Cultural and Social Justice Counseling: Client-specific Interventions

This timely volume gives readers a robust framework and innovative tools for incorporating clients' unique cultural variables in counseling and therapy. Its chapters identify cultural, societal, and worldview-based contexts for understanding clients, from the relatively familiar (ethnicity, gender, age) to the less explored (migration status, social privilege, geographic environment). Diverse cases illustrate how cultural assessments contribute to building the therapeutic relationship and developing interventions that respect client individuality as well as group identity. In these pages, clinicians are offered effective strategies for conducting more relevant and meaningful therapy, resulting in better outcomes for client populations that have traditionally been marginalized and underserved. The appendices include the Scale to Assess Worldview^© (Ibrahim & Kahn, 1984), The Acculturation Index^© (Ibrahim, 2008), and the Cultural Identity Check List-Revised^© (Ibrahim, 2007).

Among the topics covered: 

• Cultural identity: components and assessment.
• Worldview: implications for culturally responsive and ethical practice.
• Understanding acculturation and its use in counseling and psychotherapy.
• Social justice variables critical for conducting counseling and psychotherapy.
• Immigrants: identity development and counseling issues.
• Designing interventions using the social justice and cultural responsiveness model.

Cultural and Social Justice Counseling is a profound source of knowledge for clinicians and students in mental health fields (counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, social workers) who are working with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds, including those working in international settings, with clients across cultures, and with sojourners to the US.

Farah Ibrahim is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Society for Counseling Psychology) and a licensed psychologist (CT, DC, CO). She is past president of Counselors for Social Justice (2002-3) a division of the American Counseling Association. She has served at the University of Connecticut, Howard University, and as Chair of Teacher and Counselor Education at Oregon State University as a tenured full professor. She is currently serving as full professor in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver. She is the author of the Existential Worldview theory and is the developer of the following instruments: Scale to Assess Worldview^© with Harris Kahn, the “Cultural Identity Check List^©” (Ibrahim, 1990, 2007) the “Cultural Competence Survey^©” (Ibrahim, 2005), and the United States Acculturation Index^©  (Ibrahim, 2008).  She has conducted research on worldview and training for cultural effectiveness, gender and worldview, organizational culture and worldview, identity development, South Asian identity issues, trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to oppression, and infusion of social justice and cultural competencies in counseling curricula.  Her latest research has focused on counseling Muslims in the West.  She has a video on “Counseling Muslims” marketed by Microtraining Associates.  She has assisted with several grant projects as a consultant or as co-principal investigator focusing on cultural competence training, effect of domestic violence on children and adolescents, and intergenerational trauma and its impact and health and mental health.  Her current research interests are cultural competence and social justice training, cross-cultural research on worldviews, assessment in cross-cultural settings, identity development in a diverse society, Counseling South Asian immigrants and international students, and alleviation, and elimination of trauma and violence in society, social justice and cultural competence in group work.

Jianna R. Heuer, has a Master’s degree in Social Work form New York University. She currently serves as a part-time counselor for students with disabilities at LaGuardia Community College. Her research interests focus on cultural responsiveness and social justice concerns. She also maintains a private practice in New York City where she focuses on college coaching as well as relationship issues, trauma, disability issues, anxiety, and depression.