Social Justice

Social justice refers to the promotion of full and equal participation of all individuals and groups, allowing their needs to be met equally. Most societies around the world have fallen short of creating conditions of social justice. This is evidenced by the existence of marginalization in many societies, as evidenced by the fact that many groups do not have full participation or share equal power in society because of race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. Because inequities exist based on these cultural differences, societies that strive for social justice often have attempted to identify and rectify the existence of oppressive structural barriers embedded in the social, economic, and political systems. Historical examples within the United States are the women's suffrage movement that led to the federal right for women to vote in 1920 and the civil rights movement in the 1960s, which was aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans.

TTie negative psychological effects of social injustice are numerous and include the development of symptoms such as depression and anxiety. Within the field of psychology, it has been argued that the reality of oppression and social injustices must be incorporated into the treatment plans of individuals who are members of marginalized groups (e.g., women, people of color). A failure to acknowledge the adverse effects of social injustice on individuals' mental health and functioning can be problematic for many reasons. For example, a recent immigrant who is having difficulty finding a job may benefit from having a counselor with whom to process his or her frustrations, but therapeutic processing alone may not be sufficient in helping the client understand the full range of reasons he or she has had difficulty finding work. A counselor who is not aware of the potential of societal oppression might even attribute the client's difficulty in finding work solely to individual factors (e.g., an underlying personality issue), rather than the possibility that the client is also facing workplace discrimination. As a result, the client may end up feeling as misunderstood in therapy as he or she does in other facets of life.

Because the genesis of some mental health problems can include experiences of social injustice, it has been argued that mental health professionals should expand their roles beyond that of traditional counseling. [Page 1322]Although the counselor can provide a place to process emotions related to oppression, of equal importance is the counselor's role as an agent of social change. Rather than changing people only through individual empowerment, a social justice framework within the mental health field encourages counselors to change the contextual variables that contribute to social inequity and oppression. Numerous scholars have suggested that client advocacy and public policy work can be infused into the skills of counselors.

Advocating for social justice requires that mental health counselors become more knowledgeable about oppression and societal inequities and how they are experienced by individuals and groups. For example, a counselor may benefit from visiting the neighborhood in which a client resides so as to learn more about the client's everyday experience. When counselors learn more about their clients' communities, they are better able to assist clients in accessing their indigenous support networks, such as religious leaders, community leaders, friendship networks, and family. Counselors must also personally reflect on issues of oppression and privilege in their own lives. An important part of being a social justice-oriented counselor is to critically examine one's experience as an oppressor, the oppressed, or both. To think critically about these experiences may influence the ways one conceptualizes and interacts with clients.

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