Practice 5 Health Equity

Abstract

In Practice 5 Sandra, Melissa, and Janelle examine critically the social determinants of health that lead to healthcare inequities. Building upon increased critical consciousness of ongoing colonial relationships from Practice 4, the authors turn their attention to other ideological frameworks that function to sustain social, economic, and political systems and structures that pose barriers to health and wellness for many persons and peoples. In doing so they challenge and disrupt the tendency in eurowestern models of health and healing to focus on problem remediation and instead build a foundation for a strengths-based, relationally centred, and culture-enhancing approach. Janelle emphasizes the importance of active attention to ecological factors in supporting health, healing, and care with Indigenous peoples using the example of protecting boreal plant species as part of reconciliation. They pose the question: How might we, as individual practitioners and collectively as healthcare professionals, (re)build systemic, structural, and institutional supports for equitable health and healing for all persons and peoples? In examining this question the authors introduce the following themes: (a) social determinants of health, which includes social injustices and inequities; (b) intersectionality of oppression alongside various *isms; (c) systemic oppression inclusive of both institutional and organizational oppression and structural and societal oppression; (d) healthcare inequities which are evidenced by underserved or poorly serviced populations and the stigma associated with counselling and mental health issues. An invitation to action invites application of a contextualized, systemic lens to consider the interplay of person and environment, which opens the door to a broader, more complex, nuanced, and socially just understanding of the lived experiences of those we accompany on their healing journey.

Sandra, Melissa, and Janelle are grateful for the practice examples offered by the following co-authors.

• Marie-Odile Magnan highlights systemic barriers to education and career success for immigrant youth in Quebec and offers possible pathways to equity and social justice through shifts in guidance counsellor roles and intervention strategies.
• Fatima Saleem and Stephanie Martin speak to Muslim women’s perceptions of mental health and professional services, offering tips for working with them to provide cultural safety and encourage engagement in counselling.
• Helen Ofosu points to the lack of representation in professional psychology, including academia, of Black and other IBAPoC (Indigenous, Black, Asian, People of Colour) professionals. She speaks to the toll this creates on racialized students, clients, and professionals.
• Carolyn Shaw uses poetry to dive into the painful truths of the systems that bind us, including patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism. Her intent is to both resist these forces and to offer connection and compassion.

Co-Authors

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.

Janelle Baker (she/her), PhD is of mixed settler and Métis descent. She is an associate professor in anthropology at Athabasca University and recipient of the 2024 Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations’ Distinguished Academic Early Career Award. Her research specializations include ethnography of contamination, environmental and ecological anthropology, ethnobiology and ethnoecology, posthumanism and the anthropocene, anthropology of food, food sovereignty, political ecology, and ethnographic writing. She was the winner of the 2019 Canadian Association for Graduate Studies “ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award,” arts, humanities, and social sciences category.

Marie-Odile Magnan (elle/sa, she/her), PhD, is the chair of ethnic relations, an educational sociologist, and a full professor in the Department of Administration and Educational Foundations at the Université de Montréal. Her research focuses on educational inequalities from primary to postsecondary education as reported by young people. She also focuses on equity and inclusion of school staff. Her vision is to improve practices and policies at universities to achieve equity and inclusion in higher education.

Stephanie Martin (she/her), PhD, RDPsych (SK), CCC, is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education (focus: counselling psychology), University of Saskatchewan. She is also a registered doctoral psychologist and a Canadian Certified Counsellor. Her broad areas of interest include applied ethics in research and practice, collaborative qualitative research methodology, psychology of women and gender, healing from interpersonal trauma, and professional well-being and resiliency.

Helen Ofosu (she/her), PhD, has practiced industrial and organizational psychology in the public and private sectors for over 20 years. In addition to career and executive coaching, her specialties include assessing and developing leadership skills and navigating the complex issues of workplace bullying, harassment, equity, diversity, and inclusion. She is one of the founding officers of the Section on Black Psychology, Canadian Psychological Association. an adjunct professor of psychology at Carleton University, and a member of the advisory board of Black Mental Health Canada.

Fatima Saleem (she/her), MEd, RSW, CCC, is a registered social worker with over 10 years of successful experience as an educator, researcher, counsellor, and community programs coordinator. Her main interests are mental health and social well-being of youth, newcomers, and refugee populations. She believes in her clients’ strengths and abilities, and she works to empower them as they heal and recover.

Carolyn Shaw (she/her), MC, is a trauma-informed registered provisional psychologist, yoga teacher, and writer. Her approach to therapy is integrative and rooted in an attachment-based lens. She considers the role that the body plays in our healing as pivotal, and I work to find harmony between the mind–body relationship using various approaches. As a yoga teacher and practitioner for over 17 years she is oriented toward the yogic system and has a particular interest in the space where spirituality and science collide.

Citation

Collins, S., Jay, M., Baker, J., Magnan, M-O ,Martin, S., Ofosu, H., Saleem, F., & Shaw, C. (2025). Practice 5 Health equity: Accepting relational accountability. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 2.4). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/ke90850938