Using Action Research, Counter-storytelling, and Reflective Assignments to Inspire Advocacy and Activism

Friday, February 24 – 3:00 to 4:30pm EST

Presented by Aubrey Uresti and Suzy Thomas

1.5 NBCC Approved Contact Hour

While advocacy is a longstanding, core value in the counseling profession connected to the principle of client welfare, counselor educators are increasingly called upon to teach students from an anti-racist, activist framework, a focus that requires a commitment to action and to challenging and disrupting systemic inequities.

Many counselor education programs are revising curricula to adopt the active stance needed to teach students how to enact social justice in their practice. The use of reflective assignments has also been a mainstay in counselor preparation and has potential implications for counselor educators who wish to encourage their students to become social justice advocates. Two frameworks that offer a fresh perspective to counselor educators are counter-storytelling and collaborative action research. Rather than perpetuating the majoritarian (or privileged) narrative, counter-storytelling considers and highlights the stories of people whose identities are marginalized in society and whose stories are often untold or overlooked. A methodology that is neither top-down nor expert-driven, collaborative action research is a powerful resource for counselors wishing to engage in meaningful self-study to improve their practice and promote change. Both approaches emphasize a critical examination of power dynamics, a commitment to reflective practice, and the goal of revealing and addressing inequities. This webinar presents unique classroom applications using reflective assignments grounded in counter-storytelling and action research. Counselor educators can use and adapt the projects and assignments presented to provide their graduate students a foundation for thoughtful, intentional, and systematic change that they can carry into their future careers.

Presenter Bios

Dr. Laura E. Welfare is a Licensed Professional Counselor and an Associate Professor at Virginia Tech. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wake Forest University, a CACREP-Accredited master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Marymount University, and a CACREP-Accredited doctoral degree in Counseling and Counselor Education from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dr. Welfare has worked with children and adults in school and clinical mental health settings and is a Fellow of the American Counseling Association. Her research on counselor education has been published in Counselor Education and Supervision, the Journal of Counseling and Development, and The Clinical Supervisor. She also continues to research the students and clients she has served including grant-funded projects related to K12 student mental health and school discipline disparities. In total, she has served as PI or co-PI on 17 research grants totaling over $2.5 million dollars and authored 35 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Dr. Challen Mabry is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Virginia. She serves as an Assistant Professor in the department of Counseling Education at Bluefield University and is passionate about training counselors to provide empathetic, evidenced-based, trauma and culturally responsive interventions. She also currently serves as the Chief Clinical Officer for Hope Tree Family Services, a non-profit organization providing services to youth and adults in out-of-home placement settings. Her professional experience has been focused on providing community based behavioral health services to predominately underserved populations. Dr. Mabry has served in various leadership roles in large behavioral health organizations since 2014. She has significant experience working alongside regulatory bodies throughout the transition to managed care in Virginia. Dr. Mabry has additional focused training and certifications in Applied Behavior Analysis, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy Her research interests include issues of social justice and furthering counselor competencies of evidenced informed practice.

ACES Online

Sponsored by the ACES Supervision Committee