White Counselors Research Articles

White Counselor Education Faculty on the Topics of Racism and Privileges in the Classroom: A Personal Journey

Engaging in critical conversations about race and racism requires counselor educators to be courageous and fearless. The current study explored how White counselor educators engage in honest discussions regarding race and racism. Using semi-structured interviews, three White counselor educators from CACREP Accredited programs were interviewed to explore their experiences of fearlessly leading courageous conversations on race and racism. A thematic analysis yielded three consistent themes, including a pattern centered around creating a safe space for discussions, being okay with being imperfect, and encounters that transform. The last theme also had two sub-themes: constructing intentional relationships with truth-tellers and world-changing experiences. These findings offer insight for White counselor educators to traverse challenges associated with having provocative conversations about race and racism, both inside and outside of the classroom.

Grappling with race: A national study of the broaching attitudes and behavior of school counselors, clinical mental health counselors, and counselor trainees

AbstractThis study examined counselors’ openness to discussing issues of race, ethnicity, and culture by setting (e.g., school, clinical mental health, and counselor trainee) using the Broaching Attitudes and Behavior Scale. School counselors and White counselors reported significantly higher mean scores on the Avoidant subscale, a measure of counselors’ perceptions that discussions about race, ethnicity, and culture are unwarranted. Significant main effects resulted for counselor setting. Implications for counseling are addressed.

Shadow Self: Bringing White Supremacy Into the Light

Shadow Self: Bringing White Supremacy Into the Light

Allyship: The Responsibility of White Counselor Education. Allies in Addressing Racism and Discrimination

Allyship: The Responsibility of White Counselor Education. Allies in Addressing Racism and Discrimination

A White Counselor in a Multicultural World: Understanding the Need for a Spiritual, Multicultural Counseling Course

Multicultural counseling must be seen a significant factor in today’s multicultural world as therapists provide therapeutic services offered to clients, especially clients who have immigrated from one country to another within the past 50 years. Multicultural counseling refers to the preparation and practices that help White counselors learn to integrate multicultural and culture-specific awareness, knowledge, and skills into counseling interactions into their practice with multicultural clients. White counselors who work with multicultural clients have the choice to either remain handmaidens of the status quo or transmitters of society’s values or become agents of change. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that White counselors who have participated in a multicultural training program have greater therapeutic skill to offer their multicultural clients. Furthermore, when multicultural counseling is incorporated in a spiritually-enriched therapeutic relationship, White counselors are able to relate more effectively with their multicultural clients. A spiritually-enriched therapeutic relationship offers counselors the opportunity to work with their multicultural clients and incorporate the vital aspect of spirituality, because it is universal to human existence. Therefore, through the use of spirituality in multicultural counseling, White counselors must have the desire to understand their multicultural clients’ worldview, which incorporates the view these clients have of their spirituality. Counselors must understand the importance of developing a curiosity to understand how spirituality influences the lives of their multicultural clients and use this new awareness to help facilitate healing and wholeness for their clients.

School-Community Group Model: Collaborating for the Empowerment of Adolescent African American Male Students

ABSTRACTThis article presents a conceptual School-Community Group Model for working with African American adolescents. The model stems from a group conducted with urban, male, African American, adolescents co-facilitated by a White female school counselor and an African American male community leader. The article describes the theoretical underpinnings for this approach, reviews the school-community collaboration literature, and the necessity of co-facilitation relationships grounded in trust and respect. A case example outlining group structure, session interventions, and the therapeutic benefits gained through effective co-facilitation across race and gender are discussed. Model limitations are identified, followed by provided practice, training, and research implications.

An Experimental Investigation of White Counselors Broaching Race and Racism

Broaching involves actively addressing culture and power in session, a counseling skill that is underused despite its promising track record. In an experimental analogue design, the authors studied potential clients’ evaluation of an initial broaching statement. Results provide evidence of the therapeutic benefits of broaching, preference for broaching that addresses the counseling relationship, and the role of positionality in evaluating counselors’ cultural responsiveness. Implications for broaching with minoritized clients are discussed.

Experiences of Cross-Racial Trust in Mentoring Relationships Between Black Doctoral Counseling Students and White Counselor Educators and Supervisors

Experiences of Cross-Racial Trust in Mentoring Relationships Between Black Doctoral Counseling Students and White Counselor Educators and Supervisors

Make It Personal: A Qualitative Investigation of White Counselors’ Multicultural Awareness Development

In this qualitative research study, we explored the multicultural awareness development of 12 multiculturally adept non-Latino White counselors. Using a grounded theory approach, we found that early personal experience with diversity was the most important contributing factor in developing understanding and empathy for oppression among White counselors. This factor appeared to lay the foundation for an ongoing personal initiative to develop multicultural awareness. Subsequently, counselors tried to maximize what they could learn from their culturally diverse clients, work environments, coursework, supervision, and mentoring opportunities. Their personal initiative also inspired them to persevere despite the difficult emotions and conflict inherent in this developmental process. Results suggest the need to incorporate personally transformative experiences in counselor training and to prepare counselors for the emotional challenges of multicultural awareness development.

Barriers to counselling experienced by British South Asian women: A thematic analysis exploration

AbstractAimThe objective of this study was to explore the attitudes and beliefs that second‐generation South Asian women living in Britain hold about counselling, with a particular focus on how these beliefs may impact on the process of help‐seeking for psychological distress.MethodologyEighty‐two second‐generation British South Asian women aged 18–40 (M = 24), the majority of whom (92%) had no experience of counselling, responded to a qualitative survey. The data were analysed with thematic analysis.FindingsAn over‐arching theme of ‘Stereotyping’ was identified from the analysis; this theme emerged from the data under four main categories which were best summarised by the following open‐ended statements: ‘White counsellors are…’, ‘Asian counsellors are…’, ‘Counselling is…’ and ‘People with psychological problems are…’. Participants identified attitudes and beliefs about counselling, counsellors and psychological distress which revealed widespread generalisations and stereotypes. Some of these views were culturally specific whilst others reflected stereotypes commonly held by the population as a whole, but they all had the potential to act as barriers to help‐seeking.ImplicationsImplications from the study findings are that services should consider how to address stereotypes which may make it harder for South Asian women to seek help from counselling services if they are experiencing psychological distress. This might involve initiatives to address beliefs, attitudes and behaviours that may act as a barrier to help‐seeking. In addition, practitioners should understand that their ethnicity and religious identity may have significant meaning for this population.

The Narrative Experiences of Hmong American Adolescent Males LabeledEducationally “At Risk”

This article analyzes the narrative experiences of Hmong American adolescent males who were labeled at risk or high risk for academic failure or underperformance by their predominantly White school counselors and teachers. Additional data sources included classroom observations at two racially diverse public high schools and semi-structured interviews with two White American female classroom teachers to ascertain how the “at-risk” label manifested in everyday practices ranging from classroom management/discipline methods, instructional decisions, interpersonal interactions, referrals, and tracking practices. The findings will highlight how the “at-risk” label along with a range of other deficit-based expectations intersected with several problematic assumptions about Asian American masculinities and Hmong American culture that suggested that in general, White school personnel were not aware of how their understandings of racial deviance and difference shaped how they assessed, diagnosed, and interacted with these students. Critically, the “at-risk” label had direct implications for tracking the youth participants into non-college-preparatory tracks including pathways toward alternative, remedial, and special education, or in one case, juvenile detention. Implications are offered for practice and theory.

What Do White Counselors and Psychotherapists Need to Know About Race? White Racial Socialization in Counseling and Psychotherapy Training Programs

Multicultural training in academic counseling and psychotherapy programs is often designed to address the needs of minority populations, and it rarely places Whiteness in the spotlight. Its structure, in fact, risks mirroring the very dynamics embedded in White privilege. Using the framework of feminist theory, we build on key findings on White racial socialization—which has a profound impact on the quality of communication and interaction within and across racial groups—to outline the skills and awareness needed for White counselors and psychotherapists to promote racial justice in both their individual/counseling and community/advocacy work.

High School Guidance Counselor Recommendations: The Role of Student Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Academic Performance

This study explored the relation between student characteristics and counselor recommendations. Based on a sample of 1,713 students, the results indicate that counselors recommended community colleges to students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds more strongly than to students from higher SES backgrounds and recommended 4-year institutions more to students from higher SES backgrounds than to students from lower SES backgrounds. White counselors were more likely to recommend admission-related activities toward 2-year colleges to White than to Black students. In addition, for upper-class students, recommendations toward community college were stronger for Whites with low academic performance than for Blacks with low performance; the reverse was true for upper-class students with strong academic performance. Areas for future research are identified.

The Role of Ethnic Identity, Gender Roles, and Multicultural Training in College Counselors' Multicultural Counseling Competence: A Mediation Model

Structural equation modeling with survey data from 313 college counselors revealed that multicultural training significantly mediated the impact of both ethnic identity and gender roles on multicultural counseling competence (MCC), explaining 24% of MCC variance. Results indicated that college counselors need to be aware of their own gender roles and ethnic identity to be culturally competent and highlighted the mediational role that training plays in achieving MCC.

One White Counselor Educator’s Process of Racial Reeducation

Counselor educators introduce racial/cultural identity models in order for students to examine their own racial identity and learn the value of identifying the stage of racial/cultural identity development of their clients. While there is an abundance of literature about the multicultural training of White students, there is very little on training experiences of White counselor educators. It is by focusing on the competency training of White counselor educators that we can determine the cultural competence of trainees. I am a White woman that was raised in a racist community in the 1970’s and trained as licensed professional counselor during the 1980’s. Through this article, I describe my journey as a developing counselor and educator: mistakes made, struggles overcome and recent experiences that contribute to my increased effectiveness in classroom, advocacy and social justice activities.

Guidance Counselors’ Ratings of Important Attributes for Registered Nurses and Prospective Nursing Students: A Comparison of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Career Counselors

Perceptions of counselors from Hispanic serving high schools regarding professional nursing as a career have received limited study. A cross-sectional descriptive study of a convenience sample of 55 guidance counselors from Hispanic serving institutions identified the number of requests/referrals to nursing programs and perceptions of prospective nursing student and registered nurse attributes. Hispanic counselors rated caring and professional leadership skills higher than did White non-Hispanic counselors. Recommendations for academic nursing and counselor partnerships are provided.

The Influence of Culture, Self‐Reported Multicultural Counseling Competence, and Shifting Standards of Judgment on Perceptions of Family Functioning of White Family Counselors

This study examines the perceptions of 163 White family counselors who reported their overall impressions of family functioning in response to a fictitious case report. On the intake summary, the family was identified as either Latino or White. Aside from the names used for family members, the cases were identical. Participants assigned significantly higher (i.e., healthier) ratings to the Latino family as compared with the White family. However, this effect was moderated by self‐reported multicultural counseling knowledge and awareness. Implications of the findings are discussed.

White Privilege and Cultural Racism.

White privilege is an insidious and elusive concept that, when discussed, often generates strong reactions of denial, guilt, shame, discomfort, and defensiveness (Arminio, 2001). This article attempts to provide a précis of what is meant by white privilege and how it manifests in New Zealand society. White privilege and cultural racism are then examined in relation to the counselling process. The necessity is discussed for white counsellors to develop an awareness of their own racial identity in order to better understand and address the impact of race issues on both their sense of self and their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Journal of Counselling is the property of New Zealand Association of Counsellors and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Psychosocial costs of racism to white counselors: Predicting various dimensions of multicultural counseling competence.

Psychosocial costs of racism to white counselors: Predicting various dimensions of multicultural counseling competence.

Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice.

Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. Perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware that they engage in such communications when they interact with racial/ethnic minorities. A taxonomy of racial microaggressions in everyday life was created through a review of the social psychological literature on aversive racism, from formulations regarding the manifestation and impact of everyday racism, and from reading numerous personal narratives of counselors (both White and those of color) on their racial/cultural awakening. Microaggressions seem to appear in three forms: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. Almost all interracial encounters are prone to microaggressions; this article uses the White counselor--client of color counseling dyad to illustrate how they impair the development of a therapeutic alliance. Suggestions regarding education and training and research in the helping professions are discussed.