The Commission on Social Determinants of Health, World Health Organization (2008) identified a number of key social determinants of health that impact the health and well-being of individuals, communities, and entire populations across the world. Complete the Barriers and goals for health equity table to apply these key factors to a nondominant population of your choice. Identify one professional competency that you need to enhance in order to address the change goals you highlighted, and list two things you will do this week to begin to build this competency.

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#globalapproach]

Becoming a parent is one of the most significant events in some people’s lives. Watch the UN Free & Equal short video on Intersex Awareness. Place yourself in this moment and reflect on how you might react to the news of a healthy, normal, intersex baby.

To further capture a glimpse of the experience of intersex children and adults explore the website of Mx. Anunnaki Ray, an intersex activist, and/or the information and, in particular, the Intersex Voices section of the UN Free & Equal Intersex Awareness page.

Write a short letter to your newborn intersex baby about what your hopes and  dreams for them are.

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#perfect]

Smith, Constantine, Graham, and Dize (2008) explored a number of forms of racism (some subtle, others less subtle) to deconstruct and analyze the stories that we tell ourselves as a means of explaining away attitudes and beliefs that are fundamentally racist. The authors of this article focused on the implications of these ways of spinning racism in our work with clients from nondominant ethnic groups; however, these same processes of distorting perceptions and experience can lead to unintentional oppression with clients from other nondominant populations, because they emerge from unexamined personal biases or assumptions. By trivializing biases or convincing ourselves that they don’t exist, we blind ourselves to their significant sociocultural, economic, and political influence. This has the effect of marginalizing the lived experiences of individuals and groups who are targeted, directly and indirectly, by prejudice and discrimination. Complete the Spinning of *isms template to examine the ways in which you may unintentionally fall prey to some of these conceptual traps.

Consider a time when you heard a voice in your own head that made an unfair judgment of another person based on visible or invisible markers of difference. Be honest with yourself, because none of us are completely free of these *isms. Perhaps it was an assumption that a colleague would be healthier if she lost weight. Or maybe it is a belief that being gay is a lifestyle choice. Or what if refugees are really taking jobs away from real Canadians? Return again to the ways in which you might be most inclined to spin your thinking when this occurs.

• What steps might you take to bring those assumptions or biases into the open?
• How might holding them limit your ability to engage in culturally responsive and socially just practice?
• What are risks or losses involved in letting them go?

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#spinning]

Complete the self-study quiz, Myths and Facts About Women. You will receive immediate feedback about your responses. As you reflect on your score on the quiz, attend to the following questions:

• Which answers were most surprising for you?
• Why were these answers unexpected?
• What feelings are you experiencing as you reflect on this information?
• Has misinformation about women ever influenced your behaviour in the past? How might increasing your knowledge influence your future actions?
• What does this information tell us about male privilege in our society?
• How might the responses differ if the data focused only on women of colour, Muslim women, women with disabilities, or transgender women?

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#mythsandfacts]

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Digital Archives are a great resource for historical news content related to Rights and Freedoms in Canada. Check out the section entitled Equality First: The Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Choose several of the news clips to review. Listen carefully to the voices of women at different periods of time—to their struggles, their perspectives, and their victories. Now, imagine that you are approached by a colleague who states that she is facing persistent sexism in another department of your organization, and respond to the following:

• What lessons might you pull forward from these historical narratives on gender rights to inform your response to your colleague?
• Identify and critically analyze 2‒3 options for how you might work with your colleague to advance gender rights in your organization.

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#statusofwomen]

As counsellors and psychologists, we are responsible for our own beliefs, values, ways of being, and counselling practices; however, we are embedded within schools, agencies, organizations, governments, and other environments in which individuals may not have been exposed to the same level of consciousness raising related to culture and social justice. Reflect on the organizations to which you belong for school, work, family, and leisure activities. Attend to the perhaps overt, but more likely subtle, ways in which particular persons or peoples are marginalized or oppressed within these institutions, attending to acts of both commission and omission.

Given the 2014 change in human rights legislation in Canada to protect gender identity and gender expression, organizations are attempting to figure out how to enact policies and practices that are in keeping with the spirit, as well as the letter, of the law. Review the brochure on Gender identity and gender expression from the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

• What do you see as your responsibility, personally and professionally, to not only uphold, but also promote, basic human rights?
• Are you welcoming of the change in legislation in Canada, or does this challenge your personal beliefs, values, and worldview?
• What meaning do you make of your emotional and cognitive reaction to the idea that you are expected, as a Canadian citizen and as a member of the counselling or psychology professions, to take an anti-discriminatory stance towards gender identity and all forms of gender expression?
• If you are a gender-nonconforming person, reflect on how the recent change in legislation has affected you in terms of your sense of self and your relationship to the dominant culture. What do you hope for in terms of change in your personal and professional world?

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#enactinghumanrights]

Consider the map of Sexual Orientation Laws in World created by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. Choose two of the countries in shades of red on the map from different continents and then look up the specific laws in the Caroll and Mendos (2017) report on State-Sponsored Homophobia. The world has become a smaller place in the last century with the advent of world travel, the internet, and other aspects of modern life that connect us to other places and peoples.

One of the foundation principles of systems theory is that we are all interconnected, so that a change in one part of the system has a ripple effect in other areas. What are the implications for counselling practice in Canada of these world-wide examples of continued cultural oppression of LGBTTQI persons? Conversely, what impact might the profession of counselling in Canada have on the lived experiences of others around the world? Reflect on the challenges of working with an immigrant or refugee from one of these countries, who identifies as a sexual minority.

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#statesponsored]

One of the most profound examples of othering and cultural oppression occurred through the process of colonization, whereby colonial/settler populations took by force the lands of Indigenous peoples throughout the world and began a process of cultural genocide and forced assimilation that continues to have dramatic effects on the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples to this day. Canadians are currently being invited into a process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples that begins by acknowledging the truth of their lived experiences as individuals and peoples.

Watch one or two of the following short documentaries to get a sense of the residential school system, which was a colonialist tool for forced eradication of language, culture, and spirituality, as well as the 60s scoop, in which Indigenous children were apprehended and placed in non-Indigenous foster homes.

Reflect on your own understanding of the short and long-term effects of colonialism. Consider the immense challenge of surviving colonization and colonial violence/oppression for individuals and communities who suffered this experience. Connect these experiences with hypothetical presenting concerns of Indigenous clients, and consider the implications for conceptualization current problems and envisioning change.

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#grapplingwithtruth]

Every individual living within traditional territories of Indigenous peoples in Canada and in other colonized nations is, by default, part of a colonial relationship. It is important for counsellors to grapple with the historical and current implications of their positioning within this relationship.

• To begin this process, use the First Nation Profiles Interactive Map or the Inuit Community Profiles Interactive Map to investigate on whose traditional lands you live and work. Zoom in; use the “i” on either map to access specific information; then access the Community Website links for First Nations or Inuit community sites.
• Use the information you find as a starting place to search for more details about local treaties, forced migration to reserve lands, and current land disputes. In my own search, I came across this cartoon from the Victoria Daily Times paper, which depicts the colonialist successful efforts to displace the Songhees nation from the reserve lands on the Victoria harbour.

In what ways have you benefited from the legacy of colonization and colonial violence? Consider the implications of your discovers for your colonial relationship with Indigenous peoples locally and within your country as a whole.

[Permanent link: https://on-linelearning.ca/crsjcounselling/chapter/cc4/#lossofland]