Positive Ethics for Mental Health Professionals. Sharon K. Anderson

in addition to the call to social justice? Hailes et al. (2020) provided guidelines and actionable items for implementing social justice counseling, and Sue et al. (2019) identified possible roles in social justice counseling/therapy. How do you see yourself as an advocate? consultant? psycho-educator? change agent? community worker? How might you fulfill some of these roles? Which of those struck a chord with your core? What does that say about what’s in your core and the foundation for your professional ethical identity?

      Closing Thoughts

      In this chapter, we’ve looked at several parts of your core—your moral self. We know that for some readers, this is an uncomfortable chapter to read. Exploring our points of privilege and thinking about how privilege interacts with discrimination and oppression is uncomfortable but necessary work. Let us emphasize four points about this aspect of our mansion and spiral staircase. First, coming to acknowledge our points of privilege is a process, not an event. We’ve just encouraged you to take the next steps on this journey, but there are always more. Second, all of us have experienced socialization. Thus, we are not alone in this journey. We might have different points of privilege, experience different types of discrimination and oppression, and be at different levels of awareness along the way, but we can certainly benefit from others who are in the process. Third, as soon as we become more aware of how our privilege plays into systems of oppression, we can begin our efforts to be more socially responsible in our work—through entering other roles (i.e., social justice advocate) outside the four walls of psychotherapy. Finally, perfection is not the goal on this journey—but it is an aspiration that motivates us. We encourage you to be willing to have the difficult dialogues, hear the feedback from others (and yourself) along the way, own what is yours. But don’t punish yourself for mistakes and missteps along the way.

      Understanding privilege, oppression, and social responsibility, along with your values, virtues, motivations, and needs, gives you a firm foundation on which to build your professional ethical identity. We are ready now to explore the ethical acculturation process and the culture of psychotherapy.