As professional consultants, we both often participate in the reflection process to better understand ourselves and our customers. As African-Americans who grew up and live in the south, we both have to navigate through our share of "isms". Derrick, a black doctoral student and practitioner from an urban southern community, has had some striking experiences that raise issues of intersectionality. Eva, a black counselor, educator, and former practitioner, has also collected some interesting stories over the years.
In our discussions of similarities that have arisen due to our race and even gender, another topic has emerged that is not so obvious – class issues. While racism and sexism are issues that receive a lot of attention, classicism in the consulting profession is often overlooked. Our goal is to start a premeditated conversation by drawing attention to the social class (outside of objective measures) in the therapeutic relationship. We open this conversation with our personal stories.
The story of Derrick: My path to the consulting profession was unconventional. Growing up with an older brother in a low-income single parent household, I understood and appreciated what the American dollar could do for an African-American man. Although we had no substantial economic capital, my mother had the innate ability to switch between social classes through hard work and education. I saw that as a child and it shaped my life further.
After graduating from high school, I completed a degree in business administration. As is so often the case with lower-class people, I was looking for wealth from a lucrative major. I have a degree in business administration; However, my dreams of financial security have not come true. Instead, I struggled financially after college. I was able to climb the social class leaders by gaining a university degree and the cultural capital associated with it, but I did not achieve the bourgeois lifestyle I had planned. For years after college, I relied on my lower grades to earn a dollar to make up for all the financial debts I had during my studies. However, I was not happy in the business world.
Finally, as I learned from researching the intricacies of the social class, people from the lower social class tend to rely on each other to ensure daily needs and survival. This tendency is accompanied by a feeling of serenity. Back then it was a natural way of life for me. So I felt at home and comfortable. Others with similar backgrounds also encouraged me to continue my education. With this encouragement, I decided to do a diploma, but not in the business world. Instead, I ended up in the area of advice.
My natural inclination to help others fitted intuitively into the consulting world. Still, I felt a sense of incongruity. As a doctoral student, others see me in a special light – a light that is enhanced by the cultural capital associated with the above-mentioned status, work at universities and networking with others who share similar values in education. And yet, when I return home, this cultural capital is washed away by hometown acquaintances (and even some family members) because it doesn't have the same value as the American dollar. And sometimes I tend to agree with them.
This experience shaped my dealings with customers. I receive clients with a feeling of gentleness towards their unique social class identity, while understanding the systemic barriers that exist (e.g., transportation problems) that may prevent some of them from becoming fully involved in the therapy process.
Eva's story: My husband and I decided to do some pre-marital counseling before we got married. During this process, I was faced with some of my classicism problems. Although I was in graduate school at the time and knew the benefits of counseling, it felt different to sit in the client seat. I felt the urge to show my best face because I didn't want to act as a customer with problems, but as a responsible, proactive citizen. I felt that the advisor had to see the best of me, and because I fell into the middle class category with a university degree, I had to act accordingly.
To be completely honest, I am not sure to what extent these feelings were due to my identity as a medium-sized client and to what extent they were due to my identity as an African American woman. As a professional black woman, I always feel like I have to wear a mask. I am afraid to show my vulnerabilities and struggles because I represent not only myself but also my people. As I am often the minority in professional situations, I am rather conspicuous and feel obliged to present this positive, professional and well-versed representative to combat all other negative stereotypes that are often attributed to black women or blacks in general.
Let me tell you this is tiring. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Maya Angelou and W.E.B. Du Bois illustrate this concept so well in their analysis of the masks we wear and the double consciousness of the blacks. These efforts are exhaustive, but necessary for my survival.
As is often the case with overlapping identities, it is difficult for me to isolate the influence of social class pressure from the influence of racial stressors, but I am sure that both played a role in my response to these problems have advice. Although the goal of pre-marital counseling was to investigate issues that could affect the relationship, I was very aware that I would not dig too deep – not because I did not want a strong marriage, but because I was concerned about it did as the advisor would see me. Although we did four sessions, they were superficial because my problems with appearances (both as a middle class woman and as a black woman) served as a barrier and prevented real work from being done. The process of sharing this story was difficult for me (I don't like to feel exposed here, too), but I emphasize it to draw attention to issues that we as clinicians need to consider.
Reflections on Social Class and Counselors
If we examine the social class with a stronger lens, we discover that this construct is shaped by our own environment. Just as we cannot pretend to be "color blind" practitioners, we cannot pretend "social class blindness" when working with our clients. By considering the social class identities in the room, we develop a holistic view of the client that leads to better results. If, on the other hand, we do not appreciate the intersectional identity of our customers, we do not offer the best care. We essentially advocate the inclusion of the social class in the therapeutic alliance.
At this point we ask readers to do what the advisors do best – to reflect. How do you define your social class status? Do you remember pictures of money, clothes and your home? Has your social class status changed over the years? Were you able to climb the social class leader after graduation? From this perspective, has your view of the world of social class changed? Are you less inclined or more inclined to notice the everyday micro-aggressions of the social class? Consultants, educators and researchers Caroline O’Hara and Jennifer Cook compare micro-aggressions of the social class with micro-aggressions of ethnic minorities. How do you see that in your professional practice?
One could also ask why such a reflection exercise is important. As a consultant, it is our ethical responsibility to recognize and respect the multicultural identities of our clients in the advisory relationship. It is equally important to recognize our own multicultural identities. Recognizing and respecting the different identities in the therapeutic relationship determines our decision-making process in terms of diagnosis, treatment and interventions. However, it is not uncommon for consultants to introduce civic bias and leave negative impressions of clients based on their lower-class social status.
The perception of social class differences between counselor and client could lead to a negative experience for the client, especially if the counselor lacks awareness of social class problems. This often leads to premature termination or lower quality services. Ultimately, it is the practitioner's ethical responsibility to develop his multicultural competence in relation to the social class.
The Weltanschauung model of the social class
People live in systems. These systems can be as simple as the immediate family, or as complex as working at a large university. Embedded in each of these systems is a unique economic culture with its own values, beliefs and expectations.
Think, for example, of a prison black market for cigarettes. Within this system, the economy is not aligned with traditional currency forms such as coins and dollar bills. In this environment, cigarettes that are considered contraband are highly valued and often sought after when they are exchanged. Outside of this system, however, the value of cigarettes is reduced because they can easily be bought in a shop.
In order to better understand subjective measures in economic cultures, William Ming Liu developed the Social Class Worldview Model (SCWM). The SCWM serves as a tool with which counselors can understand the social class from a systematic perspective and at a more individual level, instead of applying objective measures such as education and salary. The SCWM takes into account the peculiarities, awareness, attitudes, relationships to material objects, behaviors and lifestyle. The concept is also introduced that individuals internalize class values based on environmental feedback. Clients and consultants bring values into the therapy room that cannot be neglected.
Classicism awareness
Consultants have an ethical responsibility to be aware of their personal values and to avoid having these values imposed on clients. Taking this responsibility into account, the American Counseling Association continuously trains its members to different "isms" by developing professionally and establishing departments that focus on various aspects of diversity. Despite the efforts that ACA is making to promote diversity education, we believe that awareness of classicism in the consultancy profession can be increased.
Classicism is the marginalization of an individual on the basis of his or her perceived social class identity and can be conceptualized in various forms. Consider the case of upward classicism. This form of classicism involves the marginalization of individuals who are perceived as members of a higher social class. Now consider how this could affect your professional life. Do you have negative personal views on clients who you consider to be a higher social class than you? Sometimes this is minimizing the presentation problems if you think their resources exceed those of your own. If you're struggling with similar experiences, take your time to think about the impact it has had on the therapeutic relationship.
What about lateral classicism? How could that affect you? Lateral classicism reinforces the expectations of people who are perceived as members of a similar social class. Have you found yourself in situations in which you tried to show a certain status in the professional environment? What possible negative consequences could these efforts have?
Downward classicism is the best-known form of classicism and involves the disadvantageous treatment of people who are perceived as being in a lower social class. This can also lead to negative perceptions of customers due to their appearance, an obvious lack of resources or even different manners and experiences. Although we strive to treat our clients fairly as consultants, we must also acknowledge and take into account all of the personal prejudices we have.
Finally, we have to examine internally the potential of internalized classicism, which is not discussed so often. Internalized classicism manifests itself in negative feelings (e.g. depression, anger), which are related to the fact that one is unable to keep up with the economic culture. This can affect the sense of competence or "worthiness" of clinicians.
Have your "ism" problems ever inadvertently influenced the counseling relationship from a social class perspective? Now put yourself in the client's shoes with regard to upward, lateral, downward and internalized classicism. How could the client's experience with these problems affect the therapeutic relationship? Although we are highly qualified professionals with special clinical skills, we must use deliberate techniques that take due account of the individual, social and environmental factors in this context.
Suggestions for Practice
After reflecting on your and the social class of your customers, it is time to consider how you can put this new knowledge into practice. The following suggestions are not all-inclusive suggestions. However, they can serve as a guide to assist you on your journey. It is imperative that we take social class considerations into account from the start of the therapeutic relationship and further integrate this lens throughout the therapeutic process.
When we meet customers for the first time, we often make assumptions about their visible identities, including race. Nevertheless, we are trained to ask how customers see themselves in relation to the race. On the other hand, we tend to be less open about social class discussions with our customers, although we often make assumptions about our customers based on their clothing, income, and material resources. How can we correct that?
First ask the clients how they perceive their current class status. Do you consider yourself financially happy, even if you are in an economically difficult neighborhood? Or could they consider themselves impoverished even though their income is higher than that of most of their peers? By assessing the worldviews of clients' social strata during the admission process, the consultants gain a better understanding of how clients conceptualize their economic culture. This is a first step in developing a deeper therapeutic alliance that values each client's unique social class.
As the therapeutic relationship continues, the consultants 'intention to understand and respect all aspects of clients' worldview is of paramount importance in providing culturally competent services. But how do consultants in the therapeutic alliance deliberately deal with the worldviews of the client's social class?
Let's return to the stories at the beginning of this article. In our stories we have described the expectations associated with our socio-economic worldviews. We both shared awareness of our social class identities. We became aware of the impact it had when we addressed (or not) the expectations associated with our social class beliefs. From this awareness, we have learned to appreciate our social class identities and the impact of these identities on the provision of services to a diverse clientele. We believe that this is an important point of view as our goal is culturally competent advice. To achieve this, we need to be aware of our personal values as practitioners.
Now is a good time to return to the reflection questions posed earlier. What values did you identify as a practitioner based on these questions? Although it is natural to examine constructs from our own lens, we may overlook critical aspects as our personal experience determines our interpretation. Using concrete interventions can be a helpful strategy. For example, exploring goals is a good place to start. What is your goal as a consultant? What is your customer's goal? Do the goals complement or conflict?
Researching values is another important part of this project. Write down a list of your values and compare them with your customer's perceived social class status. Do they match? Are there any mismatches that you could fix?
Need more ideas? Let's say you have a customer with a lower socio-economic status. They note that the value of the customer in acquiring material possessions continually strains his finances, but he is unwilling to make concessions. Nevertheless, they continue to express concerns about their financial situation. This contradicts your values. Intentions can be noble, but can also lead to a break in the therapeutic relationship.
We recommend running the supervision process with an intentional lens for the social class in order to process this dissonance. A practical intervention is that the supervisor creates note cards with different identities (e.g. race, gender, social class) in the supervision triad and conceptualizes the customer as a supervisor and supervisee. With this intervention, both parties intentionally bring social class into the room.
Our next recommendation could be a heavier elevator, but we believe that the effort will bear fruit. As a practitioner, it is our ethical responsibility to continuously educate ourselves to maintain our skills and learn new best practices to serve different customers. With this in mind, we encourage readers to express and present themselves on questions of the social class and the consulting profession. These presentations can be held at local, regional, or national levels. Regardless of how the training process works, we have to establish more social class awareness within the consulting profession.
As consultants we serve a diverse clientele. In order to improve our service for them, we should engage in a reflection process in order to better understand ourselves and, in return, better understand our customers. After reading this article, we urge our counsel to take the time to examine their own social class values, backgrounds, and stories. From there, think about how your social class identity affects your work with customers. Finally, we would like to encourage you to continue to develop an understanding of the social class and the consulting profession. Yes, what we are asking is a challenge. But as the African-American icon Cicely Tyson states: "Through challenges you discover things about yourself that you never really knew."
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Derrick L. Shepard is a PhD student and TRIO advisor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research focus is on social issues of social stratification and the effects of these social issues on the therapeutic alliance. Contact him at [email protected].
Eva M. Gibson is a consultant at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Her research focus is on marginalized population groups. Contact them at drevagibson.weebly.com or [email protected].
Knowledge Share articles were developed from sessions presented at the American Counseling Association conference.
Letters to the editor : [email protected]
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The opinions and comments expressed in articles from CT Online do not reflect the opinions of the editors or guidelines of the American Counseling Association.
