Dr. Cathy Lounsbury, Professor and Chair, Dr. Syntia Santos Dietz, Associate Professor, and Dr. Devona Stalnaker-Shofner, Associate Chair and faculty of MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program spoke at the 2022 Association for Humanistic Counseling Conference that took place in Nashville, TN on May 27th & 28th. The AHC annual conference provides an opportunity for counselors to connect and grow their humanistic practices.
They spoke on acknowledging the need for decolonizing counselor education curriculum and committing to adapting the curriculum to include anti-racism principles. Entitled “A Social Justice Pedagogy Committee: Informing Counselor Education Curricula with Anti-Racism Philosophy and Practices”, their presentation examined the experiences of counselor educators in the endeavor to revamp their CMHC Program. Along the way, this academic responsibility has become a journey of self-discovery, fostering growth and relationship-building, and an alliance toward social justice. This presentation focused on not only anti-racism pedagogy, but also on how to engage in a self-reflective process around what it means to be an educator and advocate during these times of racial unrest.