Counseling in Cultural Context ― Identity and Social Justice

This accessible practice-building reference establishes a clear social justice lens for providing culturally-responsive and ethical multicultural counseling for all clients. Rooted in the principles of Culture-Infused Counseling, the book’s practical framework spotlights the evolving therapeutic relationship and diverse approaches to working with clients’ personal and relational challenges, including at the community and system levels. Case studies illustrate interventions with clients across various identities from race, gender, and class to immigration status, sexuality, spirituality, and body size, emphasizing the importance of viewing client’s presenting concerns within the contexts of their lives. Chapters also model counselor self-awareness so readers can assess their strengths, identify their hidden assumptions, and evolve past basic cultural sensitivity to actively infusing social justice as an ethical stance in professional practice.

Included in the chapters:

· Culture-infused counseling, emphasizing context, identities, and social justice

· Decolonizing and indigenous approaches

· Social class awareness

· Intersectionality of identities

· Clients’ spiritual and religious beliefs

· Weight bias as a social justice issue

· Life-making in therapeutic work with transgender clients

· Socially-just counseling for refugees

· Multi-level systems approaches to interventions

Dr. Nancy Arthur is a Professor and former Canada Research Chair, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Arthur has written extensively in the field of multicultural counselling and co-developed the model of Culture-Infused Counselling, also adapted for use in career counselling. Dr. Arthur is a registered psychologist and elected Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and currently serves as Vice-President of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance. Dr. Arthur’s research interests focus on professional education for diversity and social justice, and international learning and employment transitions.