Social Justice Resolutions

The following resolutions were accepted by the American Counseling Association:

GOVERNING COUNCIL MOTION, SEPTEMBER, 2005

1. SUBJECT:

Promoting a Socially-Responsible Approach to Counseling

2. WHEREAS: the work of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. exemplifies his commitment to peace, justice and the vital interconnections that exist between a just society and the psychological health of its inhabitants (See attachments), we suggest that the time has come for continuing an open and honest discussion about the need for counselors to implement more socially-responsible approaches into their professional practices.

THEREFORE, IT IS MOVED:

that the American Counseling Association endorse the following social justice resolutions:

Resolution #1: Given the substantial body of empirical knowledge that describes the negative affect that religious bigotry, violence, and discrimination have on human development, it is resolved that the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated is necessary to eradicate these toxic social-environmental conditions in our society.

Resolution #2: Given the substantial body of empirical knowledge that describes the negative impact that racism continues to have on human development, it is resolved that the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated is necessary to eradicate this complex toxic social-environmental condition in our society.

Resolution #3: Given the substantial body of empirical knowledge that describes the negative impact that sexism and sexual violence continue to have on human development, it is resolved that the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated is necessary to eradicate these toxic social-environmental conditions in our society.

Resolution #4: Given the substantial body of empirical knowledge that describes the negative impact that the ableism continues to have on human development, it is resolved that the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated is necessary to eradicate this toxic social-environmental condition in our society.

Resolution #5: Given the substantial body of empirical knowledge that describes the negative impact that heterosexism and violence against gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered persons continue to have on human development, it is resolved that the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated is necessary to eradicate these toxic social-environmental conditions in our society.

Resolution #6: Given the substantial body of empirical knowledge that describes the negative impact that ageism continues to have on human development, it is resolved that the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated is necessary to eradicate this toxic social-environmental condition in our society.

Resolution #7: Given the substantial body of empirical knowledge that describes the negative affect that poverty has on human development, it is resolved that the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated is necessary to eradicate these toxic social-environmental conditions in our society.

Resolution #8: Given the substantial body of empirical knowledge that describes the negative affect that war has on human development, it is resolved that the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated is necessary to promote peace and to end to all wars in our world.

3. RATIONALE: See attachments from Counseling Today,

April 2005 and July 2005.

4. BACKGROUND: See above

5. FINANCIAL IMPACT: N/A

6. RELATIONSHIP TO STRATEGIC PLAN:

The ACA Mission Statement includes “using the profession and practice of counseling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity”.

Goal 5 of the Strategic Plan is “Enhance respect for and recognition of human dignity and diversity”. See Objectives: 5A; 5B; 5D, 5E

7. POLICY REVISION: N/A

8. ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING MATERIAL: See attached

9. MOVED BY: Counselors for Social Justice.

A. Michael Hutchins, CSJ Representative

SUPPLEMENT A:

“Dignity, Development & Diversity” Counseling Today, April 2005

Dignity, Development & Diversity

By Michael D'Andrea, Judy Daniels and Patricia Arredondo

Remaining awake: Martin Luther King and the counseling profession

In 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a commencement address to the graduating class of Oberlin College that was entitled "Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution." It is interesting to note how relevant the message he presented at that time is for the challenges counselors face in 2005. As we approach the 37th anniversary of King's assassination and as the American Counseling Association holds its annual convention in his beloved home of Atlanta, it would be useful to reflect on the relevance of his philosophy for the work professional counselors do today.

To stimulate your thinking, we have chosen to use this month's column to discuss why it is important for counselors to uphold the revolutionary ideals that King sought to achieve in his lifetime, especially as we strive to promote the psychosocial health and spiritual well-being of the millions of clients whom counselors serve each year.

Dealing with unemployment and incarceration

King's legacy is based largely on the courage he demonstrated in confronting the racial inequities and injustices that existed in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. As a human rights advocate, he recognized that the disproportionate number of persons of color who were unemployed, incarcerated in our nation's prisons, denied quality health care and segregated resulted in a host of serious psychological, social, educational and economic problems in the United States. As the keynote speaker at the 1967 American Psychological Association Convention in Washington, D.C., King spoke clearly about the ways in which these conditions undermined the overall health of persons of color. He also described how these factors compromised the psychosocial, economic and moral well-being of our nation as a whole.

In taking time to think about the important psychological insights that King shared at the convention, it may be useful for counselors to reflect on the ways in which these problems persist in contemporary society. With this in mind, it is useful to recognize that the unemployment rate for African-Americans, Latino-Americans and American Indians is presently two to three times higher than the unemployment rate for white persons in the United States. In many urban areas, the unemployment rate for black and Latino youths stands at more than 40 percent. Numerous counseling researchers have described how the high unemployment rate of black, Latino and American Indian persons correlates with the disproportionate number of persons of color who occupy our nation's prison system.

Health disparities and segregation in schools

King was deeply concerned about the problem of segregation in the United States. His concern was largely fueled by his understanding of the negative impact that a segregated society has on the overall quality of life for poor persons in general and poor persons of color in particular. He also recognized the key role that segregated schools played in guaranteeing a diminished quality of life to persons who received poor educational opportunities due to the color of their skin.

The civil rights movement of the 1960s clearly resulted in much improvement in the overall quality of life for many people in marginalized cultural-racial groups in the United States. However, recent research suggests there has been either stagnation or a reversal in the progress that King helped to mobilize during that time.

Numerous researchers have directed their attention to the racial health disparities that exist in the United States. These investigations have increased our awareness of the disproportionate number of persons of color who die from cancer, suffer from diabetes and hypertension, are diagnosed for depression, experience substance abuse problems, are identified as having learning disabilities and generally have shorter life expectancies than white persons. Research findings documented in the 2000 and 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's reports on health and mental health highlighted the fact that a lack of culturally competent health care professionals greatly contributes to the current disparities that exist among racial/ethnic groups in our nation.

Well-respected researchers in the field such as James Jones and Jonathan Kozol have reported on the continuing problem of racial segregation and the negative impact that it presently has on the psychological, social and economic development of persons from devalued racial groups in the United States. In describing this problem in one of his best-selling books, "Savage Inequalities," Kozol points out that the public school system in the United States is more racially segregated today that at any point since 1967.

Dealing with violence and war

Another important aspect of King's legacy involves his steadfast commitment to promoting revolutionary changes in the United States through nonviolent means. Throughout his career, King talked about the "insanity of violence" - whether used by the oppressor or as a reactionary strategy by oppressed people. As someone who possessed exceptional insights into the content and process of human development, it is interesting to note the many instances in which he talked about the adverse psychological, spiritual and developmental effects that all forms of violence have on people. This included his analysis and condemnation of the negative human outcomes that ensued from police brutality, violence used by various hate groups and the violent urban riots that occurred during his lifetime. His critical analysis of violence also included extensive discussion of the negative psychological, political, economic and spiritual consequences that resulted from such government-sanctioned forms of violence as the Vietnam War and the use of capital punishment in our justice system.

If King were alive today, he surely would be dismayed by the level of violence that permeates all aspects of our contemporary society. We further suggest that King would turn to counselors, as he did with the psychologists who attended the 1967 APA Convention, to solicit their help in eradicating the pervasive problem of violence in our world. In doing so, he would surely invite us to join him in revitalizing a nonviolent revolution in the United States with the goal of promoting a greater level of sanity by fostering human dignity and development.

It is possible that King would go further, asking all of the counselors he talked with to heighten their commitment to becoming culturally competent professionals so that they might work more effectively and respectfully with persons from culturally and racially different groups that are victimized by various forms of violence in our society. This would be particularly important when working to alleviate the pain and suffering that results from the ongoing problem of police brutality that is periodically thrust into our view by the mass media; the increasing number of violent acts initiated by the growing ranks of hate groups that are carefully monitored by such peace and social justice advocacy groups as the Southern Poverty Law Center; and daily reports about the physical and psychological violence that is a consequence of the current war in Iraq.

King's continuing legacy, spirit and philosophy

Sadly, King is not physically present with us today. Despite his physical absence, his influence and spirit continue to be manifested in many ways in our society and within various aspects of the counseling profession. The high value that King placed on human development, mental health, spiritual well-being, peace and justice are evident in the thousands of community agencies and grassroots advocacy groups that are designed to promote these concepts across the United States. This includes agencies and groups intentionally designed to promote the dignity and development of children, poor and homeless persons, abused women, persons of color, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered persons, older adults and individuals with physical and emotional disabilities, to name a few. King would inevitably be joyful about the ways in which services provided by such agencies enhance the dignity and development of millions of persons in these marginalized groups.

From a counseling perspective, King's spirit and philosophy are manifested in the ongoing work of employment counselors who actively strive to address various forms of racial and gender discrimination that undermine their clients' career and economic development.

His spirit is also reflected in the work that many school counselors do to promote peace education and diversity programs in their schools.

His spirit and philosophy are illuminated by rehabilitation counselors who work tirelessly to promote environmental and architectural changes that enable persons with disabilities to have a greater level of accessibility to all the resources available in their communities.

King's commitment to human rights is kept alive when feminist counselors actively work to ameliorate the various forms of sexism that continue to be perpetuated in our society.

His strong beliefs about the inherent dignity of all people are reflected by those counselors who make conscious efforts to implement culturally responsive practices when working with people from diverse populations.

And, finally, we can see King's philosophy kept alive by the rise of a new association in ACA - Counselors for Social Justice - and the increasing number of social justice counseling interventions currently being implemented in the field.

What might King say to us today?

One can only guess what King might say about all the problems that continue to be manifested in our society if he were alive today. If we were to make a guess, we might suggest that he would first acknowledge the progress that has been made in eradicating racial segregation in public accommodations and the mass transit systems since the late 1950s. He surely would applaud the ways in which the Voting Rights Act of 1965 contributed to a significant increase in the current number of elected officials who come from African, Latino and Asian descent.

We also suggest that King would acknowledge the commitment that the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development has made in promoting counselors' cultural competence during the past 35 years. He would likely take time to especially praise ACA for formally endorsing the multicultural and advocacy competencies in 2003.

While King would predictably articulate his appreciation for such positive changes, he would very likely warn us (as he did when he was alive) to avoid being satisfied by the "tranquilizing drug of gradualism" and quickly state that much work needs to be done to build a more sane and just society. In doing so, he would probably urge us to "remain awake" in these troubling times and ask us to think about the need to revitalize a "great revolutionary movement" in our nation, a movement intentionally designed to lift the dignity and development of all people in our society but especially those persons who come from groups that continue to be subjected to various forms of injustice.

As we take a moment to reflect on the 37th anniversary of King's death and join with thousands of other counselors attending this year's ACA Convention in Atlanta, it would be a great time to commit ourselves to "remaining awake" to the difficult challenges we face in fostering the dignity and development of the people with whom we work and live. Finally, it may also be useful to ponder the many ways that counselors can help foster the sort of nonviolent, revolutionary and transformative changes that must occur if we are to realize new heights of human development, dignity, peace, justice and spiritual well-being in our world.

Michael D'Andrea (e-mail: Michael@hawaii.edu) and Judy Daniels (jdaniels@hawaii.edu) are faculty members in the Department of Counselor Education at the University of Hawaii. ACA President-Elect Patricia Arredondo (e-mail: empow@aol.com) is a faculty member in the Department of Counseling Psychology at Arizona State University and the founder and president of Empowerment Workshops in Boston.

SUPPLEMENT B

“Dignity, Development & Diversity” Counseling Today, July 2005

Promoting a Socially-Responsible Approach to Counseling and Mental Health-Care

By

Michael D’Andrea and Judy Daniels

In the April “Dignity and Diversity column,” we presented the first in a series of articles that examine the relevance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy and teachings for the counseling profession. The April column directed attention to Dr. King’s call to “remain awake during a great revolution.” We noted that this message has particular relevance for those multicultural-feminist-social justice counseling advocates who continue to promote new helping paradigms that are revolutionizing our thinking about the way helping professionals can more effectively, respectfully, and ethically operate in our culturally-diverse 21st Century society.

By continuing to explore the relevance of Dr. King’s philosophy and teachings for the counseling profession, we hope that new and untapped aspects of your own multicultural competence will be stimulated as you gain a greater awareness and knowledge of the vital interconnections that exist between human development, professional counseling, and a socially-responsible approach to mental health-care. With this backdrop in mind, this month’s column is designed to: [1] increase your awareness of Dr. King’s own evolution as a multicultural-social justice advocate; [2] underscore the importance of embracing a broad definition of multiculturalism; and [3] highlight some of the important social, moral, political issues that counselors need to address if they are to be more effective in fostering the psychological development, mental health and personal well-being of larger numbers of persons who come from diverse groups and backgrounds in our contemporary society.

Dr. King’s multicultural-social justice perspective of the mental health professions

Many people primarily identify Martin Luther King Jr. as a champion for the civil rights of African Americans. However, a close examination of Dr. King’s personal and professional evolution indicates that he became increasingly aware of the unique interconnections, strengths, and needs of persons in other marginalized groups as well. This growing understanding is explicitly reflected in Dr. King’s later writings and speeches as he frequently referred to the unique strengths and plight of poor White persons, women, Jews, Muslims, farmers in rural America, and the large numbers of youths who experienced a heightened sense of alienation and hopelessness during the 1960s.

As he expanded his understanding of the unique strengths and common challenges that the persons in these diverse groups commonly experienced, Dr. King gained new insights about human development, mental health, and psychological distress. These insights led him to articulate a number of concrete things that he believed were necessary for counselors and psychologists to do to more effectively promote the psychological and spiritual well-being of persons from devalued cultural groups in our nation.

Among the specific recommendations that Dr. King offered in this regard included: [1] the importance of not remaining silent in the face of social scientific evidence that points to the various ways that individuals’ mental health is negatively affected by the various forms of social injustice and cultural oppression that are rooted in our societal institutions; [2] the need for mental health professionals to actively work to eradicate the complex problems of racism and classism that continue to be perpetuated in our nation; [3] the necessity of developing and implementing psychological, counseling, and advocacy programs that are intentionally aimed at fostering the empowerment of millions of poor persons living in the United States; and [4] the pressing need to eradicate all forms of violence including such government-sanctioned violence as capital punishment and war.

Dr. King described the important roles that mental health professionals can play in addressing all of these issues during his keynote address at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in Washington DC in September 1967. In doing so, he presented his vision of the need for counselors and psychologists to take a more socially-responsible and politically-active stance in promoting the mental health of our entire nation. This vision challenges mental health practitioners to embrace new roles and responsibilities as helping professionals. The new roles and responsibilities that Dr. King urged mental health practitioners to incorporate into their work would lead them to implement professional services that go beyond helping individuals to learn better ways of adjusting to the existing status quo. The socially-responsible vision to mental health-care that Dr. King advocated included the need for counselors and psychologists to become positive social change agents who would intentionally strive to transform the organizations and institutions that comprise our societal infrastructure as they helped to build a more just and sane society.

Many mental health professionals, both then and now, resist the wisdom of Dr. King’s call for a socially-responsible approach to mental health-care. These persons commonly argue that the fields of counseling and psychology should avoid addressing social-political issues and, instead, maintain a position of “value neutrality” when providing services to clients in the field.

This position has been and continues to be challenged by numerous persons in the profession. This includes many multicultural, social construction, and postmodern counseling experts who point out that everything we say and do reflects various values that are consciously and unconsciously embedded in our individual and collective constructions of reality. These experts also assert that “value neutrality” is a modern myth that is not possible to implement in anything we do personally or professionally.

The growing recognition that it is not possible for any of us to operate from a position of “value neutrality” is leading increasing numbers of counselors to become more cognizant of the values that they implicitly promote in their work. The increasing awareness of the myth value neutrality not only complements Dr. King’s vision of a socially-responsible approach to mental health-care; but it is also implicit in many of the multicultural counseling competencies that have been formally endorsed by the American Counseling Association (ACA).

Acquiring the competencies that enable us to be aware of how and when we are imposing our personal and professional values on others is no easy task. The difficulty in doing so becomes even more challenging when we embrace a broad and inclusive definition of multicultural counseling.

The importance of embracing an expanded and inclusive definition of multiculturalism

It is interesting to note that Dr. King’s own evolution in becoming a more inclusive social justice advocate parallels the development of the multicultural counseling movement. In this regard it is well-known that the genesis of the multicultural counseling movement can be traced to those African American theorists and researchers who described that many ways in which traditional counseling and psychotherapeutic interventions were not only found to be ineffective but even harmful when used among Black clients. These ineffective and harmful outcomes typically occurred when Black persons received counseling services that primarily focused on promoting intrapsychic changes for problems which could frequently be traced to toxic environmental conditions. Among those toxic environmental conditions that were identified as having particularly adverse psychological affects on African Americans included the various forms of racial injustice, discrimination, and oppression that were perpetuated in the environments where many Black clients lived and worked.

The revolutionary and liberatory spirit that characterized the onset of the multicultural movement was reinforced shortly thereafter by the work of other counseling theorists, researchers, and social justice advocates from Asian, Latino/Latina, and Native American Indian decent. The work of these persons led to a tremendous expansion in our understanding of the unique between group differences, strengths, and needs that characterize persons from a broader range of ethnic-racial groups and backgrounds.

The evolution of the multicultural-social justice counseling movement did not, however, stop here. During the 1970s and 1980s we witnessed increasing demands for a more inclusive definition of multiculturalism among persons in other devalued “cultural” groups in our society. Such demands were most notably made by women’s and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered counseling advocates as well as even more recent calls for the inclusion of older adults, individuals with disabilities, and persons from Jewish, Muslim, and other religious/spiritual groups who all wanted to be included in an expanded definition of multiculturalism.

We have endorsed the importance of embracing a broad definition of multiculturalism on several occasions in this column in the past. In doing so we have outlined a expansive multicultural framework that we call the RESPECTFUL Counseling Model.

RESPECTFUL Counseling is an acronym that highlights 10 factors that counselors are encouraged to keep in mind as they strive to intentionally implement culturally-competent helping strategies that reflect a commitment for an expanded and inclusive definition of multiculturalism. The factors that are included in this theoretical framework emphasize the importance of attending to the ways in which counselors’ and clients’: R – religious/spiritual identity; E – economic class background; S – sexual identity; P – psychological development; E – ethnic/racial identity; C – chronological disposition; T – trauma and other threats to their personal well-being; F – family history; U – unique physical characteristics; and L – language and location of residence may affect the helping process.

In addition to promoting a broad and inclusionary definition of multiculturalism, the RESPECTFUL Counseling framework is also grounded in a social justice perspective that is closely aligned to Dr. King’s philosophy and teachings. Similar to the socially-responsible approach to mental health-care that Dr. King articulated in the 1960s, the RESPECTFUL Counseling model emphasizes the important role that counselors can play in addressing those social-political-environmental factors that are known to adversely impact the psychological development and mental health of millions of people who identify with the different factors that comprise the RESPECTFUL Counseling framework.

Promoting intellectual honesty and socially-responsible practices in the counseling profession

Many researchers have documented the ways in which toxic environmental conditions adversely affect human development. Multicultural and social justice counseling researchers have been particularly helpful in expanding our understanding of the adverse impact that specific types of toxic social-political-environmental conditions have on people’s lives. They have done so by describing how the different forms of racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism and other types of cultural oppression that continue to be perpetuated in our contemporary society result in negative physical and psychological outcomes for millions of persons in marginalized and devalued groups in our nation.

A growing body of empirical evidence in the social sciences suggests that Dr. King was indeed accurate right when he pointed out that the different types of social injustices and cultural oppression that are listed above represent unique forms of psychological, economic, structural, and spiritual violence that undermine people’s mental health. Given the abundant empirical evidence that describes the many ways in which these forms of social injustices and violence are known to undermine healthy human development, it is difficult to understand why some persons in the counseling profession would continue to argue against the need to implement the sort of socially-responsible counseling strategies that Dr. King called for during his lifetime.

In light of the growing empirical evidence that supports many of Dr. King’s claims about the vital interconnections that exist between a just society and the psychological health of its inhabitants, we suggest that the time has come for more open and honest discussion about the need for counselors to implement more socially-responsible approaches into their professional practices. To help stimulate this important discussion, we have outlined a number of resolutions that we believe are consistent with the Dr. King’s philosophy and teaching about mental health. These resolutions also complement the spirit and principles of the multicultural-feminist-social justice counseling movement; a movement which continues to have a tremendous impact in transforming the counseling profession at this point in time.

We hope that following resolutions will stimulate more open and honest discussion about the need for the counseling profession to become more socially-responsible in its practices among the counselors and students who may read this monthly column. We also hope that the members of the Governing Council in ACA would consider the possibility of formally endorsing these resolutions in our professional organization. In doing so they would not help to realize Dr. King’s vision of a socially-responsible mental health profession, but they would also help to stimulate new ways of thinking about the counselor’s role in promoting human development and dignity by fostering a greater level of justice, peace, and sanity in our culturally-diverse society.