Social Justice Advocacy

As an advocacy-oriented counselor, my driving force has been to link individuals and vulnerable groups with resources or knowledge needed to confront barriers. Identifying with a social constructivist paradigm, I believe that social and cultural influences are key components in realizing the truth to our experiences. I often refer to the work of Michel Foucault in conceptualizing my research interests. In the view of Foucault, institutions such as schools and prisons are “disciplinary regimes” and that by adhering to these sanctions, we are participating in our own enslavement (Gergen, 2015). Foucault was once overheard saying, “I am no prophet. My job is making windows where there were once walls” (Hyde, 2008). It is my hope to establish new ways a seeing through research in ecological models of school counseling, social justice advocacy for underprivileged students, and narrative counseling techniques with refugee populations.