Counseling psychology and participatory justice: “sharing the university”

ABSTRACT

What is a participatory justice approach to counseling psychology, and what actions would express its inclusive intentions? We propose that a participatory justice framework for counseling psychology practice and training would complement social justice perspectives by emphasizing university-community collaborations and resource-sharing; it also privileges public, community-based knowledge creation as exemplified by participatory action research. In this way, a participatory justice approach offers a counterbalance to current political trends toward private ownership of social assets and resources. This article 1) expands upon these theoretical foundations, and then 2) presents three current practice-related project examples to show how these foundations can tangibly translate to academic and professional activities. Finally, the article 3) relates these activities to the training of students by concluding with suggested curricula by which to prepare graduate students and others for participatory undertakings.

KEYWORDS:

• Social justice
• civic participation
• training
• university collaborations
• community
• public psychology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Practical implications

1. Counseling psychologists can supplement their conventional practices with activities that allow them to share resources, skills, and expertise with members of marginalized communities.

2. When university psychologists partner with community members, they are potentially offering experiences that are as healing and productive as traditional services.

3. University-community partnerships not only benefit community members, they offer valuable training experiences for students in social justice psychology and community liaison skills, skills that allow them to contribute to public participatory justice at a broad level.

Public significance statement

University psychologists have access to resources and knowledge that could broadly benefit marginalized communities in terms of their civic participation and well-being. Counseling psychologists who work from a participatory framework prioritize collaborative sharing opportunities with community members and with the general public; this paper presents three projects to illustrate the tangible possibilities by which these collaborations can take place.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Smith

Laura Smith, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology and Education in the Counseling Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, and is Chair of the TC Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology Department. Laura was formerly the founding Director of the Rosemary Furman Counseling Center at Barnard College and the Director of Psychological Services at the West Farms Center in the Bronx, where she provided services, training, and programming within a multifaceted community-based organization. Laura’s research interests include Whiteness and antiracism, critical psychological epistemologies, social inclusion/exclusion and emotional well-being, and participatory action research (PAR) in schools and communities.

Laila Abdel-Salam

Laila Abdel-Salam, Ph.D. received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University and is a is postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). Dr. Abdel-Salam completed her predoctoral internship at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, where she honed her skills in the application of psychodynamic principles in the treatment of trauma survivors within the Victims of Violence unit, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at CUMC with a focus on trauma and personality disorders. Her research concentrates on the intersectionality of race, social class, and gender, as well as qualitative inquiry and participatory action research. Her dissertation sheds light on the shared experience of Arab American women at the junction of racial ambiguity and legal invisibility and how it impacted their sense of belonging and wellbeing. Additionally, she is a founding member of AMENA-Psy, the first Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Psychological Association in the US.

Randi Elfrida Scott-McLaughlin

Randi E. Scott-McLaughlin II, Ph.D. is a Black queer, trans woman born and raised in New York City. She received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her research focuses on developing and codifying a psychotherapeutic orientation from a Black psychological perspective. She is focused on answering questions such as: What can we learn about the coping strategies that have existed within the Black community for centuries and which have been passed down through the generations and still exist? What practices, beliefs, and worldviews protect us from the deleterious effects of systemic oppression? In other words, what allows us as Black Americans to ”keep on keeping on” in a society that privileges Whiteness above all else? Another area of her research focuses on using video games to enhance therapeutic outcomes and as an intervention tool to enhance emotional engagement with patients who are otherwise too strongly defended to interact with their feelings.

Kim Baranowski

Kim A. Baranowski, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is a lecturer in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University and the Associate Director of the Mount Sinai Human Rights Program. Her research focuses on human rights, asylum, and immigration advocacy, as well as the mental health correlates of exposure to persecution, torture, and gender-based violence. Dr. Baranowski’s studies center on the impact of premigratory, migratory, and postmigratory experiences on the health and wellbeing of diverse communities seeking protected immigration status in the United States.

Nyrah Madon

Nyrah Madon, Ed.M. is a fourth-year doctoral student in Counseling Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she also received her masters degree in Mental Health Counseling. Her current research focuses on the impact of racism and discrimination based on sexual orientation on the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ South Asians as well as their experiences of community exclusion.

Maya Williams

Maya Williams, Ed.M. is a Counseling Psychology doctoral student at the University of Missouri. Her interest includes culturally-informed mental health services for racial/ethnic minority emerging adults and college students. She has experience providing counseling services in alternative education, higher education, and community mental health settings. She is a recipient of the APA Minority Fellowship.