Counseling Psychology and the Amelioration of Oppression: Translating Our Knowledge Into Action

Abstract

In the new millennium, counseling psychologists have answered the call to address oppression related to intersectional identities. We have played a major role in the development of practice guidelines and policies, as well as in the application of ethical principles in cultural contexts. The Counseling Psychologist has served to disseminate information addressing needs and interventions for diverse communities. In this article, we review the history and impact of our efforts to ameliorate oppression. The pressing challenges of economic and educational disparities are highlighted along with how counseling psychologists are uniquely situated to meet the needs of the underserved. Our research, training, and practice are anchored in methodological pluralism, global helping paradigms, participatory engagement, and the promotion of liberation and radical healing. We offer recommendations to deconstruct current models and reconstruct a decolonized approach, embrace interdisciplinary collaboration to fight cultural encapsulation, strengthen prevention and advocacy, train a culturally diverse workforce, and prioritize intersectional research.

The public psychology for liberation training model: A call to transform the discipline.

“…We extend these insights to Global Majority communities broadly and to encompass all work related to the profession of psychology. Informed by liberation and multicultural psychology training activities (Suzuki et al, 2019), we also developed five Cs. The Cs in the model represent embracing behaviors and creating professional conditions to promote healing and equity.…”

La Clinica In LaK’ech: Establishing a Practicum Site Integrating Practice, Advocacy, and Research With Latinx Clients

“…Practice and advocacy with the Latinx population are often dismissed as being a specialty or as a personal versus professional pursuit. As clinic members attain critical consciousness in their advocacy work, they begin to question the status quo of how to work with oppressed groups (see Suzuki et al, 2019) and challenge the traditional training curriculum, practicum placements, research focus, and professional expectations of the doctoral program, especially those based in White, middle-class norms. Suzuki and colleagues (2019), in their review of the history and impact of counseling psychologists' efforts to ameliorate oppression, quoted us by pointing out that our clinic members had "difficulty navigating an institutional culture that expects them to diversify the profession, yet is unwilling to adapt to their needs and experiences" (Delgado-Romero et al, 2018, p. 349).…”

“…This feeling of unease and vulnerability is uncomfortable for us, yet at the same time increases our empathy for our clients who experience the same feelings with much greater consequences, such as deportation or detention. Thus, we remain humble as we strive to create a community-based practice within a traditional training program (Suzuki et al, 2019).…”

The challenges and promises of transnational LGBTQ psychology: Somewhere over and under the rainbow.

“…This consideration is even more critical in transnational LGBTQ science because of the variations of SOGIE experience and the interrelated local meanings that can be associated with stigma, resistance, and identity. Cautionary use of identitarian-based methods and the incorporation of inductive, phenomenological explorations of SOGIE, which center and naturalize non-WEIRD experiences, rather than use them as a comparison with a mythic WEIRD standard of LGBTQ identity, also aligns with efforts to decolonize psychology and end oppressive practices (Adams et al, 2015; Bhatia, 2017; Suzuki et al, 2019; Thalmayer et al, 2020).…”