Members of privileged groups have important roles to play in social justice efforts. Because they have social advantages and greater access to resources, they are in unique positions to address issues in ways that are more difficult for those with disadvantages, as they are somewhat protected from the negative outcomes of doing so. Thus, White people can work to reduce racism, wealthy people economic inequality, heterosexual people homophobia, and so forth. This chapter highlights how the participation of those in privileged groups is essential to the success of social movements. Sexism is a form of prejudice, and it is important to have a clear understanding of how it works. Many people in dominant groups define prejudice in individualistic terms, as a consciously held attitude. Everyday allies are men who practice supportive behaviors whenever they encounter the opportunity.

Advocacy is key for the clinical mental health counseling profession. Clinical mental health counselor advocates (CMHCAs) rely on the advocacy competencies to guide their assistance to clients in removing barriers and to secure deserving resources, or to advocate on behalf of clients, groups, or communities. This chapter addresses the importance of advocacy and social justice advocacy, and the strategic positionality of the clinical mental health counselor as an advocate for addressing social and institutional barriers that reduce client access, equity, and success. It identifies the advocacy competencies and approaches to advocate for clients care, and emphasizes the ways that they foster resilience and growth. Specific cases illustrate clients' and professionals' understandings of and access to a variety of community-based resources. The chapter also addresses strategies to advocate for the profession and for clinical mental health counseling professionals.

This chapter presents a type of culturally open pastoral counseling that requires a transformation of self and society beyond an educated mind and a politically sensitive vocabulary. It discusses the current state of multicultural competence and social justice discourses. The chapter offers a few guiding principles intended to foster a more culturally open approach to cross-cultural training for pastoral counselors and other helping professionals. Training cultural competence in pastoral counseling and related fields focuses on meeting the ethical guidelines established by professional organizations. Training and discussions of social justice in pastoral counseling and related fields are aimed at drawing attention to the injustices inflicted on marginalized populations and motivating privileged populations to address and eradicate the resulting disparities. The primary focus of cross-cultural training for pastoral counselors is awareness, knowledge, and self-reflection. Developing cultural competence requires heightened awareness of personal cognitive dissonance when confronted with conflicting beliefs.

This chapter draws from the literature, professional counseling and education organizations, and their professional experiences to discuss the multi-faceted areas associated with counseling children and adolescents. It also details the evolving requirements to enter the school counseling profession and the standards that guide professional preparation and ongoing professional, ethical practice. Additionally, the chapter explores the challenges associated with balancing multiple roles and the benefits associated with using the literature to engage in the ethical practice of counseling that meets the needs of diverse stakeholders and supports personal well-being and professional excellence. The authors offer this chapter as a resource to counselors-in-training and persons in professional practice to remain engaged in the profession. The authors encourage readers to ponder the convergence of counselor training, professional standards, empathy, advocacy and social justice and wellness on their work, well-being, and contributions to their communities and the profession.

This chapter summarizes pertinent issues discussed throughout the text, especially reinforcing the multiple emphases on systems-of-care, ecological, salutogenic, social justice, and diversity approaches. In addition, the chapter identifies new frontiers for counseling practice, such as new opportunities for counselors within the Veterans Administration and TRICARE system, in hospital settings, in hospice programs and assisted living environments, in other community settings, in school-based programs, in college counseling centers, and in sports counseling. The chapter also addresses the influence of technology upon the counseling profession, discussing the Internet-based services, such as virtual counseling, and telecounseling. It provides a discussion of the ethical, legal, and practice concerns related to this developing branch of counseling. With our professional organizations and the advocacy efforts of our practitioners and educators, the future holds great promise for the further development of professional counseling as an important part of the field of mental health and wellness.

Counselors and clients are immersed in a social and cultural context and embedded in multiple systems and subsystems, such as family, workplace, community, and society. This chapter addresses system views, integrated care, barriers to treatment, multicultural issues, and the use of multicultural and social justice skills in the provision of clinical mental health counseling. Specific topics include a discussion of systems, holistic care, barriers to healthcare, and culturally competent counselors. The chapter further explores the connections between culturally competent care and the potential role for clinical mental health counselors in ascertaining the systemic need for new agency- and integrated healthcare-based programs. The student is introduced to basic tenets of system worldviews, developing integrated new programs aimed at meeting the clinical mental health needs of diverse and varied clients, and the application of multicultural and social justice skills in clinical mental health counseling.

In addition to traumas that heterosexual and cisgender people experience, queer and transgender people face a heterosexist and cissexist culture, in which marginalization and trauma against them is normalized or minimized. In this chapter, the experience of hate crimes and violence, relational and interpersonal trauma, religious based-trauma, and sociocultural and political-based trauma are covered in relation to how it impacts Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ) people. Clinical and counseling implications are discussed. The increase in mental health challenges is explained via the minority stress model. Implications for diagnosis and trauma-informed practices for queer and transgender people are discussed. Additionally, the role of the mental health professional as a social justice advocate is explored, including how social justice frameworks can be incorporated in the counseling environment.

The distress of populations affected by genocide, war, and the specific phenomenon often referred to as “ethnic cleansing” and political violence is typically viewed through the lens of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (the word “war” is used in the rest of this chapter to refer specifically to “ethnic cleansing”). However, there have been increasing critiques of the assumed universal applicability of the trauma paradigm, from psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as anthropologists and sociologists, engaged with individuals and societies affected by mass violence. This chapter reviews how the specific characteristics of genocide, war, and political violence pose challenges to biomedical and Western psychological framings of trauma. It argues the need for greater attention to cultural context, intersecting structural oppressions, and social justice and considers how narrative- and arts-based tools, underpinned by principles drawn from multicultural and decolonial approaches, may assist in this endeavor.

Counselors must deal with a variety of ethical issues and dilemmas. Counseling and psychotherapy are also guided by encompassing ethical guidelines, defined as ethical principles (high standards for ethical behavior). This chapter describes the six core ethical principles underlying ethical analysis in the profession of counseling. These principles are autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, fidelity and veracity. The chapter contrasts principle ethics with virtue ethics. The concept of justice involves fairness and equality in access to resources and treatment. Distributive justice involves access to resources and services that may be considered scarce. The chapter discusses the processes of considering their application to ethical issues and defines the concepts of balancing, weighing, and assigning prima facie merit to principles. Ethical standards are specific profession-relevant directives or guidelines that reflect the best ethical practice of professionals. The chapter discusses the principles with attention to how they inform ethical standards and practices in counseling.