Full Answer Section

• Ethnicity: A shared cultural heritage, often based on common ancestry, language, and customs.
• Race: A social construct that categorizes people based on perceived physical characteristics, often leading to unequal power and privilege.
• Intersectionality: The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.  

• Cultural Competence: The ability to understand, appreciate, and interact effectively with people from cultures or belief systems different from one’s own.  

• Cultural Humility: A lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique whereby the individual not only learns about another’s culture, but one starts with an examination of his/her own beliefs and cultural identities.  

• Privilege: Unearned advantages or benefits granted to individuals or groups based on their social identity.
• Oppression: Systemic and pervasive social injustice rooted in power imbalances.
• Acculturation: The process of adapting to a new or different culture, often involving changes in values, beliefs, and behaviors.
• Assimilation: The process of fully adopting the cultural norms of a dominant group, often at the expense of one’s own cultural identity.
• Marginalization: The treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant or peripheral.

2. How Unintentional Racism and Microaggressions Affect Clients:

• Unintentional Racism:
  • Often rooted in implicit biases, it manifests as subtle behaviors or attitudes that perpetuate racial inequalities.
  • It can lead to feelings of invalidation, isolation, and distrust in clients from marginalized racial groups.
  • It can erode the therapeutic alliance, as clients may perceive the counselor as insensitive or biased.
• Microaggressions:
  • Brief, everyday slights, insults, or indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.  

  • They can be verbal, nonverbal, or environmental.
  • They create a sense of being “othered,” dehumanized, or dismissed.
  • They can lead to:
    • Emotional distress (anxiety, depression, anger).
    • Decreased self-esteem.
    • Increased vigilance and hyper-arousal.
    • Difficulty trusting others.
    • A feeling of being invalidated.
  • Example: A counselor saying, “I don’t see color,” dismisses the client’s lived experience of racism.

3. Informed Consent:

• Definition:
  • Informed consent is the process of providing clients with sufficient information about the counseling process to allow them to make informed decisions about their participation.
  • It is a legal and ethical obligation.
• Contents:
  • Purpose of Counseling: Explanation of the nature and goals of therapy.
  • Procedures: Description of the counseling methods and techniques that may be used.
  • Risks and Benefits: Discussion of potential benefits and risks of therapy.
  • Confidentiality and its Limits: Explanation of confidentiality and its exceptions (e.g., duty to warn, child abuse reporting).
  • Fees and Billing: Information about fees, payment policies, and insurance coverage.
  • Counselor Qualifications: Information about the counselor’s credentials and experience.
  • Client Rights and Responsibilities: Explanation of the client’s rights and responsibilities in the therapeutic relationship.
  • Alternatives to Therapy: Discussion of other treatment options.
  • Emergency Procedures: Information on how to contact the counselor in case of an emergency.
  • Cancellation Policy:
  • Record Keeping Policy:
• When to Give the Form:
  • Informed consent should be obtained before the commencement of any therapeutic services.
  • It should be an ongoing process, with opportunities for clients to ask questions and clarify information throughout therapy.
  • It is advisable to review informed consent periodically, or when there are changes to the therapeutic process.
  • If there are changes to the plan, or the type of therapy, then informed consent should be revisited.
  • If the client is a minor, or has a legal guardian, then informed consent must be obtained from the legal guardian.