Counsellor Education

Abstract

In this chapter Sandra and Melissa focus on justice-doing within counsellor education. They highlight the necessity of learning environments and institutional cultures characterized by JAIDE (i.e., justice, accessibility , inclusion, diversity, and equity), in which all learners can thrive. They pair this with integration of cultural responsivity and social justice (CRSJ) practices into every facet of curricula and field placements to ensure that students are prepared to challenge systemic inequities and foster micro-, meso-, and macolevel change. They note the responsibility of educators and institutions to fully address the “Calls to Action” of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. They organize the chapter into the following themes: (a) shifting from learning about to learning with and from, which includes embracing multiple ways of knowing, doing, and being; (b) implementing anti-oppressive and decolonial pedagogies to enhance the cultural meaningfulness of pedagogy; (c) creating safer, more inclusive learning spaces; (d) faculty development, which includes continued learning and unlearning through self-reflective processes; (e) program-level integration of CRSJ practices to ensure pluralism in views of health and healing are equitably reflected in all aspects of counsellor education; and (f) institutional advocacy to address access barriers and increase representation of racialized and other marginalized groups among faculty, staff, and learners. An invitation to action invites all members of the academic community to embrace the scholar–practitioner–advocate–leader model.

Melissa and Sandra appreciation the insights about counsellor education offered by these co-authors:

• Jane Arscott draws on her many years of experience of advocating for accessibility of education and recognition of learning derived from nonconventional and undervalued contexts and sources to re-vision education and learning.
• Kim Ashbourne encourages counsellor educators to think beyond academic accommodation and embrace transformative digital accessibility in their teaching praxis. She suggests five high leverage changes educators can make.
• Jagdeep Kundi reflects on her experience of mentorship as a student-led journey of learning and unlearning through which she was able to embrace decolonization and Indigenous ways of knowing.
• Ya Xi (Nancy) Lei, Sherani Sivakumar, and Gina Wong speak to building a sense of safety in community as students and faculty engaged in the Asian Mental Health: Research, Advocacy, Working (AMH: RAW) group.
• Ya Xi (Nancy) Lei offers insights into racialized students’ well-being through her research on critical incidents in racial (in)equity in Canadian counsellor education.
• Marguerite Lengyell shares a series of videos that bring to life her counsellor education experiences, offering concrete strategies for navigating the complexities of CRSJ work in practice.

Author

Sandra Collins (she/her), PhD, is a co-editor of this book. She writes from the perspective of a feminist, lesbian, cisgender, woman with an invisible disability, who is a white, retired professor, and inhabits a privileged social class. Over the 25 years of her academic and professional career, she focused her research, writing, and teaching on cultural responsivity and social justice in theory, research, and practice. This is her fifth book on these topics, two of which were awarded the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Counselling biannual book award. She also received a silver medal for best e-book design by the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Melissa Jay (she/her), PhD, RPsych, is a cisgender nehiyaw (Cree) member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and lifelong student of yoga philosophy. She is a cisgender, able-bodied woman who moves through the world with white-passing privilege. She is a psychologist and associate professor at Athabasca University. Her work is centred in reciprocity and relationship, decolonized healing, anti-oppressive practices, and the integration of ancient wisdom and psychology. Her intention is to share trauma-informed, culturally responsive care, alongside her ongoing collaborative research exploring relational accountability, Indigenous methodologies, and ethical engagement with community.

Jane Arscott (they/them or none), PhD, is a white settler who is a lifelong guest on unceded and unsurrendered territories inhabited by the nêhiyaw (Cree), the Dene, Nakota, and others for millennia, including the Métis. They use the pronouns they, their, and them or none, and identify as nonbinary, although they are seen as an embodied female. Their identity is problematic in the workplace, especially in relation to power and decision-making spaces. They founded a university major in Human Services in a degree-completion undergraduate program for adult learners in 1998, which imparts genuinely open, flexible, lifelong learning done in a good way.

Kim Ashbourne (she/her), MEd, is a disabled, queer, white, cis-woman, writer, researcher, and educator. Her writing is in the OTESSA Journal, multiple books, and the Toronto Star. Much of her writing connects the dots between digital accessibility, disability justice, and education. Like many authors from the disability community she draws readers in with candid and expressive storytelling about her own experiences of disability in her writing and speaking engagements. She is also the editor of CanDARE, a website that shares digital accessibility research in education for postsecondary educators.

Jagdeep Kundi (she/her), BSW, RSW, is a registered social worker. She completed her bachelor’s of social work at Vancouver Island University, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in sociology, and a social work diploma at MacEwan University. Her practice background is centred around working with children and families within a nonprofit organization, mental health within a clinic setting, building partnerships within educational institutions, and coordinating resources and treatments for mentally and physically injured workers. Her passion for using technology to catalyze individual, community, and systemic change has guided her to embrace innovative solutions to address social issues.

Ya Xi (Nancy) Lei (she/her), MC, is a recent graduate with a master’s degree in counselling. She completed a thesis exploring racial equity and inequity in Canadian counsellor education and their impact on racialized graduate students’ well-being. Her passion for this work stems from her lived realities as a racialized student navigating academia, alongside her intersecting identities as a 1.5-generation Chinese Canadian woman of colour, an English-as-a-second-language speaker, and an only daughter from a low-income household. Professionally she has supported individuals and families fleeing domestic violence, helping them navigate systemic barriers to secure housing. She currently works with individuals facing complex mental health and substance use challenges.

Marguerite Lengyell (she/her), PhD, CPsych, is an assistant professor of counseling psychology at Western University in London, Ontario. As a psychologist with a focus on culturally affirming practices, she integrates her professional and educational expertise with her personal experience as a mother of two mixed-race children, bringing valuable insights into her research and practice.

Sherani Sivakumar (she/her), MC, is a registered provisional psychologist who holds various intersectional identities, such as being a settler on this land, Tamil, and a daughter and only child of immigrants. Her lived experience impacts her passion for supporting IBAPoC communities to heal from racial trauma and grief, identity-related concerns, and family-of-origin challenges. Her experience includes supporting the development of children and youths in a school, group, and community setting, anti-sexual violence advocacy work, supporting survivors of sexual violence, and working with other professions to support young people who have experienced marginalization, abuse, and neglect. 

Gina Wong (she/her; they/them), PhD, RPsych, is a psychologist, researcher, writer, and a perinatal mental health certified (PMH-C) clinician. She is dedicated to increasing literacy, focus, and successful treatment for maternal mental health illness in Canada, particularly for women of colour. She co-founded and served as the vice-president of the Postpartum Support International-Canada. She has authored or edited three books related to mothering: : Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness Oppression and Resistance; Mothering in East Asian Communities: Politics and Practices ; and Maternal Infanticide and Filicide: Foundations in Maternal Mental Health Forensics.

Citation

Collins, S., Jay, M., Arscott, J., Ashbourne, K., Kundi, J., Lei, Y. X. ,  Lengyell, M., Sivakumar, S., & Wong, G. (2025). Re-visioning counsellor education: Centring justice, accessibility, inclusion, diversity, and equity. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 4.5). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/qp84357207