Jhoanna Vega-Rocha
Chapter 5: Professional and Social Advocacy in Clinical Mental Health
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Essential and fundamental to clinical mental health profession
Terms to get familiar with
o Advocacy: action taken on behalf of clients or counseling profession to support
appropriate policies and standards for profession, promote individual human
worth, dignity, and potential
o Empowerment: people organizations or groups who are powerless and
marginalized a) become aware of the power dynamics at work in their life
context b) develop the skills and capacity for gaining reasonable control over
their lives c) ensure they exercise d) without infringing on the rights of others e)
actively supporting the empowerment of others in their community
o Oppression: allows access to services, rewards, benefits, and privileges,
designated be individuals in power/dominate group
o Privilege: beliefs and standard are superior to those of other groups, related to
one group having control power, access, & advantages over other groups
o Professional identity: understanding historical foundation of counseling and
ethical standard of practice and understanding counseling role
o Social justice: just world, every individual has an opportunity to resources such
as health care & employment, achieve optimal mental health
o ACA Competencies
 Client involvement
 Level of intervention
o 6 domains
 Client/student empowerment
 Client/student advocacy
 Community collaboration
 Systems advocacy
 Public information
 Social/political advocacy
o Professional advocacy: actions taken in order to advance the profession of
counseling in general & clinical mental health profession
 Promote standards in counseling training
 Working toward counseling licensure
 Advocating for marketplace recognition
 Developing inter/intra professional relationships to promote the
counseling profession & clients
 Collaborating with legislators & policy makers
 A vision for the future of counseling (p. 87)
o ACA Developed a counseling definition: counseling is a professional relationship
that empowers diverse individuals, families, & groups to accomplish mental
health, wellness, education & career goals
o Criteria of counseling programs
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Meet minimum standard, counselors advocate for licensure across all
states, counselors along with insurance companies & regulatory bodies
work to establish a balance of professional autonomy & accountability,
educating public about public services
o Goal of counseling is to promote a quality of life regardless of counseling
location – heal, grow, develop & attain optimal health & wellness
o P. 91 – important timeline of social justice and social advocacy
o Social injustice & mental issues
 Stress
 Homelessness
 Poverty
 Intimate Partner Violence
o Different types of oppression
 Primary – overt acts
 Secondary – benefit from overt oppressive acts against others, but do not
engage in the acts, but do not object to others mistreatment
 Tertiary – internalized oppression, seek acceptance
o Models
 Eriksen – 7 steps for counselors to engaged in advocacy (p. 97)
 Three-tiered Model of Advocacy (.p98)
 Self-awareness
 Relate activities that directly impact client issues & client welfare
 Community collaboration
Need counselors to:
o Be self-awareness
o Awareness of clients’ sociocultural backgrounds
o Development of advocacy skills
o Explore own cultural identities
o Explore the role privilege & oppression has played in their life
o Discuss the reasons that lead you to become a counselor
o Reflect on your own advocacy skills
o Critical social issues in your community
o Visit state legislative – identify bills that may have a direct or indirect impact of
profession