Domain II: Challenge Social Injustices, and Critique Their Impact on Client–Counsellor Social Locations
The second domain of the CRSJ counselling model (Collins, 2018) casts the eyes of the learner beyond the client–counsellor dyad to the contexts of both counsellor and client lived experiences and cultural identity development. In this section of the teaching and learning guide, I have selected competencies and key concepts to illustrate the complex relationship between culture and social location. I use the term social location to refer to the place, status, or position (social, economic, or political) that individuals or groups hold within society, based on various markers of difference, most often related to various dimensions of their cultural identities. As with the cultural identities of counsellor and client, their individual and relative social locations influence the counselling relationship and counselling process in various ways. In many cases, the presenting concerns that clients bring to counselling are rooted in these social determinants of health and the most ethical approach to change rests within the contexts of clients’ lives (systems level) rather than within them as individuals (intrapsychic level).
The four chapters in this section of the teaching and learning guide provide learning activities related to the four core competencies (CC) in this domain.
Core Competencies for CRSJ Counselling
Domain II: Challenge Social Injustices, and Critique Their Impact on Client–Counsellor Social Locations
CC4 Social Injustice: Attend actively to social determinants of health, and evaluate the impact of social injustices on client health and well-being.
CC5: Power and Privilege: Assess critically the impact of power and privilege on client–counsellor social locations.
CC6 Identity Development: Articulate the relationship between social location and cultural identity development and management.
CC7 Cross-Cultural Transitions: Analyze critically the impact of cross-cultural transitions and social injustices on cultural identity and relationality.
Note. Copyright 2018 by S. Collins.
Please take a moment to listen to the podcast below in which I share some of my thinking related to this first domain in the CRSJ counselling model.
Podcast coming soon . . .
References
Collins, S. (2018). Embracing cultural responsivity and social justice: Re-shaping professional identity in counselling psychology [Epub version]. Victoria, BC: Counselling Concepts. Retrieved from http://www.counsellingconcepts.ca
