Self-Care: An Ethical Imperative for Anti-Racist Counselor Training

Abstract

Attention has been given to multicultural counseling, social justice and advocacy work over the last several decades; with this in mind, it is essential Counselors educators work as anti-racist change agents to understand the role of self-care in advocacy and be armed with self-care strategies based upon racial identity standing. Working through the lens of racial identity development models, educators will learn ways to support students of the dominant culture in engaging in self-care without initiating oppressive behaviors, and conversely will learn strategies to assist Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color (BIPOC) in enacting self-care without assisting in their own oppression. Thus, the purpose of this conceptual manuscript is to (a) provide a rationale for self-care as an ethical imperative, (b) introduce self-care strategies to employ while supporting anti-racist andragogy through intentional wellness, and (c) call students to build self-care routines focused on multiculturalism and social justice.