Marginalized people’s lives are negatively affected by social injustice and various systems of oppression. It is therefore essential to question the practices that produce, maintain, and exacerbate these social inequalities. CDPs have a role to play in promoting social justice.
This article describes the obstacles that marginalized people may encounter when accessing and using counselling services. Langlois and Villotti use intersectionality as an analytical framework to understand the simultaneous impact of several forms of oppression on access to counselling services.
The authors carried out a literature review on the challenges faced by marginalized populations regarding service inclusiveness over the past five years. A closer analysis of the 13 articles selected by the authors revealed that different systems of oppression affect the inclusivity of social services, including:
- Capacitism, or discrimination against those who are considered disabled (particularly affecting adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability)
- Capitalism and classism, or discrimination based on economic class (particularly affecting homeless people and those belonging to the working-class)
- Racism (which particularly affects Black people, and mainly women)
- Heterosexism, heteronormativity, homophobia, and ageism (which particularly affect people whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual or who identify with a sexual minority)
- Cissexism, transphobia, and enbyphobia, or the fear of transgender people and non-binary people and their behaviour (which particularly affect people with a gender identity or expression that does not correspond to the cisgender norm).
People who identify with those marginalized groups report numerous difficulties that reduce the inclusiveness of social services. Among the most significant barriers are lack of respect, verbal abuse, and refusal to adapt services to the realities of marginalized clients. These practices reflect a lack of sensitivity on the part of some professionals, leading to the reproduction of harmful forms of oppression.
Another barrier mentioned concerns the way marginalized identities are addressed by professionals. Some practitioners may underestimate identity differences and avoid talking to clients about them. Others will overemphasize the differences, which can lead to a fear of stigmatization, a loss of confidence, and mistrust of support services.
The study reminds us that it is important for people working in the social services sector to be aware of these obstacles so that they can actively find a solution. One solution is to encourage the development of intervention practices that respect diversity, such as anti-oppressive practices and counselling models that consider the subjectivity of human experience. In a quest for more social justice, CDPs are encouraged to adopt an intersectional approach to become aware of their own social position and better understand the issues faced by their clients.
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