborhoods.


Referrals to Self-Help Organizations Counselors who use the community counseling model recognize that selfhelp groups represent important resources that promote the psychological health and personal well-being of large numbers of persons from diverse client populations in our society. Although the community counseling framework encourages mental health practitioners to help individuals link up with a self-help group that (a) addresses their clients’ needs and (b) fosters client empowerment, counselors must do so in a manner that reflects a heightened sense of ethical responsibility and professionalism. To act in such a manner, counselors are encouraged to (a) provide clients with specific information related to the self-help group that they would like their clients to consider joining and (b) take time to talk about the general way that self-help groups commonly operate. In this chapter, we have provided information that we hope expands your understanding of the tremendous benefits that many clients generally experience when they become a part of self-help groups. You can use this information when discussing the benefits that people commonly experience when they participate in these groups. However, when encouraging clients to consider joining a specific self-help group, it is important to provide other types of information about the group so that clients can make a more informed and responsible decision whether to join. This includes but is not limited to informing clients of (a) the self-help group’s specific Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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purpose and goals, (b) the time and place where the self-help group meets, (c) the criteria that the self-help organization has established for membership in the group, and (d) the format that the self-help group follows in addressing the members’ needs. With this in mind, think about some of the clients with whom you are likely to work and who may benefit from joining a self-help group. You might want to review the list of self-help organizations provided on pages 195–196 when thinking about some of the groups that you can imagine yourself referring clients to in your career. After you have identified at least three self-help organizations that your clients are likely to benefit from joining, contact persons at these organizations in your community to set up a time during which you can interview them about their organization. You can conduct these interviews by telephone or in person. The purpose of these interviews is to increase your professional competence by helping you become more knowledgeable of some of the community resources that are available to promote your clients’ psychological health and personal empowerment. Some of the specific questions you might want to use when conducting these interviews include the following: 1. What are the overall purpose and goals of your organization? 2. What are the criteria for joining your organization? 3. What responsibilities are the persons who participate in the self-help group expected to follow when they join the group? 4. Are there any costs associated with joining this group? If so, what are they? 5. What sort of psychological benefits and challenges do the persons who join this group typically experience when they participate in it? 6. How are individuals usually referred to your organization? Although these interviews can provide you with valuable information about self-help organizations that currently exist in your community, it is also very useful for counselors to have firsthand knowledge about the ways such organizations operate. Recognizing the importance of gaining this kind of knowledge, we have required our students to attend a least one self-help group meeting during the semester. In doing so, we have found that students frequently indicate that they appreciated having the opportunity to (a) gain many new insights into the ways that a self-help group operates and (b) develop a greater sense of professional confidence when it comes to talking to their clients about the way a self-help group operates. To increase your overall competence in these areas, set up a time during which you will attend a self-help group meeting in your own community. Given their availability, group format, and confidentiality, you might want to consider attending an Alcoholics Anonymous group meeting to learn how one well-respected self-help organization operates. However, other organizations that sponsor self-help groups in your community can serve the same purpose.



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Family and Community Projects

Doherty and Carroll (2007) emphasize the importance of breaking down false dichotomies, including the distinctions between private, personal problems and public issues; between the providers and the consumers of services; and between individual therapy and community work. The belief that helping practices should transcend these false barriers is highly consistent with the community counseling approach and has led in the direction of the Families and Democracy model. Families and Democracy. The principles underlying this model include the following (Doherty & Carroll, 2007, p. 231):

1. Strengthening families in our time must be done mostly by families themselves, working democratically in local communities. 2. The greatest untapped resource for strengthening families is the knowledge, wisdom, and lived experience of families and their communities. 3. Families must be engaged as producers and contributors to their communities, and not just as clients or consumers of services. 4. Professionals can play an important role in family initiatives when they learn to partner with families in identifying challenges, mobilizing resources, generating pans, and carrying out public actions. 5. If you begin with an established program, you will not end up with an initiative that is “owned and operated” by citizens. But a citizen initiative might create a program as one of its activities. 6. A local community of families becomes energized when it retrieves its own historical, cultural, and religious traditions about family life—and brings these into the contemporary world of family life. 7. Family and democracy initiatives should have a bold vision … while working pragmatically on focused specific goals. In implementation, Families and Democracy projects adhere in many ways to traditional community organizing ideas and strategies. If people are organized with a dream of the future ahead of them, the actual planning that takes place in organizing and the hopes and fears for the future give them just as much inner satisfaction as does their actual achievement. The kind of participation that comes out of a people’s organization in planning, getting together and fighting together completely changes what had previous been to John Smith, assemblyline American a dull, gray, monotonous road of existence that stretched out interminably into a brilliantly lit, highly exciting avenue of hope.… It is the breaking down of the feeling on the part of our people that they are social automatons with no stake in the future, rather than human beings in possession of all the responsibility, strength, and human dignity which constitute the heritage of free citizens of a democracy. (Alinsky, 1969, pp. 49–50)


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Like community organizing efforts, family projects build a sense of purpose, develop new leaders, and move people from the passivity of service recipients to the problem-solving orientation of citizen activists. Partners in Diabetes, a health care initiative, provides an example of a project that is based on the Families and Democracy model. The people involved in this project included persons with diabetes, family members, health care professionals, a health administrator, and a family therapist. The group’s mission was simply “to improve the lives of patients and families at our clinics whose lives are touched by diabetes” (Doherty & Carroll, 2007, p. 232). With this mission in mind, the group members worked collaboratively to design a new approach tough. The group collaboratively identified key areas of concern and developed solutions. … As adolescents, parents, and providers met over the following months, a new kind of program began to take root. The group named the project ANGELS (A Neighbor Giving Encouragement, Love, and Support). Adolescents and their parents who have lived experience with diabetes (called “support partners”) are connected with other families (called “members”) who are struggling with the illness. (Doherty & Carroll, 2007, p. 234) Especially noteworthy is the fact that all members of the planning team had equal input, not just in identifying problem areas but also in designing interventions and creating training curricula. Citizen Health Care. Programs like Partners in Diabetes that apply the Citizens in Democracy Principles to health concerns have been termed Citizen Health Care and have been applied across cultural groups (Doherty & Mendenhall, 2006; Bryan, 2009). For example, Mendenhall worked with tribal and community leaders in a Native American community (Doherty & Mendenhall, 2006) to address problems related to diabetes. The project did not replicate the Partners in Diabetes initiative but adhered to the egalitarian principles of Citizens in Democracy.

Patients, their families, and professionals met weekly for an evening of fellowship, to check each others’ blood sugar, cook cultural meals, and receive diabetes-related education, using talking circles and other cultural activities. … The project’s success hinged on professionals’ willingness to take time to build trust and relationship with the community, to learn from the community, to involve the community and integrate its culture and customs of healing in the planning and design of the project. (Bryan, 2009, p. 508) Bryan (2009) also describes a university-community partnership called the Healthy Workers Program (HWP). This health promotion program was designed to provide free services for the temporary dining services employees at a university. The employees were primarily Hispanic or African American and were drawn from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in the area.



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Community Help for Amber and Her Family Consider the situation faced by Amber and her family. Review the community resources discussed in this chapter. What community collaborations might make a difference for Amber? How might they help?

The program made use of cultural brokers from among the employees and made serious efforts at collaboration. Bryan points out, however, that the program would have been better if it had been fully democratic, with employees involved in planning from the very beginning: “If the HWP professionals had a lens such as the Citizen Health Care Model, their vision may have moved beyond interventions that focused solely on service provision to those that incorporated democratic collaboration and empowerment geared toward institutional and social change that ultimately increased long-term access to health care for the target community” (Bryan, 2009, p. 510). Building on this understanding of the long-term results of democratic collaboration, Bryan discusses the implications of this approach for the counseling profession. Counselors will need to shift their focus from a top-down approach to sharing power equitably with citizens as they collaborate to enhance citizen empowerment. As counselors collaborate with clients, families, and communities, they must recognize their potential to be valuable brokers of power who can help citizens build their power base to improve their own situations. (Bryan, 2009, p. 510)

COMMUNITY ADVOCACY

In this chapter, the section devoted to community collaboration discussed examples of community resources that might be helpful for clients. Often, the assistance that counselors need for their clients is available in the community. In those cases, collaborative efforts are most appropriate. In some situations, however, a gap in community resources exists and has clearly not been addressed by anyone else. Community counselors may need to step into the breech. When counselors identify systemic factors that act as barriers to their students’ or clients’ development, they often wish that they could change the environment and prevent some of the problems that they see every day. Counselors who view themselves as change agents and who understand systemic change principles are able to make this wish a


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reality. Regardless of the specific target of change, the processes for altering the status quo have common qualities. Change is a process that requires vision, persistence, leadership, collaboration, systems analysis, and strong data. In many situations, a counselor is the right person to take leadership. (Lewis et al., 2002) Consider, for example, the case of the Soto/Torres family (Hendricks, Bradley, & Lewis, 2010), who were introduced in Chapter 6. Because of thorny issues regarding transportation, the parents had serious difficulty gaining access to the health care and human services that they needed. Even more serious was the fact that they had trouble getting to appointments with their young son’s probation officer. Again, the problems had to do with accessibility. Their counselor, Laura, was an effective client advocate and was able to smooth out their relationships with the health and juvenile justice systems. At the same time, Laura and a group of her colleagues realized that most of their clients were in the same straits, failing to arrive at important appointments because of problems related to accessibility. Families that failed to appear for their mandated contacts with their child’s probation agent knew that they might be jeopardizing the child’s future. The worry they felt on behalf of their children was very real, but that did not give them the power to change the location of the probation office, which was many miles away from their neighborhood. The neighborhood church, in contrast, was an accessible source of support, providing Sunday lunches and afternoon activities for children and adolescents and acting as a regular meeting place for community activities. A meeting with families and concerned community members spawned an audacious idea: Why not ask the probation agents to meet with families in the church? (p. 190) Much to her surprise, Laura, who volunteered to represent the group in a meeting with the probation office administrator, was successful. Probation meetings actually began to take place at the church building. Just as surprisingly, the probation administrators began to track parental attendance at appointments and found that the number of “no-shows” had plummeted. A decision was made to move the parenting classes and anger management training from the probation office to the church, leading to a 50% increase in turnout. The counselors and community members, happy with their success, decided to take another step: addressing not just the location of services but the quality of the transportation as well. Again, a counselor stepped forward, offering to research the possibilities for changes in the local bus routes. What she learned was that the transportation company needed proof of public demand. A doorto-door petition drive (coordinated not by the counselor but by families in the community) brought the new bus route into existence. The longer-term outcome, however, was even more important: “a sense among community members that participation can bring results” (p. 191).



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OVERCOMING POWERLESSNESS

As community counselors work, they tend to become more and more aware of the many problems that individuals alone are powerless to solve. They begin to perceive the many obstacles that stand in the way of each individual’s freedom to develop in healthy ways. They note the vast numbers of people whose lives are stifled by poor living conditions, unemployment, inadequate education, oppressive social institutions, lack of services, or undemocratic decision-making processes. They realize that individuals are often punished for being different. Most of all, however, they learn that people in general feel powerless to affect the ways in which their own lives are lived. They learn that people are affected by the environment, but do not know how to affect it in return. Counselors sometimes react to this knowledge with feelings of frustration and despair. They can see the need for community change but they, like their clients, feel powerless to do anything about it. Some react by turning away from these problems. Others try to act single-handedly—alone—to right the wrongs that they see. Yet, even if community counselors could solve all of their clients’ problems, they would still be failing to get at the real problem: powerlessness itself. All of the models that have been reviewed in this chapter share in common the fact that they help people move away from powerlessness. A citizen of Harlem who takes part in a Community Pride project, a Chicagoan who joins a coalition against violence, an individual who joins a self-help organization, a family that participates in a Citizen Health Care Initiative: all of these people are taking steps in the direction of hope and empowerment. When community counselors enter into community collaborations and advocacy, they too begin to benefit. They, too, can let themselves see “a dream of the future ahead” for their clients and their communities. SUMMARY

Although advocating on behalf of individual clients is important, counselors sometimes become aware of factors in the community environment that are causing problems for multiple clients. They begin to consider not just the unique needs of their individual clients but also the collective needs of their clients as a group. All members of a community should have confidence that their children might live better lives than their own, that violence is not the norm in their neighborhood, that efforts are being made to address poverty and oppression, that they can access good educational and health resources, and that they can count on support within the community when they face serious obstacles. Community counselors can help to facilitate healthy communities by collaborating with evidence-based neighborhood programs, such as the Harlem Children’s Zone or CeaseFire-Chicago; with self-help organizations; and with family and community projects. When gaps in community resources exist, community counselors may need to take leadership in community advocacy.


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Program Development In reading this chapter, you were introduced to several examples of community-based projects. Now see how the ideas presented here relate to the population or group being addressed in your hypothetical community counseling program. Identify some of your potential clients’ needs and decide what types of community collaborations you, as the counselor, might want to carry out.

REFERENCES Alinsky, S. D. (1969). Rules for radicals. New York: Vantage. Brooks, D. (2009, May 8). The Harlem miracle. New York Times (p. a31). Brueggemann, W. G. (1996). The practice of macro social work. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Bryan, J. (2009). Engaging clients, families, and communities as partners in mental health. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87, 504–511. CeaseFire-Chicago. (2010). Five core components. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from http://www.ceasefirechicago.org/cpvp.shtml. D’Andrea, M. (1994, April). Creating a vision for our future: The challenges and promise of the counseling profession. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Counseling Association, Minneapolis. Diehl, D. (2005). The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention. In S. L. Isaacs & J. R. Knickman (Eds.), The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation anthology series (Vol. VIII, Chapter 6, pp. 1–15). Princeton, NJ: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Doherty, W. J., & Carroll, J. S. (2007). Families and therapists as citizens: The Families and Democracy Project. In E. Aldarondo (Ed.), Advancing social justice through clinical practice (pp. 223–244). New York: Routledge. Doherty, W. J., & Mendenhall, T. J. (2006). Citizen health care: A model for engaging patients, families, and communities as co-producers of health. Family, Systems, and Health, 24, 241–253. Gartner, A., & Riessman, F. (Eds.). (1984). Introduction. In A. Gartner & F. Riessman (Eds.), The self-help revolution (pp. 17–23). New York: Human Sciences Press. Goodman, J. (2010). Advocacy for older clients. In M. L. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 97–106). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Harlem Children’s Zone. (2009a). History. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http:// www.hcz.org/about-us/history. Harlem Children’s Zone. (2009b). The HCZ project: 100 blocks, one bright future. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://www.hcz.org/about-us/the-hcz-project. Harlem Children’s Zone. (2009c). Community Pride. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://www.hcz.org/-family-community-and-health/family-a-community.



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Hendricks, B., Bradley, L. J., & Lewis, J. A. (2010). ACA advocacy competencies in family counseling. In M. L. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 185–194). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Ife, J. (1996). Community development: Creating community alternatives—Vision, analysis and practice. Melbourne: Longman. Kenney, K. R., & Kenney, M. E. (2010). Advocacy counseling with the multiracial population. In M. L. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 65–74). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Lewis, J. A., Arnold, M. S., House, R. & Toporek, R. L. (2002). The ACA Advocacy Competencies. Available at http://www.counseling.org/Publications/. McWhirter, E. H. (1994). Counseling for empowerment. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Obama, B. (2007, July 18). Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Changing the odds for urban America. Address delivered in Washington, DC. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://www.barackobama.com/2007/07/18/remarks_of_senator_barack_ obama_19.php. Riessman, F. (1985). New dimensions in self-help. Social Policy, 15(3), 2–5. Singh, A. A. (2010). It takes more than a rainbow sticker! Advocacy on queer issues in counseling. In M. L. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 29–42). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Skogan, W. G. (2008). Brief summary: An evaluation of CeaseFire-Chicago. Retrieved February 22, 2010, from http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/publications/ceasefire_ papers/summary.pdf. Skogan, W. G., Hartnett, S. M., Bump, N., & Dubois, J. (2008). Evaluation of CeaseFireChicago. Retrieved February 22, 2010, from http://www.skogan.org/files/Evaluation_ of_CeaseFire-Chicago_Main_Report.03-2009.pdf. Tough, P. (2009). Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada’s quest to change Harlem and America. New York: Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin.


CHAPTER 8

Social/Political Action Strategies

I

n the past, most community organizations and social/political advocacy groups functioned in a world apart from individuals who identified themselves as members of the helping professions. Now, however, the separate worlds of counseling and macro-level advocacy have begun to merge. Community counselors no longer turn their backs on the need for social/political action because they realize that this work is a natural continuation of the counseling process. Helping individuals and dealing with the social/political systems that affect them are two aspects of the same task. This merging of interest between counseling and social/political action is a result of the now widespread recognition that the interaction between individuals and their environments belongs on the community counselor’s professional front burner. Healthy environments do enhance individual growth, and problems in the environment do repress human development. Recognition of these facts may be newly widespread, but the facts themselves have been apparent to many for a long time. The idea that “the personal is political” is not an invention of our still-young millennium. The idea itself has been with us for decades. What the 21st century has brought, however, is an awakening of the counseling profession to the fact that counselors have an activist role to play. 206 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

SOCIAL/POLITICAL ACTION STRATEGIES

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THE COUNSELOR’S CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIAL/POLITICAL ACTIVISM

Cohen, de la Vega, and Watson (2001) suggest that “effective social movements are built by well-rounded teams of storytellers, organizers, and ‘experts’ alike” (p. 29). Every counselor should read this statement as an invitation to participate, because counselors have stories to tell, organizing skills to offer, and expertise to share. Stories to Tell

Community counselors have a unique awareness of the common problems faced by the clients they serve. The stories that counselors can tell have to do with recurring themes: large numbers of people facing the same difficulties and coming up against the same obstacles. Through their interactions with their clients, counselors become ever more aware of specific aspects of the environment that damage members of every community. The experience of attempting to help all of these individuals can become an exercise in frustration as counselors realize that new victims continually appear. This occurs when community counselors are concerned with the total mental health needs of poverty-stricken neighborhoods. It also occurs when career or employment counselors become aware of inequitable hiring practices; when rehabilitation counselors note the obstacles their clients face in trying to obtain their rights to equal treatment; when school counselors try to stop unfair and inhumane educational practices; when agency counselors dealing with specific populations try to offset the community’s tendency to marginalize particular groups of people. It happens whenever a counselor’s attempt to help his or her clients find their own strength is counterbalanced by environmental forces that weaken or stifle growth. When counselors become aware of difficulties within the environment, they can bring those problems to the surface. They can encourage action for change by (a) making others aware of specific problems and their consequences for human development, (b) alerting existing advocacy groups that are already working for change and that might have an interest in the issue at hand, or (c) joining others in attempts to organize citizens who can fight for change on their own behalf. Community counselors have a unique perspective that allows them to recognize the seriousness of community problems and to join with others in the search for new solutions. Yes, community counselors have stories to tell! Organizing Skills to Offer

Through the very nature of their work, community counselors have intimate contacts with the most powerless segments of the population. In the past, some counselors might have used these contacts to teach the groups with which they worked to adjust to the demands of the larger community. More and more, Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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community counselors are trying instead to encourage and support the growth of advocacy organizations that can make demands on the community. Community counselors have their fingers on the pulse of the community. Just as they are familiar with all of the agencies that provide direct services, they can also familiarize themselves with the groups and organizations that are attempting to bring about more fundamental changes. Just as they link individuals with agencies that are part of the helping network, they can also link individuals and groups with organizations dealing head-on with issues that relate to identified needs. Many agencies act as clearinghouses for information and as home bases for activist groups. Community counselors can participate, along with others, in actions that are particularly relevant to the consumers of their services. Often, a number of organizations join forces to act in regard to specific issues. Community counselors must, at times, help to organize such actions for change. Expertise to Share

If there is one common core skill that all effective community counselors should share, it is in the area of interpersonal relations and communication. They can make a significant contribution by sharing these skills with people who are attempting to organize for change. Community counselors can act as consultants to such groups and can provide training in the skills that community members have identified as important. Such activities might include: 1. Provision of leadership training 2. Analysis of communication patterns within the group 3. Training in interpersonal skills that can help group members function together as an effective unit 4. Training in communication skills that can increase the group’s effectiveness in outreach to new members 5. Development of effective techniques of communication with other individuals and organizations Community counselors may also be able to help organizations develop expertise in research and evaluation—in gathering the hard data they need to support their claims. Ideally, counselors can also share what expertise they may have in understanding social systems and the nature of change itself. Of course, counselors also have expertise in the area of human development. They know, because of the difficulties their clients face, which environmental barriers must come down. They also know, because of their clients’ successes, how important the positive aspects of the environment can be. Risks and Benefits

Community counselors are not responsible for the powerless members of their communities; they are responsible to them. Community counselors—as individuals Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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and as a group—have many valuable qualities that they can bring to social change movements. Despite the obvious talents that they can bring to the world of activism, however, not all helping professionals choose to become directly involved in social action for change. Such involvement implies, for one thing, taking sides. When the needs of the powerless come into conflict with the desires of the powerful, one side should be supported against the other. The decision to leave objectivity behind and to pick a side in such a struggle brings opportunities both for exhilaration and for risk. Community counselors whose personal and professional values lead them toward a commitment to social change will not find their work easy. Until very recently, it was unlikely that their training prepared them for the change agent’s life. They must adapt the skills they have developed as counselors to individuals, families, and small groups to the needs of the community and the larger public arena. The most difficult step is the initial commitment to change.

COUNSELORS AND SOCIAL/POLITICAL ADVOCACY: BEGINNING WITH THE CLIENT

In conceptualizing the counselor’s social/political advocacy role, the ACA Advocacy Competencies make an explicit connection between the counselor/client relationship and the counselor’s need for competency in the larger public arena. Counselors regularly act as change agents in the systems that affect their own students and clients most directly. This experience often leads toward the recognition that some of the concerns they have addressed affect people in a much larger arena. When this happens, counselors use their skills to carry out social/political advocacy. (Lewis et al., 2002, p. 3) Making the connection between providing direct services to clients and taking public stands on their behalf calls on counselors to be able to do the following: Distinguish those problems that can best be resolved through social/political action. Identify the appropriate mechanisms and avenues for addressing these problems. Seek out and join with potential allies. Support existing alliances for change. With allies, prepare convincing data and rationales for change. With allies, lobby legislators and other policymakers. (Lewis et al., 2002) Clearly, social/political advocacy is not an “add-on” to the counselor’s day job as service provider. Advocacy is, instead, a natural outgrowth of the counselor’s empathy and experience. The idea of beginning with the client suggests that their Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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experience with clients can help counselors choose the most important issues and the best allies for social/political advocacy. Drawing from just a few of the client examples within the pages of this book can lead toward a comprehensive public policy agenda. Amber and Her Family

Amber and her sons were introduced in Chapter 7 as an example of how the local community had failed their family. A new reading of this case, however, also shows something else: how deeply Amber’s life has been affected by public policies that go far beyond her neighborhood. Amber and her late husband, Ronald, grew up in an urban, African American neighborhood with high rates of poverty, unemployment, and school dropout. They had their children very young, but with grit and tenacity they both managed to complete high school and Ronald even managed to complete some community college courses. With his community college training, Ronald began to earn enough money to make it possible for the family to buy a small home in what they considered a much better neighborhood. When Ronald became ill, his long bout with cancer drained the family of whatever economic resources they had been able to put together. By the time her young husband died, the family no longer had savings to draw on or means to pay the mortgage. When Ronald passed away, Amber was left with two young sons to raise and no means to maintain their hard-won lives as a middle-class family. Drawn back into poverty, Amber decided to return to the neighborhood where she had grown up. At least there, she thought, she could get cheaper rent. Although the younger Amber had wanted to escape the neighborhood, the now 30-year-old Amber thought it might be comforting to go to a place that was familiar. Once she was back in the neighborhood, Amber found life more difficult than she could have imagined. It was almost impossible to get any work at all, least of all a full-time job with health benefits. She put together part-time employment in two or three jobs at a time just to get by. This left her 13-yearold, Andre, and her 12-year-old, Arthur, with little after-school supervision. Her worst fears were realized when she became aware that both of her sons, especially Andre, had been drawn into gang activity on their street. She tried to convince Andre and Arthur that their future well-being depended on their education but their answers were clear. First, there was no possibility of safety for a young man in their neighborhood with no gang affiliation. Second, their friends on the block were like family to them—better than family. Third, their middle school had nothing to offer them, especially since the material being covered was the same as what they had learned in elementary school in their old neighborhood. Amber became distraught when gunfire broke out on the block and Arthur narrowly escaped being caught in the crossfire. She felt guilty that she could not spend time with her boys, giving them supervision and helping them with Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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academic learning. Most of all, she felt guilty about the fact that she had brought her children back to the place where she had started. The hopefulness she had thought was part of her personality was gone. Amber’s counselor would take note of the fact that this family had lost everything they worked for, not because of any failings on their part but because of health policies that provided too little protection against the economic impact of an illness. The counselors would also know that Amber’s fear for her sons’ future is justified: young, African American males do have a high risk of becoming involved in an unfair criminal justice system. Amber’s story is unique, but the impact of these public policies is just as devastating for many others in her community, her state, and her nation. Her counselor would realize that, knowing these stories, he or she would have a role to play in social/political action directed both toward inequities in the criminal justice system and toward shortcomings in American health care policies. Criminal Justice. Welch and Angulo (2002) make the strong point that, despite Constitutional guarantees of equal treatment under the law,

Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities are victimized by disproportionate targeting and unfair treatment by police and other front-line law enforcement officials; by racially skewed charging and plea bargaining decisions of prosecutors; by discriminatory sentencing practices; and by the failure of judges, elected officials, and other criminal justice policymakers to redress the inequities that become more glaring every day. (p. 186) First, “police departments disproportionately target minorities as criminal suspects” (Welch & Angulo, 2002, p. 191). Then, “the subtle biases and stereotypes that cause police officers to rely on racial profiling are compounded by the racially skewed decisions of other key actors” (p. 191). From arrest, to criminal charges, to sentencing, minority group members face inequalities. And—perhaps most distressing to Amber and her sons—“the racial disparities that characterize criminal justice in America affect young people deeply, and cause minority youth to be overrepresented at every stage of the juvenile justice system” (p. 200). Discriminatory practices in relationship to drug arrests and convictions play a central role in this devastating state of affairs. “A renewed emphasis on addressing drug problems through the health system rather than the criminal justice system is sorely needed in light of the impact the ‘War on Drugs’ has had on communities of color” (Lewis, Dana, & Blevins, 2011, p. 18). The figures are staggering: “Though African Americans constitute 13% of the United States’ monthly drug users, they represent 35% of those arrested for drug possession, 55% of drug possession convictions, and 74% of those sentenced to prison for drug possession” (Drug Policy Alliance, 2002). Part of this discrepancy can be attributed to the differences in mandatory sentencing for crack cocaine in comparison with powder cocaine. “It takes 1/1000 as much crack cocaine as powder cocaine to trigger equal mandatory minimum sentences” (Drug Policy Alliance, 2002). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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The Welch and Angulo report (2002) makes recommendations for needed changes in criminal justice policies and practices. These recommendations include the following: Build accountability into the exercise of discretion by police and prosecutors. Improve the diversity of law enforcement personnel. Improve the collection of criminal justice data relevant to racial disparities. Suspend operation of the death penalty. Repeal mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Reform sentencing guideline systems. Reject or repeal efforts to transfer juveniles into the adult justice system. Improve the quality of indigent defense counsel in criminal cases. Repeal felony disenfranchisement laws and other mandatory collateral consequences of criminal convictions. Restore balance to the national drug control strategy. As allies to the members of the communities they serve, counselors can play an important part in bringing these pressing concerns to light. Health Care. Community counselors have many opportunities to take part in alliances with organizations that represent grassroots advocates for health care. These entities are generally organized as networks of member organizations at the local, state, and national levels. At specific times, during the health insurance reform work of 2009–2010 for example, these organizations mobilize for immediate public action. The thrust of their efforts, however, is in long-term efforts to help people gain equitable access to health care. Families USA provides a good example of an organization that is national in scope but also helps to coordinate the work of local and state entities.

Families USA is a national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Working at the national, state, and community levels, we have earned a national reputation as an effective voice for health care consumers for 25 years. We: Manage a grassroots advocates’ network of organizations and individuals working for the consumer perspective in national and state health policy debates … Act as a watchdog over government actions affecting health care, alerting consumers to changes and helping them have a say in the development of policy … Produce highly respected health policy reports describing the problems facing health care consumers and outlining steps to solve them …



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Conduct public information campaigns about the concerns of health care consumers using sophisticated media techniques that reach many millions of Americans through television, radio, newspaper, and other print outlets … Serve as a consumer clearinghouse for information about the health care system … Work in concert with a wide range of organizations—from business to consumer to health provider organizations—toward the achievement of health care that is high quality and affordable for all Americans. Provide training and technical assistance to, and work collaboratively with, state and community-based organizations as they address critical health care problems in their communities and state capitals (Families USA, 2010). The Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN) also combines the strength of a national voice with outreach to entities at the state and local levels. “UHCAN helps build relationships among advocacy leaders and policy experts, facilitates information-sharing, and provides the ‘big picture’ on state and national health reform policy approaches and politics” (Universal Health Care Action Network, 2010). UHCAN’s goals include the following (Universal Health Care Action Network 2010): 1. Connect state health care advocacy groups with each other and national organizations to promote sharing resources and information, best practices, and collaboration. 2. Facilitate new alliances and broader coalitions in states and nationally to build public and political support needed to advance the achievement of affordable, quality health care for all. 3. Promote effective engagement with policymakers, both state and national, by strengthening leadership and advocacy skills among state-based advocates and their organizations. Both Families USA and UHCAN combine public information efforts with ongoing advocacy, as do many organizations working at the state level. One example of effective advocacy at the state level is provided by an Illinois organization: the Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC). This organization provides leadership for a coalition of groups and individuals that form an ongoing Health Justice Campaign, working toward health care accessibility, affordability, quality, and cost containment. Under the auspices of CBHC, a number of caucuses are organized by geographical and interest areas. One interesting and effective effort is the Faith Caucus, which is built on the unique moral vision, sensibility, and language of faith communities: Health care is a shared responsibility that is grounded in our common humanity. In the bonds of our human family, we are created to be equal. We are guided by a divine will to treat each person with dignity and to live together as an inclusive community. Affirming our


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commitment to the common good, we acknowledge our enduring responsibility to care for one another. As we recognize that society is whole only when we care for the most vulnerable among us, we are led to discern the human right to health care and wholeness. Therefore, we are called to act with compassion by sharing our abundant health care resources with everyone. (Campaign for Better Health Care, 2010) Faith communities that participate in the caucus are able to mobilize toward advocacy efforts that may be as powerful, in their own way, as the partisan politics they eschew. Consider, for example, Sound the Alarm for Health Care Justice: It is time for people of faith to “SOUND THE ALARM for Health Care Justice!” Congregations across the state will join together in prayer and then “sound the alarm” with a horn, bell or other instrument, sounding 18 times for the 1.8 million uninsured people in Illinois. (Campaign for Better Health Care, 2010) Community counselors do not have to be the “leaders” in campaigns for accessible and affordable health care, but they do owe it to clients like Amber to tell her story and lend their expertise to health care advocacy. Linguicism and Immigration Issues

In the discussion of client advocacy in Chapter 6, several individuals and families were introduced. All of these clients were affected by linguicism (discrimination against individuals who are not fluent in the dominant language of their country) and most were caught up in civil rights issues related to immigration as well. The Soto/Torres family, whose children were caught up in the juvenile justice system, were in the United States legally but faced discrimination based on their Mexican heritage and lack of facility with standard English. The other clients included the Guerrero family, whose economic difficulties were exacerbated by the lack of appropriate papers for employment; Carlos, who was afraid to seek college admission for fear of deportation; and Ramon, whose need for services in a methadone clinic were unmet because the clinic required proof of citizenship. All community counselors have clients whose first language is not English and who are subject to the oppression of linguicism. In the United States, counselors are especially likely to confront this problem with clients who speak Spanish or an Asian language. The Spanish-speaking clients discussed in Chapter 6 clearly demonstrate the need for social action in the public domain. Opposing Linguicism-Based Policies. The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) warns of the discrimination underlying political movements based on linguicism. The idea that English should be an official language often comes to the fore and finds a willing audience among some segments of the United States population.

“Official English” legislation may require that government forms, documents, signage, and other communications be in English only.



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Such proposals are often based on myths and misinformation about immigrants, particularly Latino immigrants…. The fact is that 92% of Latinos believe that teaching English to the children of immigrants is very important. And even though immigrants are eager to learn English, they face long waiting lists for adult English-as-a-Second Language classes. In New York City, for example, English courses are so oversubscribed that in 2008 only 41,347 adults—out of an estimated one million adult English language learners—had the opportunity to enroll. (National Council of La Raza, 2009, p. 4) Accompanying the idea of English as an official language is the notion that official documents and communications should be in no other language but English. These “English-only” ideas are not only discriminatory: they are impractical and dangerous as well. While not helping a single limited-English-proficient (LEP) person learn English, “Official English” legislation would place the health and safety of all Americans at risk. By restricting communication with LEP individuals, such proposals would weaken the delivery of public health and safety messages that are intended to protect all Americans. (National Council of La Raza, 2009, p. 4) Such discriminatory policies represent very thinly veiled racism and may appeal to small segments of the population. It is necessary, however, for people who stand against oppression, including counselors, to be vigilant, noticing when harmful legislation is introduced and joining those who oppose it. Addressing Immigrant Civil Rights. Hinojosa-Ojeda (2010) makes the case that immigration policies that depend solely on enforcement measures are not only discriminatory but also have a negative impact on the economy of the United States.

The U.S. government has attempted for more than two decades to put a stop to unauthorized immigration from and through Mexico by implementing “enforcement-only” measures along the U.S.–Mexico border and at work sites across the country. These measures have failed to end unauthorized immigration and placed downward pressure on wages in a broad swath of industries. Comprehensive immigration reform that legalizes currently unauthorized immigrants and creates flexible legal limits on future immigration in the context of full labor rights would help American workers and the U.S. economy. Unlike the current enforcement-only strategy, comprehensive reform would raise the “wage floor” for the entire U.S. economy—to the benefit of both immigrant and native-born workers. (p. 1) This conceptualization shows clearly that the recommendations made by Latino advocacy groups regarding immigration bring positive results not just to


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one culture but to all of the cultures that make up the fabric of American life. Consider, for example, the immigration policy recommendations made by the National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights (NCIWR). These recommendations can improve the lives of men, as well as women, and of all United States citizens. NCIWR promotes an equitable immigration policy that provides: Legal and safe immigration options for undocumented men, women, and children … A path to citizenship that allows immigrant women (and men) to obtain work permits, to travel internationally, and to access higher education and federal financial aid … A reduction in the family and employment based immigration backlogs that contribute to separation of immigrant women from their children, families, and communities. Legal channels for immigrant workers to fill future U.S. jobs. Protection from exploitation and abuse in the workplace by providing fair wages and safe working conditions … A family-based immigration policy that respects the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender immigrants and same-sex partners. An end to discriminatory, militaristic, and inhumane immigration enforcement practices that destroy the families, homes, and communities of immigrant women (National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights, 2007). Many of the proposals put forward by immigration advocates and scholars would have direct and immediate effects on the clients discussed in this chapter. Consider, for example, the effect the following legislation would have on Carlos, who believed that the doors to higher education were closed to him: NCLR supports both state and federal legislation enabling longtime U.S. resident immigration children to attend their state public university or college at the in-state tuition rate. In addition, NCLR believes that federal legislation allowing certain immigrant students—those who have lived in the United States for a long period of time and have demonstrated good moral character—the opportunity to adjust their status to that of a permanent legal resident is critical to improving the pipeline from high school to college and meaningful employment for Latinos. (National Council of La Raza, 2009, p. 9) Consider also the impact of the following idea on Ramon, who has been denied the health care he needs because he cannot produce the right papers: “There should be a full repeal of and opposition to citizen documentation requirements and other verification processes that create more barriers to the health care system for individuals in need of health care” (National Council of La Raza, 2009, p. 16).



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Issues Affecting Women

Sometimes people watching the media coverage of individual women breaking through “glass ceilings” begin to think that sexism is a thing of the past. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Women’s oppression is a global phenomenon that crosses all national and cultural boundaries. Women are not only subject to human rights violations on the basis of their sex alone, but may also be victimized by multiple oppressions, with racism, heterosexism, ageism, religious discrimination, and poverty all taking their toll. It is only when we take notice of this reality that we can begin to help the individual women who seek our assistance. (Lewis, 2007, p. 95) Even within the United States, the small but public steps toward equality have bypassed many women. Poor women, immigrant women, women of color, lesbians, mothers trying to raise their families without community resources, and older women—most victims of multiple oppressions—remain disproportionately victimized by violence, deepening poverty, discrimination, and erosion of human rights. Among the women whose lives are still defined by sexism is Jeanette, who was introduced in Chapter 1. A counselor at a Vet Center in a southern town enjoys helping combat veterans make successful transitions to civilian life. This Vet Center, like hundreds of others, is part of the network of community-based services provided by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA). One of the counselor’s most difficult challenges is helping veterans deal with problems related to what the VA terms military sexual trauma, which encompasses sexual harassment and sexual assault in military settings. Currently, he is counseling Jeanette, a young, white woman who experienced ongoing gender harassment while in the military. Coming from a large family that could not afford higher education, Jeanette had hoped for a military career that would give her opportunities for education and advancement. Her experience of harassment, however, made her feel that her dreams had been unrealistic. Having left the military, she is now having difficulty making a transition to civilian employment. She knows that sexual harassment can happen anywhere and she can no longer picture herself as a respected member of a workplace team. Although Jeanette was not a victim of physical assault while in the military, she was directly affected by an environment that is sometimes hostile to women. According to the National Organization for Women (2010a), Countless military women and military spouses are victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. It is estimated that rates of marital abuse in the military are two to five times higher than civilian rates of domestic violence. Moreover, one in three women in the military will be sexually assaulted during their tour of duty. (p. 1)


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In response to this situation, the Military Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Act was introduced in 2009. If passed, the act would “reduce sexual assault and domestic violence involving members of the Armed Forces and their family members and partners through enhanced programs of prevention and deterrence, enhanced programs of victims services, and strengthened provisions for prosecution of assailants” (Washington Watch, 2010). Although the military may be a difficult environment for women, it is readily apparent that the Jeanette’s ordeals are not limited to what she experienced during her service. Even before her time in the military, her economic status had limited her options in terms of higher education. And now, as a civilian, Jeanette, like many women, still feels that the next experience of harassment is right around the corner. Workplace discrimination also affects women whose efforts to balance work and family life leave them feeling frustrated and helpless. From Carole (Chapter 1), whose child-care responsibilities stopped her career short while her husband’s career blossomed, to the Mexican American parents discussed in Chapter 6, women need—but do not get—family-friendly public policies and workplaces. The National Organization for Women (2010b) highlights the importance of policies and programs that protect the economic rights of mothers and caregivers. Caregiver supports, for instance, would include (a) child care, with subsidies as needed; (b) social security, disability, and unemployment benefits for caregivers; (c) programs to help families overcome poverty; (d) tax credits for family caregivers; (e) universal health care; (f ) nondiscriminatory wages; (g) safe housing and public transportation; (h) excellent education; (i) recognition of the value of the caregiver’s contribution to the couple’s earnings and assets when parents separate or divorce; ( j) guaranteed child support for lone parents; (k) respite care services; and (l) considering unpaid care work as part of national productivity measurements. In addition to caregiver support, policies should focus on family-friendly workplace hours and economic protections, including family and sick leave for people who work 20 hours per week. Older women make up another group facing multiple oppressions, with members of this population forced to deal with discrimination based both on sex and on age. Older women are also subject to a pervasive environment of discrimination and marginalization. Older adults, particularly women and people of color, are often marginalized by society, sometimes patronized, other times ignored. Many older women can attest to feeling invisible as younger people are served first at shops, listened to differently at meetings, or otherwise treated as if they are not there. (Goodman, 2010, p. 98) In more concrete ways, the difficulties of older women show up powerfully in the economic straits they face. Today in America, the average woman age 65 and over lives six years longer than the average man. As a result, she is typically widowed and living alone. She struggles to make ends meet on an annual income of



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$15,615 (compared with over $29,171 for men). During her lifetime she probably spent 17 years caring for children and 18 years caring for elderly parents. Her retirement income is also smaller because she probably did not receive a pension, and was paid less than the average man. As a result, she receives lower Social Security benefits. She spends a higher proportion of her income on housing costs—leaving less for vital necessities such as utilities, medical costs, food, and transportation. The average older woman spends 20 percent of her income each year on out-of-pocket health care costs. (Older Women’s League, 2001) Barriers to older women’s well-being also show up in the degree to which they are affected by elder abuse (Older Women’s League, 2009); by problems in accessing good health care; and by dependence on social security, which, although effective, is often subject to political attacks that could lead to diminution of benefits. If the combination of sexism and ageism is injurious to women, consider the devastating impact of adding yet a third oppression: heterosexism. If an older woman is heterosexual and has been married, there is at least a chance that she might receive a share of her husband’s social security benefits or pension. There is also a possibility that she might have had access to better health care through coverage by her husband’s health insurance. In contrast, Most elder Americans rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. Like everyone else, LGBT elders may qualify as individuals for Social Security benefits. But elders in same-sex relationships are disadvantaged under federal law, and may not be eligible for many Social Security program benefits that protect lower-earning spouses and surviving spouses. (National Center for Lesbian Rights, 2009, p. 5) The National Center for Lesbian Rights also highlights the privileging of married, heterosexual couples inherent in the right to be identified as next of kin, the right to make medical decisions on behalf of one’s partner, and the right to inherit without a will. Members of the LGBT community still face oppression across the life span: as employees deserving equal rights, as couples seeking legal recognition, as parents whose parental rights must be accepted without question, and as human beings who must be protected from hate crimes. Chris: An Experience of Middle School Bullying

In previous chapters, Chris and his family were introduced. At fourteen, Chris had recently come out to his parents and he and his family were distressed that their complaints about his experience of bullying in his middle school were met with inaction on the part of administrators and teachers. Counselors are of course likely to encounter this kind of situation on a regular basis. Although client advocacy is of major importance, counselors should also be alert to the impact of public policy. Hutchins (2010) cites an example in which a bill being


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considered in a state legislature addressed bullying in the schools. “The bill did not include reference to sexual and gender identity, and the counselor was able to provide research information that affected the way the bill was drafted” (p. 135). Of course, the community counselor would then follow the progress of the bill, joining in on the advocacy efforts of state-level human rights organizations. Chris’s story also raises an alert in that school officials suggested that “Chris might do well to modify his own behaviors in the direction of masculinity.” Pressures of this kind are reminders of the extreme levels of oppression faced by members of the transgender community. The Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling developed the Competencies for Counseling Transgender Clients (2009). These competencies make it clear that counselors, like other helping professionals, sometimes collude with oppression if they have not made conscious efforts to develop competencies in this area. Consider, for example, some of the specific competencies that are included in the section on Social and Cultural Foundation and help to highlight the degree to which counselors must be purposeful in understanding and applying respect. They include the following: B. 1. Understand the importance of using appropriate language (e.g., correct name and pronouns) with transgender clients … recognize that language has historically been used to oppress and discriminate against transgender people; understand that the counselor is in a position of power and should model respect for the client’s declared vocabulary. B. 2. Acknowledge that the oppression of transgender people is a component of sexism, heterosexism, and transphobia and reflects a worldview and value-system that undermines the healthy functioning and autonomy of transgender people. B. 3. Understand that transprejudice and transphobia pervade the social and cultural foundations of many institutions and traditions and foster negative attitudes, high incidence of violence/hate crimes, and overt hostility toward transgender people. B. 4. Recognize how internalized prejudice and discrimination (e.g., transphobia, racism, sexism, classism, religious discrimination, ableism, adultism, ageism) may influence the counselor’s own attitudes as well as those of her/his/hir transgender clients resulting in negative attitudes toward transgender people. B. 5. Recognize, acknowledge, and understand the intersecting identities of transgender people (e.g., race/ethnicity, ability, class, religion/spiritual affiliation, age, experiences of trauma) and their accompanying developmental tasks. This should include attention to the formation and integration of the multiple identity statuses of transgender people. (p. 8) Community counselors who participate in the ongoing effort to build transgender competencies are in a position to recognize and address concrete examples of oppression when they see them. The need for public advocacy on behalf Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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of transgender clients cuts across all community counseling specialties. In discussing advocacy competencies in employment counseling, for instance, Chope (2010) provides a specific example concerning employment-related identification issues: Name change orders can be made for Social Security cards, drivers’ licenses, and birth certificates, but gender changes cannot be made without proof of surgery. Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security may examine gender mismatches with the Social Security number verification system. With this knowledge, employment counselors can work toward greater equity in these identification issues. (p. 233) Chope also suggests vigilance in examining work-related legislation concerning nondiscrimination issues. If their transgender clients are left out of such legislation, community counselors have public policy work to do.

SOCIAL/POLITICAL ADVOCACY: THE BIG PICTURE

The previous sections of this chapter were designed to illustrate that, as a result of all they learn from their clients, community counselors have the expertise—and the responsibility—to take part in social/political action in the public arena. The examples provided in this chapter show a direct line from working with the client, to carrying out client advocacy, to collaborating with community groups, to advocating for changes in public policies. The key factor in a community counselor’s competence in this area is his or her ability and willingness to be alert both for dangers and for opportunities. Alertness to danger involves noticing environmental features in the environment that raise concerns for client well-being. Alertness to opportunity is also about noticing: in this case, social/political movements that hold promise for improving clients’ lives. The social, economic, and political environment is always in flux, which means that today’s big issue may be tomorrow’s old story and tomorrow’s big issue may come as a surprise. The community counselor’s effectiveness in meeting these challenges does depend on alertness, but it also depends on maintaining ongoing alliances with trusted advocacy organizations and on holding fast to a big-picture view of the kind of environment that enhances human development and human rights. EXHIBIT 8.1 Competency-Development Exercise

From Client to Social/Political Advocacy Think about an individual you know, a client you have helped, or an example drawn from the pages of this book. What ideas do you have about how this individual’s life could be enhanced by changes in public policy?


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It is sometimes difficult for counselors, whose work involves face-to-face connections with their clients and communities, to think very often about the importance of public policy. Yet, Martin Luther King, Jr., pointed out, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me and I think that is pretty important, also” (King, as cited by Obama, 2006, p. 65). Obama goes on to point out that Our communal values, our sense of mutual responsibility and social solidarity, should express themselves not just in the church or the mosque or the synagogue; not just on the blocks where we live, in the places where we work, or within our own families; but also through our government. Like many conservatives, I believe in the power of culture to determine both individual success and social cohesion, and I believe we ignore cultural factors at our peril. But I also believe that our government can play a role in shaping that culture for the better—or for the worse. (Obama, 2006, p. 65) Jackson and Watkins (2001) suggest that American rights can be advanced best through Constitutional guarantees and therefore propose a number of constitutional amendments. The following proposals are particularly relevant for the community counseling goal of facilitating human and community development: Proposed full-employment amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing such rights as “the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment” (p. 252). This amendment would also guarantee “equal pay for equal work” and the right of every family to have “an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection” (p. 252). Proposed health care amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that “all citizens of the United States shall enjoy the right to health care of equal and high quality” (p. 285). Proposed housing amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees that all citizens of the United States shall enjoy the right to decent, safe, sanitary, and affordable housing without discrimination (p. 300). Proposed education amendment to the U.S. Constitution, stating that “all citizens of the United States shall enjoy the right to a public education of equal high quality” (p. 330). Proposed equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which echoes the proposed but never passed equal rights amendment by stating that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” (p. 350). Proposed environmental amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that “all citizens of the United States shall enjoy the right to a clean, safe, and sustainable environment” (p. 371). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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The big picture of what Jackson and Watkins are recommending is “a political program that has the greatest possibility of providing racial reconciliation, healing, and relative social and political harmony—indeed, a second American Bill of Rights” (p. 17). Community counselors should have a role in bringing these dreams to fruition. SUMMARY

Community counselors have important roles to play in social/political advocacy and action. They bring (a) important stories based on what they have learned from their clients, (b) organizing skills that are sorely needed in movements for change, and (c) expertise in interpersonal relations and communication. When they “begin with the client,” counselors can make explicit connections between their direct services to individuals, families, and groups and their competencies in affecting public policy. This chapter drew from examples of clients who were introduced in previous chapters. The case of Amber and her family, for instance, would lead a counselor to recognize and try to change unfairness in the criminal justice and health care systems. Other client examples led toward questions related to linguicism; immigration civil rights; women’s issues; and human rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. The issues that belong on the “front burner” are in a constant state of flux. Counselors cannot always predict what major human rights issue is ahead. The chapter ends with a recommendation that counselors stay alert to environmental factors affecting their clients, maintain ongoing relationships with trusted advocacy organizations, and keep in mind the big picture of what kind of environment is owed to their clients. EXHIBIT 8.2 Competency-Building Exercise

Program Development Consider once more the community counseling program you have begun to develop. You have one more cell left to fill: broad-based strategies for facilitating community development. Think about the population you will serve in your program. What do you foresee as the kinds of social/political advocacy efforts you would need to make on their behalf?

REFERENCES Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling. (2009). Competencies for counseling with transgender clients. Alexandria, VA: Author. Campaign for Better Health Care. (2010). Faith caucus. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from http://www.cbhconline.org/issues/hcjc/faith.html. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Chope, R. C. (2010). Applying the ACA advocacy competencies in employment counseling. In M. J. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 225–238). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Cohen, D., de la Vega, R., & Watson, G. (2001). Advocacy for social justice: A global action and reflection guide. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press. Families USA. (2010). About us. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from http://www.familiesusa .org/about/. Goodman, J. (2010). Advocacy for older clients. In M. J. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA Advocacy Competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 97–106). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Hinojosa-Ojeda, R. (2010). Raising the floor for American workers: The economic benefits of comprehensive immigration reform. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, American Immigration Council. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from http://www .americanprogress.org/issues/2010/01/pdf/immigrationeconreport.pdf. Hutchins, A. M. (2010). Advocacy and the private practice counselor. In M. J. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA advocacy competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 129–138). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Jackson, J. L., Jr., & Watkins, F. E. (2001). A more perfect union: Advancing new American rights. New York: Welcome Rain Publishers. Lewis, J. A. (2007). Challenging sexism: Promoting the rights of women in contemporary society. In C. C. Lee (Ed.), Counseling for social justice (2nd ed., pp. 95–110). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Lewis, J. A., Dana, R. Q., & Blevins, G. A. (2011). Substance abuse counseling. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. National Center for Lesbian Rights. (2009). Planning with purpose: Legal basics for LGBT elders. San Francisco, CA: Author. National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights. (2007). Guiding principles. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from http://www.now.org/issues/diverse/nciwr_07_ membership.pdf. National Council of La Raza. (2009). NCLR agenda. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from www.nclr.org/files/56115_file_Public_Policy_Briefing_Book.pdf. National Organization for Women. (2010a). Act now to address violence against military women and their families. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://salsa.wiredforchange .com/o/5996/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=826#action. National Organization for Women. (2010b). A feminist future: Policy and program goals for mothers and caregivers economic rights. Retrieved March 5, 2010, from http://www .now.org/issues/mothers/goals.html. Obama, B. (2006). The audacity of hope. New York: Crown. Older Women’s League. (2001). State of older women in America. Retrieved March 13, 2010, from http://www.owl-national.org/Mothers_Day_Reports.html. Older Women’s League. (2009). Elder abuse: A women’s issue: Mother’s day report, 2009. Washington, DC: Author.



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Universal Health Care Action Network. (2010). Mission, goals, and principles. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from http://www.uhcan.org/index.php?option=com_content &task=view&id=34&Itemid=50. Washingtonwatch.com. (2010). H.R. 840, The Military Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Act. Retrieved March 5, 2010, from http://www.washingtonwatch.com/ bills/show/111_HR_840.html#toc1. Welch, R, & Angulo, C (2002). Racial disparities in the American criminal justice system. In D. M. Piche, W. L. Taylor, & R. A. Reed (Eds.), Rights at risk: Equality in an age of terrorism (pp. 185–218). Washington, DC: Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights.


CHAPTER 9

Community Counseling in Diverse Community Agency Settings

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n the preceding chapters, we described the four components of the community counseling framework: focused strategies for facilitating human development, broad-based strategies for facilitating human development, focused strategies for facilitating community development, and broad-based strategies for facilitating community development. By incorporating all these intervention modalities in their work, mental health practitioners are better able to foster the psychological health and personal wellbeing of larger numbers of people from diverse client populations in the 21st century. These four modalities can work in any counseling setting. Regardless of the nature of a given agency or institution, effective mental health programs should include both services to individuals and efforts to improve the environment. Regardless of the specific problems addressed, the main goal of the community counseling framework is to promote clients’ psychological development and personal well-being. Thus, as was stated earlier, counselors who use the community counseling model focus on ways to enhance individuals’ personal competencies within the context of healthy environments. 226 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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When using the community counseling model in practice, counselors intervene not only directly with their clients but also indirectly to facilitate positive changes in clients’ social environments. In this latter intervention, counselors act as advocates and social change agents. The nature of a given intervention depends on the setting in which the counselor works and the needs of his or her clients. Because the community counseling framework offered in this book represents an approach to helping rather than a job title, it can be found in a multitude of helping organizations. To make the community counseling model more concrete and understandable, we have outlined several applications of this framework in diverse settings. We have selected programs that tend to employ many kinds of helpers with different specializations and training backgrounds. Even so, the programs presented in this chapter represent only a few of the many ways one might incorporate the community counseling framework into their organizations. Each practitioner must find the most appropriate adaptation of the model to fit his or her own setting.

COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH

Community mental health centers are often organized around the mission of addressing the psychological concerns of a general population residing within specific geographic boundaries, often referred to as catchment areas. Agencies serving catchment areas can develop particularly well-coordinated services and can play a powerful role in helping the local population remedy detrimental environmental conditions. Whether small agencies dedicated to outpatient care or major centers offering comprehensive services, community mental health centers and agencies can provide multifaceted services. Facilitating Human Development

One of the important roles mental health agencies play in their communities is providing counseling for people who need or want more active intervention in their lives. These services must be easily accessible and affordable. When working directly with clients, counselors should operate from a broad conceptualization of mental health. In this way, they can provide assistance with almost any everyday problem or developmental challenge their clients face. When using the community counseling framework to help individuals who are having trouble coping, mental health practitioners strive to recognize and build on their clients’ strengths and do all they can to prevent the need for inpatient treatment. However, if clients’ problems interfere with their self-sufficiency or require more intensive treatment, counselors must try to provide rehabilitation services in accordance with clients’ own goals.


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Community counselors have a particular responsibility to help former inpatients live and work effectively in mainstream society. Thus, services offered to these clients should include the following: 1. Helping clients address environmental conditions that interfere with their growth and well-being 2. Individual, group, and family counseling services as needed 3. Promoting clients’ involvement in self-help and self-advocacy 4. Intervention strategies that help clients acquire life skills to facilitate their successful integration into the larger community Counselors in community mental health settings can also recognize and address situations that put individuals at risk for psychological problems. During the past four decades, mental health centers across the United States have developed and implemented various types of outreach programs for people affected by such crisis-provoking situations as the loss of a family member, marital disruption, financial problems, and health concerns (Locke, Myers, & Herr, 2001). These programs have often succeeded in providing temporary assistance and support, enabling individuals to deal more effectively with any problems that might occur. Services offered in community mental health settings include developmental/ preventive education programs that are designed to promote a variety of life skills and competencies. For these programs to work well, the entire community must be able to access them. Fundamentally, developers should design these direct community services to (a) educate community members about issues related to mental health and personal wellness; (b) provide experiences that foster the development of community members’ personal, social, and/or career competencies; and thereby (c) help prevent serious problems from occurring particularly among at-risk groups. Programs that teach people about mental health should aim at clarifying those factors that promote health and effectiveness in everyday living. They should help the participants understand the relationship that exists among individuals, their psychological wellness, and their environments. Mental health education programs sponsored by community agencies can do much to help erase the stigma all too often placed on people who have received counseling services for psychological problems. A mental health agency’s educational programs should also define how the agency is trying to contribute to the community. As previous chapters have stressed, community members must participate in the planning of agencies’ educational programs and services. As such, agencies must actively solicit input from community members about their needs, goals, and interests as well as involve them in the planning and ongoing evaluation of the educational services offered. Community mental health centers usually deal with relatively large, heterogeneous populations and strive to meet a broad range of their psychological needs. Particularly appropriate to such agencies are programs that help members of the community become more self-sufficient in dealing with personal and interpersonal needs as they arise. That is, a mental health agency’s educational Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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programs should help community members develop the skills and awareness that will enhance their effectiveness or help them learn to create and maintain healthful environments. In the following sections, we briefly describe some programs that have been useful in promoting these skills. Training Programs. Mental health practitioners can use training programs to help foster a host of personal competencies among a broad range of people of different ages and from diverse backgrounds. Such programs can make help readily available to community members when they need it and may prevent serious impairment. These programs can also boost people’s sense of community because they make the development of competencies and mutual help everyone’s responsibility instead of the special province of professionals. Group Experiences. Counselors working within community mental health centers can use various group interventions to help their clients develop better interpersonal relationships with one another. Such groups focus on development and education rather than remediation of existing problems. Sayger (1996) aptly describes the use of group experiences to foster the development of effective interpersonal skills among children and families experiencing multiple stressors in their environment. This preventive intervention focuses on educating parents and children about the impact of high-risk environments on healthy family functioning. As Sayger (1996) notes, by fostering the empowerment of the whole family unit, these psychoeducational groups provide a valuable alternative to traditional family and crisis counseling services. Using Sayger’s model to facilitate family empowerment, counselors are encouraged to do the following:

1. Use an educational approach to foster the development of new interpersonal competencies among family members. 2. Discuss issues of trust and social support with family members during the educational group meetings. 3. Focus on the families’ positive strengths. 4. Provide opportunities for family members to exercise their newly developed interpersonal skills in a safe and supportive environment. Similar concepts have also been proven to be effective when used in groups for young adults from divorced families (Hage & Nosanow, 2000) and grandparents raising grandchildren (Vacha-Haase, Ness, Dannison, & Smith, 2000). Skill-building Programs. Skill-building programs provide another way counselors can offer direct community services that help individuals learn to live more effectively and deal with issues more competently. Many community members can be reached through skill-building programs presented in a large-group format or through a mass medium. Skill-building programs have historically required participants to attend classes that offered information about life skills and provided opportunities to practice these new skills through role playing. However, with the advancement of technology, counselors can now use computer-based Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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skill-building programs and provide on-line educational services to people in their homes. Sampson and Bloom (2001) point out that continued advancements in computer technology will revolutionize the ways mental health practitioners think about and offer skill-building services to large numbers of people in the 21st century. These theorists discuss important ethical and professional issues of particular relevance for counselors interested in using computer technology to help people acquire the skills necessary to lead more satisfying, healthy, and productive lives. Education for Everyday Living. The overall effectiveness of direct community service programs depends largely on the degree to which they help individuals develop competence in meeting the issues they face every day. Competencebuilding programs usually direct attention to such areas as family relationships, career planning, stress management, decision-making strategies, time management, and other issues community members see as important. Nelson-Jones (1993) and Whitworth, House, Sandahl, and Kinsey-House (1998) provide helpful frameworks that mental health professionals may find useful when planning preventive education programs aimed at enhancing individuals’ living competencies. An example of the ways in which skill-building groups are used in conjunction with focused counseling approaches to promote the development of clients is provided by Thresholds, a Chicago agency. The Thresholds mission is defined as follows: “Thresholds assists and inspires people with severe mental illnesses to reclaim their lives by providing the supports, skills and the respectful encouragement that they need to achieve hopeful and successful futures” (Thresholds, 2010). Thresholds extends the impact that counselors normally have when they provide traditional counseling services to persons who have already experienced serious mental health problems and are at risk for future psychiatric hospitalizations. To extend their impact, counselors at Thresholds offer numerous opportunities for clients to work together in group settings as they strive to acquire the types of knowledge and skills they need to live more effective lives. Thus, besides working with their clients in one-to-one counseling settings, the counselors at Thresholds offer several psychoeducational groups intentionally designed to help individuals develop new skills and competencies that empower them and improve their well-being. These groups include the following (Thresholds North, 2001, p. 2):

Vocational rehabilitation groups: These groups provide prevocational education, ongoing vocational training and assessment, career counseling services, specialized training that enables clients to acquire a variety of occupational skills by working with other in-house work crews, assistance with job seeking and placement, and employment support services. Educational groups: These groups provide clients with opportunities in which they gain assistance in assessing their current reading and math skills, receive basic educational services, are given an opportunity to receive a General Equivalency Degree (GED), and gain college preparation training and support in a program called the “Community Scholars Program.” Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Independent living groups: These groups include what is referred to as “activities of daily living” (ADL) training. This sort of training is intentionally aimed at helping clients who have been placed in a group home setting acquire the skills necessary to experience a sense of personal well-being as they live responsibly and cooperatively within this setting. Physical health and well-being groups: These groups offer educational services that focus on a broad range of topics, including substance abuse prevention, nutrition, health maintenance, and personal hygiene, as well as group discussions that focus on the importance of physical exercise in leading a healthy life. Facilitating Community Development

Counselors working in comprehensive mental health agencies are in a good position to forge links with the whole human services network within the community. Dealing with the mental health needs of a local population and treating clients holistically necessitates having regular ongoing contact with a broad range of other community agencies, health care providers, and educational specialists. To attain mental health, clients must have their practical needs met. Counselors in mental health agencies provide important links between clients and services that meet these and other needs. Such counselors are well positioned to serve as a first contact and coordinator, ensuring that the maze of services and facilities available in the community is reasonably clear and accessible to clients. Because the mental health of an individual depends largely on his or her interactions with other people, the counselor also works with that individual’s family members as well as with any others who might contribute to the client’s problem or be part of a solution. In doing so, the practitioners go beyond linking to advocating. Finally, mental health professionals may act as consultants, helping members of the helping network learn more effective ways of working with the people whose lives they touch. Because of their close association with the communities in which they work, counselors in mental health agencies are particularly well positioned to recognize factors in the environment that interfere with healthy human development. They are also well positioned to identify specific community strengths and resources. When a mental health center or agency is an integral part of their community, staff members help residents organize to support the community’s goals. In doing so, the agency can serve as a coordinating base where mental health professionals work together with other community members to do the following: 1. Plan services that can best meet the needs the members themselves have defined. 2. Outline strategies for confronting negative political, social, and economic forces within the community to ensure that local organizations and institutions respond to community needs and that decision making within the business, educational, and health care sectors is open to citizen participation. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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3. Act to meet community members’ immediate needs, especially education, housing, sanitation, transportation, employment, and medical care. Although mental health workers can implement indirect community services that support and encourage these activities, the long-term success of these initiatives ultimately depends on leadership by local citizens. Further, the interest and leadership that mental health practitioners themselves exhibit in such services can bring about changes in the community and the mental health system. Thus, when mental health agencies incorporate services to facilitate community development, counselors often find themselves acting as advocates for the general consumers of mental health services and fighting for the provision of educational and career opportunities in place of incarceration, for alternatives to institutionalization, and for the development of public and organizational policies that recognize and respect human dignity. The community counselor’s efforts on behalf of their mental health clients can be enhanced by collaboration with advocacy organizations like the following, all of which participate in legislative action on state and national levels: Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law (http://www.bazelon.org) Mental Health America (http://mentalhealthamerica.net) National Alliance on Mental Illness (http://www.nami.org) National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health (http://www .ffcmh.org) Resources for general information about mental health research and services include the following: Families USA, Minority Health Resource Center (http://www.familiesusa .org/issues/minority-health/resource-center/) National Institute of Mental Health (http://www.nimh.gov/index.shtml) National Women’s Health Information Center, which includes links to information on mental and physical health related to African Americans; Hispanic Americans/Latinas; Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and native Hawaiians; and American Indians and Native Alaskans (http://www.minorityhealth.gov) Office of Minority Health (http://minority health.gov) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (http://www .samhsa.gov) CAREER, VOCATIONAL, AND EMPLOYMENT SETTINGS

The act of dividing this chapter into sections may appear to suggest that counseling specialties differ radically in terms of practice and clientele. In fact, however, clients seldom fit neatly into counseling categories. Consider, for example, the close relationships between employment issues on the one hand and mental health Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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concerns on the other. Mental health counselors cannot help but recognize the impact of individual or community-wide employment crises on their clients. At the same time, community counselors who work in career or employment settings know how important it is to see their clients’ career issues within a very broad social and economic context. The association between poverty and mental health problems has long been recognized, but questions of causality have persisted. Conventional wisdom has assumed that poverty can be either a cause or a result of mental health problems (Knapp, Funk, Curran, Prince, Grigg, & McDaid, 2006). The trend of recent research, however, has provided strong support for the idea that poverty and economic crises are determinants of mental health problems. For instance, Meyer and Lobao (2003), in examining economic hardship and mental health in the context of the Midwestern farm crisis in the United States, found that macro-level structural changes can bring about a situation in which the factors usually assumed to provide a buffer against adverse mental health outcomes are no longer present. Murali and Oyebode (2004), in exploring poverty, social inequality, and mental health, found that people affected by poverty are exposed to more stressors and at the same time have fewer resources to manage them. With greater vulnerability to stressors, they are “doubly victimized.” The work of Hudson (2005) is of particular interest because his study of socioeconomic status and mental illness looked directly at the issue of causation. He asked: Do poor socioeconomic conditions predispose people to mental disability? Or do preexisting, biologically based mental illnesses result in the drift of individuals into poor socioeconomic circumstances? (p. 1) His study tested five separate hypotheses related to economic stress, family fragmentation, geographic drift, socioeconomic drift, and intergenerational drift as they related to mental illness. What he found in his examination of acute psychiatric hospital patients was “strong evidence for the social causation interpretation of the SES-mental illness negative relationship, one that involves the notion that SES impacts the development of mental illness as well as indirectly through its association with adverse, economically stressful conditions among lower income groups” (p. 17). Hudson had expected that all five hypotheses would account for some of the variation in patients. What he found instead was that only the economic-stress hypothesis was supported. Consider Hudson’s statement concerning the impact of his study: “This study highlights the need for the continued development of preventive and early intervention strategies of the major mental illnesses that pay particular attention to the devastating impacts of unemployment, economic displacement, and housing dislocation, including homelessness” (p. 17). Community counselors should see this finding as a call to action! Community counselors who work in employment, vocational rehabilitation, or career settings of course focus on positive career development that is built on their clients’ personal strengths and resources. At the same time, however, counselors in these settings also stride purposefully into the vortex of economic crises. Addressing employment-related issues requires community activism, whether to Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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lessen the impact of current economic downturns or to prevent their clients’ victimization. Many agencies help clients primarily through job placement, vocational rehabilitation, or career counseling. These programs succeed when their clients find work appropriate to their abilities, interests, and goals (Bradley & Cox, 2001). Yet, such agencies often go far beyond their traditional image as places where individuals are merely “fitted” with—or perhaps trained for—new jobs. From the perspective of the community counseling framework, effective career development programs emphasize the following: 1. Helping individuals formulate and act on career goals and strategies 2. Helping clients develop the skills they need to enter and succeed in the work world 3. Working with employers to increase job opportunities and support for their clients 4. Directing time and energy toward influencing policies that affect career development opportunities for their clients and for the community at large In these programs, the work of each counselor must be multifaceted, addressing both human development and community development. Facilitating Human Development

Counselors must, of course, place a high priority on meeting the immediate goals of people needing training, employment, or rehabilitation. To meet these goals effectively, counselors working in career development agencies often use individual counseling to help clients evaluate their own interests and abilities, consider their alternatives, and plan strategies for the future. The effectiveness of the counseling process often depends on the counselor’s ability to perceive the impact of environmental factors. The effects of economic trends on individual job seekers are often subject to the fundamental attribution error (FAE). The FAE is a common error that skews the ways in which people explain human behaviors and attributes. Gladwell (2000) explains that we all tend to use a “dispositional” explanation of events as opposed to an explanation based on context. “When it comes to interpreting other people’s behaviors, human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of the situation and context” (Gladwell, 2000, p. 160). Unfortunately, people in the helping professions are as prone to misattribution as anyone else. Decades ago, Strickland and Janoff-Bulman (1980) described the impact of this miscalculation on the practice of psychology, pointing out that “psychologists, who have traditionally attributed the causes of mental disorders to the personal dispositions of their clients, have no doubt been unwitting perpetrators of the fundamental attribution error” (p. 106). Despite this warning note, however, the tendency to overlook the role of environmental factors continues to permeate the helping professions. To the detriment of their clients, helpers Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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still focus more attention on negative internal characteristics than on the cultural, political, and economic factors that affect their clients’ lives. All too often, the counseling spotlight stays on clients’ diagnoses, rather than on their strengths, and on their personal vulnerabilities, rather than their environments. The result is that clients feel increasingly powerless. Discussions of economic issues tend to be based to a large extent on the fundamental attribution error. Whether the issue at hand is long-term poverty or a family’s sudden financial crisis, helpers often place blame on the affected individual instead of recognizing the role of economic oppression. This attribution becomes especially treacherous when the individual internalizes society’s attribution and becomes mired in self-blame. Those who are unemployed for extended periods of time engage in comparative labeling and estimate their self-worth to be low. This is true whether they have been prisoners, homeless, drug dependent, or simply unable to find work. These people are also overwhelmed and helpless, believing that they cannot change their situation easily. It is crucial for them to feel empowered because their tendency is to undervalue their accomplishments. (Chope, 2010, p. 228) The ACA Advocacy Competencies address this issue, making it clear that both the counselor and the client should learn to question the fundamental attribution error. When economic downturns affect a community, counselors working in career development agencies can also help to prevent adverse psychological effects. Although stated many years ago, Monahan and Vaux’s (1980) analysis of the psychological impact of social stressors, including unpredictable economic downturns, is as relevant for the work that counselors do today as it was then. As these two researchers concluded, When a social stressor cannot be prevented, the role of mental health professionals lies in mitigating the adverse effects of social stress. Monitoring the economic changes in a region should . . . allow the development of primary prevention programs. . . . These programs would aim at preparing the population to deal with the psychological ramifications of an economic downturn. Techniques such as anticipatory guidance . . . could be used to persuade those about to be unemployed that their situation is not of their own doing. . . . They should not view themselves, nor be seen by family and friends, as failures. (pp. 22–23) Counselors can be most effective in their direct work with clients if they combine this service with developmental and preventive efforts. Agencies focused on helping clients make career decisions should offer developmental programs that allow individuals to explore their values, goals, and occupational options. Group workshops can provide a great deal of the training that might otherwise have to occur in one-to-one counseling. If participation were open to all interested community members, regardless of their current job status, such workshops might help prevent job crises, thus increasing the community’s Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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well-being. Through structured workshops, individuals can examine their current work situations and lifestyles, explore their values and goals, and develop problemsolving and decision-making skills. Given the rapid cultural diversification of the United States and the increasing number of people from nonwhite, non-European backgrounds who need career development services each year, counselors must develop group workshops that are sensitive to the unique needs and perspectives of such individuals. A good example of a culturally sensitive career development program has been reported by Kim, Gaughen, and Salvador (1995). Testing the effectiveness of a one-day career development workshop offered to more than 3,000 people from Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, and Samoan backgrounds over 5 years, these researchers noted significant improvements in the participants’ level of career self-efficacy. Facilitating Community Development

Community counselors are always prepared to carry out advocacy on behalf of their clients. In agencies that focus on career development issues, client advocacy is most likely to be needed in instances of employment discrimination or other unfair occupational practices. As in any other setting, the counselor must focus on the client as a whole person as well as on the interaction between individual and environment. One should not separate career development from human development or one’s work from the rest of one’s life. In the employment setting, counselors are encouraged to pay particular attention to those aspects of clients’ immediate surroundings that affect their vocational decisions and likelihood of job success. Counselors who use the community counseling model therefore often help clients with matters that are not directly related to employment but that may nonetheless affect their career development. In many instances, the career counselor may act as a consultant, helping others serve clients more effectively. Just as often, he or she may consult with employers, administrators, and other organizational policymakers to help them better understand the social, psychological, or physical factors affecting clients’ vocational development. A good example of how these skills are used in practice is reflected in the work that counselors do in the previously described Thresholds program. Besides working to foster the psychological development of persons who have experienced mental illness, the counselors at Thresholds direct attention to helping persons in other high-risk groups realize a greater sense of personal well-being and mental health in their lives. This includes providing a host of direct counseling and education services for deaf persons, homeless individuals, and substance abusers. Although the counselors at Thresholds provide one-to-one and group counseling services to foster the psychological development and personal wellbeing of these persons, they also work as their clients’ advocates. Typically, this involves consulting with family members, prospective employers, and elected officials to help them better understand (a) the social, psychological, and physical factors that impact their clients’ vocational development and (b) the things they Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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can do to help their clients realize greater psychological health and personal wellbeing (Dincin, 1995; Thresholds North, 2001). The workplace affects every actual or potential client of vocational and career development agencies. Accordingly, counselors working in these agencies would do well to make the work world more responsive to the needs of all community members. In this regard, career development agencies should be attentive to the hiring, training, and promotion practices of businesses in the community. Combating sexism, ageism, ableism, heterosexism, and racism in employment practices is an obvious and necessary part of improving the work environment. Counselors who use the community counseling framework in practice are vigilant of unjust occupational practices and utilize indirect community services to address them. This includes advocating for the elimination of culturally biased screening tests or those that measure aptitudes irrelevant to the job as well as other forms of bias that might be directed toward ex-offenders, former psychiatric patients, or individuals with disabilities in the hiring process. Counselors must extend their awareness not only to the hiring process but also to what happens to clients once they have begun working. Although counselors by themselves may not have the power to change the work environments of large corporations and bureaucracies, they can lend their active support to groups seeking to improve occupational safety, to expand the role of workers in making decisions that affect them, and to make workplaces better in general. Community counselors seeking assistance regarding employment discrimination or workplace issues should be aware of the following resources: Jobs with Justice (http://www.jwj.org) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (http:// naacp.org) National Center for Transgender Equality (http://www.nctequality.org) National Council of La Raza (http://www.nclr.org). National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (http://thetaskforce.org/issues/ nondiscrimination). National Organization for Women (http://www.now.org). National Urban League (http://www.nul.org) United States Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (http://www.dol.gov/odep). United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (http://www .eeoc.gov). FAMILY COUNSELING

No matter what kind of trauma, what example of marginalization, or what form of oppression can be identified, we can be certain that it plays a central role in family life. Unfortunately, members of the helping professions have not always Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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recognized that their ability to work effectively with families depends on their willingness to explore the possibility that their own views of family life may be biased or overly narrow. Consider racism: The experience of being black in this country is almost a daily process of pulling out the arrows that racism hurls at us. The added burden that African-American families and couples must carry is to create an emotional atmosphere in which the arrows can be pulled out.… Unfortunately, many of the African-American families that we treat in family or couples therapy have redirected these daily arrows at each other. We cannot begin to address the anger and pain in these families unless we are willing to look at the racism that exists for them in society and in our field. (Boyd-Franklin, 1993, p. 55) Consider the predominant attitudes toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons, even among members of the helping professions: We are not likely to see a book with the title Heterosexual Families in Therapy. This is because the mental health professions tend to suffer from ethnocentrism—taking the White heterosexual majority group’s relationships as the standard against which other groups’ relationships are to be “understood.” From this majority perspective, minority group phenomena stand out either as “exotic” or “problematic” and need to be explained, whereas majority group phenomena blend in as “normal” and need no further explanation.…Writers in our field do not feel obliged to consider how heterosexuals’ relationships stand out from those of the lesbian/gay crowd. Instead, couples composed of a woman and a man blend in. (Green, 2007, p. 119) Consider the marginalization of families whose cultures differ from those of the more powerful dominant population: This treatment approach is anchored in the cultural narrative of a Western-Anglo society that highly values individualism, action, mastery, and equality.… Anchoring treatment goals and methods to such a social narrative is contrary to Hispanic family values and counterproductive to effective treatment. (Inclan & Hernandez, 1992, p. 251) Consider sexism: Therapy with a troubled heterosexual couple cannot simply be training in communications or working out contracts about his doing more housework in exchange for her having more sexual intercourse (a common example deriving from mainstream marital therapy teachings). Instead, to be feminist, therapy with such a pair must also address the distribution of power in the relationship, exploring how the culture at large has devalued the voices of women and overvalued those of men, asking how that meta-phenomenon affects the communication of this one woman and one man. (Brown, 1994, p. 30) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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As these examples indicate, programs that are based on couple and family counseling as their primary service should recognize the importance of looking beyond the family system to consider the larger systems that tend to dictate the accepted norms of family life. The systemic thinking that characterizes the family counselor would seem, at first glance, to mean that a natural kinship exists between family work and advocacy. What has prevented this affinity from being fully realized, however, lies in the size of the system being addressed. Yes, family counselors do recognize that the individual’s well-being is inextricably tied to the family. What they have not always noted as clearly is that the family itself exists within a powerful social, political, economic, and cultural milieu. (Hendricks, Bradley, & Lewis, 2010, p. 185) Viewing families from this larger perspective has vast implications both for direct services (facilitating family development) and for advocacy efforts in the larger public arena. Facilitating Family Development

Family counseling begins with a conceptualization and assessment of a family’s goals, strengths, and barriers. The counselor’s ability to complete this step with accuracy and multicultural competence will help to determine how successful the counseling process will be. In Chapter 3, we introduced the Family Conceptualization form, which was designed to guide the counselor’s thinking about the family’s strengths in the face oppression-based obstacles. Specialists in couple and family counseling should add to this general conceptualization a detailed multicultural assessment based on the following questions: What aspects of the family’s worldview might the counselor need to understand in order to get an accurate picture of this family? If the counselor has difficulty understanding the family, might the counselor’s own culturally biased assumptions and values be standing in the way? To what extent do family members hold to traditional cultural values? What intra-family differences exist between members who place greater value on tradition and those who are acculturated to the norms of the dominant society? How does the family view the balance between individual and family priorities? How do the members define family boundaries? Do they have an extended network that constitutes the family system? How do such variables as gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, and class interact to affect the family’s goals and concerns? How does oppression play a role in the life of this family? Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Family counselors who consider these questions—especially in light of the way they, themselves, might answer them—are on the way toward a multiculturally competent and empowering approach to their work. One good example of an empowering approach to working with families can be found in Community Family Therapy (CFT) (Rojano, 2007), which addresses family therapy with low-income urban families. “CFT focuses on three treatment goals: (a) constructing an autobiography that focuses on strengths and a life plan that invites positive action and self-development, (b) developing a functional and effective community network of personal and supportive resources, and (c) providing for leadership development and civic engagement” (p. 253). According to CFT, the first “level of engagement” helps clients to “increase the quality of the connection they have with their own personal history, identity, and self-worth and to improve their overall mental health status” (p. 253). This work is accomplished not just through family therapy but also through connections to relevant educational and training services. The second level of engagement connects clients with community resources. This work is primarily done through methods most commonly described as case management, outreach, community education, wraparound services and networking. Also, therapists help clients build/ rebuild their “nuclear network,” the group formed by the mix of their family members and close friends. We refer to this group as the “personalized community” or “real family.” (p. 255) Finally, at the third level of engagement “both client and therapist get civically involved in community life” through leadership training, civic engagement, and advocacy methods” (p. 255). This important final step of seeking to “transform outside realities in the surrounding ecosystem” provides a good fit with the community counseling model’s emphasis on facilitating community development. Facilitating Community Development

Individual families are affected by public policy to a degree that might sometimes seem surprising. Many family counselors have become actively involved in advocacy at local, state, national, and international levels because they see the effects on the families they serve. The specific issues in play at any moment change over time, but a few policy areas remain at the forefront because of their ubiquity and their very direct impact on family life. Suppose, for instance, that true gender equality and marriage equality were to become a reality. The effects on the personal and economic well-being of families would be stunning. Gender Equality. UNICEF, in a report on the state of the world’s children, emphasized the “double dividend” of gender equality.

Gender equality produces a double dividend. It benefits both women and children. Healthy, educated, and empowered women have healthy, educated, and confident daughters and sons. The amount of influence women have over the decisions in the household has been shown to Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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positively impact the nutrition, health care and education of their children. But the benefits of gender equality go beyond their direct impact on children. Without it, it will be impossible to create a world of equity, tolerance and shared responsibility—a world that is fit for children. (UNICEF, 2007, pp. 2–3) Women’s oppression is a global phenomenon that affects every nation. Although some people assume that the United States holds a leadership position when it comes to gender equality, this assumption is not necessarily warranted. As of 2010, the United States is one of the very few members of the United Nations that has not yet ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Domestically, the Equal Rights Amendment is still off the table and women—and therefore their families—are still harmed by unequal pay for equal work. The Council of Economic Advisors showed recognition of the difficulties still faced by families grappling with conflicting priorities: Women have entered the labor force in growing numbers and families have increasingly relied on more than one earner to make ends meet. And yet, children still need to be taken to the doctor and elderly parents still need care. Moreover, more adults older than 25 are attending school. Because these changes have caused many workers to face conflicts between their work and their personal lives, they also inspire a need and desire for more flexibility in the workplace. (Council of Economic Advisors, 2010, p. 1) It would be difficult to imagine a family counselor who has not grappled with these issues. Marriage Equality. In 2010, same-sex couples lacked the right to marry in most states and the Defense of Marriage Act, which discriminated against samesex couples at the federal level, was still on the books. Just as gender inequality hurts not only women but their children as well, so does marriage inequality harm not just adults but also their children. Same-sex couples who do not have the right to marry are subject to unequal treatment by the law—and so are their children.

A child who grows up with married parents benefits from the fact that his or her parents’ relationship is recognized by law and receives legal protections. Spouses are generally entitled to joint child custody and visitation upon divorce (and bear an obligation to pay child support). The mark of a strong family and healthy children is having parents who are nurturing, caring, and loving. Parents should be judged on their ability to parent, not by their age, race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity (Marriage Equality USA, 2008). Couples who are refused the opportunity to marry also lack access to federal and state benefits and responsibilities that legally married partners take for Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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granted, including, for instance, (a) hospital visitation rights and the ability to make medical decisions; (b) sick leave, bereavement leave, and access to health insurance and pensions; (c) legal systems for dealing with property distribution, child custody, and child and spousal support in case of dissolution of the marriage (Marriage Equality USA, 2008). Adoption policies are also implicated in family stress, and “we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation” (White House, 2010). Families are, of course, affected by employment discrimination as well, and “our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity” (The White House, 2010).

POPULATION-SPECIFIC AGENCIES AND PROGRAMS

Population-specific agencies focus on members of specific groups, developing services and advocacy efforts that are tailored to specific needs that might not be met in more generalized programs. Some of these agencies or programs are devoted to populations that are defined by culture or national identity. Others address the needs of groups with specific service needs, such as women, youth, or seniors. Populations Defined by Culture, Ethnicity, or National Identity

People who belong to a population defined by culture, ethnicity, or national identity sometimes feel that they can be served best by agencies devoted to their unique needs. Often, this preference has to do with the accessibility of services, with counseling offered in appropriate languages and in settings that are close to the neighborhood or enclave. Just as often, clients might feel that their advocacy needs can best be addressed by people who are very knowledgeable about the nature of the discrimination they face. The need for population-specific agencies is, in fact, strongest when the treatment of a particular group is most oppressive. An example of such a population is provided by the situation of Arab Americans (Nassar-McMillan, 2011): The oppression of Arab Americans within U.S. society has been both overt and covert. Because Western culture tends to view issues dichotomously as good versus bad, or good versus evil, Islamic or Arab cultures and traditions have often been judged as backward or oppressive.… The classification of Arabs as unacceptable or undesirable immigrant groups by the federal government from the turn of the century through the Civil rights Era of the 1960s likely impacted the levels of ethnic pride among Arab ethnic communities nationwide. (pp. 28–29) This long-lived and widespread discrimination against Arabs brings the need for their counselors to be knowledgeable about and active in advocacy efforts. At the same time, the direct services provided by counselors must be based on Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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understanding of and respect for the culture. Nasser-McMillan (2011) emphasizes how important it is for counselors to engage in self-examination regarding their attitudes toward Arabs and Muslims: It is critical for counselors to be aware of the ways in which their own development has been impacted by prevailing and pervasive values. Counselors should check their own knowledge level, regarding U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, both in contemporary times as well as historically. What beliefs do individual counselors hold toward Arab Americans? What stereotypes might they hold? What were the attitudes toward Arab Americans with which they were raised? For example, what are their attitudes about Islam, the hijab, or other cultural traditions and what emotions do exposures to those experiences or observations evoke? (p. 70) It is of course incumbent upon all community counselors to engage in selfreflection about their own prejudices and to be prepared for providing culturally competent counseling and advocacy. One way to accomplish this task is to follow the lead of specialized agencies. In the case of Arab Americans, an example of such an agency can be found in the Arab American Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS). This agency began as a storefront center in Dearborn, Michigan, and has expanded its outreach by creating additional locations over time. The ACCESS mission is “to advocate for and empower individuals, families, and communities” (ACCESS, 2010). The close relationship among cultural sensitivity, empowerment, and advocacy can be seen in the agency’s programs. The Mental Health Division, of course, provides direct services to adults, children, and families, but the division also includes the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center for Survivors of Torture, the Partnership for Screening and Advocating for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, the Annual Symposium on Refugees and Survivors of Torture, the Anti-Stigma Initiative Program Countering the September 11th Aftermath, and the Ethnic Minority Empowerment Program (ACCESS Mental Health Division, 2007). The Youth and Education Division complements services to children and youth with family programs such as the Adult Literacy English Classes and Citizenship Classes (ACCESS Family Literacy Program, 2007). The Employment and Training Division works not only with people “from newly arrived immigrants to those born here, as well as people with disabilities and veterans re-entering the workforce” (ACCESS, 2009, p. 19) but also with employers interested in developing a diverse workforce. ACCESS also plays an active role in the larger public arena as one of the grassroots organizations making up the National Network for Arab American Communities. “The Advocacy and Civic Engagement (ACE) Program plays a pivotal role in empowering the Arab American community at the local and national levels through policy development, issues advocacy, and community programming” (ACCESS, 2009, p. 21). Among the actions in 2008–2009 were the following: The 1st Arab American Advocacy Week was held in Washington, D.C. NNAAC members attended policy briefings, met with members of Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Congress, and attended a White House briefing organized in collaboration with the Arab American Institute. ACE Program played a leading role in immigrant and civil rights coalitions at the local and national level. The program led NNAAC’s participation in the Reform Immigration for America Campaign. Developed a policy position paper on priority issues … and shared it with senior officials in the Obama administration and with members of Congress (ACCESS, 2009, p. 21). These activities help to highlight the degree to which responsiveness to a cultural group leads in the direction of advocacy at all systemic levels. Populations Defined by Gender or Age Group

A specialized agency deals with a specific population or concern. Often, agencies or programs address the needs of a specific group such as women, youth, or seniors. Such agencies recognize that their individual clients may need a variety of direct services. Primarily, however, these agencies deal with those aspects of the environment that most directly affect the people they serve. Agencies serving specific populations often develop a mechanism for helping people in crisis, partly because such people often turn first to helping agencies that have close ties to the community. In addition, such agencies are uniquely aware of—and usually better prepared for—the kinds of crises most likely to occur among the populations they serve. Thus, many youth agencies offer short-term housing and assistance to runaways, while women’s centers develop crisis intervention services for women who have been raped or battered. Because they recognize the types of situations that tend to make their clients vulnerable to problems, counselors in specialized agencies can provide timely and appropriate outreach services. Ongoing counseling must be highly accessible, with peer counseling services provided whenever possible in specialized agencies that are designed to intentionally serve specific groups of persons in our society. The focus of a particular agency will affect the kinds of programs its counselors design. What all specialized programs that use the community counseling model have in common, however, is that they attempt to deal with the whole individual, helping them make the most of their strengths and live as fully and independently as possible. In specialized agencies, broadly focused human development programs often take the form of courses or workshops that provide knowledge or skills that a given population considers important. For example, women’s centers often provide courses on women’s health concerns, assertiveness training, self-defense, and career development. Agencies for the elderly may include educational services related to health care, retirement planning, social security and other benefits, and second careers. Finally, youth agencies typically provide courses related to drug and alcohol use, sexuality, decision making, and life planning. All these agencies should maintain close ties to the people they serve, involving them actively in setting priorities for educational programs and other services. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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In some specialized agencies, counselors deal with a specific area of concern on an everyday basis. This gives them a special sensitivity to the issues related to that concern. If they work with individuals affected by a particular disability, for example, they become quite aware of both the effect of the disability and the strengths of their clients. By learning how similar their clients are to the rest of the community, counselors can place problems or disabilities in perspective. Further, by providing educational programs for the community at large, they can help prevent the problem their agency treats and increase public awareness about its effects. Facilitating community development is also important to the populations served in specialized agencies. Working to create a better environment by fostering changes in social policies is the core of community counselors’ work in specialized agencies. Through such efforts, counselors address whatever environmental factors affect the agency’s clientele. For example, youth agencies might focus on school policies or job and recreational opportunities available to young people in the local community. Women’s centers fight discriminatory practices and support women’s rights to make personal choices without government interference. Counselors working with the elderly may take a stand to help solve urgent economic and health care problems. Through these actions, counselors in specialized agencies can play an important part in promoting broad-based efforts for social change while they are addressing immediate, local issues and community needs. Furthermore, specialized agencies can serve as places where local groups come together, learn to organize, and begin actively to seek solutions to common problems they face in the social environment. Counselors should see themselves as advocates both for the populations they serve and also for individual clients. Public policy can make the most difference when individuals know their rights and can safeguard them. Counselors who use the community counseling model in their work can act on their clients’ behalf if they are aware of clients’ rights and have the courage to confront inequities. In doing so, they maintain close ties with other agencies in order to help clients contact the most appropriate agencies and facilities for their needs. Because counselors in specialized agencies develop expertise in dealing with a specific area of human concern, they often act as consultants to other helpers. By sharing their knowledge of the specific problems and the special needs of the unique populations they serve, they help make the human services network more responsive to those populations. A major factor in the client’s struggle for autonomy involves independence from professional helpers themselves. Accordingly, counselors should encourage the formation of self-help groups that allow individuals to receive support by helping others and by developing relationships with successful and productive people. Thus, from a community counseling perspective, specialized agencies should strive to enhance the strength and resources of the clients they serve. They should also make the environment more conducive to clients’ psychological health and personal well-being. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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SUMMARY

The components of the community counseling model can be suitably applied in a variety of settings. Any program should include both services to individuals and efforts to improve the environment. Although the types of interventions community counselors implement depend on the nature of the setting and the clientele being served, the basic model remains the same. In this chapter, we have examined examples of how one might use these components in various settings. In community mental health agencies, human development is facilitated through educational programs that enhance skills and competencies related to mental health and outreach to client groups at risk for psychological problems. Facilitation of community development includes advocating for policies that positively affect community members’ and clients’ mental health, often in collaboration with mental health advocacy organizations. In career development agencies, counselors can best use the community counseling framework by implementing a multifaceted approach to focus on vocational issues. Workshops and counseling programs address career planning and job placement; indirect efforts address job safety, the humanization of the workplace, and discriminatory hiring practices. Family counseling settings bring their own opportunities and roadblocks. Family counselors have a particularly strong need for multicultural competence because culture has such a large effect on the way people view the very nature of family. Being sensitive to the context within which their clients live also brings family counselors to an understanding of the urgency for sociopolitical advocacy. Two examples of goals that are particularly relevant for families include gender equality and marriage equality. Specialized agencies also take a multifaceted approach. The types of specialized agencies discussed in this chapter include (a) agencies addressing the needs of a population defined by culture, ethnicity, or natural origin and (b) agencies addressing populations identified by gender or age group. EXHIBIT 9.1 Competency-Building Activity

Evaluation One of the most important professional competencies counselors need to acquire involves their ability to evaluate the degree to which agencies or programs foster the mental health and personal well-being of those persons they are designed to serve. This competency-building activity is specifically designed to help you develop some of the skills that are necessary in making this sort of organizational and programmatic evaluation in the future. Now that you know how the concepts that are associated with the community counseling framework can be applied in various settings, you will be better able to evaluate the degree to which a community agency or program operates to foster the mental health, well-being, and empowerment of its clients and communities. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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With this in mind, take time to set up an appointment with a counselor, program director, or other appropriate person at a community agency or program that you think you might be interested in working with in the future. Using the community counseling model as a guide, evaluate the overall effectiveness of the agency or program to meet their clients’ and students’ needs by directing attention to the following issues: 1. Find out what the agency’s or program’s goals are. 2. Direct your attention to the degree to which the activities and services provided at the agency or program foster clients’ or students’ mental health, sense of well-being, and personal empowerment. More specifically, assess the degree to which the agency or program you have chosen uses strategies to facilitate human development and to facilitate community development. 3. Keeping the four components of the community counseling framework in mind, determine what sort of programs and services the agency should include to serve clients and the community more effectively.


Your Hypothetical Program In Chapter 1, you were encouraged to think about a particular client population that you would be interested in serving. Throughout the ensuing chapters, you were asked to rethink some of the ways in which you might better serve the particular client population you had selected. Given the information provided in this chapter on the multiple ways that the community counseling framework can be used in different settings, we want to encourage you to reexamine your thinking about your own hypothetical program and answer the following questions: 1. Are the methods you have designed for reaching your goals appropriate to these goals? 2. In light of the applications that are presented in this chapter, can you think of additional services you could include in your own program to meet the needs of your clients more effectively? REFERENCES ACCESS. (2010). About us. Retrieved March 20, 2010, from http://www .accesscom munity.org/site/PageServer?pagename=About_Us. ACCESS. (2009). Annual report, 2009. Retrieved March 20, 2010, from http://www .accesscommunity.org/site/DocServer/ACCESS-AR2009-web.pdf?docID=4241.


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ACCESS. (2007). Family literacy program. Retrieved March 20, 2010, from http://www .accesscommunity.org/site/PageServer?pagename=YouthEducation_FamilyLiteracy. ACCESS. (2007). Mental health division. Retrieved March 20, 2010, from http://www .accesscommunity.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Mental_Health_Division. Arredondo, P. (1996). Successful diversity management initiatives: A blueprint for planning and implementation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Boyd-Franklin, N. (1993, July/August). Pulling out the arrows. Family Networker, 54–56. Bradley, R. W., & Cox, J. A. (2001). Counseling: Evolution of the profession. In D. C. Locke, J. E. Myers, & E. L. Herr (Eds.), The handbook of counseling (pp. 27–42). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Brenner, M. H. (1973). Mental illness and the economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Brown, L. S. (1994). Subversive dialogues: Theory in feminist therapy. New York: Basic Books, HarperCollins. Brueggemann, W. G. (1996). The practice of macro social work. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall. Chope, R. C. (2010). Applying the ACA Advocacy Competencies in employment counseling. In M. J. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.). ACA Advocacy Competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 225–238). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Council of Economic Advisors. (2010). Work-life balance and the economics of workplace flexibility. Retrieved April 5, 2010, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/ documents/100331-cea-economics-workplace-flexibility.pdf. D’Andrea, M., & Daniels, J. (2000). Youth advocacy. In J. Lewis & L. Bradley (Eds.), Advocacy in counseling: Counselors, clients, and community (pp. 71–78). Greensboro, NC: ERIC Counseling and Student Services Clearinghouse. Daniels, J., & D’Andrea, M. (1991). The Nashville Youth Network. Unpublished manuscript, University of Hawaii. Dincin, J. (Ed.). (1995). A pragmatic approach to psychiatric rehabilitation: Lesson’s from Chicago’s Thresholds program. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a difference. Boston: Little Brown & Company. Green, R-J. (2007). Gay and lesbian couples in therapy. A social justice perspective. In E. Aldarondo (Ed.). Advancing social justice through clinical practice (pp. 119–150). New York: Routledge. Hage, S. M., & Nosanow, M. (2000). Becoming stronger at broken places: A model for group work with young adults from divorced families. Journal of Specialists in Group Work, 25, 50–66. Hendricks, B., Bradley, L. J., & Lewis, J. A. (2010). ACA Advocacy Competencies in family counseling. In M. J. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA Advocacy Competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 185–194). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Herr, E. L. (1999). Counseling in a dynamic society: Contexts and practices for the 21st century. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Herr, E. L., & Cramer, S. T. (1996). Career guidance and counseling through the lifespan (5th ed.). New York: HarperCollins.



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Hudson, C. G. (2005). Socioeconomic status and mental illness: Tests of the social causation and selection hypotheses. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 75(1), 3–18. Inclan, J., & Hernandez, M. (1992). Cross-cultural perspectives and codependence: The case of poor Hispanics. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 62, 245–255. Ivey, A. E., D’Andrea, M., Ivey, M. B., & Simek-Morgan, L. (2002). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A multicultural perspective (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Knapp, M., Funk, M., Curran, C., Prince, M., & McDaid, D. (2006). Economic barriers to better mental health practice and policy. Health Policy and Planning, 21(3), 157–170. Lewis, J. A., & Arnold, M. S. (1998). From multiculturalism to social action. In C. C. Lee & G. Walz (Eds.), Social action: A mandate for counselors. Greensboro, NC: ERIC/CASS and the American Counseling Association. Lewis, J., & Bradley, L. (Eds.). (2000). Advocacy in counseling: Counselors, clients, and community. Greensboro, NC: ERIC Counseling and Student Services Clearinghouse. Marriage Equality USA. (2008). Why marriage. Retrieved April 2, 2010, from http:// www.marriageequality.org/index.php?page=why-marriage. Meyer, K., & Lobao, L. (2003). Economic hardship, religion and mental health during the Midwestern farm crisis. Journal of Rural Studies. Retrieved March 1, 2008, from ScienceDirect. Monahan, J., & Vaux, A. (1980). The macroenvironment and community mental health. Community Mental Health Journal, 16, 14–26. Murali, V., & Oyebode, F. (2004). Poverty, social inequality and mental health. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 10, 216–224. Nassar-McMillan (2011). Counseling & diversity: Counseling Arab Americans. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Nelson-Jones, R. (1993). Life skills helping: Helping others through a systematic peoplecentered approach. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Omizo, M., & Omizo, S. (1987). Group counseling with children of divorce: New findings. Elementary School Guidance and Counseling, 22, 46–52. Rojano, R. (2007). The practice of community family therapy. In E. Aldarando (Ed.). Advancing social justice through clinical practice (pp. 245–264). New York: Routledge. Salzman, M., & D’Andrea, M. (2001). Assessing the impact of a prejudice prevention project. Journal of Counseling and Development, 79, 341–346. Sayger, T. V. (1996). Creating resilient children and empowering families using a multifamily group process. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 21, 81–89. Strickland, B. R., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1980). Expectancies and attributions: Implications for community mental health. In G. S. Gibbs, J. R. Lachenmeyer, & J. Sigal (Eds.), Community psychology: Theoretical and empirical approaches (pp. 97–119). New York: Gardner Press. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1999). Counseling the culturally-different (3rd ed.). Boston: McGrawHill. Szapocznik, J., Santisteban, D., Rio, A., Perez-Vidal, A., & Kurtines, W. M. (1986). Bi-cultural effectiveness training (BET): An experimental test of an intervention modality for families experiencing intergenerational/intercultural conflict. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 8(4), 303–330. Thresholds. (2010). Our mission. Retrieved March 15, 2010, from http://www.thresholds .org/explore-thresholds. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Thresholds North. (2001). Program description and admissions procedures. Chicago: Author. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000). Healthy people 2000: Understanding and improving health. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. UNICEF. (2007). The state of the world’s children, Executive summary. Retrieved April 2, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/docs/sowc07_execsummary.pdf. Vacha-Haase, T., Ness, C. M., Dannison, L., & Smith, A. (2000). Grandparents raising grandchildren: A psychoeducational group approach. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 25, 67–78. Van Wart, M. (1998). Organizational investment in employee development. In S. Condrey (Ed.), Handbook of human resource management in government (pp. 276–297). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Warrington, D. L., & Method-Walker, Y. (1981). Career scope. Journal of College Student Personnel, 22, 169. White House. (2010). Civil rights. Retrieved April 2, 2010, from http://www.whitehouse .gov/issues/civil-rights. Whitworth, L., House, H., Sandahl, P., & Kinsey-House, H. (1998). Co-active coaching: New skills for coaching people toward success in work and life. Lake Oswego, OR: Davies-Black Publishing.


CHAPTER 10

Community Counseling in School Settings

T

he community counseling model is not limited to community agency settings. In fact, the helping strategies used in this framework are particularly applicable to the work of the professional school counselor. Effective school counselors are accustomed to seeing their students in context. They are keenly aware that the qualities of the educational environment have major effects on their students’ personal, academic, and career development. Knowing this, they readily take responsibility for doing all they can to improve their schools. Often, their efforts on behalf of students also lead them toward involvement in community collaborations and advocacy efforts. The needs of children and adolescents can best be met through comprehensive school counseling programs that include efforts to facilitate the healthy development both of students and of the schools that nurture them. While some students need services that are focused on their particular needs, all students benefit from broad-based developmental and preventive services. The comprehensive programs that form the ideal for professional school counselors are very much in sync with community counseling as it has been discussed in the previous chapters of this book. The history of professional school counseling is a story of increasing recognition of the need for comprehensive programs. This history has 251 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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mirrored—in fact, in many ways, led—the efforts toward comprehensiveness that have now become the mainstream in the counseling profession as a whole.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCHOOL COUNSELING: STRIVING FOR COMPREHENSIVENESS

Throughout the history of school counseling programs, one nagging problem has seemed invulnerable to alteration. Again and again, school counselors complain that they are forced to spend their time on a variety of activities that are inappropriate to their professional roles. In fact, Paisley and Borders suggested in 1995 that “the lack of control school counselors have over their day-to-day work activities and the development of their profession” (p. 151) is an overriding issue for school counseling. Walz (1997) agrees, stating that The pattern that does emerge is one of top down administration, preference given to local expediency over professional priorities and not infrequently local crises determining what becomes systematized practice. The picture that emerges is that, with some notable exceptions notwithstanding, school guidance program development and management is frequently hit-and-miss and seldom specifically targeted towards responding to critical needs. (Walz, 1997, p. 5) Leaders of the American School Counselor Association (Bowers, Hatch, & Kuranz, 2002) have pointed out that the historical problems in school counseling programs include a lack of consistent identity, variation in roles, inadequate access and services for some students, lack of accountability, and lack of integration with school reform movements. Fortunately, significant progress in overcoming these difficulties has been made. Now, several approaches have emerged, all of which help to lead the way toward comprehensive programs that focus on student outcomes. Although these models differ in emphasis, they are reasonably complementary to one another and help to lay the groundwork for the integrated model that will be presented in this book. The Comprehensive School Guidance Program

Beginning even before the 1980s (Gysbers & Moore, 1981) and continuing to the present day (Gysbers & Henderson, 2002), Gysbers and his colleagues have encouraged school counselors to develop comprehensive programs. The underpinning of the comprehensive school guidance program is an emphasis on clearly delineated counselor roles, purposes, and standards. In this context, the counselor’s work is determined by the program design, which is itself determined by student needs. The comprehensive guidance program, as laid out by Gysbers


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and his colleagues, includes the following components (Gysbers & Henderson, 2001): Guidance Curriculum, carried out through— Structured Groups Classroom Presentations Consultation with Teachers Individual Planning System, carried out through— Advisement Assessment Placement & Follow-Up Responsive Services, carried out through— Individual Counseling Small Group Counseling Consultation Referral System Support, carried out through— Management Activities Consultation Community Outreach Public Relations American School Counselor Association National Standards

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA), a division of the American Counseling Association, represents professional school counselors. The ASCA National Standards for School Counseling were developed to “provide the foundation for a more unified school counseling profession” (American School Counselor Association, 1996, p. 3–2). The standards do list the components that make up school counseling programs, including (a) developmental and preventative counseling, (b) remedial and crisis counseling, (c) consultative services, (d) program assessment and development, (e) coordination of services, (f ) case management, and (g) guidance and counseling curriculum. The unique contribution of the standards, however, is the delineation of the student outcomes upon which program evaluation should be based. Stating that “the purpose of the school counseling program is to promote and enhance student learning” (p. 2–4), the ASCA standards lay out desired student learning outcomes in three areas: academic development, career development, and personal/social development. The outcomes associated with successful academic development include the following: Standard #1: Students will acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that contribute to effective learning in school and cross the life span.


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Standard #2: Students will employ strategies to achieve success in school. Standard #3: Students will understand the relationship of academics to the world of work and to life at home and in the community. The outcomes associated with successful career development include the following: Standard #1: Students will acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to make a successful transition from school to the world of work and across the life-career span. Standard #2: Students will employ strategies to achieve future career success and satisfaction. Standard #3: Students will understand the relationship between personal qualities, education and training, and the world of work. The outcomes associated with successful personal/social development include the following: Standard #1: Students will acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes that help them understand and respect self and others and acquire effective interpersonal skills. Standard #2: Students will make decisions, set goals, and take action. Standard #3: Students will understand safety and survival skills. For each of these standards, a list of as many as 25 specific competencies is provided. With these student competencies in place, program developers and decision makers have new direction for the development and evaluation of counseling services. Moreover, “implementing a standards based program requires school counselors to be willing to assume responsibility for the delivery of a quality program and to be accountable for student outcomes” (p. 5–1). National Initiative for Transforming School Counseling

The Education Trust, Inc. was actively involved in recent years in the development of a new vision for school counseling (House & Martin, 1998). The focus of the Education Trust is on enhancing the academic achievement of students at all levels, “forever closing the achievement gaps that separate low-income students and students of color from other youth” (Education Trust, 2003). The organization applied these concepts and goals directly to the work of school counselors. With support from the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, the Trust moved this transformative mission forward by funding partnerships between counselor education programs and their local school districts. The Education Trust model views school counseling as “a profession that focuses on the relations and interactions between students and their school environment with the expressed purpose of reducing the effect of environmental and institutional barriers that impede student academic success” (Martin & House,



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1999, p. 1). In order to reach this goal, school counselors must be “assertive advocates” for all students, focusing especially on poor and minority children who would otherwise continue to be victimized by the achievement gap. This rethinking of the central goal of the counseling program brings with it a new set of ideas about the scope of counselors’ work. According to the Education Trust model, the duties of the school counselor include the following: Leadership Advocacy Teaming and Collaboration Counseling and Coordination Assessment and Use of Data According to this conceptualization, the role of the counselor is transformed from a focus on the individual to a focus on the school as a system, from a focus on direct-service counseling to a focus on advocacy and leadership. The idea that advocacy, leadership, collaboration, and systemic change are important to the skill set and attitude of the counselor is also present in ASCA’s national model for school counseling programs.

American School Counselor Association National Model for School Counseling Programs

In 2002, the American School Counselor Association unveiled its new national model for school counseling programs (Bowers & Hatch, 2002). The American School Counselor Association describes the model as containing three levels and four squares. (See Exhibit 10.1.) The foundation is considered the first level. As the graphic shows, arrows lead from the foundation to the management and delivery systems, which are considered the second level. The accountability system composes the third level and is responsive to the second-level systems. An arrow from the accountability square to the foundation square indicates that data gathered through the accountability process should be used to reconsider and refine the foundation. The outer border represents the importance of a commitment to systemic change. As currently configured, the foundation of the model builds on the ASCA National Standards and Competencies (discussed above). All counseling programs would be expected to build on the foundation by delineating their own missions. The delivery system is made up of the guidance curriculum, individual student planning, responsive services, and systems support (see the comprehensive school guidance model, discussed above). The management system of any one school counseling program would be developed collaboratively with school administrators, advisory councils, and other stakeholders. In keeping with the contribution of the Education Trust, counseling programs would be data-driven and plans would be made to attend to gaps between the current situation and desired results.


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EXHIBIT 10.1 ASCA National Model • CH AN

Accountability

G E • VO CA

Results Reports School Counselor Performance Evaluation The Program Audit

AD CY • LE

Y

IC AD

C

EM ER

A

AD

CO

R

N

ST

Delivery System

Agreements Advisory Council Use of Data Action Plans Use of Time Calendars

School Guidance Curriculum Individual Student Planning Responsive Services System Support

ST EM IC CH AN GE

• CO LL AB

OR

• Beliefs and Philosophy GE Mission Statement N A Domains: Academic, Career, Personal/Social CH ASCA National Standards/Competencies IC

I AT ON • LE AD ER SH IP

AD

VO

C CA

Y

•

SY

ST

L CO

LA

•

SY

Foundation

IP

•

Management System

SH

V

C

LE

•

BO

IO

SY

D

A

O

•

ER

SH

IP

A LL

AT

BO

T RA

IO

N

EM

•

®

The national model promises to direct us away from inconsistent program implementation and expectations toward a united, focused professional school counseling program with one vision in mind. No matter how comfortable the status quo or how difficult or uncomfortable change may be, it is necessary to ensure that every student achieve success. (Bowers & Hatch, 2002, p. 9)

THE CURRENT CHALLENGE: COMPREHENSIVENESS AND SYSTEMIC CHANGE

The idea that school counseling programs should be student-centered and comprehensive has reached the point of being almost universally accepted. The challenge now is to develop programs that are not only comprehensive in service delivery but that also emphasize active efforts toward systemic change. The more a counselor focuses on student needs the more he or she takes note of the environmental barriers that tend to impede healthy development. With this awakening comes



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the recognition that services to students and interventions that are focused on the environment are inextricably linked. Consider the following students, each of whom might be served by a school counselor. Miguel’s 6th grade teacher has sent him to the principal’s office repeatedly. She says that he is disrespectful to her and that he is a disruptive influence in the classroom. He has never been in really serious trouble; in fact, his school record was good through the 5th grade. This year, however, he has had numerous suspensions and his grades are beginning to fall. He believes that this teacher’s attitude toward him has always been negative because he is one of the few Puerto Rican students in the class. His parents also believe that prejudice is at the core of their son’s problems this year. They want to make sure that the school officials understand their concerns, but they feel that no one at the school will listen to them. Kimberly is the 16-year-old mother of a 1-year-old daughter. Having always been an average student who was actively involved in school activities, Kimberley was shocked at how quickly her life changed when she became pregnant at the age of 14. Although she felt abandoned and betrayed by her boyfriend, who was already seeing another girl, she decided immediately that she wanted to keep and raise her child. She kept up with her schoolwork throughout her pregnancy and is still a good student. In fact, her newfound maturity has brought new dedication. She is very serious about planning for college, but she has found adults to be less supportive than she would have expected. Her parents and teachers seem to see her differently now that she is a parent. She was insulted to learn recently that she had been referred to a program for “at-risk” students. Ten-year-old Langston, an African American child, just moved with his mother from the center of a big city to an outlying suburb. Langston was not happy about leaving his neighborhood and his friends, but his mother explained that his new school would give him learning opportunities that hadn’t been available in his old school. After the first few weeks of school, parent and child both noticed that the schoolwork was not as challenging as they had expected. An appointment with the principal brought a surprising revelation. Langston had been placed in the lowest track. No one had checked on Langston’s records, which would have shown that he belonged in a class for gifted children. Lily and Max are siblings who attend the same high school, Lily in the 10th grade and Max in the 9th. Both of them have had very spotty attendance, often saying that they had to miss school because they were needed at home. Max got into some trouble recently because of a tendency to fall asleep during his morning classes and act out in the afternoon. Lily intercepted a letter that was sent home and tried to resolve Max’s problem at school on her own. This alerted school officials to the fact that there was very little parental supervision at home. Their mother, a single parent, had been in


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treatment for an alcohol problem in the past. The children finally shared the information that their mother was in the midst of a serious relapse and that they were trying to manage until her next recovery. John is one of eight children in a large Irish American family. No one in his family has ever participated in higher education and he has no college aspirations. In the past, most of the men in his community worked at the steel mill. Now the mill has closed and his parents, like most people in the neighborhood, are struggling to make ends meet. John is in the 12th grade and has no idea what he might do after graduation. His motivation regarding schoolwork has gotten weaker over the last year, and his anxiety about the future has gotten stronger. Each of the students described could benefit from the opportunity to participate in group or individual counseling. Perhaps even more pressing, however, is their need for a learning environment that facilitates healthy development and lessens the impact of inequity. Miguel and Langston must be protected from racism in their schools. Kimberly, Lily, and Max all grapple with family concerns. John is powerfully affected by poverty and low expectations. All of these students face barriers that counseling alone cannot tear down. They need someone to advocate on their behalf and to facilitate change in school, family, and community systems. The need for advocacy is especially pressing for counselors working with children, always among the most powerless and voiceless members of society. Poor children, children of color, and children for whom English is a second language are often neglected, labeled, and left to wither in the lowest tracks in our schools.… School counselors (can) voice opposition to oppressive and punitive practices affecting children and youth.… School counselors (can) affiliate with groups working toward the creation of schools that are distinguished by warm and welcoming climates for learning. (Lewis & Arnold, 1998, p. 60) The necessity to take part in advocacy and systems change has important implications for the nature of school counseling programs and for the important role that the professional counselor can play.

SCHOOL COUNSELING COMPONENTS

The model that is spelled out in this book is based on the idea that a community counseling program should emphasize both strategies for facilitating human development and strategies for facilitating community development. As applied to the school counseling milieu, strategies to facilitate human development provide opportunities for students to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that can help them live and learn effectively, while strategies to facilitate community development address the settings that affect their well-being. In other words, human development interventions target the students and community interventions target school, family, and community environments to increase their Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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EXHIBIT 10.2 Applying Community Counseling in School Settings

Facilitating Student Development

Facilitating School Development

Focused Strategies

Developmental Counseling and Group Work

Student Advocacy

Broad-Based Strategies

Educational Interventions:

Systemic Change:

Promoting academic development Enhancing career development Building personal and social skills

Collaborating with families and communities Transforming school environments Public policy advocacy on behalf of children and youth

responsiveness to the needs of children and adolescents. An effective program also includes both school-wide and focused interventions. School-wide interventions are designed to meet the needs of the total school population and therefore emphasize development and prevention. Focused interventions assist students who are encountering situations in which they may need extra support. According to this model, then, broad-based human development services emphasize educational interventions that are provided with all students in mind, while focused interventions use empowerment strategies that are delivered through small-group experiences and individual counseling. In terms of the environment, school-wide programs involve efforts to bring about systemic change while focused interventions emphasize advocacy on behalf of vulnerable individuals and groups. The model is shown as Exhibit 10.2. Group Work and Individual Counseling

School-wide educational interventions can prevent many of the student concerns that might otherwise have required individual services. In the presence of a wellplanned curriculum, focused interventions take up a relatively small percentage of the counselor’s time. In any school, however, there will be students who need more individualized attention. In the context of a comprehensive program, group and individual counseling that is offered to students should be structured and time-limited. As is the case with educational interventions, the emphasis should remain on the development of age-appropriate life skills and on personal empowerment. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Even when providing direct services, counselors should keep in mind the impact of the environment on the individual child. In direct interventions, the counselor should be able to use empowerment strategies that recognize environmental factors and that help students understand them as well. The American Counseling Association’s Advocacy Competencies (Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2002) emphasize the idea that direct counseling and student advocacy are integrally related. An advocacy orientation remains operative even when a counselor and a student interact alone in the counselor’s office. The empowerment strategies that underlie the advocacy orientation include the following: Identify the strengths and resources of students. Identify the social, political, economic, and cultural factors that affect the student. Recognize the signs indicating that an individual’s behaviors and concerns reflect responses to systemic or internalized oppression. At an appropriate developmental level, help the individual student identify the external barriers that affect his or her development. Train students in self-advocacy skills. Help students develop self-advocacy action plans. Assist students in carrying out action plans. Educational Interventions

Direct, school-wide interventions are carried out primarily through educational interventions that may be delivered by counselors or teacher/counselor teams. Effective school counseling programs rely heavily on educational interventions that are well integrated into the school’s curriculum, appropriate for the developmental level of the students, and oriented to teaching transferable life skills. In accordance with the ASCA national standards, the curriculum should lead toward student competencies in three general areas: academic development, career development, and personal/social development. “The lessons are designed to teach children and adolescents at all developmental levels that they have power, that they can learn appropriate skills, and that they can make effective and responsible decisions” (Paisley & Hubbard, 1994, p. 117). Student Advocacy

Toporek (2000, p. 6) suggests that advocacy involves “action taken by a counseling professional to facilitate the removal of external and institutional barriers to clients’ well-being.” In the process of helping students who are facing barriers that they cannot overcome on their own, a counselor often finds that he or she can be most helpful in the role of advocate. Sometimes a counselor plays this role most effectively by speaking up on behalf of an individual whose rights have been jeopardized. At other times, the counselor can be most helpful by taking steps to improve the quality and cohesiveness of the network of services available Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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to children and families. The American Counseling Association’s Advocacy Competencies (Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2002) describe the following actions that are inherent in the process of student advocacy: Negotiate relevant services and education systems on behalf of students. Help students gain access to needed resources. Identify barriers to the well-being of individuals and vulnerable groups. Develop an initial plan of action for confronting these barriers. Identify potential allies for confronting the barriers. Carry out the plan of action. Systemic Interventions

School counselors should never feel that they have to choose between providing services and acting as advocates for systems change. In fact, these seemingly separate interventions build on each other. Because of their direct work with children and adolescents, counselors are often among the first people to become aware of harmful aspects of the school environment. When a counselor sees student after student struggling with similar concerns, he or she becomes aware of recurring themes. The drive to become involved in systemic change often derives from the counselor’s desire to prevent the kinds of problems that he or she sees every day. Fortunately, professional counselors possess skills that make them effective leaders in the change process. The American Counseling Association’s Advocacy Competencies suggest that systems change in schools should involve the following steps (Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2002): Identify environmental factors impinging on students’ development. Provide and interpret data to show the urgency for change. In collaboration with other stakeholders, develop a vision to guide change. Analyze the sources of political power and social influence within the system. Develop a step-by-step plan for implementing the change process. Develop a plan for dealing with probable responses to change. Recognize and deal with resistance. Assess the effect of the counselor’s advocacy efforts on the system and, ultimately, on the students. Unifying the Program Components

The comprehensive school counseling program should combine the four general components discussed above into a unified framework. Once the framework is in place, counselors can conceptualize the specific intervention strategies that are likely to have the greatest impact on the largest number of children and adolescents. The skills involved in each aspect of the unified program complement one Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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another, as counselors maintain their awareness of the continuous and complex interplay between students and the school environments. The program components that make up the school counseling model provide a framework for a comprehensive program. Perhaps surprisingly, the same model that guides the comprehensive program can also be applied to the set of interventions that the program might put into place for achieving particular goals. Not just the school’s comprehensive program but also programs designed for specific purposes should be designed around the combination of direct and indirect, school-wide and focused interventions. The following sections of this chapter lay out two examples: (a) a contextual approach to multicultural programming and (b) a comprehensive approach to programming for safe schools.

MULTICULTURAL PROGRAMMING

Child and adolescent development should always be viewed within a multicultural context. The nature and meaning of the developmental tasks that have often been assumed to be universal are, in fact, powerfully affected by cultural factors. Consider, for instance, the notion that separating from the family of origin and gaining independent self-identity are important tasks of adolescence. “Placing a premium on the adolescent’s attainment of individualism and independence reflects a value that is central to the dominant culture in the United States but that is not shared by all ethnic groups” (Lewis, 2002, p. 4). As Sue and Sue (1990) point out, most cultural groups “place greater value on families, historical lineage (reverence of ancestors), interdependence among family members, and submergence of self for the good of the family” (p. 123). When personal autonomy is emphasized in school and collectivism is emphasized in the family, a student raised in a nondominant culture may be forced into a situation of conflicting pressures. This predicament reflects just one of countless situations in which children and adolescents can be victimized by systems that are built on the assumption that mainstream cultural norms are universal. Conventional wisdom also assumes that child development unfolds within an environment that is essentially friendly and that a young person who develops normally will be able to find his or her niche in society. This unrealistic view overlooks the fact that racism and other forms of oppression have a major impact on human life. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the effects of oppression. (Consider again the individual students that were introduced at the beginning of this chapter. Racism, sexism, and classism clearly affected their young lives.) Unless purposeful efforts are made to interrupt the effects of oppression, the idea that schools are healthy developmental environments can be called into question. As we have seen, professional school counselors play a key role in improving school climate. Helping to make the school a truly multicultural community thus falls under the purview of the counseling program. Exhibit 10.3 illustrates how the school counseling framework can be adapted to this specific goal. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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EXHIBIT 10.3 Multicultural Programming

Focused Interventions

Broad-Based Interventions

Facilitating Student Development

Facilitating School Development

Multicultural counseling

Advocate on behalf of students who are victimized by racism and other oppressions.

Multicultural Education Developmental programs in cultural context

Address racism and other oppressions in school and community.

When our school counseling model is applied to the goal of multiculturalism, broad-based efforts to facilitate student development infuse multicultural education into the school’s curricula. One aspect of this process is to provide learning activities that are devoted to enhancing students’ multicultural competence. Another facet involves programming that emphasizes the context of diversity even when the curriculum is not specifically “about” multiculturalism. Similarly, the more focused interventions bring a multicultural perspective to all group and individual counseling services. Broad-based efforts to facilitate school development seek change in policies and practices that may victimize students who are members of oppressed groups, while focused interventions advocate on behalf of specific individuals or groups who have been jeopardized by these practices. The value of balancing attention to student competencies and attention to the environment is exemplified in the work of the Alaska Native Knowledge Network. The Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools (Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 1998) represent a groundbreaking effort in that they include cultural standards for students, cultural standards for educators, cultural standards for curriculum, cultural standards for schools, and cultural standards for communities. The use of this approach means that stakeholders can look at the cultural environment in a broad context and, at the same time, can identify their own personal roles and responsibilities. It is interesting to zero in on the cultural standards for students because these delineate the outcomes of effective practice. The standards for students include the following (Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 1998, Student Standards, pp. 1–3): A. Culturally knowledgeable students are well-grounded in the cultural heritage and traditions of their community. B. Culturally knowledgeable students are able to build on the knowledge and skills of the local cultural community as a foundation from which to achieve personal and academic success throughout life. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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C. Culturally knowledgeable students are able to actively participate in various cultural environments. D. Culturally knowledgeable students are able to engage effectively in learning activities that are based on traditional ways of knowing and learning. E. Culturally knowledgeable students demonstrate an awareness and appreciation of the relationships and processes of interaction of all elements in the world around them. For each of the standards above, the document also includes more detailed lists of the behaviors that culturally knowledgeable students are able to perform. Even a cursory examination of the delineated competencies makes it clear that direct education alone cannot be enough to ensure their development. Students can reach this level of knowledge and awareness only in culturally nourishing environments. In 2001, the Assembly of Alaska Native Educators approved the Guidelines for Nurturing Culturally-Healthy Youth (Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 2001). This document includes guidelines for native elders; parents; youth; communities, tribes, clans, and native organizations; educators; schools; and childcare providers. Again, attention is payed to the roles that all of the stakeholders in the development of multicultural competence can play. In terms of educators, the guidelines state that “educators are responsible for providing a supportive learning environment that reinforces the cultural well-being of the students in their care” (Alaska Native Knowledge Network, guidelines, p. 6). Guidelines for schools indicate that “schools must be fully engaged with the life of the communities they serve so as to provide consistency of expectations in all aspects of students’ lives” (Alaska Native Knowledge Network, guidelines, p. 7). Multicultural counseling programs can benefit from attention to the holistic approach that is exemplified by the Alaska Native standards and guidelines. Certainly, attention is paid to the direct education of youth. Equal attention is paid to the necessity for school, family, and community to work in partnership.

PROGRAMMING FOR SAFE SCHOOLS

Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General (2001) provides a review of the current research on the sources and potential solutions of violence among young people. Among the major findings of this report is that the “most highly effective programs combine components that address both individual risks and environmental conditions.” In fact, the report goes so far as to state that “interventions that target change in the social context appear to be more effective, on average, than those that attempt to change individual attitudes, skills, and risk behaviors.” These conclusions support the idea that a multifaceted approach to programming for safe schools is needed. Although many people hold out the hope that violence can be prevented simply through the early identification of violence-prone children, the truth is that aggression, like all behaviors, takes Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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EXHIBIT 10.4 Programming for Safe Schools

Facilitating Student Development Focused Interventions

Broad-Based Interventions

Outreach in response to early warnings Timely interventions Crisis management

Skill training Conflict resolution Peaceful problem solving Education for preventing violence and bullying Anti-bias education

Facilitating School Development Advocacy on behalf of students subjected to labeling, stereotyping, or unfair disciplinary practices Provision of coordinated services for students experiencing problems Development of positive school climate Fair, equitable, and culturally sensitive school policies Partnerships with families and communities

place in context. A contextual approach to programming for safe schools is illustrated in Exhibit 10.4. Regarding school-wide programs for facilitating student development, school counselors can develop new educational interventions that fit the goals of their schools or choose from among a great many existing curricula. Compton (2003) suggests that conflict resolution can be infused into the school curriculum through stand-alone modules, integration into existing courses, integrating core themes into teaching, and infusing conflict resolution concepts into day-to-day activities. Similar strategies can be used for programming aimed toward preventing bullying, harassment, and other forms of violence. Anti-bias education, which focuses on respect for differences, is also central to safe-school initiatives because of the importance of preventing hate-motivated violence (Cobia & Carney, 2002). Counselors of course use focused interventions to work with individuals or groups who are affected by violence, whether as victims or perpetrators. Early intervention as problems begin to develop is important. It is just as important, however, to be aware of the need for caution in approaching students who have exhibited early warning signs related to potential violence. Do no harm. There are certain risks associated with using early warning signs to identify children who are troubled. First and foremost, the Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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intent should be to get help for a child early. The early warning signs should not be used as a rationale to exclude, isolate, or punish a child. Nor should they be used as a checklist for formally identifying, mislabeling, or stereotyping children.… It is important to be aware of false cues—including race, socio-economic status, cognitive or academic ability, or physical appearance. In fact, such stereotypes can unfairly harm children, especially when the school community acts upon them. (U.S. Department of Education, 2000, p. 4) Direct interventions with children and adolescents must, of course, be carried out within a developmental and social context. The importance of context comes to the fore when we consider schoolwide environmental interventions. School policies, especially those addressing discipline, can have a strong influence on student behavior. The U.S. Office of Education’s guide to safe schools (2000, p. 11) suggests that schools should take the following steps in developing school-wide policies: Develop a school-wide disciplinary policy that includes a code of conduct, specific rules, and consequences that can accommodate student differences on a case-by-case basis when necessary.… Be sure to include a description of school anti-harassment and anti-violence policies and due process rights. Ensure that the cultural values and educational goals of the community are reflected in the rules. These values should be expressed in a statement that precedes the school-wide disciplinary policy. Include school staff, students, and families in the development, discussion, and implementation of fair rules. Provide school-wide and classroom support to implement these rules. Be sure consequences are commensurate with the offense, and that rules are written and applied in a nondiscriminatory manner and accommodate cultural diversity. Make sure that if a negative consequence … is used, it is combined with positive strategies for teaching socially appropriate behaviors and with strategies that address any factors that might have caused the behavior. The recommended approach to discipline helps to build a school climate that is seen by students, parents, and the community as fair, equitable, and sensitive to diversity. Even in the presence of a positive school climate, focused indirect interventions are sometimes needed. School counselors should be prepared to advocate on behalf of students to ensure that their rights are respected and their well-being supported. The presence of a well-organized and comprehensive system of services also helps to ensure that students have access to the help they need before problems get out of hand. In the development of a safe school, an effective program clearly must attend to student learning and to school climate. The programming needed to address this



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one concern mirrors the organization and processes that also underlie the planning and implementation of the comprehensive school counseling program as a whole. SUMMARY

This chapter has shown how the community counseling model applies to the work of counselors in school settings. The authors make the argument that professional school counselors may be particularly comfortable with this model because their work has traditionally addressed issues concerning their schools as systems and their counseling efforts have focused on the individual student in a school and family context. The community counseling model, with its four major components, was applied to two specific areas of interest: multicultural programming and interventions focused on safe schools.


Applying Concepts of “Community” to School Settings How do you define the concept of community? In what ways does a school fit the concept of community? In what ways does the community counseling model fit the work of a professional school counselor? If you were a school counselor, what adaptations would you make in planning your program?

REFERENCES Alaska Native Knowledge Network (1998a). Alaska standards for culturally responsive schools. Retrieved July 12, 2010, from http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/publications/standards.html. Alaska Native Knowledge Network (1998b). Alaska standards for culturally responsive schools: student standards. Retrieved April 26, 2003, July 12, 2010, from http://www.ankn .uaf.edu/publications/standards.html. Alaska Native Knowledge Network (2001). Guidelines for nurturing culturally-healthy youth. Retrieved July 12, 2010, from http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/publications/youth.pdf. American School Counselor Association (1996). National school counseling standards. Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association. Bowers, J. L, & Hatch, P. A. (2002). ASCA national model for school counseling programs. Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association. Bowers, J. L, Hatch, P. A., & Kuranz, M. (2002). School counselors: Partners in student achievement. Presentation. American School Counselor Association. Miami. Cobia, D. C., & Carney, J. S. (2002). Creating a culture of tolerance in schools: Everyday actions to prevent hate-motivated violent incidents. Journal of School Violence, 1(2), 87–103.


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Compton, R. (2003). Infusing and integrating conflict resolution in the school curriculum and culture. Retrieved (3/13/39) from http://www.acresolution.org/research .nsf/key/lib-compton. Education Trust. Retrieved 3/16/03 from http://www.edtrust.org/dc/about Gysbers, N. C., & Henderson, P. (Eds.). Implementing comprehensive school guidance programs: Critical leadership issues and successful responses. Greensboro, NC: ERIC/CASS. Gysbers, N. C., & Moore, E. J. (1981). Improving guidance programs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Gysbers, N. C., & Henderson, P. Comprehensive guidance and counseling programs: A rich history and a bright future. Professional School Counseling, 4, 246–256. House, R. M., & Martin, P. J. (1998). Advocating for better futures for all students: A new vision for school counselors. Education, 119, 284–291. Lewis, J. A. (2002). Working with adolescents: The cultural context. In J. Carlson & J. Lewis (Eds.), Counseling the adolescent: Individual, family, and school interventions (pp. 3–16). Denver: Love Publishing Company. Lewis, J. A., Lewis, M. D., Daniels, J. A., & D’Andrea, M. J. (1998). Community counseling: Empowerment strategies for a diverse society. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Lewis, J. A., & Arnold, M. S. (1998). From multiculturalism to social action. In C. C. Lee & G. R. Walz (Eds.), Social action: A mandate for counselors (pp. 51–66). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association and ERIC/CASS. Lewis, J. A., Arnold, M. S., House, R., & Toporek, R. (2002). American Counseling Association advocacy competencies. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Martin, P., & House, R. (1999, June 27). Counselors as leaders: Behaving as if you really believe in all children. Presentation to the American School Counselor Association Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ. Paisley, P. O., & Borders, I. D. (1995). School counseling: An evolving specialty. Journal of Counseling & Development, 74, 150–153. Paisley, P. O., & Hubbard, G. L. (1994). Developmental school counseling programs: From theory to practice. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Sue, D. W. & Sue, D. (1990). Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Toporek, R. L. (2000). Developing a common language and framework for understanding advocacy in counseling. In J. Lewis & L. Bradley (Eds.), Advocacy in counseling: Counselors, clients, & community (pp. 5–14). Greensboro, NC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services. U.S. Department of Education (2000). Early warning, timely response: a guide to safe schools. Retrived March 13, 2003, from http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/ earlywrn.html. Youth violence: A report of the surgeon general (2001). Retrieved May 30, 2003, from http:// www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/youthviolence/default.htm. Walz, G. R. (1997). Knowledge generalizations regarding the status of guidance and counseling. Washington, DC: Education Trust.


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Managing the Community Counseling Program

E

ffective community counseling programs depend on thoughtful planning, deliberate organization, rigorous evaluation, and responsive and visionary leadership. Such programs can take place in a variety of settings, including public agencies, private nonprofit organizations, educational settings, and for-profit institutions. Regardless of the setting, managing any program that includes the four components of the community counseling model involves developing a plan to achieve a desired outcome, organizing the people and resources needed to carry out the plan, motivating workers who will perform the tasks, and evaluating the results. Clearly, counselors who use the community counseling framework in their work must be competent in these managerial functions in order to control the direction their programs take. However, like many other human service workers, counselors who take a holistic, proactive, systems approach to counseling are often forced to choose between actively participating in planning and managing their own programs or leaving leadership in the hands of others who may have little understanding of the helping process. Because these programs are innovative, multifaceted, and philosophically clear, people who understand their goals and overall mission are uniquely qualified to lead them. Therefore, counselors who use the community counseling model have 269 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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little choice but to acquire the managerial skills that can guarantee the effective operation of programs and services that reflect a preventive, group-oriented, culturally responsive approach to mental health and human development. These skills include planning, organizing, supervising, and evaluating programs.

PLANNING

By moving beyond traditional counseling roles and functions that focus primarily on individual change and development, counselors who use the community counseling framework embody a multifaceted approach to professional helping. They serve as change agents, advocates, consultants, advisers, administrators, supervisors, evaluators, organizational development specialists, and multicultural experts. No matter which roles they assume, their overall goal remains the same: to assist the largest number of people in the most efficient and cost-effective way. As such, these counseling practitioners need to develop programs and services designed to address the needs of the community. They must therefore base each program on a careful assessment of the community’s needs. The overall task of planning a community counseling program involves several steps. First, counselors should assess which needs in the community are not currently being met. By taking time to do this, counselors position themselves to develop realistic and relevant program goals, objectives, and services that may better fulfill the identified needs than programs not based on careful assessment. On implementing their plans, counselors should also periodically evaluate their efforts to assess whether they are meeting the community’s needs adequately. Needs Assessment

In any human service setting, the planning process must begin with a careful evaluation of the needs, interests, and desires of community members. By taking these considerations into account, counselors attempt to determine the community’s problems and resources so that they can develop services that would help fill the gaps in the current delivery system. Community need refers to a condition that negatively affects the well-being of people in the community. More positively, one can see community needs as unique challenges that could be solved when human and material resources are pooled. For example, a lack of sufficient housing to meet the needs of a group of new immigrants represents a specific community problem that might be remedied by assessing available resources, such as vacant houses or apartment buildings. Keep in mind that the identification of community needs fundamentally involves a value judgment. In other words, what may appear to be a serious need by some members of the community may not be perceived as such by others (Edwards, Yankey, & Altpeter, 1998).


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Needs Assessment and Program Development. McKillip (1987) describes several ways one might use needs assessments to develop and manage mental health care programs. These include the following:

1. Fostering community advocacy: By accurately identifying specific community needs, counselors can advocate for people in vulnerable populations whose physical and/or psychological needs remain unmet as a result of a lack of resources in the community. Armed with this information, counselors are positioned to solicit funding (e.g., by writing grants) to help at-risk populations. 2. Facilitating responsible fiscal planning: In a period of continuing cutbacks in spending for mental health and educational programs and services, community needs assessments can help identify funding priorities. 3. Enhancing public support for counseling initiatives: The results of a community needs assessment can foster public awareness and support for various issues by highlighting a community’s specific problems. 4. Documenting the effectiveness of counseling interventions: The data from a needs assessment can help counselors evaluate the impact of new programs and services developed to address specific community problems. 5. Program planning: Gathering data related to the community’s resources and needs allows counselors to make more responsible and informed decisions when planning and preparing to implement new program initiatives. 6. Lobbying support from policymakers and others with access to funding sources: Using information generated from needs assessments to describe specific types of community needs is a powerful way to lobby support in both the public and the private sector. Although the main objective in such assessments is to identify specific problems or unmet goals, the perception of the community members concerning the seriousness of any situation must always be taken into account. Therefore, counselors must actively include community members in the needs assessment process rather than try to identify problems themselves. Culturally Competent Assessment. To promote community involvement in the assessment of culturally diverse settings, Butler (1992) indicates that counselors should do the following:

1. Be knowledgeable, sensitive, and respectful regarding the various cultural groups in the community. 2. Be aware of the political, social, and cultural needs of those involved in the assessment and implementation of programs. 3. Advocate for the establishment of a review committee that includes representatives from the different cultural, ethnic, and racial groups in the community. 4. Assess what types of questions and methods of data collection would be most appropriate for people from different backgrounds.


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5. Be sure to use multiple sources when collecting data, including key members of the community, formal and informal leaders of various cultural groups, school personnel, and indigenous health care providers. 6. Use culturally appropriate methods to disseminate the results of the needs assessment in an attempt to increase the awareness of the greatest number of people in the community. Of course, it is also important to be sensitive to the language needs of community members and ensure that all documents are translated as needed. Assessment Tools. One can effectively conduct a comprehensive needs assessment by using any one or a combination of evaluation tools. The choice of instruments and approaches depends on what kind of information is needed and what time and resources are available. Most needs assessments use a combination of approaches because comprehensiveness requires different tools for the measurement of different factors. Approaches commonly used to conduct community needs assessments include the following:

1. Surveys: Community members may be asked through mailed questionnaires, telephone contacts, or personal interviews for information related to their characteristics or needs. One can administer such surveys to all members of a target population or to a sample. The information generated can be used to lobby support for new programs, to evaluate existing programs, and to update data from previous needs assessments. 2. Community meetings and/or focus groups: Community forums or focus groups serve two purposes. First, they reveal local priorities. Second, they provide a means for community members to have direct input and thus feel more involved in the development of programs and services designed to serve the needs of the greater community. These meetings may include formal public hearings or informal discussion groups. Often, these meetings help identify needs and strategies that might not have emerged through other assessment methods. Counselors should go to great lengths to make sure that groups overlooked because of their relative lack of power and status gain a voice in the needs assessment process. 3. Social indicators: Counselors can also use existing quantitative information on aspects of the community that might directly or indirectly relate to service needs. They can find this secondary data in sources such as census and other government reports, private compilations of local and national statistics, and reports from other local health and planning agencies. Social indicators include demographic characteristics, health and education statistics, socioeconomic variables, employment patterns, and family patterns. For example, if counselors want to assess the needs of teens in a given area, they might begin by reviewing local statistics, such as the juvenile delinquency rate, suicide rate, school dropout rate, or divorce figures. 4. Surveys of local agencies: One can survey local agencies to determine what services are currently being offered in the community. Questionnaires Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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dealing with services and client profiles can help identify service gaps and avoid needless duplication. 5. Interviews with key informants: Local leaders or informal caregivers might also be able to provide important information concerning unmet community needs. This information can provide the basis for developing other assessment tools, such as questionnaires. Their sensitive analysis of current situations can never replace more broadly based needs assessments, but they can help narrow the focus of the assessment so that appropriate meetings, surveys, or social indicator approaches can be designed. Needs assessment tools provide a means of identifying priorities on which one should base a program’s objectives. This sort of assessment provides counselors with valuable data that can be used to (a) select and prioritize problems and target populations, (b) identify and implement specific programs, and (c) evaluate the impact of these programs on the community (Hadley & Mitchell, 1995; Walsh & Betz, 1995). Goal Setting

Once an initial needs assessment has been completed, counselors can turn their attention to setting specific program goals. Setting clear goals may be the single most important task in managing a community counseling program. As an assessment tool, program goals determine precisely what services will be provided. Those services that aim at clearly articulated goals will be included in the program, whereas services with vague goals or goals that do not specifically relate to given objectives will be eliminated. Providing a coherent set of services thus depends on clearly stated goals agreed on by policymakers, service deliverers, and consumers. The goals of a community counseling program should be in accord with the outcomes desired by the community members. They should be systematically related to objectives that are measurable, realistic, and acceptable to all groups affected by the success or failure of the program. The desired outcomes provide the basis for all subsequent decisions concerning the nature of the services. Decision Making

Another way that counselors who use the community counseling framework in their work can break from traditional roles is by avoiding getting caught up in traditional methods as though no alternatives were available. When human service professionals get caught in this trap, their activity (such as individual counseling) becomes an end in itself. They get so used to performing the same tasks that they lose sight of their overall purpose (e.g., promoting psychological wellness) and do not consider alternative helping methods and strategies to help them be more effective. In contrast, the community counseling framework requires the use of multifaceted approaches to achieve a program’s goals. In making decisions concerning program development, for example, counselors are encouraged to consider a broad Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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range of services, weigh the negative and positive implications of each, and make choices on the basis of a reasonable search of available data. The key to this decision-making process is openness, with counselors considering innovative activities as freely as they consider familiar services, such as one-to-one counseling. When choosing services to be included in the design of their programs, counselors should carefully consider the following questions: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Does this kind of service fit our program goals? What resources are available for delivering this service? Are community members and consumers interested in this service? Does this service complement the values and worldviews of community members from different cultural/ethnic backgrounds? 5. Do the potential benefits of this service outweigh the projected costs? 6. How can we measure the effectiveness of this service? Planning for Implementation

Once the set of services to be delivered has been selected, counselors can plan the delivery process. For each service, counselors must perform a series of specific activities to set the program into motion. Gredler (1996) has outlined the following questions, which counselors may find helpful when planning the delivery process: 1. What are the major activities necessary to implement the service delivery methods selected for the agency or program? 2. Who will be responsible for performing each activity? 3. What are the starting and completion dates for the major activities? 4. What are the basic resources needed to perform each activity? A timeline can help counselors carry out plans on schedule. While this initial plan is being developed, methods for evaluation should also be devised. This careful planning process enables counselors to carry out other management tasks more efficiently. ORGANIZING

The way a program or agency is organized should be based on its mission and approach to helping. When they have finished planning, program developers need an organizational structure to carry out the planned activities. Given the tremendous variations in organizational design, counselors should keep in mind that the organizational structures chosen can have major implications for their work. Such design largely determines how activities will be divided among individuals or groups, who makes decisions, how specialized roles and jobs are defined, how activities are to be coordinated, and how communication within the organization is to take place. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Contrasting Two Organizational Models

Management experts have discussed the impact of using various organizational structures to facilitate decision making and management within different types of organizations, which range from “closed bureaucratic organizations” to more dynamic “open and future-oriented organizations” (Mink, Mink, Downes, & Owen, 1994). By examining differences between these poles, counselors can assess where their own agency or program might fit on a continuum between the two: 1. Organizational structure: Bureaucratic organizations are rigid, static, ritualistic, and procedurally oriented. Open organizations are flexible, holistic, and responsive; they use task forces and networks to make decisions and accomplish tasks. 2. Organizational atmosphere: Bureaucratic organizations are formal and based on a hierarchical chain of command; they operate on a low level of trust and are competitively oriented. Open organizations, in contrast, are people centered, informal, and goal oriented. 3. Organizational leadership: Bureaucratic organizations value seniority, emphasize tasks over relationships, encourage taking minimal risks, and use a controlling leadership style. Open organizations are innovative and team centered, emphasize both tasks and relationships, and value risk taking and experimentation. 4. Organizational planning: Bureaucratic organizations use top management officials to conduct planning efforts and focus on rational and legalistic methods for decision making. Open organizations conduct planning with those affected by the planning process; they emphasize collaboration/group decision making and problem solving. 5. Motivation: Bureaucratic organizations use external rewards and punishment to motivate employees. Open organizations focus on individuals’ intrinsic motivation and positive expectations; they use learning contracts to stimulate employees’ personal and professional development. 6. Communication: Bureaucratic organizations use one-way hierarchical communication and value the suppression of employee feelings. Open organizations value multichannel communication that supports the respectful expression of feelings. 7. Evaluation: Bureaucratic organizations use performance-based evaluations that are conducted by a supervisor and tend to be subjective. Open organizations use a goal-focused evaluation process that is both objective and subjective (Mink et al., 1994). Many human service agencies are characterized by traditional, bureaucratic structures because their organizational designers were unaware of alternatives. As such, each individual is expected to report to one direct supervisor; each manager is responsible for the activities of his or her subordinates. In such an organization, routine is important. Each employee depends on written regulations and procedures Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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to provide guidelines for action. Specifically, when tasks in a human service agency are specialized, one employee or department typically does individual counseling, another does community outreach, another performs managerial tasks, another does consultation and advocacy, and still another conducts groups. Members of the organization tend to become highly involved in their own specialty, with only executive-level managers seeing the workings of the whole agency. In comparison, an agency that embraces a more open system has a flexible structure responsive to the changing environment. That is, such an agency is structured around work teams and networks that shift according to its goals and needs. As Mink et al. (1994) explain, Open organizations focus on achievement of goals through collaboration and working together rather than through application of authority.… Open organizations are proactive rather than reactive in relation to their environments. They can therefore anticipate and prepare for changes rather than make decisions after crises have developed. (p. 8) Open systems rely on a human relations approach to management that addresses personnel needs and promotes organizational development. They are also characterized by freedom of action and broad-based employee participation in organizational decision making. Instead of departmentalizing work responsibilities by function as traditional human service agencies have done, open organizations divide activities according to their purpose or to the population being served. Thus, individuals working in open systems function as members of a team responsible for determining the types of activities that might best serve the organization’s goals. The power and control in an open organization are shared, whereas in bureaucratic systems they are centralized. Theoretically, this sharing of power and control among the workers leads to an increased sense of responsibility and fosters a heightened motivation to achieve the goals on which all have agreed. The community counseling model goes a step further by emphasizing the importance of receiving direct input from consumers as well as workers. This necessitates the use of task forces and consultation teams in which program administrators, mental health practitioners, and residents of targeted service areas work together to design intervention strategies aimed at promoting the mental health and psychological wellness of the greater community. Agency employees and community members are thus involved in policymaking as well as program planning and evaluation. By using this sort of community/team approach, work is divided along project lines rather than lines of specialization. Further, by working closely with community residents, program planners and service providers maintain an awareness of their clients’ needs rather than identify solely with their own management philosophy and expertise. Managing an agency that truly reflects the characteristics of an open organization is difficult. To do so, administrators, mental health practitioners, and community residents typically have to be encouraged and trained to adapt to a structure that is less familiar to them than a traditional bureaucracy. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Of course, no one type of organizational design suits all human service agencies. By becoming familiar with a range of organizational structures, however, counselors can enable themselves to recommend a management approach that best fits the unique needs and characteristics of their agency and the community in which they work. Contingency theorists (Burns & Stalker, 1961; Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967; Woodward, 1965) suggest that the most effective type of structure for a specific organization depends on the contingencies that agency faces. Traditional mechanistic, bureaucratic organizational structures may work best when environmental conditions are stable and efficiency is a high priority. Organic, less formalized structures, on the other hand, may be more appropriate when organizations face internal challenges or must deal with rapid external change and problems in the community. If the organization or community is in a state of flux, mechanisms need to be in place that (a) encourage communication among workers at all levels of the agency, (b) foster consultation among community residents, and (c) facilitate the flow of information between the agency and the community. These mechanisms can help administrators, counselors, and other human service practitioners consider ways to exercise greater flexibility when facing challenges within the organization and in the greater community. Future Organizational Challenges

The critical challenges organizations face in the 21st century involve adapting to a host of new and unprecedented changes in society. In this regard, experts have noted that to be effective in the 21st century, organizations will have to deal with the following: 1. The continuing shift from an industrial to a postindustrial, highly technological society (Mink et al., 1994). 2. The shift from a national economy to a global economy, which will greatly affect how schools and universities prepare students to be future workers (Senge, 1990). 3. The rapid cultural/racial/ethnic diversification of the United States (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1998; Sue, Ivey, & Pedersen, 1996). This factor will force those who work in organizations and community agencies to grapple head first with their co-workers, administrators, clients, and community members regarding the challenge and promise of multiculturalism (Sue, 1995). Acknowledging the impact and magnitude of these challenges, Mink et al. (1994) discuss the importance of creating new types of organizations designed to enhance workers’ ability to adapt to life in the 21st century: If organizations are to respond successfully to diversity and change, they need people who can think, learn, and adapt, who are flexible and creative, innovative, and collaborative.… To function and excel in today’s global economy while coping with the challenges of an increasingly diverse work force and constantly changing information and technologies, Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Managerial Preference Describe the behavior of the best manager you have known (preferably in a place you yourself have worked). What was it about this manager that made him or her effective? Would the approaches he or she used in that setting be effective in a community counseling program, or would they have to be adapted? If they need to be adapted, briefly describe what these adaptations would be.

contemporary organizations must create new paradigms that focus on adaptability, learning and openness. Forward-thinking organizations must thus acknowledge that human life is organic and fluid rather than mechanistic. (p. 14) The organizational structures just discussed are presented to help counselors more effectively understand and manage the particular agency or school in which they work. By reviewing these organizational models, counselors can consider ways to foster the development of their own organization by initiating new program initiatives and management strategies. This can also be accomplished by thinking about the management skills that you have noted to be effective from your own work experiences. Exhibit 11.1 is a competency-building activity that is designed to help you identify some of the managerial characteristics that you have found to be effective and motivating in your own life. LEADERSHIP AND SUPERVISION

Community counseling programs depend on the cooperative efforts of many people, including service providers, support personnel, and community members. Counselors who wish to improve the quality of counseling programs must exercise effective leadership when working with other practitioners, administrators, and community members. The following discussion examines issues related to the counselor’s leadership style and his or her ability to supervise other mental health practitioners. Leadership Style

Effective leadership involves the ability to help others realize their potential to contribute to the organization’s overall goals and purposes. Thus, the effectiveness of a true leader is measured largely by the degree to which he or she facilitates the personal and professional development of other people within an agency or organization. Leadership style refers to the manner in which leaders interact with other people within an organization. Over the past three decades, several theorists have Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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discussed various leadership styles (Burns, 1978; D’Andrea, 1989; Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Senge, 1990). These theorists have typically focused on ways leaders might facilitate the other people’s development in a given organization. Here follows a brief discussion of four models of leadership particularly relevant to the community counseling model that is presented in this book. Theory X and Theory Y Leadership Styles. A pioneer in the study of leadership, Burns (1978) presents two classic theories that have guided much of the thinking done in this area over the past two decades: Theory X and Theory Y. According to Burns (1978), a Theory X leader assumes that people lack interest in their work, lack intrinsic motivation, and try to avoid responsibility. In sharp contrast, Theory Y leaders assume that people are genuinely interested in the work they do, are motivated by extrinsic and intrinsic factors, and desire greater responsibility within their organizations. Managers who aspire to these two leadership models manifest quite different styles when supervising workers. For example, supervisors demonstrating Theory X leadership characteristics tend to use a structured supervisory approach in which they carefully monitor employees’ actions. To motivate workers, Theory X leaders rely on rewards and punishments designed to maintain a smooth and predictable organizational structure and to keep employees in line. Theory Y managers, on the other hand, usually delegate decision making and responsibility. Their willingness to do so stems from the belief that most people are self-motivated and can meet challenges effectively and creatively. Although Theory X and Theory Y provide a general way of thinking about leadership styles, most organizational leaders and supervisors fall somewhere between the two. At one end of this continuum, supervisors are authoritarian and highly structured in their interactions with others in the organization. At the other end, supervisors emphasize the importance of democratic decision making and exhibit flexibility as they encourage employees to contribute to the organization in their own ways. To avoid implying the superiority of one of these theoretical frameworks over the other, remember that aspects of both Theory X and Theory Y leadership may be appropriate and necessary, depending on the specific challenges facing the organization, changes occurring within the community, the particular supervisee with whom one is working, and the goals of the organization. The Managerial Grid. Blake and Mouton’s (1978) “managerial grid” provides another way of conceptualizing different types of leadership styles. Their twoaxis model distinguishes two orientations: a “concern for people” and a “concern for production.” According to Blake and Mouton, supervisors and managers may demonstrate a preference for one, both, or neither when supervising employees. Blake and Mouton (1978) describe effective organizational managers and supervisors as “team management leaders.” Such leaders combine a high degree of concern for production with a heightened and genuine concern for people. Although they see these two concerns as complementary, team management leaders often view their concern for people as being potentially more important in enhancing workers’ overall level of productivity. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Situational Leadership. Hersey and Blanchard (1982) emphasize the importance of adapting one’s leadership style to different situations and challenges that emerge within the organization. Their “situational model” assumes that effective organizational leadership requires managers to use different supervisory styles to meet the professional and personal needs of workers. This leadership model suggests that the appropriateness of leadership behavior depends on the worker’s maturity level. Thus, a supervisor would use a highly structured, task-oriented approach with people who have not yet developed enough expertise and internal motivation to complete given tasks effectively. In contrast, managers should use a task-and-relationship-oriented approach with workers who have a greater degree of internal motivation but need help in developing specific job-related competencies. Hersey and Blanchard (1982) also stress the importance of using a relationship-oriented approach when working with individuals who lack motivation and confidence in themselves. Finally, these theorists encourage organizational leaders to delegate responsibility to those supervisees who demonstrate the confidence, maturity, willingness, and ability to accomplish workrelated tasks without much assistance.

The Five Components of Effective Leadership

Based on the work of Senge (1990), D’Andrea’s (1996) model of organizational leadership is particularly relevant for the community counseling model because it emphasizes the ways counselors can foster individual and systemic changes in and among clients, colleagues, and organizations. D’Andrea’s leadership model comprises five distinct components, as portrayed in Figure 11.1. Rather than viewing this model from a linear or hierarchical perspective, D’Andrea (1996) emphasizes the fluid and dynamic relationship among the model’s components. Thus, these factors constantly interact. According to D’Andrea (1996) and Senge (1990), leadership stems from the individual’s vision of what his or her clients, colleagues, and organization can accomplish. Formulating such a vision requires counselors to picture how their clients, colleagues, and members of the greater community contribute to the organization’s development. One’s capacity to develop a vision for the organization requires knowledge of it; that is, knowledge about an organization helps one develop a clearer mental picture of where one could imagine the agency/ business/school going. Further, as one’s vision becomes clearer, the desire to gain more information about the organizational change process tends to increase. When striving to develop their own professional vision, then, counselors and educators need to acquire knowledge related to organizational development, human development, and multicultural counseling theories as a way of fueling their emerging mental pictures of their agency, business, or school (D’Andrea, 1996). Beyond developing a vision and acquiring knowledge about their organization, leaders have to use leadership skills effectively in planning and implementing strategies that help realize their vision. Thus, the planning and implementation Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Vision

Skills

Planning and implementation

Knowledge

Promoting individual and systemic changes

F I G U R E 11.1 D’Andrea’s Leadership Model

component represents the heart of the model, and the leader’s level of organizational skills represents the energy that fuels it, determining the degree to which the leader’s vision will be realized. All five of these components foster individual and systemic changes in organizations. Counselors who use the community counseling model in their work try to stimulate changes in their organizations that ultimately foster the consumer’s (i.e., clients’/students’) psychological well-being as well as the personal and professional development of the other workers in their organization. One of the most direct ways leaders can influence other workers’ personal and professional development is through supervision. The Supervisory Relationship

Like counseling clients, supervising human service workers requires an understanding of the complex needs that affect human behavior and relationships. The effectiveness of the supervisory process depends on the fit among the supervisor’s leadership style, the work to be accomplished, and the supervisory relationship. Most counselors act as supervisors at least occasionally in directing the work of volunteers, paraprofessionals, inexperienced professionals, or a staff of experienced mental health workers. Providing effective supervision requires supervisors to do the following: 1. Offer appropriate levels of challenge, support, and structured guidance to supervisees (Bernard & Goodyear, 1992) 2. Stimulate workers’ level of motivation. 3. Foster the supervisee’s overall level of counseling skills (Rivas, 1998) 4. Address diversity and cultural dimensions within the process of supervision (Chen, 2001; D’Andrea & Daniels, 1996; Leong & Wagner, 1994) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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5. Help supervisees integrate their personal and professional identities (Bradley, 1989) All these tasks and responsibilities help supervisees provide services that promote their clients’ psychological health and personal wellness effectively. Counselors who use the community counseling model and supervise other persons in the process view their relationship with supervisees as comprehensive and fluid. In other words, these counselors pay attention to the ramifications of how supervision is structured and of the dynamic exchange of thoughts and feelings commonly communicated during supervision. Further, they can and do impact the supervisee, the supervisor, and the supervisory relationship itself. Thus, it is important for supervisors to know about everyone involved and to structure the supervisory experience in ways that foster everyone’s personal and professional development, including their own. The Person-Process Model of Supervision. D’Andrea (1989) has outlined a comprehensive theory of supervision that one can use in a variety of settings. The person-process model of supervision outlines several important points for supervisors to consider when they work from a comprehensive and fluid perspective:

1. The supervisee’s level of psychological development 2. The supervisee’s level of motivation 3. The degree to which the supervisor’s style matches the supervisee’s level of development and motivation 4. The stage of supervision in which both are currently engaged (D’Andrea, 1989) Using Loevinger’s (1976) theory of ego development as a guide, D’Andrea (1989) discusses ways supervisors can (a) determine the developmental stage of each supervisee and (b) design specific strategies that effectively match this stage. In doing so, supervisors can more effectively stimulate their supervisees’ personal and professional growth (D’Andrea, 1989). Assessing the psychological maturity and skills of a supervisee can be difficult because supervisees, however mature and competent in delivering familiar services, may lack the skills and confidence to adopt new methods of work. Effective supervision requires sensitivity to the difficulties human service providers face in adapting their work to changing client needs. As such, both supervisor and supervisee need to work together (a) to determine what professional knowledge and skills the supervisee needs to optimize his or her performance in the organization and (b) to address personal issues or concerns that either thinks may be influencing the supervisee’s job performance. Once supervisors have accurately assessed their supervisees’ competencies, they can begin to implement supervisory strategies that build on these skills (D’Andrea, 1989; Lewis, Lewis, Packard, & Souflee, 2001). As individuals grow in competence and self-esteem, they usually become more confident in their ability to contribute to their organization.



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Assessing the Supervisee’s Level of Motivation. Another important role supervisors play, already mentioned briefly, lies in motivating workers. Motivating human service workers takes on different forms, depending on their needs, level of psychological maturity, and professional competence. The needs that determine how actively an individual will work toward job-related goals have been examined from several perspectives. One perspective managers may find useful is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1954). This hierarchy includes, from the lowest to the highest, the need for (a) physiological well-being; (b) safety and security; (c) belonging, love, and social interaction; (d) esteem and status; and (e) self-actualization. According to this theory, individuals become motivated to satisfy higher-order needs only when their lower-order needs have been met. The relevance of this theoretical framework to work-related motivation becomes clear when one considers that lower-order needs are limited to the degree to which they can serve as motivators. Lower-order needs are limiting because they focus primarily on the individual’s need for survival. Higher-order needs, in contrast, are associated with a drive to work in a more democratic and egalitarian manner with others (Maslow, 1954). Therefore, when the worker’s need for economic and emotional security has been satisfied, he or she can best be motivated when supervisors direct attention to his or her higher-order needs, such as the need for belonging, positive social interactions, sense of professional esteem, and achievement. Thus, supervisors would do well to consider where their supervisees are in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy and adjust their supervisory approach accordingly. The emphasis placed on the supervisor’s role in fostering workers’ personal development distinguishes this model of supervision from others that address only the supervisor’s responsibility in promoting supervisees’ professional competence and professional identities. Because the community counseling model (a) reflects a holistic perspective, (b) emphasizes the importance of fostering empowerment, and (c) embraces the value of building community with others, the leadership styles and supervisory relationships that complement this framework are those that are intentionally designed to promote workers’ total development. Thus, the value that counselors place in fostering their supervisees’ personal and professional development are central considerations throughout all the stages of supervision. Stages of Supervision. Supervision normally proceeds through a set of predictable stages (Bernard & Goodyear, 1992; D’Andrea, 1989; Glatthorn, 1990). These stages are marked by tasks and issues that emerge predictably at certain points in the process. The way supervisors attend to their supervisees’ personal and professional development—how they address issues of motivation, present challenges, and provide support—will vary by stage. Several researchers have noted that supervision generally involves a three-stage process (Lewis et al., 2001; Rivas, 1998). First, a working relationship is established between the supervisor and the supervisee. During this initial stage, the supervisor serves as a counselor, teacher, and mentor. This stage requires active involvement by the supervisor, who takes the lead in negotiating with the supervisee about the goals and objectives to be accomplished in supervision. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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In the second stage, supervisees are encouraged to take more initiative and responsibility in setting work-related goals. To help accommodate the changes associated with this stage, supervisors serve as consultants; though they provide less structure, they continue to offer information and support to their supervisees. This approach fosters a greater sense of personal confidence as the supervisee strives to heighten his or her professional competence. The goal of the final stage is to help supervisees develop skills that will allow them to meet future challenges on their own, particularly to monitor and supervise themselves effectively (Lewis et al., 2001). Thus, in this final stage, supervisees develop a more mature sense of their own professional identity, growing confident about working effectively and autonomously. However, as Lewis et al. (1991) point out, Autonomy does not mean isolation. Throughout the supervisory process, the relationship between the supervisor and supervisee remains important. Although the need for active intervention may lessen, the supervisory dyad thrives in an atmosphere of trust and supportiveness. The supervisee in a human service setting is not just learning to perform tasks but is learning to use the self as an instrument for helping others. That process implies a need for continual growth and nondefensiveness. (p. 219) While the knowledge base related to supervision has greatly increased over the past 20 years, counseling researchers and theorists have only recently directed attention to the multicultural issues related to supervision (Chen, 2001; D’Andrea & Daniels, 1996; Leong & Wagner, 1994). In light of the rapid diversification of society, supervisors in all sectors of society, such as business and industry, schools, universities, and mental health agencies, must learn to address the goals and challenges of supervising people from diverse backgrounds (Chen, 2001). Multicultural Supervision

Recently presented in the professional literature, the term multicultural supervision describes those supervisory situations affected by cultural factors (Pope-Davis & Coleman, 1996). Examples of multicultural supervision include the following: 1. White counselors supervising white supervisees who work with clients from diverse cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds 2. White supervisors working with nonwhite supervisees 3. Nonwhite supervisors supervising people from diverse cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1996) Multicultural theorists emphasize the importance of dealing openly with cultural/ethnic/racial issues within the context of supervision (Leong & Wagner, 1994). To do so effectively, supervisors need to be aware of the overall goals of multicultural supervision as well as the issues and dynamics that commonly emerge in the process. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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The Goals of Multicultural Supervision. Multicultural supervision serves several goals similar to those of counseling in general. These goals include (a) providing an environment and set of experiences that facilitate the supervisee’s personal and professional development, (b) fostering the development of more effective counseling and consultation skills, and (c) increasing overall accountability for the quality of counseling services clients receive (Bradley, 1989; Chen, 2001). In addition, multicultural supervision aims at addressing the specific ways supervisors’, supervisees’, and clients’ cultural backgrounds and levels of ethnic/ racial identity development affect both counseling and supervision (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1996). Because no one escapes the influence of culture, researchers have emphasized the importance of understanding people’s ethnic and racial identity development when counseling (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1992) or supervising (Cook, 1994; Leong & Wagner, 1994) them. Several counseling theorists have developed models to explain the stages of ethnic/racial identity development. These include the black racial identity development model (Cross, 1971, 1995), the Asian American development model (Kim, 1981), the minority identity development model (Atkinson et al., 1998), and various white identity development models (Hardiman, 1982; Helms, 1995; Helms & Carter, 1990; Ponterotto & Pedersen, 1993). Counseling practitioners use these models to better understand their clients’ psychological development. In doing so, they become positioned to design interventions that effectively complement each client’s current level of personal development. The ethnic/racial identity development models just listed play a similar role in supervision settings. Specifically, D’Andrea and Daniels (1996) outline how one might use these models to (a) assess the supervisor’s and supervisee’s own level of ethnic/racial identity development and (b) gain insight regarding challenges likely to occur during multicultural supervision sessions. Being able to assess which stage(s) of ethnic/racial identity development supervisors and supervisees are likely to be operating in is a critical consideration in multicultural supervision. It is important, therefore, that supervisors and supervisees/counselors take time to consider how their own ethnic/racial identity development and level of multicultural competence impacts their views of counseling and supervision. By knowing the stages of various ethnic and racial identity development models, supervisors and supervisees can begin to assess their own level of development in these areas. In doing so, they will likely (a) gain a better understanding of how cultural/racial/ethnic factors have influenced their own development and (b) use these theoretical models to guide the work they do in both counseling and supervision. Using Minority Identity Development Theory in Supervision. People in the conformist stage of the minority identity development (MID) model reflect two noticeable psychological characteristics: (a) an unequivocal preference for the values of the dominant white, European culture and (b) self-deprecating Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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attitudes about people from their own ethnic/racial background as well as other nonwhite minority groups (Atkinson et al., 1998). Those who operate at this developmental stage usually prefer to work with white professionals because they consider nonwhite counselors and supervisors as generally less qualified and competent than their white counterparts (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1996). At the resistance/immersion stage, individuals are characterized by their strong positive feelings and pride in their cultural/racial background. These positive characteristics are accompanied by a heightened sense of distrust and dislike for white people. At this stage, people strongly prefer to work with members of their own cultural/ethnic/racial group or members of other minority groups in the United States. This generalized distrust of white people represents a major challenge to white supervisors, one that they should prepare to address when supervising people at the resistance/immersion stage. Individuals who have developed the characteristics associated with the synergistic stage of the MID model experience a sense of self-fulfillment regarding their own cultural/ethnic/racial identity. They reflect a high level of regard for themselves as individuals and as members of a particular cultural group. However, unlike people at the resistance/immersion stage, they are “not characterized by a blanket acceptance of all the values and norms of their minority group” (Ponterotto & Pedersen, 1993, p. 49). Many people functioning at the synergistic stage are politically active in their communities (Atkinson et al., 1998). This activism springs from a desire to eliminate various forms of oppression and discrimination that negatively impact their cultural group as well as other oppressed groups in the United States. When working with individuals at this stage, supervisors should take time to initiate discussions about the cultural dimension of counseling. In doing so, they provide opportunities in which they can share their own views of multicultural counseling and supervision and learn from their supervisees’ views of multiculturalism as well. Supervisors should also bring up political and social action strategies when discussing how to help clients from diverse groups (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1996). By taking the time to make this important point, supervisors can explicitly communicate their respect for the synergistic supervisee’s commitment to this sort of activism. Using White Identity Development Theory in Supervision. Though the vast majority of counseling supervisors in the United States come from white, European backgrounds, little attention has been directed to the impact of their racial identity development on their work with nonwhite supervisees or white counselors who provide services to nonwhite clients. Researchers, though, have presented several models that describe white identity development. The stages (Cook, 1994; Ponterotto & Pedersen, 1993) and developmental statuses (Helms, 1995; Helms & Carter, 1990) of these models offer supervisors and supervisees helpful insights into the different ways white professionals think about and respond to multicultural issues. The following discussion is based on Cook’s (1994) white identity development theory as it applies to supervision. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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According to Cook (1994), white supervisors operating at the contact stage do not consider race or culture as important factors in a person’s psychological development. Instead, individuals at this stage focus on the “common humanity” of all. When discussing cultural, ethnic, and racial concerns, they typically express the view that there is only one race—the human race. Workers operating at this stage usually have not acquired the knowledge base necessary to implement multicultural counseling or supervision interventions effectively. Some supervisors operating at this stage may even demonstrate resistance to the suggestion that one needs to address cultural, ethnic, and racial issues in all counseling sessions. In contrast, people functioning at the pseudo-independence stage have developed a broader understanding of how race, ethnicity, and culture impact psychological development. However, they tend to discuss racial differences primarily with people of color rather than whites. Cook (1994) notes that these discussions usually manifest generalized (and sometimes inaccurate) assumptions and beliefs about people of color. Further, though many supervisors and supervisees functioning at this stage recognize the cultural biases inherent in most counseling theories, they usually lack the knowledge or skills necessary to adapt traditional counseling approaches to the unique needs and different worldviews of culturally diverse clients (Cook, 1994). In contrast, people at the autonomy stage know a lot about the ways in which racial and cultural factors influence psychological development. Supervisors and supervisees at this stage go beyond simply discussing the cultural biases that underlie many traditional counseling theories and techniques by demonstrating the willingness to implement culturally sensitive strategies in supervision or counseling. Different Combinations: Interesting Supervisory Challenges. Many interesting challenges and potentially conflictual interactions will likely ensue when supervisors and supervisees operating at different stages of these models must work together. For example, a nonwhite supervisee at the conformist stage of the MID model should find comfort working with a contact stage supervisor, who generally ignores the racial and cultural dimensions of counseling and supervision. However, this same supervisee will predictably be uninterested and perhaps even frustrated when supervisors in the autonomy stage insist on discussing racial and cultural issues during their supervision sessions (D’Andrea & Daniels, 1996). In contrast, supervisees functioning at the resistance/immersion stage will likely be dissatisfied with supervision when matched with white supervisors operating from the contact stage. This supervisor’s general cultural naivete and lack of sensitivity to racial/cultural differences sharply conflict with this supervisee’s heightened interest and pride in such differences. When people at the synergistic and autonomy stages work together, however, their expansive understanding and high level of respect for cultural diversity represent unique conditions in supervision. In this relationship, a great deal of mutual learning about multicultural counseling is likely to occur for both parties, especially when the supervisor encourages a collaborative approach in discussing multicultural counseling issues with the supervisee (D’Andrea, 1996). Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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The MID (Atkinson et al., 1998) and white identity development (Cook, 1994) models thus provide practical frameworks one can use to evaluate prospective supervisors’ and supervisees’ level of development in these areas. The insights gained from this sort of evaluation can help mental health program planners and administrators successfully match people in supervisory situations. Using assessment strategies such as these to determine the impact of cultural factors in the supervision process provides another example of the importance of using evaluation techniques within the community counseling framework. Regardless of their setting or the people with whom they work, counselors who use the community counseling framework are distinguished from other traditional mental health practitioners by the emphasis they place on conducting evaluations at all phases of their work. This includes making assessments before one actually begins supervision (or initiates a counseling intervention), during supervision (or while the counseling intervention is in process), and at the conclusion of supervision (or when the intervention has ended). Because evaluation strategies are such an important part of the community counseling model, the following section examines several practical evaluation issues and strategies that counselors may employ in a variety of settings. EVALUATION

Evaluating community counseling programs facilitates the decision-making process, providing useful data that counselors can use to plan new projects or adjust current services. Loesch (2001) has defined program evaluation as follows: 1. A process of making reasonable judgments about program efforts, effectiveness, efficiency, and adequacy 2. Based on systematic data collection and analysis 3. Designed for use in program management, external accountability, and future planning 4. Focused especially on accessibility, acceptability, awareness, availability, comprehensiveness, continuity, integration, and cost of services (pp. 513–515) Program evaluation is an important part of the management cycle. This cycle begins with planning and moves to implementation, then to evaluation, and finally to re-planning. Although evaluation uses many of the same methods and techniques as research, its central purpose is to inform program planning. Thus, evaluation helps in managerial decision making, brings about improvement in current programs, makes services accountable, and can even increase public support. It can accomplish these purposes, of course, only if the results are widely disseminated to policymakers, managers, service deliverers, consumers, and the public at large. Comprehensive evaluation looks at both processes and outcomes. In process evaluation, one determines whether services have actually been carried out in accordance with plans. In outcome evaluation, one assesses whether services have had the expected impact on the target population. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Process Evaluation

Process evaluation assesses whether the expected number of people in target populations were served and whether the services provided had the quality and quantity expected. Because process evaluation depends on clear, measurable program objectives, process evaluators begin by specifying such objectives and developing management information systems that provide the data required for evaluation. When programs are being planned, the decision makers should specify the kind of information that will be needed for process evaluation. Then appropriate data can be gathered routinely from direct observation and service records as well as service providers and program participants. The information system should include client demographics, information about the community, details about services and staff, and data related to available resources. Services can then be monitored so that progress toward objectives can be easily assessed at any time. Professional evaluators cannot carry out these procedures alone. They require the active involvement of all human service workers within the organization because appropriate objectives must be set and data must be gathered continually. If service providers are involved from the beginning of the evaluation process, they can help ensure that the objectives are appropriate and that the monitoring procedures are workable. Because they often are well aware of any problems that exist in the service delivery system, consumers can also play a useful role in planning and evaluation. Outcome Evaluation

Outcome evaluation measures the degree to which services have impacted clients and the community. One might measure community outcomes by changes in the incidence of a target problem, whereas changes in clients normally are evaluated in terms of their level of functioning before and after receiving services. Some of the goals of community counseling programs, which tend to emphasize prevention, are difficult to assess because only a combination of many programs can lead to measurable differences in the community: Prevention research is faced with two separate problems. The first is to determine the effects on behavior of specific intervention programs. The second is to link proximal objectives such as effective behavior change (if the program was successful) with the ultimate reduction in rates for the end-state goals in question.… When the data are in on how separate risk factors can be modified, we would be in a better position to mount intervention programs that combine a number of interventions which would be likely to impact on the distal goal. (Heller, Price, & Sher, 1980, p. 292) Thus, one might best evaluate prevention programs by assessing the effectiveness of the interventions in bringing about client changes that can reasonably be expected to affect risk factors and, ultimately, the incidence of a disorder. For Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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example, programs that demonstrate effectiveness in enhancing developmental levels and life skills can be assumed to affect real-world functioning (Sprinthall, Peace, & Kennington, 2001). A combination of many evaluation studies, measuring several client competencies, can reveal those interventions with greatest prevention potential. Like process evaluation, outcome evaluation depends on clear objectives. Routine measurement of outcomes can provide ongoing assessment of the impact of services. Criteria and standards can be developed to make real objectives measurable. For many objectives, standardized instruments for assessing client functioning are available. In addition, measures of client satisfaction are helpful when used in conjunction with other measures. In this regard, counselors can also use experimental or quasi-experimental designs to gain useful information about the efficacy of specific programs (Isaac & Michael, 1995). The most important aspect of any evaluation—whether process or outcome— is measuring objectives congruent with the real goals of service providers and consumers. Program developers must always search for ways to measure the real goals of those who have a direct stake in a program’s effectiveness rather than settle for objectives easily measurable but less central to the agency’s mission and the community’s needs. UNIQUE MANAGERIAL CHALLENGES

Because of their comprehensiveness and sensitivity to multiculturalism, mental health programs based on the community counseling framework present a host of unique managerial challenges. The complexity of the community counseling model reflects the importance of using a multifaceted approach to promote the psychological health and personal well-being of persons from a broad range of backgrounds within the context of constantly changing environments. As families, businesses, schools, universities, and communities change, so do the needs of the people they comprise. For this reason, mental health practitioners must be prepared to modify the focus of the services they offer so that they can meet clients’ needs effectively. The multifaceted nature of community counseling programs makes good planning and evaluation particularly necessary. Goals and objectives must be clear so that services match community needs. At the same time, service providers must participate in ongoing training and educational workshops designed to enhance their professional development. By committing themselves to professional development, counselors can learn creative ways to promote clients’ psychological health and, as a result, become better positioned to act in an effective and innovative way when new challenges emerge in their work setting. However, counselors cannot effectively deal with these challenges unless they are closely involved in the organization’s decision-making process. For this reason, community counseling programs virtually require a participatory approach to management. Because counselors who use the community



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counseling framework in their work deliver highly innovative services, they need to maintain vigilance concerning the central mission of their programs. Funding methods and reward structures usually support traditional methods. Managing community counseling programs often requires developing bases that support innovation and working doubly hard at evaluation and accountability.

SUMMARY

Successful community counseling programs require effective management, and counselors should expect to perform a number of managerial tasks. The task of management in human service settings includes planning, organizing, supervising, and evaluating. Effective planning begins with a careful assessment of the needs and desires of community members. Using surveys, meetings, social indicators, and interviews, counselors can begin to lay the groundwork for setting appropriate goals. Once goals and objectives have been set, one can decide which services will best meet identified needs. Counselors should be careful to keep the agency’s central mission in mind, both in seeking funds and in establishing an organizational structure. Many agencies are structured along traditional, hierarchical lines, with each member of the organization specializing in a particular function. An alternative approach is to organize agencies or programs more organically, encouraging widespread participation in decision making. Departmentalization can be designed either by function or by the population being served. The design that is chosen has major implications for the kinds of services that are ultimately provided. Because community counseling programs depend on the cooperative efforts of many people, supervision is particularly important. Whether of professionals, paraprofessionals, or volunteers, supervision involves providing encouragement, building motivation, and enhancing competence in service delivery. The supervisory process is determined largely by the supervisor’s leadership style, the supervisee’s motivation, and the nature of the supervisory relationship. Finally, the cycle of management also includes evaluation. Comprehensive program evaluations assess the success of services delivered. Process evaluation attempts to measure whether services were provided in the quantity and quality expected. Outcome evaluation assesses the impact of the services on clients and the community. Although the effectiveness of all human service programs depends on good planning, organizing, supervising, and evaluating, community counseling programs present unique challenges. Because these programs are multifaceted, community based, and innovative, they require widespread involvement in decision making and vigilance concerning their central mission.


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Assessing Your Own Management Skills Suppose that you had an immediate opportunity to implement the community counseling program you have been designing. What skills do you have now that would help you manage your school, agency, or mental health program? What skills would you need to develop to be an effective manager of such a program in the future? Lay out a plan of action that would help you develop your managerial effectiveness in the future. REFERENCES Atkinson, D. R., Morten, G., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.). (1998). Counseling American minorities: A cross-cultural perspective (5th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. Bernard, J. M., & Goodyear, R. K. (1992). Fundamentals in clinical supervision. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Blake, R. R., & Mouton, J. S. (1978). The new managerial grid. Houston: Gulf. Bradley, L. J. (Ed.). (1989). Counselor supervision: Principles, process, practice (2nd ed.). Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development. Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row. Burns, T., & Stalker, G. M. (1961). The management of innovation. London: Tavistock. Butler, J. P. (1992). Of kindred minds: The ties that bind. In M. A. Orlandi, R. Weston, & L. G. Epstein (Eds.), Cultural competence for evaluators (DHHS Publication No. 92–1884, pp. 23–74). Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Chen, E. C. (2001). Multicultural counseling supervision: An interactional approach. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (2nd ed., pp. 801–824). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Cook, D. A. (1994). Racial identity in supervision. Counselor Education and Supervision, 34(2), 132–141. Cross, W. E. (1971). The negro-to-black conversion experience: Toward a psychology of black liberation. Black World, 20, 13–19. Cross, W. E. (1995). The psychology of nigrescence: Revising the Cross model. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 93–122). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. D’Andrea, M. (1989). Person-process model of supervision: A developmental approach. In L. J. Bradley (Ed.), Counselor supervision: Principles, process, practice (2nd ed., pp. 257–298). Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development. D’Andrea, M. (1996). A syllabus for a course dealing with problems with school adjustment. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Counselor Education, University of Hawaii. D’Andrea, M., & Daniels, J. (1992). A career development program for inner-city black youth. Career Development Quarterly, 40(3), 272–280. D’Andrea, M., & Daniels, J. (1996). Multicultural counseling supervision: Central issues, theoretical considerations, and practical strategies. In D. B. Pope-Davis & Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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H. L. K. Coleman (Eds.), Multicultural counseling competencies: Assessment, education, and supervision (pp. 290–309). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Deal, T. E., & Kennedy, A. A. (1982). Corporate culture: The rites and rituals of corporate life. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Edwards, R., Yankey, J., & Altpeter, M. (Eds.). (1998). Skills for diverse management of nonprofit organizations. Washington, DC: NASW Press. Glatthorn, A. A. (1990). Supervisory leadership: Introduction to instructional leadership. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman. Gredler, M. E. (1996). Program evaluation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Hadley, R. G., & Mitchell, L. K. (1995). Counseling research and program evaluation. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Hardiman, R. (1982). White identity development: A process oriented model for describing the racial consciousness of white Americans. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Heller, K., Price, R. H., & Sher, K. J. (1980). Research and evaluation in primary prevention: Issues and guidelines. In R. H. Price, R. E. Ketterer, B. C. Bader, & J. Monahan (Eds.), Prevention in mental health: Research, policy, and practice (pp. 285–313). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Helms, J. E. (1995). An update of Helms’ white and people of color racial identity models. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 181–198). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Helms, J. E., & Carter, R. T. (1990). Development of the white racial identity development inventory. In J. E. Helms (Ed.), Black and white racial identity: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 67–80). New York: Greenwood Press. Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1982). Management of organizational behavior: Utilizing human resources (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Isaac, S., & Michael, W. B. (1995). Handbook in research and evaluation: For education and the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). San Diego: Edits/Educational and Industrial Testing Services. Kim, J. (1981). Process of Asian-American identity development: A study of Japanese American women’s perceptions of their struggle to achieve positive identities. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Lawrence, R. R., & Lorsch, J. J. (1967). Organization and environment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Leong, F. T. L., & Wagner, D. A. (1994). Cross-cultural counseling supervision: What do we know? What do we need to know? Counselor Education and Supervision, 34(2), 117–131. Lewis, J. A., Lewis, M. D., Packard, T., & Souflee, F. (2001). Management of human service programs (3rd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Lewis, J. A., Lewis, M. D., & Souflee, F. (1991). Management of human service programs (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Loesch, L. C. (2001). Counseling program evaluation: Inside and outside the box. In D. C. Locke, J. E. Myers, & E. L. Herr (Eds.), The handbook of counseling (pp. 513– 526). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Loevinger, J. (1976). Ego development: Conceptions and theories. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation of personality. New York: Harper & Row. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Mayers, R. S. (1989). Financial management for nonprofit human service agencies. Springfield, IL: Thomas. McKillip, J. (1987). Need analysis: Tools for the human services and education. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Mink, O. G., Mink, B. P., Downes, E. A., & Owen, K. Q. (1994). Open organizations: A model for effectiveness, renewal, and intelligent change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Odiorne, G. S. (1974). Management and the activity trap. New York: Harper & Row. Ponterotto, J. G., & Pedersen, P. B. (1993). Preventing prejudice: A guide for counselors and educators. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Pope-Davis, D. B., & Coleman, H. L. K. (1996). Multicultural counseling competencies, assessment, education, and supervision. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Rivas, R. (1998). Dismissing problem employees. In R. Edwards, J. Yankey, & M. Altpeter (Eds.), Skills for diverse management of nonprofit organizations (pp. 262–278). Washington, DC: NASW Press. Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday. Sprinthall, N. A., Peace, S. D., & Kennington, P. A. D. (2001). Cognitive-developmental stage theories for counseling. In D. C. Locke, J. E. Myers, & E. L. Herr (Eds.), The handbook of counseling (pp. 109–129). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sue, D. W. (1995). Multicultural organizational development: Implications for the counseling profession. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 474–492). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Sue, D. W., Ivey, A. E., & Pedersen, P. B. (1996). A theory of multicultural counseling and therapy. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Walsh, W. B., & Betz, N. E. (1995). Tests and assessment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Woodward, J. (1965). Industrial organization: Theory and practice. London: Oxford University Press.


CHAPTER 12

Preparing the Competent Community Counselor

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embers of the counseling profession can be justly proud of their preparation for providing direct counseling services. Whether their graduate degree programs were accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP), the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE), or the American Psychological Association (APA), they were required to complete many hours of supervised counseling practice to complement their classroom work. Their state licensure and national certification (the NCC, under the auspices of the National Board for Counseling Certification) also required evidence of knowledge and experience. At this point in the history of the profession, however, the definition of competent practice has broadened beyond the counselor’s ability to help an individual client, a family, or a small group. Increasingly, the professional counselor is expected to have an in-depth understanding of multiculturalism, diversity, and social justice, as well as competence in advocacy at multiple levels of intervention. Achievement of this level of competency depends both on the mission and quality of counselor education programs and on the individual counselor’s commitment to lifelong learning.

295 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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COUNSELOR EDUCATION

The community counseling framework described in this book is based on the following definition: Community counseling is a comprehensive helping framework that is grounded in multicultural competence and oriented toward social justice. Because human behavior is powerfully affected by context, community counselors use strategies that facilitate the healthy development both of their clients and of the communities that nourish them. How can counselor education programs prepare students to carry out this complex effort? Their success depends, at least in part, on the following components: (a) a clearly stated mission that emphasizes multiculturalism, diversity, social justice, and advocacy; (b) a curriculum that infuses multicultural, advocacy, and diversity competencies throughout the required coursework; (c) an approach to counseling theory, practice, and supervision that is expansive and contextual; and (d) a strong experiential component that allows students to have supervised experience not just in direct services but also in advocacy. Fortunately, many programs have begun to make strong efforts in these directions. Program Missions

Durham and Glosoff (2010) suggest that “preparing students to be counselor advocates is not as simple as integrating new course content or creating assignments designed specifically around the Advocacy Competencies but, rather, includes developing a culture of advocacy throughout the counseling program” (p. 143). This “culture of advocacy” begins with the program’s mission statement, which shapes students’ expectations and lays the groundwork for teaching and learning. Each of the following mission statements exemplifies a commitment to multiculturalism and social justice. Oregon State University The mission of the Oregon State University graduate program in Counseling is to prepare professional leaders who promote the social, psychological and physical well-being of individuals, families, communities and organizations. We believe that such professional leaders stand for social, economic and political justice and therefore must be prepared to be proactive educators, change agents and advocates in the face of injustice. Professional leaders are sensitive to life span developmental issues, demonstrate multicultural awareness, and recognize a global perspective as integral to the preparation of professional leaders. (Oregon State University, 2010) Roosevelt University The Counseling programs of Roosevelt University are intended to provide students with professional skills to work as counselors in Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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community and mental health agencies, schools, and private sector agencies. The Counseling faculty is committed to preparing introspective, multiculturally astute, and socially conscious professional counselors with a change agent orientation. (Roosevelt University, 2010) George Mason University The program strives for national and international excellence in implementing a counseling perspective that provides a foundation in basic counseling skills, and focuses on multiculturalism, social justice, leadership, and advocacy. It is our belief that a global perspective on development across the life span, and an understanding and appreciation of multiculturalism, diversity, and social justice, are integral to the preparation of professional counselors, requiring that they are prepared to assume leadership roles, be proactive change agents, and become advocates for social, economic, and political justice. (Talleyrand, Chung, & Bemak, 2006) University of New Mexico The Counselor Education Program prepares students to address the counseling and human development needs of a pluralistic society. The program recruits and retains students who reflect the broad range of diversity found in New Mexico.… The Counselor Education Program features an integration of theory, research, practice, and interdisciplinary collaboration. It is intended to prepare counselors who are informed, who will be sensitive to the diversity and uniqueness of individuals, families, and communities, and will value and promote the dignity, potential and well-being of all people. The program prepares professional counselors and counselor educators to respond to a world with challenging and pressing social problems. Faculty members are committed to integrating teaching, scholarship, research, clinical practice, and service, while promoting a climate of social justice, systemic change and advocacy. The faculty’s goal is to infuse multicultural and diversity training in all aspects of academic and clinical coursework in order to prepare multiculturally competent counselors and counselor educators. From the beginning of the graduate course of study, classroom education is combined with on-site training. These experiences provide the opportunity for students to work in and with various educational and community settings. (University of New Mexico, 2010) University of South Carolina Diversity Statement The Counselor Education Program at The University of South Carolina is committed to multiculturalism by actively promoting diversity within a social justice framework by building a community of learners that fosters a Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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climate of respect and values diverse racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds, national origins, native languages, religious, spiritual, and political beliefs, physical abilities, health status, ages, genders, and sexual orientations. Our program is committed to training counselors in becoming multiculturally competent scholars and practitioners who can meet the diverse needs of diverse clients. We are equally committed to recruiting diverse students and faculty to our program to enhance the richness of dialogue and experiences that will aid in the expansion of multicultural and culture-specific awareness, knowledge, skills relevant to the client and student populations we aim to serve. Using the scholar-practitioner model, we are committed to training our students to be multiculturally conscious change agents who actively engage in critical self-reflective scholarship and practice in an effort to effectively transform communities, institutions, and systems. (University of South Carolina, 2010) Whether brief or expansive, each of the exemplary statements cited in this section provides a clear sense of direction for the program. Students entering one of these programs should expect not just a traditional academic curriculum but also an experience involving both self-exploration and participation in new and challenging activities. Statements like these can lay the groundwork for infusion of multicultural, diversity, and advocacy competencies throughout the curriculum. Curriculum Infusion

Counselor education programs benefit greatly from the existence of competency guidelines developed by the American Counseling Association (ACA) and its divisions. These competency documents include the Multicultural Counseling Competencies (Appendix A) and the ACA Advocacy Competencies (Appendix B). The Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC), a division of ACA, has developed and disseminated the Competencies for Counseling Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Clients, and the ALGBTIC Competencies for Counseling Transgender Clients. Multicultural Competencies. It would, of course, be almost impossible to find a 21st-century counselor education program without a course on multiculturalism. This state of affairs results from the success story of the Multicultural Counseling Competencies (MCCs).

Since their introduction, the MCCs have proved to be capable of engendering a true transformation in the helping professions. It is hard to believe now, but there was a time when publications on multiculturalism were sparse, when conference presentations could be accepted without addressing issues of diversity, and when a counselor education program could leave multiculturalism out of the curriculum. (Toporek, Lewis, & Crethar, 2009, p. 261) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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Although virtually all counseling programs include coursework in multiculturalism, fewer have been successful in infusing the multicultural competencies throughout the entire curriculum, despite the fact that the ACA Code of Ethics (2005) explicitly calls for infusion. Counselor educators actively infuse multicultural diversity competency in their training and supervision practices. They actively train students to gain awareness, knowledge, and skills in the competencies of multicultural practice. Counselor educators include case examples, role-plays, discussion questions, and other classroom activities that promote and represent various cultural perspectives. (American Counseling Association, 2005, p. 16) Although many counselor educators carry out these practices based on their own commitment to multiculturalism, the widespread curricular infusion of the multicultural competencies may remain aspirational, rather than accomplished, until it is more fully formalized. Diversity Competencies. Although multicultural competencies are widely recognized as central to good counseling practice, some still question the degree of inclusiveness that is implied in the definition of multiculturalism.

The counseling profession is in the midst of a debate as to the scope of the definition of multiculturalism.… The dividing issue is whether or not to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals under the umbrella of multiculturalism. (Frank & Cannon, 2010, pp. 18–19) People who hold a narrow view of multiculturalism may also leave out other populations, but the issue of the GLBT community is especially noticeable because so many helping professionals still admit to discomfort in this area. Some counselors believe that it is acceptable to remain in the profession despite their personal aversion to homosexuality. Others admit to a lack of knowledge without realizing that this lack of knowledge must be attacked with vigor. As the gatekeepers to the counseling profession, counselor educators are obligated to ensure that students acquire the knowledge, skills, and awareness necessary to work affirmatively and ethically with LGBT individuals.… Furthermore, counselors who neglect to acquire knowledge, skills, and awareness in working with LGBT are flirting with serious ethical breaches, including inflicting harm on a vulnerable client population. (Walter & Prince, 2010, p. 6) The ALGBTIC Competencies for Counseling Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Clients (Appendix C) delineate counseling competencies across the categories of Human Growth and Development, Social and Cultural Relationships, Group Work, Career and Lifestyle Development, Appraisal, Research, and Professional Orientation. The competencies are focused almost entirely on direct counseling with clients, but the impact of societal heterosexism Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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in each area of emphasis is addressed, making it likely that counselors who become competent will follow the path toward social justice advocacy. ACA Advocacy Competencies. Although every counselor education program is expected to have a course devoted to the multicultural competencies, the same cannot be said of the much newer advocacy competencies.

The MCCs paved the way for the Advocacy Competencies in two ways. First, they showed that a well-thought-out and readily understandable set of competencies could play a key role in professional development. Second, they ensured the presence of a population of multiculturally competent counselors who could be in the vanguard of the social justice movement. (Toporek, Lewis, & Crethar, 2009, p. 261) As Toporek et al. make clear, the Advocacy Competencies complement and build on the Multicultural Competencies. As of 2010, courses devoted to advocacy competence can be found in some, but not all, counselor education programs. When those courses do exist, they are often electives rather than required core courses. It is possible that the advocacy competencies might not go through years of being a single-course option in a curriculum but might instead move more quickly in the direction of infusion. A step in this direction can be seen in the Counselors for Social Justice Position Statement on curricular infusion of the advocacy competencies (Counselors for Social Justice, n.d.), which appears in Exhibit 12.1.

EXHIBIT 12.1

Counselors for Social Justice Position Statement on Infusion of the Advocacy Competencies into Counseling and Counselor Education Programs CSJ Position Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ) emphasizes the Advocacy Competencies as an important element of counseling and counselor education programs and recommends that they be infused throughout all programs. The Rationale Counselors have responsibilities to empower and advocate for underrepresented, marginalized, and oppressed groups serving as a voice with and on behalf of them. These responsibilities are both ethical and professional duties of all counselors. To this end, the Advocacy Competencies should be infused into counseling and counselor education programs providing theoretical and practical knowledge to counselors-in-training and preparing students as social change agents and advocates for an increasingly diverse society.



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Ethical counselors are aware of their roles as empowering agents and advocates in service as change agents on the systemic level…. The Advocacy Competencies refer to counselors’ ability to recognize the injustices that affect the physical, academic, career, economic, and mental well being of individuals. Counselors have the skill sets to act to alleviate such injustices in the society. This is accomplished by working with and on behalf of our clients, the community, and society at large. Social justice advocacy is a fundamental element of providing culturally sensitive and effective services to clients and therefore should be a core element in counselor education programs. Current discussion among the scholars of counseling and counselor education supports bringing the issues of diversity, culture, and context out of the periphery of counseling and counselor education programs and integrating them into the core values. This is done by infusing multicultural and social justice education into all curricular and extracurricular activities in counseling programs. Relevance to Counseling Clients’ experiences and issues are affected by their environments and society at large. Oftentimes social injustices, marginalization, and oppression take the forms of racism, sexism, ableism, classism, heterosexism, sizeism, and ageism. These injustices can also be seen in inequitable distribution of power and inequitable access to resources and participation, which are causal factors in the development of clients’ presenting problems. Therefore counselors are not only responsible for helping clients change but also have responsibilities to confront injustices in society. Recommended Actions 1. The Advocacy Competencies should be reflected in the core values of the counseling programs. 2. The Advocacy Competencies should be infused into the entire counselor education programs in such a way that the competencies are reflected in all course syllabi, mission, and vision of the programs. 3. The training of counselors should reflect multicultural perspectives as well as international and global applications and iterations of counseling theory and practice. Counselors should be trained as local, regional, and international social justice advocates. 4. Counseling and counselor education programs should empower their students to take more active roles in community transformation efforts, social justice organizations, action research, and service learning. 5. Counseling and counselor education programs should provide opportunities to the students to learn to become global social justice advocates by providing international practicum and internship experiences.


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6. Counseling and counselor education programs should support research and scholarship in the area of social justice and social change that is responsive to client needs. 7. CACREP and CORE standards should include expectations of the infusion of the Advocacy Competencies in all accredited programs.

Recommendations for infusing the Advocacy Competencies into counselor education programs include the following (Durham & Glosoff, 2010): Introduce students to the Advocacy Competencies as early in their program as possible, preferably during orientation (pre-classes) and in a foundations or introductory class. In an introductory course, have students review the history of the counseling profession from a social advocacy perspective. Have students plan and implement an advocacy poster project. Working in teams, they develop posters presenting a course-relevant issue, a summary or related literature, and a description of proposed advocacy roles in addressing the issues and challenges associated with advocating for a specific population across the six Advocacy Competency domains. This can be integrated in a number of classes, such as introduction to the profession, counseling children, career counseling, and so on. In an assessment and diagnosis class, have students review a diagnostic category from a socio-political historical perspective, noting trends regarding tendencies for any particular classification of individuals to be under- or overrepresented with that diagnosis. Have students participate in legislative training and “legislative days” offered by state counseling professional associations and submit a paper on their experience, including how the training may influence their work with clients and their work setting. Across courses, use case studies that include individuals from disenfranchised or marginalized populations, including individuals with disabilities, as a way to help students begin to think about their roles as social advocacy counselors. (p. 144) George Mason University (GMU) has implemented a model for counselor education that exemplifies the concept of infusing social justice concepts throughout the curriculum. GMU’s program is unique in that it has included social justice in every aspect of its training program. This program has not only built social justice as a cornerstone of its mission and embedded concepts of social justice and human rights throughout the coursework while diversifying the faculty and student population, but it has also taken additional steps Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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that included developing actual courses and internships in social justice and social change…. Therefore, in the GMU Counseling and Development Program, social justice is in the foreground in the training program. (Talleyrand, Chung, & Bemak, 2006, p. 47) This program is the result of a purposeful effort over time, calling for redesign of every aspect of the curriculum and intensive work among the faculty. Talleyrand et al. suggest that counselor educators who wish to embark on such a journey should make use of faculty retreats; orientation of adjunct faculty and field supervisors to the social justice mission; empowerment of students through student organizations, town hall meetings, and multiple opportunities for open communication; partnership building at local, state, national, and international levels; and ongoing assessment and evaluation of social justice competencies. Expansive and Contextual Approaches to Counseling

Direct counseling and social justice advocacy are closely related if client conceptualizations are expansive and contextual. Supervisory attitudes in practicum and internship settings can have a major impact on student attitudes. During advanced counseling practicums, it is helpful for students to be required to address how they are using the Advocacy Competencies (from the microlevel to the macrolevel) to guide their case conceptualizations and treatment plans during case presentations and in their case notes.… For each example students provide, we suggest they be required to (a) examine when they have acted with clients in the role of “supporter/encourager”; (b) identify when it was or might have been more effective to collaborate with or on behalf of clients in working with school, agency, or community leaders to address issues; and (c) explore the identified issue or problem from a historic and systemic perspective, including delineating laws and written or unwritten policies that may influence the lives of clients. (Durham & Glosoff, 2010, p. 145) These kinds of interventions are especially effective when the program as a whole supports a contextual approach to counseling. Just as advocacy can be infused throughout a curriculum, so can an advocacy-friendly counseling theory. The counseling program at the University of Cincinnati provides a good example of this approach. “At the core of the University of Cincinnati’s Counseling Program is a commitment to the promotion of an ecological approach to the counseling process” (University of Cincinnati, 2010). Aspects of Ecological Counseling are infused in the master’s degree programs, and the doctoral program is actually “premised on this approach.” The Center for Ecological Counseling is associated with the counseling program and plays an important national role in disseminating current research and practice related to the ecological counseling model. As the Center’s definition of the program’s ecological approach makes clear, the ecological orientation also has a strong impact within the immediate community. “The focus of the Ecological


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Counseling Center involves “a strengths-based, ecological approach to human psychological and emotional well-being in urban schools and communities, especially aimed at the city of Cincinnati” (University of Cincinnati Ecological Counseling Center, 2010). Experiential Learning

No one would consider it possible for a student to earn a degree and enter the counseling profession without ever having seen a client under supervision. Until recently, however, very few counseling programs offered their students opportunities to participate in community outreach efforts or to have real-life advocacy experiences. Now that counselors are expected to demonstrate competence in social justice and advocacy, it is more important than ever that students be involved in service learning. Counselor education programs should ensure that students have experience in two general areas: (a) involvement in outreach to distressed or marginalized people and (b) participation in advocacy efforts in the public arena. Outreach to Distressed or Marginalized People. Counselor education programs that find ways to involve students in outreach efforts make laudable contributions in at least two ways: (a) addressing the often-overwhelming needs in the communities they serve while (b) providing uniquely valuable learning opportunities for their students. One such project can be found in the Mental Health Counseling program at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida, where students can do a practicum or internship with the Apopka Farm Worker Community. Katherine Norsworthy, who has brought students to Apopka for many years, describes the project this way:

This community is composed primarily of people living in poverty: migrant workers and farm workers and their families from the United States and various parts of Central and South American and the Caribbean. We work through the Hope Community Center, a social justice based project founded by three Sisters of Notre Dame Catholic Nuns over forty years ago. The students provide social justice counseling and listening partnerships to youth and adults in the community, as well as to Americorps volunteers working in the community. We also offer a mindfulness-based stress reduction group for the same constituencies for eight weeks while we are there. Students immerse themselves in the experience, which brings to life their studies in the program, especially during the multicultural and family courses. They get involved with farm worker rights, immigration reform, and other issues. We go into the communities to gain a clearer understanding of human rights issues for migrant workers, particularly those without documentation. Through this experience, students learn about political issues with which they might otherwise have been unfamiliar. (Norsworthy, 2010) Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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This combination of service and deep learning is also available to students in the Counseling and Development program at George Mason University, in Fairfax, VA. Through the Counselors without Borders project, students have opportunities to participate in disaster-related outreach projects. The first Counselors without Borders trip took place in response to the pressing mental health needs along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Students and their faculty supervisors, Fred Bemak and Rita Chung, travelled to Mississippi to provide assistance in disaster relief centers. The trip was such a unique experience that allowed students to apply what they learned in the classroom… Hands-on experience is something we can’t provide here—the classroom is an artificial environment, and there’s always a safety net. It can’t compare with putting students in the real world. (Chung, as cited by Biderman, 2006) Mason students had another opportunity for real-world service when they travelled to California to reach out to victims of the California wildfires of 2007. “The aftermath of the wildfires and how they have affected the communities is profound,” says Fred Bemak, professor of counseling and development and director of the Diversity Research and Action Center in the College of Education and Human Development. “There was significant need in the lower-income communities, which are primarily Hispanic and Native American. There are few services available to them and even fewer culturally responsive services.” (Bemak, as cited by Edgerly, 2007) The social justice mission of the Mason program creates the kind of environment that makes this kind of project possible. At the same time, these outreach experiences undoubtedly nourish the program as a whole. Advocacy in the Public Arena. Because advocacy has become recognized as an important aspect of the counselor’s role, it is important that counselor education curricula include practicum and internship experiences that are devoted specifically to advocacy. Rollins College, for instance, has a pre-practicum course that is offered to students very early in the program. The pre-practicum is designed so that half of the student’s field work hours take place in mental health settings and half take place in advocacy-focused organizations. As students complete the required hours in social justice/advocacy, their functions and roles include the following (Rollins College, 2010):

Social Justice/Advocacy Pre-Practicum Gain knowledge and awareness of the current social justice issues and concerns of the social group with whom you are working. Participate in advocacy processes needed to address institutional and social barriers that impede access, equity, and success for this population. Engage in activities that advocate for the rights of marginalized groups. Engage in activities promoting social change/social justice. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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Among the potential local settings for the Social Justice/Advocacy PrePracticum are the following (Paladino, March 26, 2010): Coalition for the homeless Elder care Advocacy groups such as Equality Florida, PFLAG, and Community GLBT Center Multicultural Affairs Office on campus Apopka Farm Workers Harbor House and other domestic violence programs/shelters. Big Brothers/Big Sisters Youth-in-Need or camps addressing specific youth issues. Students also have the ability to form small groups and propose to the faculty an advocacy project for an under-represented, marginalized, or in-need population. Like the Mental Health Counseling program at Rollins College, many programs are moving in the direction of experiential training in social justice advocacy. These experiences are urgently needed if students are to be prepared for the roles they will play. In the long run, however, community counselors will need selfdirection to gain and retain new competencies in the face of constant change.

LIFELONG LEARNING

Throughout their careers, community counselors find new challenges and new opportunities. To gain the most from lifelong, self-directed learning, people have to be willing to look within, taking note of areas of strength and challenge. This process is particularly important when it comes to advocacy because many counselors become aware of the importance of advocacy competencies long after they have completed programs of study that focused primarily on direct services. The ACA Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment Survey (Ratts & Ford, 2010) is very helpful in this regard. The questions addressed in the survey are shown in Exhibit 12.2. This survey provides the individual counselor with an opportunity to assess his or her own comfort level with all aspects of advocacy. An honest self-evaluation of this type gives the individual an opportunity to decide how much additional training or practice is needed.



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EXHIBIT 12.2

ACA Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment Survey Directions: To assess your own competence and effectiveness as a social justice change agent, respond to the following statements as honestly and accurately as possible.

Statements

Almost Always

Sometimes

Almost Never

It is difficult for me to identify clients’ strengths and resources. I am comfortable with negotiating for relevant services on behalf of clients/students. I alert community or school groups with concerns that I become aware of through my work with clients/students. I use data to demonstrate urgency for systemic change. I prepare written and multi-media materials that demonstrate how environmental barriers contribute to client/student development. I distinguish when problems need to be resolved through social advocacy. It is difficult for me to identify whether social, political, and economic conditions affect client/student development. I am skilled at helping clients/students gain access to needed resources. I develop alliances with groups working for social change. I am able to analyze the sources of political power and social systems that influence client/student development. I am able to communicate in ways that are ethical and appropriate when taking on issues of oppression public. I seek out and join with potential allies to confront oppression. I find it difficult to recognize when client/ student concerns reflect responses to systemic oppression.


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Statements

Almost Always

Sometimes

Almost Never

I am able to identify barriers that impede the well being of individuals and vulnerable groups. I identify strengths and resources that community members bring to the process of systems change. I am comfortable developing an action plan to make systems changes. I disseminate information about oppression to media outlets. I support existing alliances and movements for social change. I help clients/students identify external barriers that affect their development. I am comfortable with developing a plan of action to confront barriers that impact clients/students. I assess my effectiveness when interacting with community and school groups. I am able to recognize and deal with resistance when involved with systems advocacy. I am able to identify and collaborate with other professionals who are involved with disseminating public information. I collaborate with allies in using data to promote social change. I assist clients/students with developing self-advocacy skills. I am able to identify allies who can help confront barriers that impact client/student development. I am comfortable collaborating with groups of varying size and backgrounds to make systems change. I assess the effectiveness of my advocacy efforts on systems and its constituents. I assess the influence of my efforts to awaken the general public about oppressive barriers that impact clients/students. I lobby legislators and policy makers to create social change. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.


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SUMMARY

Counselor education programs do an outstanding job in preparing students for excellence in direct counseling services. The community counseling framework, however, requires not only competence in counseling individuals, families, and small groups but also a firm grounding in multiculturalism, diversity, and social justice advocacy. Programs that prepare community counselors can benefit from (a) a clearly stated mission that emphasizes multiculturalism, diversity, social justice, and advocacy; (b) a curriculum that infuses multicultural, advocacy, and diversity competencies throughout the required coursework; (c) an approach to counseling theory, practice, and supervision that is expansive and contextual; and (d) a strong experiential component that allows students to have supervised experience not just in direct services but also in advocacy. Many fine counselor preparation programs have moved toward social justiceoriented missions, curricula, and experience. This chapter reviewed examples of programs that are committed to the development of counselors who are competent in multiculturalism, diversity, social justice, and advocacy. Because effective community counselors will need to be involved in lifelong, self-directed learning, a self-assessment survey was introduced.


Carrying Out an Advocacy Self-Assessment The Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment Survey was shown in Exhibit 12.2. As carefully and honestly as you can, assess the degree to which each of the survey’s 30 statements applies to you. Fill in the form first and then go to Appendix E, which shows the directions for scoring. Score your own survey and then ask yourself these questions: What does this survey tell me about my own competency as an advocate? What are my strengths? What are the areas that I still find challenging? What steps can I take to build on my strengths and gain new competency in the more challenging areas? At the heart of this activity is one final question: Am I prepared for competent and committed work as a community counselor?

REFERENCES American Counseling Association. (2005). ACA code of ethics. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Biderman, A. (February 27, 2006). Students help meet mental health needs in hurricane-ravaged gulf. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/7953.


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Counselors for Social Justice. (n.d.). CSJ position statement on the infusion of the ACA Advocacy Competencies into counseling and counselor education programs. Retrieved April 2, 2010, from http://counselorsforsocialjustice.com/advocacyinfusion.pdf. Durham, J. C., & Glosoff, H. L. (2010). From passion to action: Integrating the ACA Advocacy Competencies and social justice into counselor education and supervision. In M. L. Ratts, R. L. Toporek, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), ACA Advocacy Competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 139–150). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Edgerly, J. (November 28, 2007). Mason Counselors without Borders reach out to California wildfire victims. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/11172. Frank, D. A. & Cannon, E. P. (2010). Queer theory as pedagogy in counselor education: A framework for diversity training. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 4, 18–31. Norsworthy, K. (March 26, 2010). Personal communication. Oregon State University. (2010). Mission statement: Graduate program in counseling. Retrieved April 1, 2010, from http://oregonstate.edu/education/programs/counseling.html. Paladino, D. (March 26, 2010). Personal communication. Ratts, M. J., & Ford, A. (2010). Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment Survey: A tool for measuring advocacy competence. In M. J. Ratts, R. L. Toporek & J. A. Lewis (Eds.). ACA Advocacy Competencies: A social justice framework for counselors (pp. 21–28). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Rollins College. (2010). Guidebook: PSY610, Pre-practicum in counseling and social justice advocacy. Roosevelt University. (2010). Mission statement of Roosevelt University counseling programs. Retrieved April 1, 2010, from http://legacy.roosevelt.edu/education/chs/default.htm. Talleyrand, R. M., Chung, R. C-Y, & Bemak, F. (2006). Incorporating social justice in counselor training programs: A case study example. In R. L. Toporek, L. H. Gerstein, N. A. Fouad, G. Roysircar, & T. Israel (Eds.), Handbook for social justice in counseling psychology: Leadership, vision, and action (pp. 44–58). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Toporek, R. L., Lewis, J. A., & Crethar, H. C. (2009). Promoting systemic change through the ACA Advocacy Competencies. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87, 260–268. University of Cincinnati. (2010). Counseling home page. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from http://www.cech.uc.edu/counseling. University of Cincinnati Ecological Counseling Center. (2010). Ecological counseling home. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from http://www.cech.uc.edu/ecological_counseling. University of New Mexico. (2010). Counselor education mission statement. Retrieved April 1, 2010, from http://coe.unm.edu/Default.aspx?alias=coe.unm.edu/counselor-ed. University of South Carolina. (2010). Counselor education program diversity statement. Retrieved April 1, 2010, from http://www.ed.sc.edu/edst/ce/openpage.asp. Walker, J. A., & Prince, T. (2010). Training considerations and suggested counseling interventions for LGBT individuals. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling. 4, 2–17.


APPENDIX A

Multicultural Counseling Competencies COUNSELOR AWARENESS OF OWN ASSUMPTIONS, VALUES, AND BIASES Awareness Competencies

1. Culturally competent counselors have moved from being culturally unaware to being aware and sensitive to their own cultural heritage and to valuing and respecting differences. 2. Culturally competent counselors are aware of how their own cultural background and experiences, attitudes, values, and biases influence psychological processes. 3. Culturally competent counselors are able to recognize the limits of their competencies and expertise. 4. Culturally competent counselors are comfortable with differences that exist between themselves and their clients in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, and beliefs. Knowledge Competencies

5. Culturally competent counselors have specific knowledge about their own racial and cultural heritage and how it personally and professionally affects their definitions and biases of normality-abnormality and the process of counseling. 311 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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6. Culturally competent counselors possess knowledge about and understanding of how oppression, racism, discrimination, and stereotyping affect them personally and in their work. This allows them to acknowledge their own racist attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. Although this standard applies to all groups, for white counselors it may mean that they understand how they may have directly or indirectly benefited from individual, institutional, and cultural racism (see discussion of white racial identity development in Chapter 5). 7. Culturally competent counselors possess knowledge about their social impact on others. They are knowledgeable about communication style differences, how their style may clash or facilitate the counseling process with minority clients, and how to anticipate the impact their style may have on others. Skill Competencies

8. Culturally competent counselors seek out educational, consultative, and training experiences to enrich their understanding and effectiveness in working with culturally different populations. Being able to recognize the limits of their competencies, they (a) seek consultation, (b) seek further training or education, (c) refer out to more qualified individuals or resources, or (d) engage in a combination of these when necessary. 9. Culturally competent counselors are constantly seeking to understand themselves as racial-cultural beings and actively strive to develop a nonracist identity.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORLDVIEW OF CULTURALLY DIFFERENT CLIENTS Awareness Competencies

10. Culturally competent counselors are aware of their negative emotional reactions toward other racial and ethnic groups—reaction that may prove detrimental to their clients in counseling. They are able to contrast their own beliefs and attitudes with those of their culturally different clients in a nonjudgmental fashion. 11. Culturally competent counselors are aware of the stereotypes and preconceived notions that they may hold toward other racial and ethnic groups. Knowledge Competencies

12. Culturally competent counselors possess specific knowledge and information about the particular group that they are working with. They are aware of the life experiences, cultural heritage, and historical background of their Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING COMPETENCIES

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culturally different clients. This particular competency is strongly linked to the racial/ethnic/minority development models available in the literature. 13. Culturally competent counselors understand how race, culture, and ethnicity may affect personality formation, vocational choices, the manifestation of psychological disorders, help-seeking behaviors, and the appropriateness or inappropriateness of various counseling approaches. 14. Culturally competent counselors are knowledgeable of sociopolitical influences that impinge upon the life of racial and ethnic minorities. Immigration issues, poverty, racism, stereotyping, and powerlessness all leave major scars that may influence the counseling process. Skill Competencies

15. Culturally competent counselors make an effort to familiarize themselves with relevant research and the latest findings regarding the mental health and psychological problems that are commonly found to occur among various ethnic and racial groups. 16. Culturally competent counselors become actively involved with minority individuals outside the counseling setting (via community events, social and political functions, celebrations, friendships, neighborhood groups, and so forth) so that their perspective of minorities is more than an academic or helping exercise.

DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE INTERVENTION STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES Awareness Competencies

17. Culturally competent counselors respect clients’ religious and/or spiritual beliefs and values about physical and mental functioning. 18. Culturally competent counselors respect indigenous helping practices and respect minority community intrinsic help-giving networks. 19. Culturally competent counselors value bilingualism and do not view another language as an impediment to counseling (monolingualism may be the culprit). Knowledge Competencies

20. Culturally competent counselors have a clear and explicit understanding of the generic characteristics of counseling and therapy (culture bound, class bound, and monolingual) and how they may clash with the cultural values of various minority groups. 21. Culturally competent counselors are aware of institutional barriers that prevent minorities from using mental health services. Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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A

22. Culturally competent counselors have knowledge of the potential bias in assessment instruments and use procedures and interpret findings keeping in mind the cultural and linguistic characteristics of culturally and racially different clients. 23. Culturally competent counselors have knowledge of minority family structures, hierarchies, values, and beliefs. They also possess a good understanding of the community characteristics and the resources in the community that may be relevant for their clients and their clients’ families. 24. Culturally competent counselors are aware of relevant discriminatory practices at the social and community level that may be affecting the psychological welfare of the population being served. 25. Culturally competent counselors are knowledgeable about numerous models of minority and majority identity development (see Chapter 5), and understand how these models relate to the counseling relationship and the counseling process. (New competency added by Sue et al. in 1998.) Skill Competencies

26. Culturally competent counselors are able to engage in a variety of verbal and nonverbal helping responses. They are able to send and receive both verbal and nonverbal messages accurately and appropriately. They are not tied down to only one method or approach to helping but recognize that helping styles and approaches may be culture bound. When they sense that their helping style is limited and potentially inappropriate, they can anticipate and ameliorate its negative impact. 27. Culturally competent counselors are able to exercise institutional intervention skills on behalf of their clients. They can determine whether a “problem” stems from racism or bias in others (the concept of healthy paranoia), so that clients do not inappropriately blame themselves. 28. Culturally competent counselors are not adverse to seeking consultation with traditional healers or religious and spiritual leaders in the treatment of culturally different clients when appropriate. 29. Culturally competent counselors take responsibility for interacting in the language requested by the client; this may mean appropriate referral to outside resources. A serious problem arises when the linguistic skills of the counselor do not match the language of the client. This being the case, counselors should (a) seek a translator with cultural knowledge or (b) refer the client to a knowledgeable and competent bilingual counselor. 30. Culturally competent counselors have training and expertise in the use of traditional assessment and testing instruments. They not only understand the technical aspects of the instruments but are also aware of the cultural limitations of these assessment instruments. This allows them to use test instruments for the welfare of clients from diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic groups.


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31. Culturally competent counselors strive to eliminate biases, prejudices, and discriminatory practices. They are cognizant of clients’ sociopolitical contexts when conducting evaluations and providing interventions. They also continually attempt to develop greater sensitivity to issues of oppression, sexism, and racism, especially as they affect their clients’ lives. 32. Culturally competent counselors take responsibility in educating their clients to the processes of psychological intervention by talking about the goals, expectations, legal rights, and the counselor’s orientation early in the helping process. 33. Culturally competent counselors tailor their relationship-building strategies, intervention plans, and referral considerations to the particular stage of identity development of the client, while taking into account their own level of racial/cultural identity development. (New competency added by Sue et al. in 1998.) 34. Culturally competent counselors are able to engage in psychoeducational and systems intervention roles, in addition to their clinical roles. Although conventional counseling and clinical roles are valuable, other roles such as the consultant, advocate, adviser, teacher, and facilitator of indigenous healing practices may prove more culturally appropriate for many of the culturally diverse clients that counselors serve. (New competency added by Sue et al. in 1998.) SOURCES: Adapted from Sue, D. W., Arredondo, P., & McDavis, R. J. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70, 477–486 and Sue et al. (1998) Multicultural counseling competencies: Individual and organizational development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.


APPENDIX B

American Counseling Association (ACA) Advocacy Competencies Advocacy Competencies Taskforce DR. JUDITH A. LEWIS, DR. MARY SMITH ARNOLD, DR. REESE M. HOUSE, AND DR. REBECCA L. TOPOREK.

ADVOCACY-RELATED COMPETENCIES AT THE CLIENT/STUDENT LEVEL Client/Student Empowerment: Conceptualization

A

n advocacy orientation in counseling involves not only systems change interventions but also the implementation of empowerment strategies in direct counseling with individuals, families, and groups. Advocacy-oriented counselors recognize the impact of social, political, economic, and cultural factors on human development. They also help their clients 316 Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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and students understand their own lives in context. This understanding helps to lay the groundwork for effective self-advocacy. Client/Student Empowerment: Counselor Competencies

In direct interventions with clients and students, the advocacy-oriented counselor is able to: Identify the strengths and resources that clients/students bring to the counseling process. Identify the social, political, economic, and cultural factors that affect the client/student. Recognize the signs indicating that an individual’s behaviors and concerns reflect responses to systemic or internalized oppression. At an appropriate developmental level, help the individual identify the external barriers that affect his or her development. Train students and clients in self-advocacy skills. Help students and clients develop self-advocacy action plans. Assist students and clients in carrying out self-advocacy action plans.

Client/Student Advocacy: Conceptualization

Advocacy is integral to the counseling process. When counselors become aware of external factors that act as barriers to an individual’s development, they may choose to respond through advocacy. The client/student advocate role is especially significant when individuals or vulnerable groups lack access to sorely needed services. Client/Student Advocacy: Counselor Competencies

In environmental interventions on behalf of clients and students, the advocacyoriented counselor is able to: Negotiate relevant service and education systems on behalf of clients and students. Help clients and students gain access to needed resources. Identify barriers to the well-being of individuals and vulnerable groups. Develop an initial plan of action for confronting these barriers. Identify potential allies for confronting the barriers. Carry out the plan of action.


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ADVOCACY-RELATED COMPETENCIES AT THE SCHOOL/COMMUNITY LEVEL Community Collaboration: Conceptualization

Their ongoing work with people gives counselors a unique awareness of recurring themes. Counselors are often among the first to become aware of specific difficulties in the environment. Advocacy-oriented counselors often choose to respond to such challenges by alerting existing organizations that are already working for change and that might have an interest in the issue at hand. In these situations, the counselor’s primary role is as an ally. Counselors can also be helpful to organizations by making available to them our particular skills: interpersonal relations, communications, training, and research. Community Collaboration: Counselor Competencies

In support of groups working toward systemic change at the school or community level, the advocacy-oriented counselor is able to: Identify environmental factors that impinge upon students’ and clients’ development. Alert community or school groups with common concerns related to the issue. Develop alliances with groups working for change. Use effective listening skills to gain understanding of the group’s goals. Identify the strengths and resources that the group members bring to the process of systemic change. Communicate recognition of and respect for these strengths and resources. Identify and offer the skills that the counselor can bring to the collaboration. Systems Advocacy: Conceptualization

When counselors identify systemic factors that act as barriers to their students’ or clients’ development, they often wish that they could change the environment and prevent some of the problems that they see every day. Counselors who view themselves as change agents and who understand systemic change principles are able to make this wish a reality. Regardless of the specific target of change, the processes for altering the status quo have common qualities. Change is a process that requires vision, persistence, leadership, collaboration, systems analysis, and strong data. In many situations, a counselor is the right person to take leadership.


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Systems Advocacy: Counselor Competencies

In exerting systems-change leadership at the school or community level, the advocacy-oriented counselor is able to: Identify environmental factors impinging on students’ or clients’ development. Provide data to show the urgency for change. In collaboration with other stakeholders, develop a vision to guide change. Analyze the sources of political power and social influence within the system. Develop a step-by-step plan for implementing the change process. Develop a plan for dealing with probable responses to change. Recognize and deal with resistance.

ADVOCACY-RELATED COMPETENCIES IN THE LARGER PUBLIC ARENA Public Information: Conceptualization

Across settings, specialties, and theoretical perspectives, professional counselors share knowledge of human development and expertise in communication. These qualities make it possible for advocacy-oriented counselors to awaken the general public to macro-systemic issues regarding human dignity. Public Information: Counselor Competencies

In informing the public about the role of environmental factors in human development, the advocacy-oriented counselor is able to: Recognize the impact of oppression and other barriers to healthy development. Identify environmental factors that are protective of healthy development. Prepare written and multi-media materials that provide clear explanations of the role of specific environmental factors in human development. Disseminate information through a variety of media. Social/Political Advocacy: Conceptualization

Counselors regularly act as change agents in the systems that affect their own students and clients most directly. This experience often leads toward the


320

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recognition that some of the concerns they have addressed affect people in a much larger arena. When this happens, counselors use their skills to carry out social/political advocacy. Social/Political Advocacy: Counselor Competencies

In influencing public policy in a large, public arena, the advocacy-oriented counselor is able to: Distinguish those problems that can best be resolved through social/political action. Identify the appropriate mechanisms and avenues for addressing these problems. Seek out and join with potential allies. Support existing alliances for change. With allies, prepare convincing data and rationales for change. With allies, lobby legislators and other policy makers.


APPENDIX C

Competencies for Counseling Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Clients

A

s more and more sexual minorities seek counseling services for assistance with their life challenges, all counselors need to be well versed in understanding the unique needs of this diverse population. The Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) developed the competencies that follow in order to promote the development of sound and professional counseling practice. When integrated into graduate counseling curricula, these competencies will assist counselors-in-training in the examination of their personal biases and values regarding LGBT clients, expand their awareness of the worldviews of sexual minorities, and lead to the development of appropriate intervention strategies that ensure effective service delivery.


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HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Competent counselors will: understand that biological, familial, and psychosocial factors influence the course of development of LGBT orientations and transgendered identities. identify the heterosexist assumptions inherent in current lifespan development theories and account for this bias in assessment procedures and counseling practices. consider that, due to the coming out process, LGBT individuals often may experience a lag between their chronological ages and the developmental stages delineated by current theories. recognize that identity formation and stigma management are ongoing developmental tasks that span the lives of LGBT persons. know that the normative developmental tasks of LGBT adolescents frequently may be complicated or compromised by identity confusion; anxiety and depression; suicidal ideation and behavior; academic failure; substance abuse; physical, sexual, and verbal abuse; homelessness; prostitution; and STD/HIV infection. understand that the typical developmental tasks of LGBT seniors often are complicated or compromised by social isolation and invisibility. affirm that sexual minority persons have the potential to integrate their GLB orientations and transgendered identities into fully functioning and emotionally healthy lives.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS

Competent counselors will: acknowledge that heterosexism is a worldview and value system that may undermine the healthy functioning of the sexual orientations, gender identities, and behaviors of LGBT persons. understand that heterosexism pervades the social and cultural foundations of many institutions and traditions and may foster negative attitudes toward LGBT persons. recognize how internalized prejudice, including heterosexism, racism, and sexism, may influence the counselor’s own attitudes as well as those of their LGBT clients. know that the developmental tasks of LGBT women and people of color include the formation and integration of their gender, racial, and sexual identities.


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familiarize themselves with the cultural traditions, rituals, and rites of passage specific to LGBT populations.

HELPING RELATIONSHIPS

Competent counselors will: acknowledge the societal prejudice and discrimination experienced by LGBT persons and assist them in overcoming internalized negative attitudes toward their sexual orientations and gender identities. recognize that their own sexual orientations and gender identities are relevant to the helping relationship and influence the counseling process. seek consultation or supervision to ensure that their own biases or knowledge deficits about LGBT persons do not negatively influence the helping relationship. understand that attempts to alter or change the sexual orientations or gender identities of LGBT clients may be detrimental or even life-threatening, and, further, are not supported by the research and therefore should not be undertaken. GROUP WORK

Competent counselors will: be sensitive to the dynamics that occur when groups are formed that include only one representative of any minority culture and consider the necessity of including supportive allies for LGBT clients when screening and selecting group members. establish group norms and provide interventions that facilitate the safety and inclusion of LGBT group members. shape group norms and create a climate that allows for the voluntary selfidentification and self-disclosure of LGBT participants. intervene actively when either overt or covert disapproval of LGBT members threatens member safety, group cohesion, and integrity. CAREER AND LIFESTYLE DEVELOPMENT

Competent counselors will: counter the occupational stereotypes that restrict the career development and decision making of LGBT clients.


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explore with LGBT clients the degree to which government statutes and union contracts do not protect workers against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. help LGBT clients make career choices that facilitate both identity formation and job satisfaction. acquaint LGBT clients with sexual minority role models that increase their awareness of viable career options. APPRAISAL

Competent counselors will: understand that homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender nonconformity are neither forms of psychopathology nor necessarily evidence of developmental arrest. recognize the multiple ways that societal prejudice and discrimination create problems that LGBT clients may seek to address in counseling. consider sexual orientation and gender identity among the core characteristics that influence clients’ perceptions of themselves and their worlds. assess LGBT clients without presuming that sexual orientation or gender identity is directly related to their presenting problems. differentiate between the effects of stigma, reactions to stress, and symptoms of psychopathology when assessing and diagnosing the presenting concerns of LGBT clients. recognize the potential for the heterosexist bias in the interpretation of psychological tests and measurements.

RESEARCH

Competent counselors will: formulate research questions that acknowledge the possible inclusion of LGBT participants yet are not based on stereotypic assumptions regarding these subjects. consider the ethical and legal issues involved in research with LGBT participants. acknowledge the methodological limitations in regard to research design, confidentiality, sampling, data collection, and measurement involved in research with LGBT participants. recognize the potential for heterosexist bias in the interpretation and reporting of research results.


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PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION

Competent counselors will: know the history of the helping professions, including significant factors and events that have compromised service delivery to LGBT populations. familiarize themselves with the needs and counseling issues of LGBT clients and use nonstigmatizing and affirming mental health, educational, and community resources. recognize the importance of educating professionals, students, supervisees, and consumers about LGBT issues and challenge misinformation or bias about minority persons. use professional development opportunities to enhance their attitudes, knowledge, and skills specific to counseling LGBT persons and their families.


APPENDIX D

Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment Survey*

T

he ACSA© survey is a self-administered instrument that takes approximately 15–20 minutes to complete and score. Respondents should be instructed to address each item with the first answer that comes to mind. The options for each item are “Almost Never,” “Sometimes,” and “Almost Always.” Users should be allowed to ask questions to clarify items on the survey. Scoring the ACSA© survey is relatively simple. Respondents are instructed to score items 1, 7, and 13 first. These three items are scored using the following scale: 4 = Almost Never, 2 = Sometimes, and 0 = Almost Always. The remaining items are scored as follows: 0 = Almost Never, 2 = Sometimes, and 4 = Almost Always. The range of scores for each of the six advocacy domains is from 0 to 20. Adding the total score for the six advocacy domains determines respondents’ overall advocacy rating scale. The total range of scores possible is from 0 to 120. Scores of 69 and below indicate that respondents may need further training in a particular advocacy domain (e.g., client/student empowerment). Knowing where a student is lacking in a particular advocacy domain

* Ratts, J.J., & Ford, A. (2010). Advocacy competencies self-assessment survey. Reprinted by permission of authors.


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can help counselor educators develop meaningful curricula. Scores ranging from 70 to 99 indicate that respondents have demonstrated competence with certain advocacy domains but may need to further develop competence in other advocacy areas. Scores ranging from 100 to 120 indicate a high level of competence in each of the six advocacy domains.


Credits

Chapters 1, 3, 7, and 8 Reprinted from M. Ratts, R. Toporek, & J. Lewis (Eds). ACA Advocacy Competencies: A Social Justice Framework for Counselors (pp. 161–172). The American Counseling Association. Reprinted with permission. No further reproduction authorized without written permission from the American Counseling Association. Chapter 2 Reprinted from Aubrey, R. F. (1986). “The Professionalization of Counseling.” In M. D. Lewis, R. L., Hayes, & J. A. Lewis (Eds.), An introduction to the Counseling Profession (pp. 1-35). Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock. Pearson Education, 2010. Chapter 8 Reprinted by permission of Families USA (2010). Chapter 10 ®American School Counselor Association. Reprinted by permission. Chapter 12 Reprinted from Ratts, J. J. & Ford, A. (2010). Advocacy competencies selfassessment survey. Reprinted by permission of the authors.

From Counselors for Social Justice (n.d.). “CSJ Position Statement on the Infusion of the ACA Advocacy Competencies into Counseling and Counselor Education Programs.” Retrieved April 2, 2010, from http://counselorsforsocialjustice.com/ advocacyinfusion.pdf. Reprinted with permission.


Author Index

A Aber, J. L., 132 ACCESS, 243, 244 Active Parenting Now, 144 Ajamu, A., 134 Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 263, 264 Albee, G. W., 140, 146 Alegria, M., 92 Alessi, J. J., 114 Alinsky, S. D., 185, 199 Allen, E. S., 144 Altpeter, M., 270 Amato, P. R., 103 American Counseling Association, 299 American School Counselors Association, 253 American School Counselors Association National Model, 46, 47 Amos, W. E., 41 Anderson, M., 100 Angulo, C., 211, 212 Arachtingi, B. M., 140 Arbona, C., 130 Arnold, M. S., 9, 12, 18, 75, 76, 81, 82, 116, 153, 165, 258, 260, 261 Arredondo, P., 11, 12, 45, 78, 131 Atkinson, D. R., 70, 71, 72, 116, 277, 285, 286, 288 Aubrey, R. F., 26, 27, 28, 31, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45

B Baker, S. B., 147 Bandura, A., 7, 128, 147 Barber, T. X., 137 Bassuk, E., 132 Beauchemin, E., 120 Beck, A. T., 135 Beck, E. S., 44 Beers, C. W., 29 Behrens, B. C., 144 Behrman, R. E., 103 Bell, L. A., 153, 154 Bemak, F., 297, 303 Bernard, J. M., 281, 283 Betz, N. E., 273 Biderman, A., 305 Blake, R. R., 279 Blanchard, K. H., 280 Blevins, G. A., 7, 8, 211 Bloom, B. L., 102, 146, 230 Boland, M. L., 130 Bond, L. A., 146 Botkin, S., 154 Botvin, G. J., 142 Bowers, J. L., 252, 255, 256 Bowman, J., 147 Boyd-Franklin, N., 238 Bradley, L. J., 165, 174, 179, 202, 239, 282, 285 Bradley, R. W., 234 Brewer, J. M., 28, 30, 32 Brodsky, A. E., 107 Brooks, D. K., 148, 189 Brooks, D. K. Jr., 44 Brown, D., 166 Brown, L. S., 80, 238

Brueggemann, W. G., 178, 192 Bryan, J., 200, 201 Bump, N., 191 Burns, J. M., 279 Burns, T., 277 Burton, M., 115 Butler, C. C., 65 Butler, J. P., 271 C Caldwell, R. A., 102 Cameron, S., 114 Campaign for Better Health Care, 214 Cannon, E. P., 299 Carbone, J. R., 103 Carlson, B., 114 Carlson, J., 68, 74 Carney, J. S., 265 Carroll, J. S., 199, 200 Carter, D. J., 131 Carter, R. T., 134, 285, 286 Cartwright, B. Y., 11 Catalano, C., 154 CeaseFire-Chicago, 190, 191 Celinska, B., 119 Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 106 Chen, E. C., 281, 284, 285 Childers, W. C., 148 Chope, R. C., 221, 235 Christensen, B., 7, 64 Chung, R. C.-Y., 297, 303 Cobia, D. C., 265 Cohen, D., 207


330

AUTHOR INDEX

Cohn, B., 66 Coleman, H. L. K., 284 Collier, M. J., 147 Commission on Prevention of Mental/Emotional Disorders, 146 Compas, B. E., 146 Compton, R., 265 Constitutional Rights Foundation, 152 Conyne, R. K., 4, 77, 78, 129, 131, 139 Cook, D. A., 285, 286, 287, 288 Cook, E. P., 4, 77, 78 Cooper, C. C., 41 Council of Economic Advisors, 241 Counselors for Social Justice, 300 Cowen, E. L., 103, 104, 105 Cox, J. A., 234 Craig, G. J., 132 Crethar, H. C., 12, 25, 298, 300 Cross, W. E., 285 Crump, C. E., 147 Curran, C., 233 D D’Andrea, M., 34, 42, 45, 53, 55, 56, 58, 59, 61, 78, 101, 107, 108, 109, 128, 130, 131, 132, 137, 146, 147, 149, 193, 194, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287 d’Errico, K., 154 Damarjian, N., 136 Dana, R. Q., 7, 8, 211 Daniels, J., 11, 53, 55, 56, 59, 61, 130, 137, 147, 281, 284, 285, 286, 287 Danish, S. J., 145, 147, 148 Dannison, L., 229 Darley, J., 32 Davis, H. V., 29 Davis, J., 28 de la Vega, R., 207 Deal, T. E., 279 DeMarsh, J., 144 Diehl, D., 189 Dincin, J., 237 Doherty, W. J., 199, 200 Dokecki, P., 143 Donaghy, K. B., 110, 111, 112, 113, 130 Downes, E. A., 275 Drug Policy Alliance, 211 Dubois, J., 191 Durham, J. C., 296, 302, 303

E Edgerly, J., 305 Education Trust, 254 Edwards, R., 270 Elder, J., 7, 76, 77 Elliot, J., 32 Ellis, A., 135 Elsenrath, D., 111 Endrulat, N. R., 66 Epstein, M. H., 65 Evans, K. M., 81, 82 Ezell, M., 178 F Families USA, 213 Farberow, N. L., 97 Felver-Grant, J., 66 Fertman, C. I., 147 Ford, A., 306 Forman, S. G., 136 Fouad, N. A., 28, 32, 34 Frank, D. A., 299 Franklin, A. J., 77 Frese, J., 6 Frieden, G., 143 Fromm, E., 37 Funk, M., 233 G Garrison, K. M., 104 Gartner, A., 193 Gaughen, D., 236 Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network, 69 Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, 118, 119, 120 Gazda, G. M., 147, 148, 149 Gebhardt, D. L., 147 Gerstein, L. H., 28 Geuter, Q., 93 Gladding, S. T., 31, 32, 33, 35, 43, 44 Gladwell, M., 234 Glatthorn, A. A., 283 Glosoff, H. L., 30, 34, 35, 40, 296, 302, 303 Goldstein, A. P., 130, 146, 147, 149, 150 Goodman, J., 100, 197, 218 Goodyear, R. K., 281, 283 Gottlieb, M. C., 41 Gould, D., 136 Gowda, K. K., 132 Gredler, M. E., 274 Green, R.-J., 238 Greensburggreentown, 93

Griffin, P., 154 Grigg, M., 233 Gryczynski, J., 91 Gunasekara, K., 93 Gysbers, N. C., 252, 253 H Hadley, R. G., 273 Hage, S. M., 67, 110, 114, 131, 139, 140, 229 Halford, W. K., 144 Hanson, S. L., 106 Hardiman, R., 285 Harlem Children’s Zone, 188, 189 Harro, B., 154 Hartling, L. M., 83 Hartnett, S. M., 191 Harvey, W. B., 130 Hatch, P. A., 252, 255, 256 Hayes, B. A., 105, 106 Hayes, R. L., 105, 106 Health Resources and Services Administration, 69 Hearn, K., 114 Heckman, E. F., 58 Heil, J., 136 Heller, K., 289 Helms, J. E., 285, 286 Henderson, P., 252, 253 Hendricks, B., 174, 175, 202, 239 Henschen, K., 136 Hernandez, M., 238 Herr, E. L., 43, 228 Hersey, P., 280 Hettema, J., 7, 64 Hettler, B., 111 Hinojosa-Ojeda, R., 215 Hodges, W. E., 102 Holcomb-McCoy, C., 74 Hollis, J. W., 31 House, H., 230 House, R. M., 12, 46, 47, 165, 254, 260, 261 Howard-Hamilton, M., 130 Hubbard, G. L., 260 Hudson, C. G., 233 Human Development Reports, 14 Hutchins, A. M., 173, 175, 176, 219 Hwang, P. O., 130 I IBA Factsheet, 117 Ife, J., 178, 192, 196


AUTHOR INDEX

Inclan, J., 238 Isaac, S., 290 Israel, T., 115 Ivancevich, J. M., 131 Ivey, A. E., 34, 42, 56, 95, 96, 101, 132, 135, 147, 277 Ivey, M. B., 34, 101 J Jackson, J. L., Jr., 222 Jaffe, D. T., 137, 147 Jaffe, P. G., 114 Janoff-Bulman, R., 234 Jobes, D. A., 64 Johnson, D. D., 140 Johnson, J. L., 91 Jones, J., 154 Jones, J. M., 116 Jordan, J. V., 4, 5, 13, 83, 84, 132 K Kachwaha, T., 154 Kagan, C., 115 Kaplan, A. G., 83, 132 Kazak, A. E., 141 Kelly, E. W., 55 Kennedy, A. A., 279 Kenney, K. R., 197 Kenney, M. E., 197 Kennington, P. A. D., 57, 290 Kieffer, C. H., 147 Kincade, E. Z., 81 King, M. L., 10 Kinsey-House, H., 230 Kirschenbaum, H., 34, 146 Kline, S. M., 144 Knapp, M., 233 Knitzer, J., 132 Kobasa, S. C., 140 Kohlberg, L., 146 Kozol, J., 131 Kress, K., 6 Kumpfer, K. L., 144 Kuranz, M., 252 L Langston, D., 128 Larson, J., 147 Lauritzen, T., 7, 64 Lawrence, R. R., 277 Leafgren, F., 111 Lee, C. C., 12 Leong, F. T. L., 281, 284, 285 Levine, M., 149

Levy, B., 12, 13 Lewin, K., 37 Lewis, J. A., 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 25, 42, 68, 74, 75, 76, 77, 80, 116, 139, 140, 165, 174, 179, 186, 202, 209, 211, 217, 239, 258, 260, 261, 262, 282, 283, 284, 298, 300 Lewis, M. D., 42, 282 Lichtenberg, J. W., 140 Liu, W. M., 9 Lobao, L., 233 Locke, D. C., 62, 116, 130, 132, 228 Loesch, L. C., 288 Loevinger, J., 282 Long, J. A., 147 Lorsch, J. J., 277 Love, B. J., 154 M Marbley, A. F., 81 Markman, H. J., 144 Marriage Equality USA, 241, 242 Marsella, A. J., 91, 92 Martin, P. J., 46, 47, 254 Maslow, A. H., 130, 283 Matteson, M. T., 131 Matthewson, R., 37, 38 May, K. M., 80 McCarthy, C. J., 147 McCarthy, L., 154 McCreary, M. L., 132 McDaid, D., 233 McDavis, R. J., 11, 45, 131 McFadden, S., 113 McGee, T. F., 97 McKillip, J., 271 McNeilly, E., 130 McWhirter, E. H., 128, 130, 134, 147, 196 Mejia, O. L., 147 Mendenhall, T. J., 200 Merced, N., 116, 117, 118 Merrell, K. W., 66 Meyer, K., 233 Michael, W. B., 290 Miller, C. H., 28 Miller, J. B., 83, 132 Miller, W. R., 7, 64, 65 Mink, B. P., 275 Mink, O. G., 275, 276, 277 Mitchell, L. K., 273 Mitchell, N., 74

331

Mobley, M., 62, 109 Monahan, J., 235 Monsey, T. V. C., 146 Moore, E. J., 252 Moore, M., 64 Morten, G., 116, 277 Mosher, R. L., 146 Mouton, J. S., 279 Murali, V., 233 Myers, J. E., 228 N Nash, S., 12 Nassar-McMillan, S. C., 242, 243 National Center for Lesbian Rights, 219 National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights, 216 National Council of La Raza, 215, 216 National Institute of Mental Health, 98, 99 National Mental Health Association Commission on the Prevention of Mental-Emotional Disabilities, 128 National Organization for Women, 217, 218 National Research Council, 131 Neimeyer, R. A., 135 Nellen, V. C., 145 Nelson, G., 127 Nelson-Jones, R., 230 Ness, C. M., 229 Neville, H. A., 62, 109 Norris, F. H., 92 Norsworthy, K., 304 Northwest Professional Consortium, Inc., 66 Nosanow, M., 229 Nussbaum, M. C., 14 O O’Brien, K. M., 28 O’Connor, S. S., 64 Obama, B., 188, 222 Older Women’s League, 219 Oregon State University, 296 Owens, K. Q., 275 Owens, P. C., 147 Owens, S. S., 145 Oyebode, F., 233


332

AUTHOR INDEX

P Packard, T., 282 Paisley, P. O., 10, 260 Paladino, D., 306 Parenting Through Change, 145 Parenting Wisely, 145 Parham, T. A., 12, 134 Park, N., 6 Parsons, F., 29 Patterson, D. J., 32 Peace, S. D., 57, 290 Peach, L., 98 Pederson, P. B., 71, 147, 277, 285, 286 Pedro-Carroll, J. L., 104, 105 Persell, C. H., 128 Peterson, C., 6 Phelps, M., 93 Ponterotto, J. G., 71, 147, 285, 286 Pope-Davis, D. B., 284 Portman, G. L., 151, 152 Portman, T. A. A., 151, 152 Powell, R., 147 Prevention and relationship enhancement program, 143 Price, R. H., 289 Prilleltensky, I., 127, 143, 151 Prince, M., 233 Prince, T., 299 Q Quinn, L. S., 103 R Rainer, K. L., 132 Ratts, M. J., 9, 15, 73, 74, 78, 173, 306 Reddick, T. L., 98 Reed, A. Y., 30 Ridley, C. R., 132 Riessman, F., 193, 196 Rivas, R., 281, 283 Roberts, A. R., 111 Roberts, R. A., 154 Robinson, T. L., 130 Rogers, C. R., 33 Rojano, R., 240 Rollins College, 305 Rollnick, S., 7, 65 Romano, J. L., 67, 131, 135, 136, 139, 140, 147 Roosevelt University, 297 Rubak, S., 7, 64 Rudolph, S., 65 Ryan-Finn, K. D., 146

S Saiz, C. C., 144 Salvador, D., 236 Salzman, M, 128, 146, 147, 149 Sampson, J. P., 230 Sandahl, P., 230 Sandboek, A., 7, 64 Sanders, M. R., 144 Sayger, T. V., 229 Schiff, T., 154 Schlossberg, N. K., 100 Schneidman, E. S., 64 Scott, C. D., 137, 147 Seem, S. R., 81 Seiler, G., 44 Seligman, M. E., 6 Selman, R. L., 147 Senge, P. M., 277, 279, 280 Sharma, J. M., 65 Sher, K. J., 289 Shertzer, B., 34 Shlasko, D., 154 Shneidman, E. S., 97, 98 Shure, M. B., 149 Sidel, V., 12, 13 Simek-Morgan, L., 101 Singh, A. A., 69, 197 Skogan, W. G., 191 Skovholt, T. M., 192, 193 Slavin, L. A., 132, 133 Smith, A., 229 Solomon, S. D., 90 Souflee, F., 282 Sperry, L., 68, 74 Spivack, G., 149 Sprinthall, N. A., 57, 146, 290 Stalker, G. M., 277 Stanley, J., 6 Stanley, S. M., 144 Steele, J., 7, 64 Steen, T. A., 6 Stiver, I. P., 83 Stolberg, A. L., 104 Stone, S. C., 34 Strain, P., 149 Straus, R. G., 137 Strengthening families program, 144 Strickland, B. R., 234 Striver, I. P., 132 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 6, 7, 16, 92 Sue, D., 11, 13, 42, 43, 70, 101, 116, 130, 131, 134, 147, 262

Sue, D. W., 8, 11, 13, 42, 43, 45, 70, 101, 116, 130, 131, 134, 147, 262, 277 Sullivan, C. M., 111 Sullivan, H. S., 37 Surey, J. L., 83 Surgeon General Report, 116 Surrey, J. L., 132 Surviving cancer competently intervention program, 141 Sweeney, T. J., 139, 140 T Talleyrand, R. M., 297, 303 Taylor, J., 136 TeachableMoments.Org, 152 Teachers for Social Justice, 151 Team awareness, 142 Thompson, H., 144 Thresholds, 230 Thresholds North, 230, 237 Tom, K., 66 Toporek, R. C., 28, 46 Toporek, R. L., 9, 12, 15, 25, 48, 165, 260, 261, 298, 300 Torres Rivera, E., 12 Tough, P., 188 Tovak-Blank, Z. G., 12 Turiel, E., 146 U U.S. Bureau of the Census, 106 U.S. Department of Education, 266 UNICEF, 241 Universal Health Care Action Network, 213 University of Cincinnati, 303 University of Cincinnati Ecological Counseling Center, 304 University of New Mexico, 297 University of South Carolina, 298 V Vacha-Haase, T., 229 Van Buuren, N., 120, 121 Vaux, A., 235 Vogel-Scibilia, S., 6 W Wagner, D. A., 281, 284, 285 Walker, J. A., 299 Walker, M., 83


AUTHOR INDEX

Wallace, R., 137, 147 Walsh, W. B., 273 Walz, G. R., 252 Wang, V. O., 143 Washingtonwatch.com, 218 Watkins, F. E., 222 Watson, G., 207 Watson, P., 91 Weishaar, M. E., 135 Welch, R., 211, 212 Wellness outreach at work, 142 White House, 242 White, J. L., 134

Whitton, S. W., 144 Whitworth, L., 230 Williams, D. E., 42 Williamson, E. G., 33 Wilmarth, R. R., 44 Wilson, F. R., 147 Wilson, R., 131 Wilson, S. D., 114 Winett, R. A., 147 Witmer, J. M., 139, 140 Wolfe, D., 114 Wolpe, J., 136 Woodward, J., 277

333

Y Yankey, J., 270 Youth violence: A report of the surgeon general, 264 Z Zhang, S., 11 Zimpfer, D. G., 139 Zinn, H., 25


Subject Index

A ACA Advocacy Competencies. See American Counseling Association (ACA) Advocacy Competencies ACA Code of Ethics, 299 academic development outcomes, 253–254 Active Parenting Now, 144 activism. See social/political activism adaptation, organizational, 277–278 adaptation, successful client, 100–101 addiction, 7–8, 64–65, 141–142 adolescents. See children/ adolescents adults, 58–59, 102–103, 218–219 advocacy. See also American Counseling Association (ACA) Advocacy Competencies; client advocacy; social/political activism community, 201–202 counseling-advocacy process, 166–170 culture of, 296 definition of, 9 organizations, 232, 237 orientation, 260 role in counseling process, 17 social justice, 12–13, 151–154, 305–306 student, 255, 260–261 vision of, 18

Advocacy and Civic Engagement (ACE), 243–244 African Americans criminal justice and, 211–212 mental health needs of, 116 oppression of, 130–131 racism and, 238 stressors of, 130–131, 134 stress reactions and, 132–133 age group populations, 244–245 ageism, 218–219 agency settings. See community agency settings Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools, 263–264 Albee, George, 128 ALGBTIC Competencies for Counseling Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Clients, 299–300 American Counseling Association (ACA) Advocacy Competencies advocacy, and purpose of, 165 community collaboration and, 186–187 counselor education and, 298–303 direct counseling/student advocacy and, 260 empowerment-focused counseling and, 76 environmental interventions and, 12

fundamental attribution error and, 235 self-assessment survey, 306–308 social/political advocacy role and, 209 systemic change in schools and, 261 American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics, 299 American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Standards and Competencies, 255–256 National Standards for School Counseling, 252–253 school counseling problems, identification of, 252 American Teens, 144–145 anti-bias education, 265 Apopka Farm Worker Community, 304 Arab American Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), 243–244 Arab Americans, 241–243 Asian Americans, 134, 137–138, 214 assessment. See also assessment, client counselor self-, 62, 63, 306–308 culturally competent, 271–272 needs, 270–273 problem, 96


SUBJECT INDEX

assessment, client collaborative approach to, 63–65 conceptualization and, 67–70 of demands and resources, 6–8, 66–67 Minority Identity Development and, 70–73, 285–286, 288 multicultural, 239–240 strengths-based, 65–66 tools, 272–273 assumptions, current community counseling of client strengths/resources, 6–8, 65–67, 97 of environmental contexts, 4–5 of individual/community development, 9 of multiculturalism, 8–9 atmosphere, organizational, 275 at-risk individuals, 98–99, 136, 228 autonomy stage, MID, 287 B barriers, community-based, 17 battered women, 110–114 Beers, Clifford, 29–30 Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS) (Epstein & Sharma), 65 benefits, counselor, 208–209 biofeedback training, 136 bisexuality, 56, 219, 238, 299–300 black people. See African Americans blended families, programs for, 105–106 Botvin, G. J., 142–143 Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Public Health (IBISS), 120–121 Breadwinner’s Institute, 28 breath meditation, 137 Brewer, John, 32 bullying, 68–70, 219–221, 265 C Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC), 213–214 Canada, Geoffrey, 188 capabilities, development of human, 14 career development agencies, 232–237

career development outcomes, 254 career/occupational dimension of wellness, 113 caregiver’s rights, 218 case conceptualization, 67–70 catchment areas, 227 CeaseFire-Chicago, 190–191 Center for Ecological Counseling, 303–304 certification programs, 43–44 Character Education Movement, 145–146 Chicago Project for Violence Prevention, 189–191 children/adolescents chronological/developmental challenges of, 58–59 domestic violence and, 114 family disruption and, 103–105 oppression of, 262 pregnancy and, 106–110 same-sex parents and, 241–242 strengths-based assessment of, 65–66 suicide and, 98–99 Children of Divorce Intervention Program, 104–105 Children’s Support Groups (CSGs), 104 chronological challenges, client, 58–59 Citizen Health Care model, 200–201 Citizens in Democracy, 200 client advocacy counselor’s role in, 165–166 decision points for, 166–170 empowerment and, 166 helping networks and, 177–181 multiple oppressions and, 173–177 process examples of, 170–173 social/political activism and, 209–214 client-centered counseling, 33–34 client(s). See also client advocacy; distressed clients adaptation, 100–101 chronological/developmental challenges, 58–59 conceptualization, 67–70 demands, 66–67 hopefulness, 8

335

mainstreaming, 228 marginalized, 115–121, 304–305 resources, 6–8, 66–67 strengths, 6–8, 65–66, 97 closed bureaucratic organizations, 274–277 coalition building, 178–179 cognitive restructuring, 135, 138 collaborative approach to assessment, 63–65 Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS), 64 common community, 192 communication, counselors and, 208 communication, organizational, 275 community. See also community agency settings; community collaboration; community development advocacy, 201–202 barriers, 17 common, 192 definition of, 10 expectations, 184–185 family projects and, 199–201 meetings, 272 mental health agency goals, 231–232 need, 270 recovery, 93–94 community agency settings career/vocational/ employment, 232–237 family counseling, 32, 237–242 mental health, 227–232 population-specific, 242–245 community-based barriers, 17 planning, 179–181 programs, 153–154 community collaboration advocacy competencies and, 186–187 family/community projects and, 199–201 neighborhood programs and, 185–191 self-help organizations and, 191–198 community counseling model, 9–14, 18 strategies, 14–19


336

SUBJECT INDEX

community development in career/vocational/employment settings, 236–237 community counseling model and, 17–18 community mental health and, 231–232 definition of, 13–14 family counseling and, 240–242 individual development and, 9 proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution and, 222–223 school counseling and, 258 social justice counseling and, 153–154 specialized agencies and, 245 suicide prevention and, 99 Community Family Therapy (CFT), 239–240 community mental health, 227–232 Community Mental Health Centers Act, 40–41 Community Pride, 189 community-wide trauma, 91–94 competencies. See also American Counseling Association (ACA) Advocacy Competencies diversity, 299–300 interpersonal, 147 intrapersonal, 147 multicultural, 11, 298 school counseling, 255–256 Competencies for Counseling Transgender Clients (Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling), 220–221 Complexity of Connection ( Jordan, Walker, & Hartling), 83 conceptualization, case/client, 67–70 confidence and successful coping, 101 conflict resolution, schools, 265 Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS), 111–112 conformist stage, MID, 71, 285–286 contact stage, MID, 287 context awareness of, 15 client conceptualization and, 67–70

collaborative approach to assessment and, 63–65 counselor education and, 303–304 demands/resources assessment and, 66–67 ecological counseling and, 77–79 empowerment-focused counseling and, 74–77 environmental, 4–5 feminist counseling/therapy and, 79–82 Minority Identity Development and, 70–73, 285–286, 288 Relational-Cultural Therapy and, 5, 13, 83–85 RESPECTFUL counseling and, 53–62 social justice paradigm and, 73 strengths-based assessment and, 65–66 contextual perspective, 133 coping mechanisms/skills, 94–95, 97, 100–101 Coping with Racism in Contemporary America, 194 Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), 43–44 Council of Economic Advisors, 241 counseling-advocacy process, 166–170 Counseling and Psychotherapy (Rogers), 33 counseling psychology, 34 counselor competencies. See American Counseling Association (ACA) Advocacy Competencies counselor education components of, 296 counselor competencies and, 298–303 expansive/contextual approaches to, 303–304 experiential learning and, 304–306 growth of, 37–38 lifelong learning and, 306–308 mission statements for, 296–298 social justice counseling and, 302–303

counselor self-assessment, 62, 63, 306–308 Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ), 47–48 Counselors for Social Justice Position Statement, 300–302 Counselors without Borders, 305 criminal justice and minorities, 211–212 crisis, personal, 94–99 crisis counseling in disaster situations, 91–94 personal, 94–99 principles of, 95–96 suicide prevention and, 64, 97–99 cultural bias, 42 competence, 11, 92 diversity, 54, 238, 277 identity, 8–9, 57–58, 285–286 mental health, 116–118 populations, 242–244 stressors, 58, 132–133, 134 culturally competent assessment, 271–272 culture and disaster aftermath, 92 culture of advocacy, 296 D D’andrea, M., 280–281 Davis, Jessie, 28 decision making, program management, 273–274 decision points, client advocacy, 166–170 deliberate psychological education, 146 demands, client, 66–67 developmental challenges, client, 58–59 Developmental Counseling (Blocher), 39 developmental interventions life skills training, 130, 136, 145–151 psychological health equation and, 127–129 social justice/advocacy skills, 151–154 workshop development, 154–155 dialects as context, 61 direct counseling, 129–130, 259–260


SUBJECT INDEX

directive approach to counseling, 96–97 disaster situations, 91–94 discrimination, 55, 130–131, 214–216, 218, 237 disempowerment, 74 dissonance stage, MID, 71–72 distressed clients battered women, 110–114 children and domestic violence, 114 community-wide trauma and, 91–94 family disruption, 102–105 outreach programs for, 101–102, 304–305 personal crises, 94–99 pregnant adolescents, 106–110 stepfamilies, 105–106 transitions, and difficult, 99–101 diversification, 277 diversity competencies, 299–300 divorce, 102–105 Divorce Adjustment Project, 104 Dix, Dorothea, 29 domestic violence, 111, 114, 217–218 drug abuse, 7–8, 64–65, 141–142, 211 dysfunctional thinking, 135 E ecological concordance, 78–79 ecological counseling, 77–79 economic class, 55–56 economic oppression, 235 education. See also counselor education; developmental interventions; preventative interventions anti-bias, 265 community mental health, 228–231 everyday living, 230–231 multicultural, 263–264 preventive, 16–17 psychological, deliberate, 146 social justice, 153 violence prevention, 265 educational interventions, 259–260 Education as Guidance (Brewer), 32 Education Trust, Inc., 254–255 Education Trust model, 46–47 effectiveness, counselor, 40

Ellis, A., 135 emotional wellness, 112 Employee Stabilization Project, 32 employment agency settings, 232–237 discrimination, 218, 237 satisfaction, 113 Empowering Students for Social Justice, 152 empowerment client advocacy and, 166 domestic abuse victims and, 111 family and, 229 school counseling and, 260 self-help groups and, 192, 196 social justice counseling and, 74–77 English-only legislation, 214–215 environmental change, 9, 134 contexts, 4–5 control, 100–101 decision points, 167–170 interventions, 12 oppression, 4–5 stressors, 59–60, 134 ethnic diversification, 277 identity, 57–58, 285–286 mental health, 116 populations, 241–244 stressors, 58, 132–133, 134 evaluation, organizational, 275, 288–290 evolution, community counseling model See history, community counseling model experiential learning, 304–306 expertise, sharing of, 208 F Faith Caucus, 213–214 Families and Democracy model, 199–200 Families USA, 212–213 Family Development Project, 106–110 family/families background/history, 60 blended, 105–106 and community projects, 199–201

337

counseling, 32, 68, 81, 237–242 development, 239–240 disruption, 102–105 empowerment, 229 oppression, 68 programs, 143–145 Farberow, Norman, 97–98 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Crisis Counseling and Assistance Training Program, 91 feminist counseling/therapy, 79–82 field theory, 37 focused interventions, 259 focus groups, 272 Foundation of Goodness, 93–94 fundamental attribution error (FAE), 234–235 future-oriented organizations, 274–277 G Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 69 gays, 56, 219, 238, 299–300 Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, 118–120 Gaza Strip, 118 Gazda, G. M., 148–149 gender equality, 240–241 identity, 56 populations, 244–245 geographic region/setting, 61 George-Barden Act, 35 George Mason University, 297, 302–303, 305 goal(s) achievement of, 289–290 mental health agency, 231–232 multicultural supervision, 285 setting, 273 treatment, 95 Goldstein, A. P., 149–151 Great Depression, 32–33 Greensburg, Kansas, 93 group experiences, 229 work counseling, 259–260 workshops, 236 guidance activities, 27 guidance counseling, school. See school counseling


338

SUBJECT INDEX

Guidelines for Nurturing Culturally-Healthy Youth, 264 H harassment, 265 Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), 187–189 health, mental. See mental health health, physical, 95, 112 health care organizations, 212–214 Health Maintenance Organization Act, 41 health promotion programs, 111–114, 139–143 Healthy Workers Program (HWP), 200–201 Healy, William, 30 helper-therapy principle, 192–194 helping networks, 177–181 heterosexism, 56, 68–70, 219 Hispanic people, 116–118, 134, 211–212, 214, 215–216 history, community counseling model, 46–48 late 1800s/early 1900s, 25–30 1910s-1920s, 30–31 1920s-1930s, 31–33 1940s-1950s, 33–38 1960s-1970s, 38–42 1980s-1990s, 42–48 importance of, 23–25 history, family, 60 history, school counseling, 28, 252–256 homosexuality, 56, 219, 238, 299–300 hopefulness, client, 8 Hudson, C. G., 233 human development in career/vocational/employment settings, 234–236 community counseling model and, 15–17 community development and, 9 community mental health and, 227–231 definition of, 13–14 multidimensional nature of, 61 proposed amendments to U.S. Constitution and, 222–223 school counseling and, 258–259 specialized agencies and, 244–245 suicide prevention and, 99

systemic factors and, 32–33 Human Development Reports, 13-14 human rights, violations of, 27 I identity, 8–9, 54–55, 56–57, 57–58, 285–286 immigration, 214–216 implementation planning, program management, 274 income level, 113 indicated intervention, 127 individual counseling, 129–130, 259–260 Individual Crisis Counseling Services, 16 individual development. See human development individuation, 13 Industrial Revolution, 25–29 Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), 116–118 intellectual dimension of wellness, 112–113 internalized heterosexism, 69 internalized oppression, 75 internships, social justice, 305–306 interpersonal competencies, 147 interpersonal relations, 208 intervention(s). See also developmental interventions; preventative interventions educational, 259–260 environmental, 12 focused, 259 indicated, 127 psychoeducational training, 55, 136 school wide, 259 selective, 127 systemic, schools, 256–258, 261 timelines of, 95 universal, 127 interviews, 273 intrapersonal competencies, 147 intrapsychic experiences, 34, 39 introspection stage, MID, 72 J Jordan, J. V., 4–5 Juvenile Psychopathic Institute, 30

K King, Martin Luther, 10 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 222 L language, as context, 61 Latinos/Latinas, 116–118, 134, 211–212, 214, 215–216 leadership, organizational, 275, 278–281 leave a legacy, 92, 93 Leavitt, Frank, 30 lesbians, 56, 219, 238, 299–300 Lewin, K., 37 life skills training, 130, 136, 145–151 Life Skills Training Health & Wellness Program, 142–143 Life Skills Training model, 148–149 lifespan development theories, 39–40 lifestyle, 135–136, 139 Lifestyle Assessment Questionnaire (LAQ), 111–112 linguicism and discrimination, 214–216 local agencies, surveys of, 272–273 Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, 97 Low, Abraham, 193 M mainstreaming clients, 228 managed care organizations (MCOs), 41–42 management, program. See program management managerial challenges, 290–291 managerial grid, 279 marginalized clients/populations, 115–121, 304–305 marital disruption, 102–105 marriage counseling, 32 equality, 241–242 same-sex, 241–242 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 283 Mathewson, Robert, 37–38 maturity, 57, 280, 282 meditation, 137–138 Men, Woman, and Jobs (Patterson, Darley, & Elliot), 32


SUBJECT INDEX

mental health care advocacy organizations, 232 community programs, 227–232, 271 cultural, 116–118 recovery model, 6–7 research/service resources, 232 mental hygiene movement, 29–30 mental imagery, 136 MID (Minority Identity Development), 70–73, 285–286, 288 military, 31, 217–218 Military Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Act, 218 Mind That Found Itself, A (Beers), 29–30 Minnesota point of view, 33 minorities. See also specific minorities criminal justice and, 211–212 drugs and, 211 Minority Identity Development and, 70–73, 285–286, 288 stress reactions and, 132–133 Minority Identity Development (MID) model, 70–73, 285– 286, 288 mission statements, 296–298 model(s) Citizen Health Care, 200–201 community counseling, 9–14, 18 Educational Trust, 46–47 Families and Democracy, 199–200 Life Skills Training, 148–149 Minority Identity Development, 70–73, 285–286, 288 organizational leadership, 280–281 person-process model of supervision, 282 recovery, 6–7 relational, 83 white identity development, 286–287, 288 mother’s rights, 218 motivation, employee, 275, 283 Motivational Interviewing, 7–8, 64–65 multicultural assessment, 239–240 competence, 11–12, 91–92 counseling, 11–12, 42, 262–264, 298–299

school programming, 262–263 stressors, 130–133, 134 stress prevention, 130–133 supervision, 284–288 support groups, 134 Multicultural Counseling Competencies (MCCs), 11, 298 Multicultural Counseling Competency Movement, 45–46 multiculturalism, 8–9 multiple oppressions, 81–82, 173–177, 217 Muslims, 242–243 N National Academy of Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselors (NACMHC), 44 National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), 44 National Center for Lesbian Rights, 219 National Certified Counselor, 44 National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights (NCIWR), 216 National Council of La Raza (NCLR), 214–215 National Defense Education Act (NDEA), 37 national identity populations, 241–244 National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), 243–244 National Organization for Women, 217, 218 National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA), 30 Native Americans, 134 needs assessment, 270–273 neighborhood programs, 185–191 O occupational/career dimension of wellness, 113 Official English legislation, 214–215 open organizations, 274–277 oppression of children/adolescents, 262 client advocacy and, 173–177

339

definition of, 74–75 economic, 235 empowerment-focused counseling and, 74–77 environmental, 4–5 family, 68 heterosexism and, 168, 219 internalized, 75 linguicism and, 214 marginalization and, 115 minority groups and, 70–71, 130–131 multiple, 81–82, 173–177, 217 religious, 55 sexism and, 75–76 social justice education and, 153–154 systemic, 75 transgenders and, 220 women and, 217, 218, 241 Oregon State University, 296 organic factors and psychological health, 128 organizational leadership model, 280–281 organizations. See also program management advocacy, 232, 237 closed bureaucratic, 274–277 decision making and, 273–274 future-oriented, 274–277 managed care, 41–42 open, 274–277 self-help, 191–197 organization skills, 207–208 outcome evaluation, 289–290 outcomes, student learning, 253–254 outreach to adults and marital disruption, 102–103 to battered women, 110–114 to children, 103–105, 114 community-wide trauma and, 91–94 to marginalized populations, 115–121, 304–305 personal crises and, 94–99 to pregnant adolescents, 106–110 preventative, 100 programs, 101–102, 304–305 to stepfamilies, 105–106 transitions and, 99–102


340

SUBJECT INDEX

P Pacific Island people, 134 paradigm creating a new, 278 person-focused, 4 shifts, 11, 45 social justice, 73 parenting programs, 143–145 Parenting through Change, 145 Parenting Wisely, 144–145 Parsons, Frank, 28–29 Partners in Diabetes, 200 people of color. See African Americans personal competence, 146–147 crises, 94–99 power, 128 wellness, 112–114 personal/social development outcomes, 254 person-centered counseling, 33–34 person-focused paradigm, 4 person-oriented counseling, 4, 78 person-process model of supervision, 282 perspective, counseling, 40 physical characteristics, 60–61 physical dimension of wellness, 112 physical health, 95, 112 planning coalition, 178–179 community-based, 179–181 implementation, 274 organizational, 270–274, 275 program management, 270–274 policies bullying, school, 219–221 criminal justice, 212 immigration, 215–216 linguicism-based, 214–215 school suicide, 99 political action activism. See social/political activism population-specific agency and program settings, 242–245 poverty, 55–56, 132–133, 233 powerlessness, 128, 203 practicum, social justice, 305–306 pregnancy, adolescent, 106–110 prejudice, 130–131 Prepare Curriculum (PC), 149–151 preventative interventions community counseling and, 16–17

health promotion/wellness programs, 111–114, 139–143 multicultural considerations and, 130–133 parenting/family-focused programs, 143–145 prevention rationale for, 129–130 psychoeducational training, 55, 136 psychological health equation and, 127–129 stress management, 133–139 workshop development, 154–155 preventative outreach, 100 prevention adolescent pregnancy, 107–108 crisis, 94–95, 97 education, 16–17 primary, 127 rationale for, 129–130 research, 289–290 social injustice, 151–153 substance abuse, 7–8, 64–65, 141–143 suicide, 64, 97–99 violence, 189–191, 211, 217–218, 264–267 Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP), 143–144 problem assessment, 96 problem management, 96 Problem-Solving Program, 149–151 problem-solving skills, 101 program management challenges and, 290–291 evaluation and, 275, 288–290 leadership and, 275, 278–281 multicultural supervision and, 284–288 organizing and, 274–278 planning and, 270–274 supervisory relationships and, 281–284 programs for blended-family, 105–106 certification, 43–44 community-based, 153–154 neighborhood, 185–191 parenting, 143–145 safe school, 264–267 school-based, 151–153 skill-building, 229–230

for stepfamilies, 105–106 wellness, 111–114, 139–143 Progressive Movement, 27 pseudo-independence stage, MID, 287 psychodynamic counseling, 37 psychoeducational training interventions, 55, 136 psychological autopsy, 98 development, 57 educator, 130 hardiness, 140 health, 61–62, 127–129 maturity, 57, 280, 282 problems, 228 skills training, 146 R racial diversification, 277 identity, 57–58, 285–286 mental health, 116 profiling, 211 stressors, 58, 132–133, 134 violence, 130–131 racism, 42, 81, 116–118, 130–131, 238 Rational Emotive Behavior theory, 135 rational restructuring, 135 reaching out, 100. See also outreach Rebuilding Lives Psychosocial Support Unit, 93–94 recovery, community, 93–94 Recovery Incorporated, 193 recovery model, 6–7 Relational-Cultural Therapy (RCT), 5, 13, 83–85 relational model, 83 relational wellness, 143 relaxation training, 136 religious identity, 54–55 remarriage, 105–106 research task forces, 180 residence, location of, 61 resistance and immersion stage, MID, 66, 72, 286 resources, client, 6–8, 66–67 RESPECTFUL counseling chronological/developmental challenges, 58–59 counselor self-assessment, 62, 63 economic class, 55–56 ethnic/racial identity, 57–58


SUBJECT INDEX

family background/history, 60 overview, 53–54 physical characteristics, 60–61 psychological maturity, 57 relevance of, 61–62 religious/spiritual identity, 54–55 residential location/ language, 61 sexual identity, 56–57 trauma and threats to well-being, 59–60 Rio de Janeiro, 120–121 risks, counselor, 208–209 Rogers, Carl, 33–34 Rollins College, 304, 305–306 Roosevelt University, 296–297 S safe school programming, 264–267 same-sex marriage, 241–242 Sayger, T. V., 229 school counseling bullying, 68–70, 219–221, 265 community development, 258 comprehensiveness and systemic change, 256–258 empowerment and, 260 genesis of, 28 history of, 252–256 human development, 258–259 initiatives in the 1990s, 46–47 multicultural programming, 262–263 program components of, 258–262 safe school programming and, 264–267 social justice/advocacy programs, 151–153 suicide prevention and, 99 systemic change in, 256–258, 261 teachers as an extension of, 32 school development, 259–262, 263, 265 school-wide interventions, 259 selective intervention, 127 self-assessment, counselor, 62, 63, 306–308 self-efficacy, 100–101, 128 self-help groups/organizations benefits of, 193 empowerment and, 192, 196

helper-therapy principle and, 192–194 mutual support and, 194–196 overview of, 191–192 political action and, 196–197 self-hypnosis, 136–137 self-in-relation, 83 separation, marital, 102–103 settings. See community agency settings; school counseling sexism, 75–76, 81, 217–219, 238 Sexism Curriculum Design, 154 sexual assault, 217–218 sexual identity, 56–57 sexual orientation, 56 shelters, battered women, 110– 111 Shneidman, Edwin, 97–98 Single Parents’ Support Groups (SPSGs), 104 situational leadership, 280 skill-building programs, 229–230 Slutkin, Gary, 189–190 Social Emotional Assets and Resiliency Scales (SEARS), 65–66 social indicators, 272 social injustice, 12–13, 151–153 Social Justice/Advocacy PrePracticum, 305–306 social justice counseling advocacy and, 151–154, 305–306 community programs and, 153–154 counselor education and, 302–303 definition of, 12–13 ecological counseling and, 77–79 empowerment-focused, 74–77 feminist counseling/therapy and, 79–82 paradigm, 73 Relational-Cultural Therapy and, 5, 13, 83–85 school programs and, 151–153 Social Justice Education, 153–154 social/political activism advocacy role in, 209–214 big picture view of, 221–223 bullying and, 219–221, 265 community development and, 18 counselor’s role in, 207–209

341

linguicism/immigration issues and, 214–216 self-help groups and, 196–197 women’s issues and, 217–219 social stressors, 235 Soldados Nunca Mais project, 120–121 specialized agencies, 244–245 spiritual dimension of wellness, 113–114 spiritual identity, 54–55 Sputnik, 37 Sri Lanka, 93 standardized training/certification programs, 43–44 stepfamilies, programs for, 105–106 Stone, Abraham, 32 Stone, Hannah, 32 storytelling and counselors, 207 Strengthening Families Program, 144 strengths, client, 6–8, 65–66, 97 strengths-based assessment, 65–66 stress management cognitive response to stress and, 134–135 environmental change and, 9, 134 lifestyle change and, 135–136, 139 physiological response to change and, 136–138 workshop, 138–139 stressors adolescent parenthood, 110 African Americans, 130–131, 134 chronological, 59 cultural, 58, 132–133, 134 environmental, 59–60, 134 identifying, 138 Industrial Revolution and, 26 long-term, 59, 115 minority, 132–133 multicultural, 130–133, 134 physical characteristics, 60 poverty, 55–56, 132–133, 233 prejudice, 130–131 racism, 42, 81, 116–118, 130–131, 238 religious, 55 social, 235 stepfamilies, 105 transitions, life, 94–95 trauma and well-being, 59


342

SUBJECT INDEX

stress reactions, 132–133, 133, 135 structure, organizational, 275 student advocacy, 255, 260–261 student development, 259–262, 263, 265 student learning outcomes, 253–254 substance abuse, 7–8, 64–65, 141–142, 211 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 92 suicide prevention, 64, 97–99 supervision, program management challenges to, 287–288 effective, 281–282 motivation and, 275, 283 multicultural, 284–288 person-process model of supervision, 282 stages of, 282–284 supervisory relationships and, 281–284 support systems, 96, 100, 101, 134, 194–196 surveys, 272 Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program (SCCIP), 141 synergistic articulation and awareness stage, MID, 72–73, 286 systemic factors and human/ vocational development, 32–33 systemic interventions, schools, 256–258, 261 systemic oppression, 75 systems, communities as, 10 T Take Charge: A Youth Guide to Community Change (Constitutional Rights Foundation), 152 teachablemoment.org, 152–153 teachers and school counseling, 32 Teachers for Social Justice, 151 Team Awareness, 141–142 teenagers. See children/ adolescents telephone counseling, 97 Theory X and Theory Y leadership, 279

Threshholds, 230–231, 236–237 training programs, health center, 229 trait-factor counseling, 33 Transformational School Counseling Initiative (TSCI), 46–47 transgenders, 219, 220–221, 238, 299–300 transitions adults and, 102–103 battered women and, 110–114 children and, 103–105, 114 distressed clients and, 99–101 life, 94–95 outreach program guidelines for, 101–102 pregnant adolescents and, 106–110 stepfamilies and, 105–106 trauma, 59–60, 91–94 U UNICEF, 240–241 Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN), 213 universal intervention, 127 University of Cincinnati, 303 University of New Mexico, 297 University of South Carolina Diversity Statement, 297–298 Unlearning Oppression, 153–154 U.S. Constitution proposed amendments, 222–223 U.S. Employment Service, 35 U.S. Office of Education guide to safe schools, 266 V van Buuren, Nanko, 120–121 veterans, World War II, 34–35 Villa Victoria, 116–117 violence domestic, 114, 217–218 and the military, 217–218 prevention of, 189–191, 211, 217–218, 264–267 racial, 130–131 school, 264–267 Vocational Bureau, 28–29 vocational counseling/guidance, 28–29, 32–33, 35 vocational rehabilitation agencies, 232–237

W Wallach, Daniel, 93 warning signs, teenage suicide, 98 wellbeing, personal, 59–60, 61–62 Wellness Outreach at Work, 142 wellness programs, 111–114, 139–143 white identity development model, 286–287, 288 Williamson, E. G., 33 within-group differences, 57–58 womanist movement, 82 women ageism and, 218–219 battered, 110–114 feminist counseling/therapy, 79–82 gender equality and, 240–241 heterosexism and, 219 lesbians and, 56, 219, 238, 299–300 military and, 217–218 oppression of, 217, 218, 241 sexism and, 75–76, 81, 217–219, 238 vocational counseling services and, 35 workplace discrimination and, 218 Women’s Empowerment Project, 119–120 Women’s Growth in Diversity ( Jordan), 83 workplace discrimination, 218, 237 workplace wellness, 142 workshop development, 154–155 World War I, 31 World War II, 34–35 Y Youth Competency Assessment (YCA), 66 Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General (www. surgeongeneral.gov), 264 Z Zinn, Howard, 25


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