As an agent of positive change in the profession of mental health I accept as fundamental the principle of respect for the dignity of persons. I acknowledge and practice under the belief that all people have innate worth as human beings and that this worth is not dependent upon culture, nationality, ethnicity, color, race, religion, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental abilities, age, socio-economic status, or any other preference or personal characteristic, condition, or status.*
In addition to enacting multicultural counseling practice, I accept a commitment to (a) lobby for policies that compensate practitioners for social justice work and primary prevention, (b) serve communities by participating in interdisciplinary social justice programs, (c) advocate for promotion and tenure policies that recognize and reward high-quality scholarship whose purpose it is to serve communities, (d) identify the exchanges that occur when social justice work becomes an emphasis in a curriculum, (e) be a model of vulnerability, (f) advocate for clients who are too overwhelmed to advocate for themselves, (g) embrace traditional and nontraditional approaches to helping, and (h) balance confrontation with engagement when challenging unjust systems and practices.**
This manifesto for social justice calls upon me and all counselors to engage in peace-building to eliminate the continued sociopolitical structural violence that negatively impacts specific populations. This objective must take precedence over other considerations even when it places us at odds with colleagues or supervisors. It is essential, however, that antagonism not be misconstrued or substituted ineffectively as the main objective. Once educated, adversaries can become powerful allies in the pursuit of social justice.
Please join me as a catalyst for change on behalf of vulnerable people across all systems and boundaries. – AC
* adapted from Canadian Psychological Association. (2000). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists (3rd ed.). Ottawa: Author.
** adapted from Kiselica, M. S. (2004). When duty calls: The implications of social justice work for policy, education, and practice in the mental health professions. The Counseling Psychologist, 32(6), 838-854.