‘We Move Together’: Bringing Disability Justice to Counselling Practice for the Benefit of All Clients
‘We Move Together’: Bringing Disability Justice to Counselling Practice for the Benefit of All Clients
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Issue Date
2024-06-17
Authors
Hutcheon, Lea
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Abstract
There is little attention paid to the topic of disability in counselling and psychology, whether it is in relation to the experience of disabled people themselves in counselling sessions, or to developing disability competencies as practitioners. As a result of this, ableism, sanism, and neurotypical bias remain largely unaddressed in the counselling field. The aim of this capstone is to investigate the ways that Disability Justice can be brought to counselling - as both a framework and a way of working - in order to support disabled, Mad, and neurodivergent clients, as well as all clients. Themes identified in the literature include: clients' experiences in counselling (highlighting the reality of concurrent harm and benefit in the counselling room); therapy effectiveness (revealing an emphasis on CBT therapies and evidence of its efficacy - with adaptations - as well as evidence for the use of other therapies, and the need for further study); and the creative possibilities of integrating Disability Justice into practice. I propose that Disability Justice can assist us in examining ourselves and our frameworks more clearly; understanding our disabled, Mad, neurodivergent clients in context; attending to the therapeutic relationship; and building a repertoire of culturally-responsive, accessible clinical interventions of benefit to all clients.
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Keywords
ableism , disability justice , mad , neurodivergent , sanism
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States , openAccess