Social Justice Informed Therapeutic Practice: Relational, ethical, transformative and politically-informed

Dr Laura Anne Winter and Professor Divine Charura

Large numbers of psychologists and therapists have suggested that social justice has always been a core value of many psychological and therapeutic professions. Furthermore, in recent years, writing, research and training on things like diversity, anti-oppressive practice, the impacts of marginalization and minoritisation, and an exploration of power dynamics in psychological therapy have been increasing steadily. Outside of psychology and therapy, conversations about these things have also been increasing in the mainstream press, and in many other academic and practice-based fields. This is perhaps unsurprising given the huge political and social events globally: with wars and displacement, pandemics, and ‘crises’ in mental health, education, and healthcare hitting the news almost daily. Recently, we’ve written about some core principles of social justice informed psychological practice. We suggest that it needs to be underpinned by an ethics grounded in relationships and an understanding of the systems we live in. It needs to be transformative: meaning that it’s not just about fixing or curing distress after it has occurred. It also needs to be politically-informed.

Psychological therapists haven’t always felt completely clear on what social justice informed therapeutic practice looks like and how might practitioners translate their values into action, even if they understand and embrace the values in idea. In our recent book, The Handbook of Social Justice in Psychological Therapies, we bring together authors from across counselling, clinical and educational psychology, counselling and psychotherapy, people with lived experience of the topics, and participatory action researchers. We try to rise to current professional and societal challenges and provide contributions on both theoretical understandings and how we might enact our social justice values both inside and outside of the therapy room.

We suggest that social justice informed therapeutic practice specifically should be relationally ethical, and that these relational ethics should be grounded in an understanding of our histories, identities, and our socio-political contexts. Importantly social justice informed practice must be transformative: we have the potential to change things and promote not only individual wellbeing but social, political, and collective wellness. It is also politically-informed. This does not mean that we push a Political agenda onto our clients, nor do we focus on seeing our clients only through their socially-structured identity group. It’s not about saying everything should be solely considered on a societal level and it’s not about saying that everyone should vote in a particular way. It is about understanding the political context to our work and not ignoring this context when we chose to focus our therapeutic work on the individual level. Naming the structural and societal, as much as we name the individual. We should acknowledge the political, rather than presenting an unrealistic view of therapists as somehow neutral and we need to remember that reflexive practice entails consideration of the person of the therapist.

What does this look like? There isn’t a recipe to follow, but sometimes it’s about collaborating and communicating with clients about the process of therapy – not because you think it will improve outcomes, but because doing it entails treating people as equal human beings. Sometimes it’s about explicitly talking about experiences of discrimination or oppression, or about naming the differences in your experiences and being open to learning and not knowing about others’ culture and identity. It involves reflecting on and thinking about whose knowledge of the world or understanding of things you are prioritising and considering how this fits for your client. It involves thinking about yourself in terms of power and society: what aspects of your identity or culture do you benefit from, and which do you experience socially structured disadvantages from? How does this impact the relationships you are building? What’s this like for your clients?

It’s not about foisting political opinions or voting preferences, or about seeing everyone as victims as sometimes people suggest. Instead, we work to have power-with clients rather than power-over them. Being silent on matters of social justice is still a political choice: and often means inadvertently aligning ourselves with injustice. Social justice informed therapeutic practice is about not ignoring the impact of social matters on the work we do (just as we would not ignore the impact individuals have on society!), and making sure that the individual does not become disconnected from the social, political, and ecological systems that they live in.

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Book Details
The Handbook of Social Justice in Psychological Therapies: Power, Politics, Change
Laura Anne Winter, Divine Charura
November 2023
ISBN: 9781529604832

About the Authors

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Dr Laura Anne Winter is a HCPC Registered Counselling Psychologist and BPS Chartered Psychologist. She currently works at the University of Manchester as a Senior Lecturer in Education and Counselling Psychology and is the Programme Director for the Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and the Associate Director for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion for the School in which she is based. Laura’s research and writing has focused on social justice, equality, and related issues in counselling and psychotherapy, psychology, and education. Her clinical practice has been based in NHS, third sector, and University counselling service settings.

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Professor Divine Charura is professor of counselling psychology and programme director for the doctorate in counselling psychology at York St John University. He is a chartered counselling psychologist and registered psychotherapist and has co-authored and edited numerous books in counselling and psychotherapy.